Oh my!

I have recently been given not one, not two, but six blog awards! How crazy is that?

Thank you Marcie Colleen, Debbie LaCroix, Jennifer Lee Young, and Lori Degman! Yes, I know that doesn't add up to five, but Jennifer and Ruth Schiffman aka inluvwithwords also awarded me the Kreativ Blogger award! I truly feel so special that these ladies thought of me!

The Liebster Award is given to blogs less with less than 200 followers. When you receive this award you are to link to the person who gave you the award and also list 5 things about yourself, then pass it on to five other great blogs that have less than 200 followers. Hmmm. What to tell you all?

1. I would eat cheese and/or gravy for every meal if I didn't know it was so bad for me.
2. I have music jam parties at my house on a regular basis. I don't sing unless they force me.
3. I like to quote picture books all the time. "If you love chocolate cake so much why don't you marry it." (That's Betty Bunny, incase you didn't know already.)
4. I absolutely hate it when my socks get wet. It seems like such a harmless thing, but I can't stand it!
5. I think that having a breakfast cafe in my house is working against my internal clock. I can only pretend I'm not a night owl for so long.

Now, for the Kreativ Blogger award I have to answer the following questions so you will know even more crazy random things about me! Here are my answers that go with the Kreativ award:

1. Name your favorite song:

Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix

2. Name your favourite dessert:

Wild raspberry pie with french vanilla ice cream

3. What ticks me off:

When people are mean.

4. When I’m upset I:

Tend to not feel very well.

5. What’s your favourite pet:

My three not so little lambies who run up to see me whenever I come around.

6. Black or white:

Depends on what it is. Black sheep? Yes. White pants? No. I can never keep those clean. Black mashed potatoes? Eww.

7. Biggest Fear:

Dying before my children are old enough to take care of themselves.

8. Everyday attitude:

How much can I get done today?

9. What is perfection:

I don't know, I've never experienced it.

10. Guilty Pleasure:

Watching late night tv and not working... on anything!

My nominees for the Liebster are:

Sergio Ruzzier: He has a great blog focused on picture books and he has created tons of great books. Come on, he should have way more than 200 followers!

Nina Laden: Nina is a picture book author and illustrator and she has created some of my favorite books! Plus she taught my kids how to draw some really cool dogs when she visited our library during the Summer Rading Program. My kids still talk about it! She explores all sorts of interesting topics on her blog titled The Night I Followed the Blog.

Natalia Ortega-Brown's A Picture Book A Day: Natalia is a 5th grade ESL teacher and she still takes the time to post wonderful, in-depth picture book reviews every day!

Bridget Heos' Save Everything! (and the Picture Book): Bridget's Blog title says it all!

Lisha Cauthen: Enter The Imaginal Realm and she'll blow your mind with her thoughts on all things writing related And she's always putting up crazy pictures to go with her posts. SHE IS DA BOMB.

And the Kreativ Blogger award goes to the fabulous...Susanna Leonard Hill! She does all sorts of great stuff on her blog, she even has a schedule:

Monday: random topics

Wednesday: Would You Read It

Friday: Perfect Picture Books


Monthly:

Pitch Pick

Straight From The Editor

Interviews


I was also included in Shore Lines Friday Five! How about that? Thanks Stella!

What My Husband Thinks a Query Letter Should Say

I was looking through the documents on my computer today and found this. It's the opening paragraph to a query letter that my husband wrote for me after I went to a conference. It amuses me, so I thought I'd share it. Here it is in all it's glory:

Two blondes walk into a bar. The bartender says, “what can I get you two ladies?” The first blonde looks at her companion and says “I’ll have what she’s having.” A look of desperation creeps across the second blonde's face. She says, “my name is Heather Ayris Burnell, the aforementioned blondes were just to get your attention, I actually write children’s books and would like you to represent me, as my agent. Unfortunately, I was too shy to talk to you at the SCBWI WWA conference."

Then I'm supposed to tell the agent about my book. No, I didn't use this fabulous opening paragraph so kindly written just for me. I went with my nice, normal-type query letter. I still managed to get an invitation to send more work. Go figure.

