I'm not really from here

My backyard backs up to a corn field.  I live in Orville Redenbacher's home state.  I have no idea how long an ear of corn can last before, you know, things fall apart.

My son has to build a grasshopper for a science project.  (Each student has to research an insect, write a report and build a model).  We were thinking of using an ear of corn to make the grasshopper but my daughter reminded me that it will sit in a display case for "a while."  I have no idea how long that grasshopper would survive on display before it began to deteriorate.   I feel like I should know.

Looks like we're going with Plan B.  Or C.

Back to work

The good news is: I can still be taught!

The SCWW conference is over and I am ready to get back to work!   I knew the book was not perfect but I went to the conference anyway, knowing I would still learn a lot.  I signed up for a critique, query and pitch.  I was most afraid of the pitch.  When people ask what my book is about, I tend to ramble...

(If I could get the idea across to you quickly, I'd write short stories, right?)  Wrong.

While much of the information put out at conferences can be found on various websites or in countless books, it can sound different when you hear it.  Thank God I took Chuck Sambuchino's class on Friday afternoon.  When he said, "For those of you pitching at this conference..." I sat up and listened.  He talked about summarizing your book in one sentence.  (I couldn't do it then but I'm getting better.)   He went on to say that the second paragraph in your query letter should be about 3-7 sentences.  That paragraph should be your pitch when you sit down in front of an agent.  I heard the lightbulb click.

I learned many other useful things in that hour and fifteen minutes.  (There was more but I had to leave for a critique.)  I took those suggestions and reworked, revised and rehearsed my pitch all over again. It worked.  The agent requested 30 pages!

Of course, anyone can have an idea.  That doesn't make me a writer.  This same agent was not blown away by my first two pages in another seminar but now I have a second chance to impress.  I have recognized that I was not just rambling about my book before--I was rambling in it, as well.

None of this is a guarantee that anything further will ever happen with this book but it is a step forward.
I was going to skip the conference this year, knowing the book wasn't completely right, yet.  I was going to skip the pitch, out of pure and simple fear.  I went and was inspired and challenged.  If only I hadn't been too shy/embarrassed to offer to buy Chuck Sambuchino a drink at the bar, to thank him for the helpful advice!  Maybe that will be my goal for the next conference...

Olly olly oxen free!

My three-year-old still puts his hands over his eyes so that you cannot see him. He puts his head under pillows and, every Tuesday and Thursday, puts his head inside the back of my shirt as he walks into preschool.  (I have to spin rather quickly to "find" him!)  His actions are cute but not are not effective means of hiding.

I started this blog under a pseudo-anonymous name.  I thought if it didn't turn out too well, or if I posted something I shouldn't have, only a handful of people would really know it was me.  Over the years, I've shared the link in a few places so now it comes up as soon as you Google my name.  This was not an effective way to hide.

I say I need a critique group but I don't do the work to find one or start one.  It has been so long now--I hate to admit to anyone how long it's been since I have participated in such a group but waiting a little longer is not an effective solution.

Earlier this week, I impulsively commented on a facebook post from a local bookstore.  This store happens to be my new favorite place to sit and write.  I love going on Thursday mornings and often have the place to myself!  (As a writer, the peace and quiet amidst shelves of books is perfect; as a mom, the peace and quiet is priceless!)  Another writer was enjoying the space yesterday but posted on the site that she would love for other writers to join her.  I spoke up--on facebook--using my real name.

Looking back

It has taken far too long to tell you about Karen Abbott's American Rose.  I was lucky enough to win a hard copy of this book!  (That makes this delay inexcusable but please forgive me and go out and buy this book.  Now.)  The book is the story of New York as much as it is the story of Gypsy Rose Lee.  I am so glad I read this book before my trip to New York in August!  It helped me to see so much of the city in a new way, especially Times Square.  I love history and it never ceases to amaze me how little human nature differs, over time!  It was a great read I won't soon forget.  (I can't!  My daughter is enamored with the show "Toddlers and Tiaras" and there is a stage mom in every episode that reminds me of Rose, Gypsy's mother!  Almost 100 years have passed since Rose was pushing her daughter, June, along the vaudeville circuit claiming that her daughter was destined to be "somebody."  I hear the same words in my living room today, but vaudeville has been replaced by reality television.)

