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.

Catching Up

It's been awhile since I posted, so I'll catch up on all the things I THOUGHT about posting earlier, but never got to, and a few others...

1. The mushrooms in the photo are ones I found on our golf course...am not sure what kind they are, since I could not find them in my Field Guide to Florida book. However, I like them...makes me think that there is a story in them somewhere.

2. I WON a book! I was so happy to do so...it was a great read, and from a relatively local author here in Florida, too. Danette Haworth ran a contest on her blog to give away Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning. I finished reading it last night, after receiving it in the afternoon mail...great story about change and Violet's coming of age.

3. It always amazes me how easily kids can amuse themselves. I am away from teaching now, so am not seeing kids as much, but the other night, when out walking with my grandson, we stopped at a field and he spent the next half hour throwing a small pebble into the 4-inch tall grass, and then running out to find it. Possibly more kids would do things like this...the types of things WE grew up doing...if we could get them away from the technology more often and not over-schedule their lives as much. I am sure there are a lot of kids out there that DO entertain themselves simply, but of course, they are never the ones we read about...

4. MG novel is completely revised now and has a few queries out to agents...(am starting small). I'm happy to report that I have started on another book--which surprises me, since I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to write next. But with the brainstorming help of several friends and relatives, I am now well on my way to writing a chapter book mystery.

5. Sometimes I wonder if I should have a blog or not, and if anyone actually reads it. I know there are a few that do, but I question if I ever have anything to say that is worth sharing with others...

6. We are blessed to be safe and dry here in Brevard county where Fay came to visit and stayed a few extra days. We never even lost our electricity! My heart goes out to all the others in the city and county who were not as fortunate, and found their houses under water. I do not envy them the major cleanup.

Now, back to writing! It is good to be working on something new...much more motivating than trying to finish something that has taken forever.

A Few Things for Friday

This has been a busy week here in my hometown in Florida.

1. My daughter-in-law and two grandsons came to visit from Germany, by way of Georgia, where they are spending the summer. They and another son's family had fun going to the pool, to the zoo, and to Kennedy Space Center...not bad, considering they were only here for four days.

2. Over at Live Journal, Cindy Lord issued a challenge to post a photo a day of our home towns, so since I like to take photos, I took that on...had fun running around town and my neighborhood, taking photos of all the interesting (or not so interesting) things I could. If you want to see pictures of where I live, check out my LJ blog, which is USUALLY the same as this one. Here is a sample:

Harbor at Crane Creek, Downtown Melbourne
3. Also, Jo Knowles invited all her friends to participate with her in the 15-a-day challenge, where we are to write for fifteen minutes a day for a month, created by halseanderson. I have joined that, and am doing okay, so far.

4. Because of the challenge, I finished the first draft of RUSSELL'S VICTORY, an easy reader companion book to IT'S TIME. I sent it off to my editor, and am now reworking the beginning of it.

5. Also, I have gotten quite a bit done on my MG WIP, so the challenge has done well in motivating me to actually sit down and work.

6. We're heading out next week for a wedding in PA, so still need to do a little shopping to see if I can find a new sundress to wear.

Hope you all have a Happy Independence Day!

First Official School Visit

Yesterday I had my first official school visit since KNOWING JOSEPH came out, and it was fun. I made a powerpoint presentation, which I have not done in YEARS (surprised I could still figure it out) and presented to a sixth grade for their career day...on being a writer, of course. They asked some really good questions, more about their writing than the career aspect of it. One boy said that he heard that no one can EVER make their writing perfect, and did I agree with that? And of course I do--I could go back through Joseph now, and make MANY changes that I think would make it better...I have learned so much about writing between the time I finished it four years ago and now.


Thanks, Mrs. Dodd, for inviting me.



I also visited Ms. Troxle's fourth grade class and talked about "Show, don't tell," in writing. We didn't have very much time, so I didn't get to finish the whole presentation, but hopefully they got something out of it. I enjoyed being back in the classroom, anyway.

Then later that afternoon I ran into (literally) another teacher from Palm Bay in a parking lot...a preschool special needs teacher...and we had a very nice conversation about autism and teaching, etc., while waiting for the policeman to arrive to fill out an accident report.So mostly it was a good day...but not completely.

