Word!

I finally have Microsoft Word and oh what I’ve been missing. I can read comments! Lines and lines of wonderful comments my fabulous writer friends have so wonderfully shared with me.
I couldn’t help but read through every single crit(and my computer didn’t crash!) as I filed them away and this made me realize a few things:

• I’m a slacker. I have a lot of material I need to revise and get out into the world.
• Wordperfect really does suck. I even found two mistakes (clearly pointed out by Word) in the manuscript I sold. How embarrassing.
• I really miss my critique buds that have drifted away.
• Using colors and strikeouts and bubbles is cool. I’ll have to figure out how to do it.
• I’m not a very good critiquer, but I’m trying.
  
  I’m so happy I finally have Word. Now I can get my manuscripts organized. Right now they’re everywhere—in my email, on disc, on two different computers, then there’s all the ones on pieces of paper in various notebooks and around the house. It’s nice to be able to sit down to write and actually be able to find what you’re looking for. Having finally gotten this computer thing taken care of, I have hope that I can get my manuscripts organized. Just don’t look in my desk!

Dummy

I’ve been working on a picture books manuscript, trying to get it to be a page turner. At the advice of Linda Pratt, an agent with the Sheldon Fogelman Agency, I have made a dummy. Now, my dummies are nothing fancy. I took eight pieces of fluorescent green paper, folded them in half, and wrote my story in pencil–what I think would logically go on each page.

Dummying is a really depressing—I mean helpful, exercise. As I wrote my story down I came to some quick realizations:

Some portions of the story do not have a definite page break.
Some parts are too long.
Some parts don’t have a good feature to illustrate.
Some parts just suck.

So, I’ve cut, added, and restructured. I hope the manuscript is the better for it, but I do miss some of the parts I had to cut. Many of them were my favorite scene set-ups—I’ll have to leave that for the illustrator. And I’ll tuck those lines away. Maybe I’ll find a use for them someday.

I have to admit, I don’t dummy often; only once that I can remember. Sometimes I do a rough numbering of paragraphs to see where I’m at, but after this I’m going to have to dummy every picture book I write. It really gave me a good perspective on what I need to do to make a salable manuscript.

I think I may even experiment with writing in dummy form. I’ll be forced to create a page turn from the start, make scenes more even and uniquely illustratable, and, of course, I’ll try to make things not suck. Who knows? I just might work a little faster and hopefully a little better.

Just play nice!

I have been wanting Microsoft Word for a while now. Back when we bought our computer, I had no idea about what word processing software I might want. I just took what came with the computer. But, I've learned some things in the past few years.

Now I know, most people(in my writing world anyway) use Word. And Wordperfect does not play well with Word. Wordperfect is more like Word's jealous little brother who, instead of compromising and doing a little give and take, instead turns around and says I'm not playing with you. Well, I've had enough of the arguments.

A friend was over the other day and she had a disc, with Word on it! She copied my files, wiped my computer, and put in the disc. One problem--the file wouldn't unzip. I don't know alot about computers, but I do know if my jacket won't unzip, I'm not getting out of it--and I'm not happy.

So, now I have a nice computer with absolutely no word processing software on it. Do I use my word processor everyday? No. I do alot of writing by hand, but for some reason, not having a word processor is driving me crazy. I have so much to type! I sure hope she comes back with the reformatted disc soon. I'd go over, but it's a long walk over a big mountain, and I have writing to do.

Don't even get me started on bandwidth.

First Reading

I did it! My first real reading--and I didn't die.

I have been living promotion for the Author Fair put on by my library for the past few weeks and had been able to ignore the fact that I was going to have to get up in front of people. Then, all was in order and it hit me. I started worrying. I cried. I lost sleep. I thought of plenty of good excuses to get out of it. Luckily, after one night of that I decided I wasn't going to worry about it anymore. I lied to myself. I said it would be okay; that I would enjoy it. I even told myself I was excited. No negativity was going to penetrate my fantasy reading!

So, today I sat on a pillow in front of the fireplace surrounded by children(a group of my kid's friends I had somehow had the foresight to gather, otherwise I would have been reading to a room full of adults and might have had to use one of my excuses). I started with some talk about the library with the kids and asked them a question and boom--I was interrupted with an announcement about the bathroom. Yeah thanks.

I went on. I was prepared and was going to get through this. "You're not loud enough," rang out from the crowd. I talked louder.

When I started reading I suddenly sounded very strange. Oh no, I think, I'm losin' it. I'm not going to make it through this. What am I going to do? My kids are here thinking I'm amazing. There's all these people...

Wait. I'm not losin' it, I am speaking into a microphone and everybody can hear me. Yes I know, that's the point of a microphone, but I have really tried to stay away from those things my entire life. It had been snuck right in front of me. Which is a good thing or I may have had to chuck the mic back at Steve. But, he knows me well enough to know that sneaking a microphone in front of me is the only way to go. It was too late. I knew I had to ignore the evil mic or suffer a most heinous consequence.

I read on, waiting for the last page. Would it ever come? The chapter really isn't that long! What's the deal? When will it end. Aaargh!
I can honestly say I loved reading those last few lines.

I even remembered after reading to show the kids the pictures for each chapter of the book and tell them about the illustrator, tell them there is a peanut butter cup recipe in the back, and invite them to come color some coloring pages from the book. Then I thanked them. I really thought I was losing my memory, but I guess it's there when it really counts. I only used my cheat cards once, after the bathroom incident.