Obviously

Yes, I have been a bad blogger lately. Truth be told, John Lechner held up this blog last month and if it wasn't for him there wouldn't have been much of anything going on. I had big plans for when John was here. I was going to post all sorts of things about writing and querying and such, but sometimes life gets in the way.

So here I am, half way into the month of May and I've got nothing. No new Illustrator of the Month, no Unread interview lined up. Apparantly I need a break. I've been hesitant to say anything here because, what if I suddenly want to post something? Maybe I'll post this and then become super blogger woman(okay, that's highly doubtful.) I have lots of things to catch up on, in my writing life and in my regular life, and I suppose I need to focus on that. I've been paying for webhosting for at least 6 months now and have yet to create a website, and most importantly(as far as writing goes) I want to make a big push to get my material out into the towering slush piles gracing editor's and agent's desks. I mean, I'm not going to sell a thing if I don't get anything out there!

So yeah, I'll still be around, posting sometimes, twittering too much, and maybe facebooking every so often. I think I'm going to let the interviews go for a couple months until I can get back into the swing of things, or for as long as I can stand it. I love asking writers and illustrators about what they do!

The Road

When you live on a dirt road, you tend to drive slowly. Dirt isn't the best surface and when there's only room for one car on the road half the time it's good to be careful. I can't even tell you how many times I've come around a corner and about had my heart jump out of my chest because there's a big 'ole car heading straight for me on my side of the road. Today I came across this big grader. The county grades the road twice a year. Once in spring and once right before hunting season so the hunters will have a nice smooth driving experience while they're pointing their shotguns out their car windows. (Okay, I don't like hunting season if you can't tell. They should at least go walk to hunt for their kill. I mean, come on. I think car hunting is illegal anyway, but I digress.)

When they grade the road they basically scrape off the top of the road and then smooth it back on. Sounds silly, and it kind of is, but it definitely takes out the washboardy bumps and makes my neck a little less sore for a while. It takes about a week for the road grading to be completed in which time I have to drive the hump.



Being a one and a half lane road there isn't always enough room for the car to fit on the side of the dirt hump the grader makes. It's lovely when the pile in the middle is so high that it scrapes against the bottom of the car. It gets really exciting when there's a boulder. And so go the days on the mountain. Pretty exciting, huh.

Unpredictable

Life is unpredictable. Yes, we all know that but I've really been experiencing it lately. The sheer amount of weird things happening in my life is bordering on comical. And really, when life seems bad what can you do but laugh and be thankful that things aren't worse?

Sometimes such random things can happen. Things you would never dream of and certainly not expect or watch out for. It, of course, makes me think of writing. In good books unexpected and seemingly random things can happen, but they work in the context of the story to help the character grow. And we're never done growing. There's always more stories to tell.

If things can get worse, they certainly can get better. Here's to positivity! And perhaps a few good book ideas.

Description

I've been thinking a lot about my characters in my novel lately. I know what they look like in my mind and there are some certain things readers need to know about them. The main character is pretty but likes to hide herself in an unkempt exterior. The skater wears holey jeans and is buffed somewhere under those baggy clothes. The football player can barely fit his legs under the dinky school desk.

But there's this fine line. I want readers to fill in the way the characters look in their imaginations. (I know, this is assuming there will be readers. Humor me.) I'm not sure I want to mention what shade their hair is, the color of their eyes, or even the tone of their skin. These characters could be any kids at any school. Maybe you know someone like them or maybe they're doing things you don't even realize people their age do. Either way, I want readers to see these characters as people they would know. Their colors don't really matter.

Yet, books need description. Readers need to be able to see these characters clearly. I'm a little torn on how far I'll go in describing the ways my characters look. Hopefully I can give enough description so readers can see them, but not so much that I overpower the reader's imaginations. I'm sure I'll be putting descriptions in, and taking them out, and putting them in, and taking them out...hopefully I'll be able to find a balance that is just right.

One Hand

Some things that are hard to do with one hand:

type - this is the most important one! Who cares about the rest, really.
cook - but I got someone else to do it. Score!
laundry - it sucked, but it had to be done.
drive - good thing there was absolutely zero traffic all the way to town.
snowmobile - you drive with your hands on the handlebars. I walked instead.
carry two cups of coffee - two trips!
put gloves on - had to use my teeth.
zip & button - kinda self explanatory huh?
stoking the fire - logs are heavy!