I am sure you read The Help long ago.   I have been meaning to read the book forever but just got around to finishing it last week.  Though wonderful reviews abound, I knew I had to read the book when I read about it in Food & Wine magazine.  (They featured many of the recipes from the movie.)  Kathryn Stockett's writing was wonderful.  I love southern writers and southern writing but so many writers slow the story down by trying to capture dialect.  I have had to stop and re-read so many words so many times to understand what the characters are supposed to sound like.  Ms. Stockett's writing is spot-on.  Perfect.  Her characters in this novel are unforgettable, the writing is compelling and the food sounds delicious--though it will be a while before I enjoy chocolate pie again!

Brotherly Love

Overheard:

3yr-old:  "C?  Can I tell you a secret?"
10yr-old: "Sure."
3yr-old:"I love you."
10yr old: "I know."

I hang my head (Mea Culpa VIII)

I have amended an earlier post but as most of you have no reason to re-read my entries, I include it here, as well.  While I do aim to write fiction, I don't want to be known as a liar.

To that end, I submit my confession:

I was notified via facebook of an inaccuracy in this post, this morning.  I have some great friends (with amazing memories!) who pay attention to what I write here.  My own memory is not so good and I do not fact-check my posts well enough.  I regret to admit that I have not completely avoided meat for two decades.

I tried.  I failed.  

Nearly two decades ago, I was working for J.  We were working quite late one night and he bought dinner for everyone.  I was hungry famished.  I was tired.  There were no veggie options and I caved.  I confess--I ate a turkey sandwich.  Nineteen years ago.  

As long as I am confessing (and before my family members rat me out) I also ate a bite of kielbasa on Easter.  In 2008.  My son saw it and has proudly told everyone that I am not a real vegetarian.

I am a fraud.  

Stalked by some bad battery karma

Every parent who has seen the Toy Story movies knows where the writers got the idea.  There is some toy, somewhere in your house, with a dying battery.  Batteries do not die quietly.  Toys do not come equipped with a "low battery" light or a status bar, telling you just how much time is left.  Toys...turn psycho.

I am not talking about the toys on your child's floor, nor the ones lying on the top of the toy box.  Those toys have been played with recently.  Those toys have received attention.  Those toys are good.

It is the toy you haven't seen for a while.  Maybe it isn't at the bottom of the full toy box but it is wedged in the middle, somewhere.  In the middle of the night, while your family is sleeping, that toy will beep for no reason.  When the children are in school, the dog is napping and the house is quiet, that toy will talk.  And if you should dig for that toy, find that toy and hold that toy it will stop.  (Think Rex in Toy Story 3: "He held me!  He actually held me!)

But my latest silence-stopper?  The potty. 

Yes, for the THIRD child, I bought a potty that sings when you, well, you know.  Except this one doesn't.  It can--it simply won't--because no one uses it.  Little guy uses it as a stool to step up to the sink.  He uses it to hold his books while he uses The Big Potty but he does not sit upon it.  So it has no reason to sing.

What to do if you are a potty with no reason to sing?  Well, sing for no reason at all!  It is 11pm.  Everyone, including the dog, is asleep except for me--and the potty.  So it sings.

Registered!

After much indecision, wavering and stalling, I decided not to go to the writing conference in October.  As I sat down to compose a post about my reasons, I found a similar post I'd already written and posted three years ago.  THREE YEARS ago.

I realized that I have no choice.  I try not to accept excuses from my kids and it is time to stop allowing them, myself.  I am going to the conference.  Part of my hesitation was that my draft isn't "ready."  But is much closer than it was last year (when I said it wasn't "ready.")  It is not perfect.  Of course, if it was perfect, I wouldn't need feedback.

So I have submitted pages for critique.  I signed up for a pitch session and query session, as well.

So now you know.  And now, I have to go revise other pages and forget that I have already sent some to complete strangers before I curl up into the fetal position and start sucking my thumb.

Moving past Teeewwwsday...

Hey, boys and girls!  It turns out, you're never really too old to have a theme for the day!

My youngest came home from preschool yesterday with an alligator pouch he'd made (full of "A" pictures) and an alligator dance.  You won't be surprised to learn that it featured a big "chomp!"