Weekly (sort of) Update

Not much happening around here, but DO have some good news. Just got an email from my editor over at Blooming Tree Press, saying the edits on KNOWING JOSEPH are completed and the book will be going to the printer by the end of the week. AND that it is still on schedule for an October release. I am delighted! It's been a long wait, but the end is finally in sight.

The other good thing is that I have almost finished my next mg--finally! Just one more chapter to go before starting the rewrite.

In other news, we are taking a flying trip to New England this weekend--a funeral in Vermont on Saturday, a wedding in Massachusetts on Sunday, and somewhere in between we are going to connect with my son somewhere else in Massachusetts to meet his new girlfriend.

Have been reading Mother Reader's blog about her review of The Secret...wish our library had it available. Might have to get it at the bookstore...good stuff--all that positive thinking...I believe it really does help!

Progress

Have been working on the marketing over the last few days, sending emails with my press release to a number of Autism Societies across the country, and generating an address labels page for others. It's amazing how many there are; I am up to only page six of more than twenty pages in a google search. I figure if I do ten a day, I might finish in a month or two.

The good thing is that I have had a few responses, too, and have sent out a few books for review.

In addition, I have joined some listserves and introduced myself, which has generated a good deal of traffic on my website.

And from one of the listserves, I received the inspiration to write an article about grandparenting a child with autism, in response to a question asked about how to do that. So I have started working on that.

Then, I was reading my new SCBWI Bulletin yesterday, and found a publisher looking for books with the same criteria as the first one I wrote, which does not yet have a home...so of course, I sat right down and submitted it.

The weather here is warm, windy and wet. Barry is passing through...don't know the name of the first storm...I seemed to have missed that one. But the rain is what we need, so welcome, Barry.

I Can WRITE!

I was beginning to wonder if I ever really would write any more, but yesterday I DID. And it wasn't all that hard, after I made myself sit down and do it. Might even try it again today...

I spent the whole day (9 AM to 7:30 PM) at the hospital with a friend who had to go in for a procedure--I figured three or four hours--but the doctor was three hours late, and THEN they told us she had to lay flat without bending her leg for four hours...Anyway, I had gone prepared. Figured there would be no interuptions there, and nothing to distract me, so I packed my pads of paper and a couple of mechanical pencils and set off. Didn't know where I was going with the story, but managed to get six pages written. Now if I will only do that for the next several days, the book will be finished and ready for revisions. And with such a good critique group now, I really need to finish it before I get far along enough to need it to post!

Another Little Grandson day. Today we played all sorts of ball games outside, and played with the playdough, as well as having a puppet show and reading a story and playing a long game of concentration...which he won hands down. Amazing, though, how many rules there are to our ball games, and how quickly they can change. :-)

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!

Block is gone!

I'm so excited today that I finally was able to sit down and WRITE something on my MG WIP that I decided I should start a blog just to keep me writing. Thanks to Mayra Calvani for her blog on WRITER'S BLOCK and to a couple of 'friends' I've met over on JacketFlap.com, I'm beginning to get back in the groove, I think.

You'd think I would have done this earlier...the MS has been sitting here almost completed for over a year, or maybe two, until November, when I wrote half of the last chapters, just because I was limited by surgery for several weeks and figured I needed something to do. Then I got stuck again. Now that I am unstuck, hopefully I'll have it completed within the month and ready for revision.

As far as my other two books, progress is being made. I have the copyedits for IT'S TIME, but without the illustrations, and a brochure from Jason and Nordic Press with my book on the outside cover...just need to decide where to distribute them now...any suggestions? The book is scheduled to come out in June, I think...or maybe it's July.

Had a note from my editor last week saying that the copyedit for KNOWING JOSEPH would be in the mail by the end of the week, so am anxiously watching my mailbox for that. One step closer...still hard to believe it's actually going to happen after all this time...

Don't know how frequently I'll actually get to write on this blog, but will try to be somewhat regular...have enjoyed reading so many of the other blogs.