Oh who am I kidding? Pretty much everything is harder. But, there are definitely worse things in the world. Still, I'll be really happy when my typing gets back to normal! Guess I have extra time for research.

Irony

I used to have a teacher that loved to point out the irony in the novels we were reading. He'd say it extra loud, with emphasis, "I-RONICALLY". I think he was well aware how irony plays a part not only in novels but in our lives.

Case in point. I have been telling the kids over and over again, "do not use the skim boards to sled on. You will get hurt."

So, dad is outside with the kids. They are sledding. On the skim boards. It's icy so they're working really good, just sliding on and on. I come out and say something about it being dangerous but am quickly distracted by the sliding good time.

My little one wanted to go up the hill but he didn't want to go by himself. Dad was too heavy, he broke through the ice when he tried to sled, so I went up the hill to sled down with my little guy. He went down. It was great. He went fast and laughed all the way. I went after him. For some stupid reason I went on my knees, probably because I wasn't sure how the heck to sled on something where there was no where to hold on. I didn't get very far.

I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I managed some crazy maneuver where I ran into my own arm. My husband said I wasn't even going that fast, but I say no way, I was just starting to jam. My arm put an abrupt stop to it. Board to mid-arm. It was gonna be an awesome ride too.

So, I-RONICALLY, I got hurt by doing the thing I kept telling everyone not to do. I'm typing this post one handed. Guess what? My kids all know what the word ironic means now.

New Year's Action

New Year's Roundup--that sounds too depressing. Yes, I got rejected this year. No, I did not sub or blog as much as I wanted. That about rounds that up.

New Year's Resolutions--I made some last year on a whim thinking they could be motivational. I have no idea what they were.

This year I did something different. I didn't make plans, I took action. There is a major reason I don't get more things done. Believe it or not, I am disorganized. I know, it's hard to believe, my blog looking so nice and organized and all.

If you read my blog you may already know about my tendency to write things on any and all pieces of paper and then leave them lying around somewhere only to try to find them later when I need them.

Seems like I have a lot to do these days with interviews, blog posts, making a website, book promotion, subbing multiple manuscripts, etc., etc., etc. I used to spend an inordinate amount of time just looking for things. The blog post I wrote on some random piece of paper I thought I left on the kitchen table, the submission list I was sure I left by my bed... you know the drill (If you don't you are awesome).


So, I put together a binder for myself. I put a very cool book plate sticker I got at an SCBWI conference for the book THE INCREDIBLE BOOK EATING BOY by Oliver Jeffers on the front, which makes me happy. I made sections for the things I do most: blog posts, interviews, book reviews, books to order, promotion, website, and manuscripts. Then I put everything I had in there. Every book review I've written, every author whose info I've printed out for an interview, every single place I am listed and need to keep up on, and so on, and so on, and so on. I am actually amazed at the sheer number of things I have put in this binder.

It's good to have everything in one single place that I can take around the house with me and work on when I have a free moment. I'm hoping this will help me get more things done. Help me work faster. At the very least I'll save time looking for things. So far it seems to be working.

I'm a Cool Dork

I split my shift at work the other day so I could go to my little guy's award ceremony at school. Of course, I jumped out of my car and raced into school to make sure I wasn't late. It was snowing that day, so I had my scarf wrapped around my neck.

My little guy's class came down the hall. I met my guy and walked into the gym with him and we sat down. We were talking while we were waiting for things to begin, and I took off my scarf.

Suddenly he looked embarrassed. When I asked him what was wrong he pointed to my name tag which I had forgotten to take off. "It's okay," I said, "I'm cool. I work at the library."

"I know," he said. But he still wanted me to take off the name tag.

It's good to know my little guy thinks librarians are cool. Name tags, though, are way dorky.

How I Write--sorry trees

When I write a story I always write it out longhand first. More times than not a story starts as a scribble on the back of a receipt, a napkin, or random piece of paper I happen to find laying around. Later I write the story out onto some honest to goodness lined paper (or the back of another manuscript, which can get confusing.) After I've written and crossed out and drawn little doodles all over the handwritten story and can barely decipher it anymore I finally break down and type it up.