On the way to pick up the older two from school, I heard a little more chomp chomping from the back of the car.  This time, it was the dog.  Hers wasn't so much an alligator impression as she was trying to taste the DS game left in a cup holder.

We picked up my son first and while he mourned the loss of his Mario game, we picked up my daughter.  She placed a tiny present into my hand: the bracket that held her braces to her back molar.

I admire my friends and relatives who are dental hygenists and dentists.  I have never had any desire to put my hand inside anyone's mouth.  So after trying to coax Playdoh out of the dog's mouth a little later, I decided to open the wine, declare that I was off-duty and ordered pizzas for dinner.  (Yes, one was cheese-free!)

Who moved my cheese?

We talk about the "first 12-hour date" but that wasn't really our first date.  The first one was a lunch date.  I had a cheeseburger (and fries, I assume).  He had an apple.

The following summer, I decided to try giving up meat for 30 days. Those thirty days turned into two decades, although for years my husband tried to wait me out, convinced it was "just a phase."

Just a little over a week ago, my husband decided to go on a "plant based diet" for 30 days and invited me to join him.  He eased into it--the first day he just avoided "anything with a face or a mother."  It's been a vegan week since--no dairy, no eggs.  Unless you count the "butter" on our popcorn Saturday night.  I don't.  (Elaine Bennes covered the whole "is it real butter" issue for us, a while ago!)

We'll see how long this phase lasts!  I know he'll make the 30 days--he sticks to his goals.  He gave up wine for 40 days.  (He invited me to join him on that venture, as well, but I couldn't commit to that one.  This latest kick is much easier.  Wine qualifies as "plant-based.")

Our first lunch date was during the week before Labor Day, twenty-two years ago.  If you had told me then where I'd be now, I never would have believed it.
I never would have seen myself as someone who could give up cheese.

_________________________________

An amendment for my loyal readers:

I was notified via facebook of an inaccuracy in this post, this morning.  I have some great friends (with amazing memories!) who, apparently, do pay attention to what I write here.  My own memory is not so good and I do not fact-check my posts well enough.  I regret to admit that I have not completely avoided meat for two decades.

I tried.  I failed.  

Nearly two decades ago, I was working for J. We were working quite late one night and he bought dinner for everyone.  I was hungry famished.  I was tired.  There were no veggie options and I caved.  I confess--I ate a turkey sandwich.  Nineteen years ago.  

As long as I am confessing (and before my family members rat me out) I also ate a bite of kielbasa on Easter.  In 2008.  My son saw it and has proudly told everyone that I am not a real vegetarian.

I am a fraud.  Now you know.

School daze

The older two went back to school on the 16th and my little guy started preschool yesterday.  So you're probably thinking that with all three kids in "school" I finished revising the novel, finished reading a book and folded all the laundry, right?

I was really, really close.  I went to the dentist, bought a new bra and a coffee.  Whee!

But I am revising the novel.  At 0-dark-thirty.  I've been getting less sleep during this last week than when I had newborns but I just might get this done, yet!  (Delirious, bleary-eyed edits have GOT to be good, right?)

How's your week going?

Greetings, Friends!

Liebster means "friend" in German.   I don't speak German (despite having a German maiden name) but am honored to be nominated for a friendship award, in any language!  Many thanks to Jen McConnel for this honor!  (I am also VERY late in posting this thank you here.  I've known Jen less than a year but unfortunately, she has already learned that I am always late.  I'm working on that!)

This award is intended to connect bloggers, specifically those with less than 200 followers. In accepting the award, I must:

* Show my thanks to the blogger who gave me the award by linking back to them.
* Reveal my top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
* Post the award on my blog.
* Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the internet—other writers.
* And best of all – have fun and spread the karma.

I want to thank Jen McConnel again for the lovely nomination and she is also my first "pick."  I met Jen at a writing conference last October and she has been very encouraging here, on this blog, as well as in reading and commenting on some of my writing.  I sent her a confusing, mess of an excuse for a "draft" and God bless her, she still read it!

I am also nominating Tracy.  I've never met Tracy in person but we became online friends when we were both Kansas writers.  (She still is but I've moved over to Indiana).  Tracy always has an encouraging word here and inspiration on her site.

I'd like to introduce you to Caryn Caldwell.  Caryn is another writer I've never met but always so encouraging!  She is another mom-writer but is further along in her journey than I am--I love reading success stories!

