Millie Dosh, the seamstress who created my sock monkeys

When I wrote The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea, I often thought of my own sock monkey. There are many sock monkeys in the book, of course, so I asked my friend Millie Dosh to sew more monkeys for me. I have quite a group. Some nights I could swear they’re having a party.

Are you inspired by my sock monkeys and Cece Bell’s (link to prior week’s blog article) to make your own? Here are two books of patterns that will help you.

How to Make the Original Rockford Red Heel Sock Monkey, Friends, Puppets and More! from Fox River. This book has ideas not only for sock monkeys but also for a sock pig, sock dachshund, sock raccoon, and another 46 patterns!

Sew Cute and Collectible Sock Monkeys: For Red-Heel Sock Monkey Crafters and Collectors by Dee Lindner (Creative Publishing International, 2015) is another book that includes patterns, ideas for dressing your sock monkey, and ways to give your sock monkey just the facial expressions you’d like.

Have fun with your imagination!

In The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea, I’ve written about an entire family of sock monkeys. Each time a new person is born into the family of Ethel Constance Easterling, who celebrates her 90th birthday during the book, she creates a sock monkey for them and names each one. Within this story, we meet:

• Throckmorton S. Monkey, Annaliese’s companion
• Sir Rudyard S. Monkey, Evan’s sock monkey
• Captain Eugene S. Monkey, Teddy’s sock monkey
• Miss Beatrice S. Monkey, their father, Judge Easterling’s, sock monkey
• Dame Lorraine S. Monkey, the judge’s father’s sock monkey
• Ebenezer S. Monkey

Writing Prompt

Do you have sock monkeys of your own? Or other stuffed animals that you consider part of your family? Do your animal friends have a family of their own? Are they cousins, brothers and sisters, or related in some other way? Did they all grow up where you live now? Or have they moved here from some other place? Perhaps you can write a story about each one of your stuffed animals and then read the stories out loud so that they can all enjoy them. It’s always good to help your companions feel like they’re a part of your family.

Did you know that Rockford, Illinois calls itself the Home of the Sock Monkey? That’s because John Nelson, a Swedish immigrant to America, patented a sock-knitting machine in 1868, in Rockford, Illinois. His son Franklin later created a machine that would knit a sock without any seams (because walking on seams can be uncomfortable). In 1932, the company knit its first red-heeled sock which came to be called “Rockfords.” Between 1951 and 1953, a number of people had the idea to create a doll out of the socks, a monkey. The Nelson Knitting Company bought their doll patterns and patented the official pattern, thereby becoming known through the annals of history for their sock monkey distinction.

Close friends and family members would have been shocked if I had broken spontaneously into song – I don’t normally do that – but I almost did. At that moment, the lyrics of Something Good, from the 1965 film musical The Sound of Music came to mind:

For here you are, standing there, loving me

                Whether or not you should

                So somewhere in my youth or childhood

                I must have done something good.

People from all walks of life were in the audience: my immediate family; our close friends; colleagues from the Roseville, West St. Paul, Saint Anthony-New Brighton and Anoka-Hennepin school districts; members of Holy Cross Lutheran Church; a woman whom I hadn’t seen since we lived in Elizabeth Waters dormitory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the late 1960’s; teachers and authors that I worked with in the MFA program at Hamline University; children’s writers from a large circle of those who’ve participated in Jane Resh Thomas’s writer’s workshops; a few folks like Henry and his mother who I met for the first time that night.

Weeks later, the memories of their faces are like shiny pieces of glass in a mosaic of my life’s best moments.

The creative members of the Red Balloon staff – Amy, Kate, Joan, and Matt – worked together to make this joy-filled evening even more special.

In the seven years since the story about a sock monkey named Throckmorton first sparked my imagination, I have often felt like Tango, our 11-year-old, 8-pound Yorkshire terrier. I’m always amazed by how fast his six-inch legs must move, and how many steps his tiny feet must take, in order to complete our daily mile-long walk. Writing The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea, I often felt like a very little dog with very short legs on a very long walk.

Now it’s time to let my readers complete that journey.

Children’s author Katherine Paterson, in her Newberry Medal Acceptance Speech in 1981, expressed this feeling eloquently. Like her, I have tried to give my readers, “while they are young, the best, the truest story of which I am capable. I have learned, for all my failings and limitations, that when I am willing to give myself away in a book, readers will respond by giving themselves away as well, and the book that I labored over for so long becomes in our mutual giving something far richer and more powerful than I could have ever imagined.”

Indeed, now it’s time to unhand my story and let young readers slip into my open palm shiny pieces of truth from their own lives.

It’s time to take

something good

and make it better.

In my imagination, Sir Rudyard is a lifelong learner, a connoisseur of art, music, and literature. He loves Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, Mahler’s 4^th Symphony, and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Perhaps “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost is one of his favorite poems:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Miles to go before I sleep . . . a fitting image for my writer’s journey.

At SCBWI, I was reminded that I still have so much to learn about the art and craft of writing narrative fiction for young readers. And at the moment, the act of starting a new story – which I vowed to do after I returned from Los Angeles – feels like stepping once again into a lovely but dark, deep and scary place.

In the conference finale, author Judy Blume spoke about the need for courage, and the struggles she’s personally facing as she tries to revise her latest book. She reminded authors that no matter how many highly successful, published books one writes, “…it doesn’t get any easier.” She ended her remarks by emphatically recommitting herself to her work: “Yes. Yes. I’m going to do it!”