Of course, I'm not finished yet. I'm not a writer with the super human ability to write things once and be done with them. Not by a long shot. I print the story out. Then come more lines and scribbles and lots of arrows, and circles, and, unfortunately, more doodles(doodles mean I'm procrastinating.) Once the manuscript gets too messy, again, I type up the edits. This process can go on indefinitely depending on how the story is working and how incessantly picky I am.

And do I throw any of these doodled up papers away once they're typed up? Of course not! You never know, I might need something I wrote on one of the pages(you did see that I write new stories on the back of old manuscripts, didn't you?) Inevitably I end up with a huge amount of papers for each story which I file away in my trusty filing cabinet named Ralph--you never know, he could throw up a good idea at any time--bah dump dum.

Now that I'm working on my YA I'm feeling like I need to do something different. I'm still writing longhand for the most part. I'm still printing things out after I revise and am re-revising them over and over again. I am still still writing other things on the backs of my manuscript pages. *sigh.

I don't think I can possibly keep all these pages. Ralph will have to get a new friend just to hold all the copies.(I could name him Chuck. I'll have to put him up on Ralph.) Or maybe this is a time to start doing things differently. Do I really need all those old pages after I've revised them?

Today I started a notebook just for my YA. I don't ever do this(Maybe I was inspired my the shiny new notebook I wrote PiBoIdMo on. I've only written a few non-picture book ideas in that one.) My notebooks tend to be a free for all with whatever idea I have at any given moment mingling with old stories and ideas. Instead of writing random thoughts on the manuscript pages I'm going to put them in the notebook. Okay, I might still put them on the manuscript while I'm working, but I'll transfer them to the notebook. Really. I will!

I've also made some documents on my computer to save the scenes I cut. I think I can be organized and not have to go through reams of paper to find some thought I had way back on printout number 23. I've got pages, and chapters, and am experiencing new printer problems I've never had to deal with. I've written other longish works, but this one dares to plan on being the longest to date. It definitely is going to take a new plan, and unfortunately, quite a bit of paper. I will have to plant a tree just for this story.

So I'm wondering, how do you deal with your manuscripts? You're probably much more organized than I am.

Influenced?

I had never really thought about it before--my book, Bedtime Monster, being influenced by another book. As I was listening to a talk about Where the Wild Things Are on NPR I remembered how I'd read Sendak's classic over and over as a kid. I loved that book. I never thought it was scary. People have said it's a scary book, that the monsters are based on Maurice Sendak's family. I just never saw the book that way. I didn't know the monsters were based on real people. I just thought it was an exciting book with lovely drawings.



Maybe Where the Wild Things Are did influence Bedtime Monster. Bedtime Monster is about a boy who has a huge tantrum. It's so monstrous, in fact, that he turns into a monster, tail and all. And dad has a monstrous secret himself. In Bedtime Monster I was showing that everyone has a little bit of monster in themselves, and it's okay. We can get angry and still be good people. I'm sure monsters have been used many time throughout literature to represent human acts and emotions. I'm not saying that Bedtime Monster is scary, just that it's a given fact that people can act monstrously, and running away to a fun place for a while has a certain appeal.



The bigger question? Did Where the Wild Things Are influence my life? Max dresses up--becomes someone else--and runs away to an exciting new land. I changed from a child to a grown up, basically became a new person, and ran off a on mountain adventure. I have yet to return from it. I believe that when I do go back home, dinner will still be hot.

Adventure at the Post Office

I took my fresh, clean, nicely printed and packaged submission package to the post office today. As usual, they didn't quite get it. The post office really needs to be trained to work with authors. Don't get me wrong, I actually love my post office. The people that work there are really nice (except for that one person, and yes, all of us that go there know who that person is.)

Is it that strange that I need a stamp for the envelope that goes inside the manila envelope with enough postage to send all the papers back? Seems simple enough(although hard to explain sometimes!) Would it kill them to put the stamps on straight? I mean, really, it's not a big deal, right? RIGHT? I just spent time making sure the rest all looks nice. Who cares if the stamp looks like I let a two-year-old put it on.

I'm getting pretty used to it. Barely cringed when the stamp was slapped on the manila envelope too. But then... what the heck? I watched in horror as the postal worker flipped my manila envelope over and ripped off the clasp! She looked at me and said, "it costs more with the clasp because they have to put it through a different machine." Okay, well I would have paid more, if I was given the choice! As I looked at the near hole she had put on my envelope I was thankful she didn't rip through the entire thing. Then she tossed it into the pile and smiled.