So, I guess it went okay. I was glad when it was over. And after being up there by myself the author question and answer panel didn't seem like such a big deal, especially since I wasn't asked any questions. At this moment I feel like, hey, maybe I could do that radio interview. I learned today that I at least know more about publishing than the average joe and more than some people who write even. But ask me tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll be far from wanting to do any of it ever again. Unfortunately, I have to, so I am going to remember the positives, even if I have to make them up. I think lying to myself was quite helpful. I'll have to do it more often.

The best thing about the whole day? My six-year-old wanted to talk about the fun he had today. And the "funnest" thing he did all day was watch me read my book. And my daughter is so proud. They are the real reason I made myself do this. I tell them it's okay to get up in front of people. It's okay to be nervous. I'm glad I was able to show them as well.

A small celebration

I did it--finally. I finished my author questionnaires and sent them off. Man that was alot of questions. I hope they find my answers helpful. It was alot of pressure knowing people are going to read all these things about me. I am going to forget about it now so I don't stress out. La la la. Anyway, Woohoo! Now I can quit worrying about it and move on to something else. Like sleep.

How could I forget?

Yes, it's true! I have an actual, real-live copy of my book. I put it on my shelf for a week and just gave it passing glances. I don't know what I was afraid of. It was too overwhelming I guess. And I was super busy. Finally I dove in and read it. Soon I am going to have to read it out loud to actual kids. It really was surreal to see it as an actual book with cover art and pages.
My daughter told her teacher, who got very excited and wanted to see it, so I let her take it to class last Friday. She told the class about her Mom being an author and showed off the book. They then left it on a table for everyone to look at. She said there was one kid(who is usually out of control and very hyper) who just kept staring at the cover. He was mezmerized by the dragon. Amazing to hear of such a reaction. She also told me all the Moms checked it out too.(It's a homeschool outreach, parents can stay.) I'm sure there'll be lots of questions next time I show up in class.
So, now I am pretty much commited to reading to the class sometime soon. I would like to come up with some sort of project or worksheet for the kids to do too. Guess I'd better get to work on that. And bookmarks maybe?

B-day rant

I don't think I've had a moments rest since I got home. There's been so much to catch up on. And it's like I'm moving in all over again. It takes alot of belongings for five people to vacation for six months. Plus there's all the extra stuff I brought back. We bought a new car while we were in California, and it's not a cross country trip if you car isn't filled to the brim with stuff(according to my mom). So, my house has been a total disaster since I got home and it's driving me crazy. I'm not a good house cleaner anyway. I always make more of a mess. And that's what I've been doing. I want to get rid of things, the kids have outgrown alot of stuff since we've been gone, so I don't see the point of putting it away. I end up with piles of boxes that have nowhere to go. It's a long way to any place to drop a donation around here. So, there's that.

And the first day I was home I made the mistake of going into the library and was immediately pulled back into all the things I have to do there. I was told there was a meeting in an hour and I was coming right? We're having an author fair, which I helped come up with, so I have to help with that. And the board had been waiting for me to come back so we could have the booksale. I'm the one who usually heads it up, so I'm the only one that knows how to do it, right? So that's done now, mostly.

Whenever I have a free moment I've been trying to answer the eight pages of questions I received from my publisher. I've had them for almost a month. I hope that's not too long. There are some hard questions like: please list competitive books on the market and, list any special groups that should be alerted to your book. Okay, those aren't questions, but you know what I mean. I feel like I need to get this thing done though asap.

I am starting to get a little freaked out because the conference is almost here. What am I supposed to wear? I actually went shopping. I don't go shopping. I hate shopping. I actually bought two outfits. I made myself buy outfits since I do have some nice things, they just don' go with anything else I own. Anyway, I still don't have shoes to go with anything. Can't I just wear my uggs with my skirt? Or maybe I'll just go as me and wear jeans and tennis shoes. I don't know. That's what I decided for my author photo that is probably going in the paper tomorrow. I dressed nice and took some photos, but it seemed like I should just be myself and opted for the jeans and comfy shirt pick my son took of me. Speaking of that, I told my friend(who is also my librarian) today that I'm not coming to town for the next week since I'll be in the paper. But she said, "You have to. You have to set up the booksale." Yeah. Thanks.

Am I complaining? No. Things have just been so weird since I got home. It's like I left a writer and came home an author. I've got a copy of my book. It's almost ready to release. I am going to do a reading at the book fair.(The me part of me hopes nobody comes, the library promotion part of me hopes tons of people come. I'm making myself promote against everything in me.) My librarian has been telling everybody about me that will listen. I got an ovation from the library board and had to talk about my books. It was not totally awful I guess, but was a bit nervewracking. And now all sorts of people know I'm a writer. After Thursday the whole town will know. But what's the big deal, right? It's part of being a writer. The part I never really wanted to think about. I'll have to take it as it comes and be prepared with some good quick description when asked about my books. That's a lesson I've learned.

And I'm procrastinating. I should be finishing up my author faq's, making business cards, typing up my one-sheet. I am hesitant. I like to be the one in the corner. Not the one everyone is looking at. And I know they're not all actually looking at me. It's just feels like I'm taking a new step in my life-towards some new me. Maybe it's because I'm 35 today. There's a theory that every 7 years your life begins a new cycle, a new era. It has seemed true so far. -And no, I'm not saying this so you'll say happy b-day. It just came up.