Renee shares some wonderful ideas about getting into the world of your characters--as well as real survival stories about trying to balance writing with being a mother and wife.  Renee is yet another "friend" that I've never met in real life but I knew I'd like her as soon as I saw the title of her blog!

Aaron is the other friend on this list that I have met in person.  In fact, I'm sure we met before the internet existed!  He's an excellent writer and we attended a writing conference together 14 years ago but we'd been friends for years before that.  I decided to take the plunge and begin writing my own blog after reading his.  So, who knows?  If not for Aaron, I might not have started a blog, would never have met so many writers online and would never have learned the German word for friend. :)

Consequences I can live with

I love spending time with my children.  I also love to read.  I think it is important to read to your children.

But a day off from any one of the above wouldn't kill anybody.

After spending two hours at the muddy playground with my youngest and the dog today, everyone needed a bath!  My exhuasted son did not want to get back out of the tub and was quite irritated that I kept trying to drain the tub.

"Mommy!  If you touch that drain ONE MORE TIME, you will not get to read me a bedtime story!"

Summer vacation

How is your summer going?

Every year, I think the summer will be a time when I will get more writing done and every year, I am wrong!  If I can't pull it off during the school year when two of my children are gone most of the day, I don't know how I think the summer will be easier!

The summer always seems to fly by but it has been great, so far!  My daughter and I flew to Florida for my cousin's wedding and our whole family drove down to Florida two weeks later to spend a week on the beach!  My son completed one Taekwondo camp and begins another tomorrow.  My daughter attended a gymnastics camp in Indianapolis but her friend could not go--so that was a little bit of a commute each day but still an easy drive.

I am just now getting to the rewrite I had planned for the summer so it is progress--but I'm still far behind where I wanted to be.  (It probably doesn't help that I keep thinking how nice it would be to be writing on the beach!) One day!

Having said that, I need to get back to work.  I have not yet registered for the writing conference on the beach.  Last year, I did not take full advantage and really need to get this rewrite finished if I am going to go, again!

How are you enjoying your summer?

I feel fine!

It's a beautiful day, I'm taking the dog and youngest child to the park and I'm singing. 

Enjoy today as if it were your last, just in case, but I'll plan to check back in with you tomorrow!

In which I confess my Sin

It's not a new rule.  It isn't my rule.  It is simple.  If you want to write, you are going to have to write stuff down.
(And if you're a mom, you have to write stuff down; if you're over 30, it's likely you have to write some things down; if you don't sleep enough or if you were scatterbrained to start with, you have to write stuff down.)

If you write, you know your ideas--the good ones, anyway--do not come when you ask for them.  The ideas come while you're walking, driving, showering, cooking and sleeping.  Which is why there are pieces of scrap paper on my nightstand, in the laundry room and in my pocket when I go for a walk or a run.  The laptop is always on in the kitchen, so if I think of something while I'm frying eggplant, I can type a quick note.  I have a few apps on my iPhone so if I'm driving or running, I can at least jot a few words when I have a chance to stop.  I haven't found a way to keep a notepad in the shower yet but I don't always get in there, every day, anyway! ;)

This isn't new.  Life is busy.  We are trying to get other things done so we might have time to write or, if we make the time, we are trying to call up the inspiration on cue.  So the good ideas wait until you have a quiet moment to sit and breathe.

I had a great one last night!  I remember that it was great enough that I included an extra-loud prayer (in my head, anyway) along with the others, that God help me remember today as I was just too tired to write it down.
Apparently, my faith is not as strong as it should be.  As a writer, I know that is the biggest writing sin!  If you don't write it down before you go to sleep, it will be lost by the time you wake.  I prayed for it to stick in my head--and I can remember the two characters involved and where they were--but that's all I've got.  There is a stack of paper, pens AND pencils on my nightstand but I was too tired to pick up a pen. 

You have been hearing me talk about The Great American Novel for decades but you've been wondering why I don't just finish it already.  You had your suspicions but now, I admit it.  Writers who are too tired and lazy to pick up a pen aren't going to get very far.

(If one of you was suddenly gifted with a GREAT SCENE involving characters who aren't yours, in a story you don't know, sometime around 12:30am this morning, please email me.  I know God heard my prayer so I'm thinking when I didn't write the idea down, He went ahead and gave it to someone else.)

