Wednesday, March 17, 2010

It's Been a While

Oh my goodness, it's been a while since I blogged. So what have I been up to?

I got my submission in for the SCBWI Work-in-Progress grant. It took me a while to get my synopsis to a point where I was happy with it, but I'm glad I finally got it done. Of course, I ran out of ink and had to make the hour-and-a-half trip to go get some and I saved mailing it off until the last minute, but it got there on time and that's what matters.

I've been planning projects and ordering books for the Summer Reading Program at the library. The theme this year is Make A Splash! Read! so there are all sorts of fun water activities we can do. I really want to add in some clean water education as our town is a lake town with a huge, popular lake and lots of rivers. I also want to make little terrariums. I LOVED doing that when I was a kid. Lots to figure out still. Tomorrow I get to go to the Summer Reading Program training they have for librarians every year so I'm sure I'll come back with more great ideas.

Mud! I've been doing a lot with mud. Since the snow is melting off I've been taking my little one to squish around in the mud and float things down the streams of melting snow. It's also the time for road work. We have to drag the dirt road with this big metal beam to cut down the center and smooth out the ruts. It kicks up a lot of rocks. Someones gotta move them off the road.

I wrote up some activities for the Raven Tree Press website to go along with Bedtime Monster. My friend Terry Hunt helped me--she has great ideas! I can't wait to see them online.

I've even managed to write up a picture book I've been thinking about for-ever. I hate to ignore ideas like that, but I was trying to only work on my YA. I will have to get right back on it!

Of course, I've been doing lots of other boring stuff you don't want to hear about. I haven't forgotten about my blog. Sometimes it just has to come after everything else.

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations on all the great work getting done!
    I hope the road dries up quickly.

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  2. Dragging the beam and picking up rocks. That actually sounds kind of fun.

    I guess I like those season changing rituals. We have a huge run-off creek that flows under our driveway for about ten days, and I get to play stream management and try to keep it in the ditch and out of the road. A couple years ago it cut a four foot deep trench in the road just upstream from our driveway. Ouch!! Still, it was fascinating to see the power of that water.

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  3. Thanks Ginger. :-)

    And yes, I do like doing the road maintenance. It is a definite season changing ritual around here. We do stream management around the house here when the snow melts. The kids love it. Our runoff isn't quite as powerful as yours sounds, Paul. Yowza!

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