Over the years, I’ve learned that keeping promises that I make to myself is often much harder than keeping the promises that I’ve made to others.

But now, inspired by the authors, editors, agents, and publishers who spoke at the conference, I’ve made thirteen promises to myself as I step forward to write a new book. Following each promise is the SCBWI presenter or presenters to whom I give credit for sparking the idea.

“Yes. Yes!” I echo Judy Blume’s words. “I’m going to . . .

1. Embrace my readers. I will hold close the vision of a child’s tender heart, dangerous imagination, and curious, sometimes confused mind as I write. (Meg Rosoff)
2. Treasure my faults. I will face the difficult parts of myself and challenge my characters do the same. (Meg Rosoff)
3. Be authentic. Because of who I am and what I bring to it, I will tell a unique and intriguing story that comes from a deeply personal place and in a way that has never been expressed before. (Editors Panel)
4. Break the rules. I will re-learn the rules of writing fiction for children and young adults and then look for fresh and original ways to break them. (Editors Panel)
5. Create a cinematic experience. I will create sensory-rich scenes that either ask a question, or answer it as my tension-filled plot unfolds. (Jay Asher/Stephen Chbosky)
6. Brainstorm. I will discard my first idea for a scene, then my second, third, and even fourth or fifth, searching for the twists and turns of plot points that are least expected. (Jay Asher/Stephen Chbosky)
7. Experiment. I will write the first 10,000 words of my story, file this draft in my ‘outtakes’ folder, and start over. And, after that, I’ll start all over again. (Maggie Stiefvater)
8. Trust. I will trust that my subconscious knows the story that I’m trying to tell. (Maggie Stiefvater)
9. Let go. I won’t allow my author’s hand to push my characters around. (Erin Murphy)
10. Play. Once the ”heavy lifting” of storytelling is over, I will consider the editing and revision process the child-like equivalent of ”play”. (Linda Sue Park)
11. Surprise myself. I will feel my way through my story, one page at a time, not knowing what happens on the next page. (Sharon Flake)
12. Create distinctive characters. I will avoid archetypes, crafting characters who reveal many moments of contradiction. (Linda Pratt)
13. Be grateful and encourage others. I will be grateful for the many opportunities that I’ve had to stand on the shoulders of countless writers of children’s literature who came before me; and I will do my best to do the same for others. And in these days leading up to the release of my latest book, I’m particularly grateful for Andrea Welch, my fun and fabulous editor at Beach Lane Books whom I met for the first time face-to-face at SCBWI, and for my amazing agent, Linda Pratt of Wernick and Pratt, who enjoys a breakfast with sock monkeys just as much as I do!

Throckmorton immediately notices that Captain Eugene’s limbs are badly stained in some places and completely worn thin in others. Throckmorton concludes, rightly so, that Teddy’s sock monkey has been well-loved for a long, long time.

Later Captain Eugene reveals that the strong bond between Teddy and him is a secret. “Master Teddy keeps me well-hidden,” he tells Throckmorton. “I think that he’s afraid that Evan or Judge Easterling will tease him if they discover that’s he’s still so fond of me.” Boy and sock monkey sleep together every night, but Captain Eugene often spends his days hanging upside down, bat-style, in the corner behind a world globe.

As the story continues, Captain Eugene is shown to possess knowledge of world geography as well as a seafarer’s heart for adventure.

Accordingly, it seemed perfectly natural that I would invite Captain Eugene to accompany me and my husband on our recent trip to Sweden and Denmark.

Captain Eugene had a wonderful time indeed:

*  Enjoying the view of the North Sea atop a cliff on Marstrand Island in Sweden.

*  Listening to a story read by the beloved Swedish children’s author Astrid Lindgren at Junibacken in Stockholm. 

*  Shopping at the Arnold Busck children’s bookstore in Copenhagen.

*  Mingling with tourists in Nyhavn, a 17^th century waterfront district in Copenhagen.

*  Tucked in the arm of Hans Christian Andersen, world-renowned writer of fairy tales.

On the day we left for Sweden, the first review of The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea was posted online by Kirkus Reviews. Much to my surprise and delight, the review was starred.

Suddenly I was struck by the realization that my new book – like Captain Eugene – is out in the world for the first time.

For more than six years, Annaliese and Throckmorton’s story has been my well-kept secret. Once cherished, safe and hidden from view, soon critical readers would weigh in on the book’s merit, or lack thereof, in print and across all forms of social media.

With a shudder I thought back to a time shortly after Tango: The Tale of an Island Dog was published. Within hours of a school visit, a young reader posted a review on the Barnes and Noble website. “EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!” the caption read. What followed was the reader’s justification for giving Tango the lowest possible rating.

I was crushed. I swore that I’d never write another book. But, of course, I did. And along the way, I’ve developed a slightly thicker skin.

A star, I know, is fleeting. An unfavorable review of my new book may soon follow. The fear remains.

In a chapter titled “A Map of the Past,” Mr. Throckmorton S. Monkey expresses a simple truth about his existence: “Every sock monkey fears the day when his or her keeper heads off into a wide, wide, wide world far beyond a sock monkey’s imagination.”

It’s hard for me to imagine all the places that The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea will travel or whose hands will open its cover and read its pages.

My secret is out.