Weekend Wrap-up

This picture was taken from my deck in NH when I lived there...hot air balloons regularly traveled over the lake. In fact, on weekends, they ofter were our alarm clock...we woke up to the swoosh of air being heated or released, and we alway got up and went out to watch them touch down and take off several times as they passed.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend...doing something special, visiting friends or relatives, etc.

1. This week, we have resumed regular activities (meaning golf, mostly) now that it has dried up from Fay. We watched the path of Gustav with interest, and we were very happy that it did not come our way...our thoughts and prayers go out to those in Louisiana and anyone else in its path. Now we are focused on Hanna...she might or might not be coming our way.

2. Writing has been going well...have been going back and forth with my editor at Jason and Nordic regarding my new book, RUSSELL'S VICTORY, which is a companion book to IT'S TIME. I have also made good progress on my WIP mystery, having written a chapter a day. The first draft is over half written, and then the harder work begins. Still waiting on a couple of agents with my MG novel...not ready yet to send out more queries on it just yet.

3. Plans for the SCWG conference the fourth week in January in Cocoa Beach are coming together very nicely. Am really looking forward to meeting Cynthia Lord in person...she will be doing one of our keynotes. Am still looking for children's book editor, so if you are one or you know one who might like a trip to Florida in the middle of winter, let me know.

4. Have also had fun researching butterfly houses, which I learned about on Kate Messner's blog...it is a perfect activity for one of the main characters in my WIP mystery. Also have researched idioms...they are so much fun to write about. The good thing about all my research is that I have all these books at home so I can read them, but then my six-year-old grandson comes over and HE reads them all, too. After his reading yesterday, he said to me, "Nanny, I'm going to tell you a secret, but keep it under your hat." So that is what I am doing!

Onward and upward...have a good week.

Five for Friday

My goal is to post more often, and I thought of posting earlier in the week, but of course, you can see how THAT went...so now that it has been a full week, I'm doing it first thing in the morning to be sure it gets done.

1. I didn't get to play, but I rode around with my husband and six-year old grandson in a Father's Day golf tournament last Saturday. O really enjoyed it and they came in third (out of four). He was the youngest kid there by four years. Now I am waiting for them to have a adult-kid tournament I can play in. O probably won't be as happy with that, though, because I won't get as many pars as his papa and he did.
2. I have decided to try a new way (for me) of revising. I have been having trouble jumping from my first draft and finding what I want, then putting it into my revision draft, so I shrunk the whole story, put it into columns, and now will cut it apart and rearrange it. I have read about this several times, but most recently on Kate Messner's blog.

3. I have been busy with marketing activities this week, too. Had good news from the local paper and a national magazine, who are going to do reviews of KNOWING JOSEPH between now and September. Also I have followed up on a few suggestions that Cynthia Lord has given me about bookstores that deal with only books about special needs, among other things. Thanks, Cindy. In addition, I have connected to Joanna Keating-Velasco and Julie Shore to discuss marketing strategies for books about autism...both of them have excellent books about autism that have come out recently.

4. There are a couple of rhyming poetry contests going on right now...one over at Dori Chaconis's blog about cheese, and another at Kay Pluta's blog about rabbits. Would LOVE the prizes of both, but first I need to write the poems.

5. Just found out that my daughter-in-law and two grandkids will be coming next Thursday for a week. They are here for the summer from Germany, but spending most of their time in Georgia...my son could not make the trip...he is in Iraq.

Hope you all have a good week.

Moving forward...

Summer is definitely here in Florida...in the 90's daily, with little or no rain...and supposedly the 'rainy season' begins in May. Nice to be warm, though...sometimes I have to go outside to warm up, with all the air conditioning down here...don't dare to go into a store or restaurant without a sweater.

Recently I attended the WALK FOR AUTISM in Orlando as a vendor. It was fun. I enjoyed talking to all the people who stopped by, handed out a bunch of promotional materials, and even sold a few books.













I have moved forward with my writing, too...got a couple more chapters revised in my WIP, and hope to have it completed by the end of June. Other than that, and some promoting...have been working with my cousin, who is going to make a presentation on KJ to a school she used to work at as a librarian in Vermont, and doing some emailing, etc...I have been staying busy with day-to-day stuff. Am looking forward to having my grandson for five days next week, and to my other two visiting from Germany later in the summer.

Another Week

I seem to have missed the Friday post I promised, but really had nothing to report. We had Thanksgiving yesterday, so Thursday we spent a leisurely day on the golf course, and then cooked steak on the grill for dinner to celebrate our 43rd anniversary that we DIDN'T get to celebrate last Wednesday. I even had one of my better rounds, breaking ninety, which is a very infrequent thing for me.

Am still working on rewrites...got stuck for a day or so this week, because I couldn't make up my mind if I want to stick with the first version, or to go in another direction completely, which will involve writing several new chapters and dumping the many of the old ones. A hard thing to do, especially when some of them are quite good--or maybe I should say I am quite attached to them, but they definitely would not fit into my 'new version.' I think I have decided to go in the new direction...it ties various parts together better, and cuts down on the great number of characters needed to send the MC from one environment to a totally different one. So progress is being made.

On Wednesday I had fun making a 'Thanksgiving craft' with my grandson, which started with going into the woods in search of brown pine cones. We found quite a few old weathered grey ones, but not too many brown ones, so it is a good thing I had some good ones from the craft store to back up our efforts. We made turkeys from pine cones and colored pipe cleaners, although O. insisted I call them by their correct name--chenille (whatever), which he read off the package. We stuck name tags on a post in each one to be used as place markers on Thanksgiving Day at his house. Today he was going to take one for show and tell at school. And now we can start on Christmas craft projects, since he likes to do a project each week.

I have just returned from our monthly Children's Writers' Club, where our presenter talked about the availability of grants for writers, and gave us several good websites for them...if anyone is interested in obtaining such a grant, let me know, and I'll send you the websites she gave us.

Have a good week, and have fun preparing for the holiday season.

Away from Home

Here we are, somewhere in Florida about eight long hours from home, beginning our week of taking care of the grandkids. This morning Matthew, who has autism, and I decided to go for a bike ride...Jay would not go with us because he was afraid one of his friends would seeing him wearing a bike helmet, which apparently would not be acceptable.

Matthew, on the other hand, has no problem with that...it is part of his routine. We discovered awhile back that he was quite enthusiastic about riding my three-wheeler when he visited...up until that point he had not been able to ride a bike. So now he has his own...something I highly recommend if you happen to have a child with autism who has trouble managing a two wheeler. Anyway, last fall I 'graduated' to a three-wheeler after I injured my knee and had replacement knee surgery, and have stuck with it since then. So when I tried to get on a really modern mountain bike, the kind with the straight across handlebars and hand brakes on TOP of the handle bars, it was somewhat of a challenge...as long as I didn't have to stop suddenly.

So we peddled around the neighborhood, taking our time and checking out a few things on the way...good experience, but it has convinced me to stay with my three-wheeler once we are home again.

GOOD NEWS--things are progressing! Last night I got the first copyedit for KNOWING JOSEPH. I have started going through it, and so far, so good...only a couple of minor changes...except for the parts I REALLY would like to rewrite...but I think we are past that point...amazing how our perspective changes, the more we write...maybe I really am improving my skills.

Onward and upward!