I've tried to talk to the postal clerks about what I do and why I need to do things this way. Some of them care. Okay, one of them cares. The rest, well... they have a lot to do, I'm sure.

Juggling

You know how when you're a kid you always, at some point, want to be a juggler. Of course, I wanted to be other things, but juggling is so cool. At least it looks like it is when done well. Who doesn't want to throw numerous things up in the air and have them land and take flight at a neat, organized pace.



And who knew when I grew up I'd actually be a juggler? I didn't, because I still can't throw things up in the air and keep them going round and round in a high-flying show of gravity defiance. No, I do not juggle bean bags, bowling pins or chairs. I juggle--writing. Ta da!

Right now I am revising a story collection and a non-fiction series, I have a few new manuscripts to type up (yup, I'm old school. I dig the pen and paper), I'm researching and querying agents and thinking about doing the same with publishers, plus a friend and I really want to write a book together if we can swing it (she just found out she's pregnant though, so we'll see), plus my husband wants to start up the screenplay again as soon as the weather cools, which is soon. I will not even begin to talk about the stinkin' reality show proposal we wrote and should be doing submission research on. Then there's keeping up with the critiquing, twitter, facebook, jacketflap, linkedin, Verla Kay's chatroom, and such. I am supposed to be creating a new website. Hopefully I will get to that someday.

Oh, and this blog! So okay, I'm not the best juggler. Neat and organized I am not. I drop things a lot. I don't get them done in the time frame I always want. But, when the papers or the plans go flying, I just pick them up and keep on juggling. I bet you do too.

Windy

 

If you are planning on camping and you pass a wind farm, drive away, drive very far away.

This wind farm is on the southern border of Washington state. There are hundreds of wind turbines there. They are huge! See that itty bitty crane in the picture? No, it is not a toy. We passed a few truckloads of wind turbine parts on the highway. They were over-sized loads. One propeller blade took up one extra long semi-truck bed. The sheer enormity of the things is mind boggling. The people who work with these humongous pieces of metal must be extremely brave.

Obviously, this is a very windy place. It's right off the Columbia River. We drove a long way after we saw this wind farm before we stopped to camp. Apparently we did not drive far enough. The wind blew all night long. Good for the capturing of electricity. Bad for the people in the tent. Still, amazing to see.

Badminton Season

Finally, the badminton season is off to a start around here. When I say badminton season I mean that we have put up the net in the yard and it's actually been wind-free enough to play.

I wait all year for badminton season to arrive. You see, badminton was the only sport I played in high school and is the only sport I was ever any good at. I'd never even played before my bff Tini forced me to join the team. Badminton--how dorky. Now softball, soccer and volleyball, those were the sports the cool girls played.

Fortunately, I was never really into cool. Okay, I wasn't that into it. Plus I couldn't stand waiting around to actually do something on the softball field, hated all the running that soccer required, and as far as hitting a volleyball over the net went, I sucked.(Hitting probably isn't even the right word!) Apparently badminton was the sport for me so I went with it. It was a lot of fun. It still is.

And now, badminton is the only sport I can beat my husband at. I mean, I love having a big strong man around to do all the heavy lifting but jeez, it's nice to be able to beat him at something sometime. He runs fast, he's a kick-butt tennis player, I can't even beat him in scrabble anymore now that he knows all the fancy two letter words. But with badminton I still have a shot at least. I was down on the season, two games to none, but I pulled out a win last night. He better watch out.

I think I'll add a scoreboard on the side of the blog for inspiration. I'm going to need all the help I can get.

Me?

I realized something the other day. Something I already knew, but I suppose didn’t occur to me as being significant. I, yes I, was a bedtime monster.

Now, I don’t remember being a problem at bedtime when I was a kid. I think I went to bed when my mom asked. Heh heh. I'm sure I hardly ever turned into a monster. But, I'm sorry to say that I was quite monstrous after I was tucked in. No, I didn’t get out of bed and play or sneak out the window or anything like that. I stayed in bed.

My poor mom.

