An auspicious enough day on which to add something to my journal site.
This always has represented a signal turning toward spring (following
Groundhog’s Day and all the closer); and of course the coming turtle
season.
I feel the customary blend , perhaps confusion, of anticipation
mingled with apprehension, angst, as the time for the emergence of the
spotted turtles from hibernation draws near. I am eager, and grateful,
to think of having one more thaw with that sighting of the first
turtle of the year. But successive seasons have elevated my fears of
what I will find in the face of increasing incursions and
marginalizations in the turtle places that have been the core of my
wanderings, wadings, writings, et. al. for the past thirty plus years.
This is addressed to one degree or another in all my books, and
culminates in the final chapter, “Boundary Marker”, in the latest:
FOLLOWING THE WATER.

But indeed I begin to picture myself in that so-familiar place in the
shrub swamp of the spotted turtles’ overwintering, and picture that
first sighting of the year. Some years the first turtles I see basking
are on the south, south-west facing slopes of shrub and fern mounds
that still bear snowcaps, and ice on their north-facing sides…
turtles inches from snow. I look forward to posting that first
encounter here; maybe I can learn how to add photos and have some kind
of pictorial representation as well. Maybe. With the thaw of recent
days, there may be early turtles. And the rain assures a well-flooded
shrub swamp and favorable onset of the vernal pool season. If
streambanks are free of snow and ice, and the current not prohibitive,
the first wood turtles may emerge on the same day as the first spotted
turtles. And they too may be inches from lingering snowpack. Another
year… it is something to contemplate. Misgivings notwithstanding, I
am, as ever, deeply grateful for this remarkable opportunity.

Following the whirlwind events of the 14th through the 20th of
November, what I referred to as my “coronation week”, in which I
received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NH Writers’ Project and
the National Book Award of Finalist for FOLLOWING…, and the end-and-
beginning-of-the-year holidays, I returned to my desired
disappearance, and had an essentially uninterrupted “indoor season”,
concentrating on ways of writing and drawing to which I have been
wanting for many years to return. During my book era, now extending
for over two decades, 90% or more of my art work has been of the
natural history genre, to accompany my writing; I have been wanting
to “make a comeback as boy artist”, as I put it, in my other ways of
drawing and painting. My central visual-art focus has been with an
extended series of pencil drawings of female figures, done on paper
that I have stamped with rectangles of gold block print ink, printed
via rectangles of “easy cut” that I cut in various sizes to form this
ground, or imprimatura. I have also done some writing in Spanish,
Italian, and German, another of my goals. But far less of this than I
had hoped. The winters that were so interminable in my swampwalking
youth have come to be too short. But March remains, and there are
years in which April yields only six or seven turtle days. I had a
telephone call from James Aponovich, well-known NH painter, who has
been asked to have a show, in company with some of his artist friends
and colleagues, at the Sharon Arts Center this summer, inviting me to
be one of those “friends”. This invitation cum opportunity is pleasing
and timely, as I have been wanting to begin to re-enter the exhibiting-
artist realm. If memory serves (sometimes it does), the opening is
scheduled for the 9th of July.

In January I signed a contract with Audible.com to do an audio-book
version of FOLLOWING… They have contracted Jessica Lockhart to
record me from the field, that is to say the swamps, reading the
entire book,- live from the Digs – with the sounds of nature as a
background. This interesting venture will occur sometime late in April
and/or early May, to provide the sounds most-often referred to in my
book. I have recently re-worked my proposal, long-held proposal, for a
children’s book entitled TURTLE’S JOURNEY, to re-submit to Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt for publication consideration. The idea was well-
received several years ago but events, such as the untimely death of
Harry Foster, my editor at HMH, and great friend and supporter of my
writing, and the contracting of FOLLOWING had the proposal lie fallow.
I have debated all winter as to whether or not I would renew the
proposal, knowing that if such a project were to be activated it would
consume essentially all of that indoor season I wanted to devote
primarily to visual art. We’ll see how it goes. My manuscript is
little unchanged from my original draft of 1989… as I put it to my
good German friend Michael Kranz, in discussing my work in general, I
am the “embodiment of gradualism”.

A number of weeks ago David Wilk posted an interview he had with me
back in December on his writerscast.com podcast. It is introduced by a
nice bit of writing, then proceeds for some 27 minutes, the entire
telephone conversation we had. This was a most interesting and thought-
provoking interview, allowing much more time than such things are
generally accorded. It was initially posted under “Most Recent”; that
may have changed but I believe the entire podcast is still available
on his site. The television interview I did with C-SPAN 2, the book
channel (I had never heard of it before) at the National Book Awards
ceremony in November, can be viewed (I believe it is still extant) by
Googling CSPAN 2 David Carroll.

If you manage to find this journal site of mine, I’d appreciate your
passing it along to anyone you feel might have an interest in it. We
are also most gradually improving our gallery site,
carrollartgallery.com, and are very close to having pay pal (or is it
shopping cart) capability for ordering books, prints, T-shirts, etc. I
hope to have more frequent postings on this site, especially as the
swamp and turtle season unfolds. Cheers! David