You see, I laid in bed and called her. Quietly at first—-mom. The kitchen where she was washing the dishes was far down the hall, so I had to call a bit louder—-Mom. I could hear her at the table, talking. I’d yell—-MOM! And I wouldn’t just call her once or twice, no. I’d call her over and over and over again. MOM. MOO-OM. MOOOOOOOMMM!

Heck, I didn’t have anything else to do. I was in bed, not tired, and following the rule of staying tucked in. I’m sure I never called her for anything important. Sometimes she would come and see what I needed. But, she was no fool.

So, when my kiddos called me from bed one night, what did I do? I made sure they understood that calling mom from bed was not okay, of course. And they don’t, unless it’s an emergency, of which there aren’t many when one is tucked in. Most nights are peaceful around here.

But, everyone gets a little monstrous sometimes. Apparantly even me. And I think that's part of why I wrote Bedtime Monster. I just didn't know it.

My Plan

I have a plan for my blog, an actual plan that I wrote out on a piece of paper with a schedule with actual dates for author interviews, Unread interviews, book reviews, library displays, writing posts, and blabbly posts about whatnot. I’d like to share it with you, I really would.

The problem is, if I tell you then you might be expecting something on a certain date and I’d have to be, like, on time. And the problem with being on time is that I always have a zillion different things pulling me in all directions. Do this, do that! Besides, most of the time I don’t even know what day it is. (I just looked. Can you believe that it’s May 17th already? I’m shocked!)

Really, I have things planned, they just probably won’t come on a specific date like I’d like them to. I like to think that I'm in sync with publishing time--lots of waiting.

Besides that, I lost the piece of paper with the schedule on it.

I'm Back

I took the winter off of work at the library since the weather is so unpredictable around here. I was skiing/sledding/walking out two miles and it was negative degrees for so much of winter this year, so I was glad I did. But I missed the library.

I'm finally getting back into the swing of things(winter was long!) I don't get to work too often--did you notice that I said get? That's right, because I love my job. I love shelving books. I have a hard time not reading each book jacket as I put them in their place. I love helping people find books they want/need. I love checking books out.

I fear that if I didn't work at the library I wouldn't even know what adult fiction books are out there. I do read quite a bit of non-fiction(mostly writing related of course) but really, I'm all about the children's books. I always head to the picture book section first, then go puruse the middle grade and young adult. The cool thing is, since I'm so into it, that has become "my section" of the library. All the subs get a section, depending on what they're into(the head librarian is very cool that way). No one else is so into children's books like I am. Imagine that.

It's my mission to rearrange books so kids can find them and to help kids find books that interest them. One girl said today, "I only read good books." She was very serious. Her friend cracked up. It was classic. Some people are harder to find books for than others.

My favorite part though is putting up book displays in the picture book section. We like to have some sort of theme, so I get to sit and look through the shelves just like I would anyway, but with more of a focus than I would normally have. I did a water theme last week. This week I did birds. And there's always my favorite library themed display. I want to start blogging my displays. I haven't had the time to write the books down so far. The library is a busy place.

It's About the Writing

I picked up my mail at the post office this morning. The only thing there was a big manila envelope. One I'd been waiting for. Really waiting for. But I had the feeling, if the envelope was there the news wasn't what I'd hoped. I'd been rejected.

It so happened that a writer friend of mine was at the post office too. She asked me how I was and I said, "I just got rejected," because, ya know, she'd understand. And she did. She reminded me of something I sometimes forget. She looked me in the eye and said, "it's about the writing... the rest will come, eventually".

It's about the writing. So simple. So true. I didn't used to write because I cared if it got turned into a book. I wrote because I like to; because I find it relaxing and fun. Because a story is something that I can--I won't go as far as to say control--but it is something that I can create.

Now that I write with the idea of getting published always in the back(sometimes not far enough back) of my mind, for better or worse, it changes the choices I make when writing a story. I'd even venture as far as to say that it at times has even influenced which story I work on. I know that I've improved my stories now that I think of arc, page turns, and emotional payoff. I try hard to make my characters sympathetic. I do my best to make my plots unique.

Truly, I know that writing for publication won't take over my writing. I can't help but write what I write. But, my thinking as a writer has evolved, and it's a good thing. It's still about the writing. I just want mine to be the best it can be.