Muslims and schools in Pakistan, Jewish prayer books and Heaven

If you want to get along with people, you don't discuss politics or religion.  But I'm hoping if they're part of book reviews, with education and parenting mixed in, you'll still come back and visit my blog from time to time.

I might be the last person who finally got around to reading Three Cups of Tea.  But if I'm not, and you haven't checked it out yet, go out and pick it up now.  I'll wait.  You can finish the rest of this blog post when you get back.  It is an inspiring, true story that proves how much difference one person really can make in our world.  In addition to being inspired, I learned quite a bit about Islam, India and Pakistan.

Last night, I finally finished reading People of the Book.  I recommend it highly.  This one is not a true story but a fictional account of the journey of a real book, The Sarajevo Haggadah.  It's an intriguing take on how the book got to be where it was and the lives of people who came into contact with it.

Heaven is for Real was a quick read.  As I'd seen an interview with the author, his wife and their son, I knew that the little boy survived, in the end.  However, reading another parent's anguish over their child who was near-death, kept me turning the pages long after I should have been in bed.  It is certainly a book of hope.  The message is simple: Heaven is real. 
My only fault with the book is that Mr. Burpo claims that "almost-four-year-olds" aren't capable of guile or lying.  To some extent, I believe that is true.  A young child making up stories that completely agree with accounts in scripture would be difficult, indeed.

I have just been chuckling as my three-year-old has been telling me some very detailed stories lately, about a non-existent school that he attends, where no adults are allowed.  But that's his story.

Old stories

If you are like me, life may not afford you the time to sit down and read an entire book in one sitting.  And, if you are like me, you may find that you think about the story or the characters during the day when you aren't reading that book.  So, if you are like me, and you take a gander at the news online when you aren't reading, you might find it particularly cool to come across a news story that ties in perfectly with the book you have been reading!

I am making my way through People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks.  As someone who loves both history and books, I am really enjoying this history of a very old book!  I haven't finished it yet but was excited to see this story online, a few days ago!  I can't help but wonder about the past of this 500-year-old Nuremberg Chronicle!  They say it proves that you never really know what you have in your basement but, as we are the first owners of our current home, I'm pretty certain ours contains nothing but insulation and dust! 

I am constantly telling my husband when the homes near my daughter's school put "for sale" signs out.  (Those homes are well over 100 years old.)  I love the unique design of each house, love to think about the stories the house could tell, wonder about who lived there during the last century but I'd never even thought about what might be left in the attics!  (I'll never know.  Where I see old charm, old stories and character, my husband sees old pipes, lack of central air and pending roof repairs!)

People of the Book offers a fictional history of a real codex.  Hanna Heath,  an Australian rare-book expert is offered the chance to examine and restore a 500-year-old codex, the Sarajevo Haggadah.  During her examination, she finds a small insect wing, a stain on one of the pages and what appears to be salt on one page.  In the chapters that follow, the book alternates between Hanna's life and people of other centuries--illuminating both what their lives were like back then and how they left their mark on the text.

Speaking of texts, it's time to get back to revising my own, unless I take yet another break to finish reading!

Whether the weather bothers you or not...

...it bothers my kids.

The tornado warning ended officially at 10:15pm but tell that to the kids!  We are all fine but they have pulled the sofa beds out in the basement and are quite comfy!

A house on the next street over WAS hit by lightning today so I guess I can see where they'd be a little concerned.  Guess I'm not getting much work done and/or sleep for a bit...

...but we're good.  Goodnight!

April showers, May flowers...June books?

April showers bring May flowers...and might help budding books grow, too!

Since my last post, I spent most of my time on the computer planning our spring break vacation, then changing those plans, changing them again and finally going back to plan A.  After plan A (driving down to Destin, FL) was arranged, we spent the next week there.  The weather was not expected to cooperate but it did, and it was a much needed break from the still-winter weather here.

Since our return, I have accomplished some spring cleaning, helped with field trips and service projects, read and started planning our summer vacation. ;) 

It's time to get back in gear!  Especially as our next trip may take us back down closer to where my "other" book is set.  The "other" book is the one I began during NaNo in 2010.  It flowed nicely, seemed easy to write, but I keep putting it off, feeling like I should organize and polish the first one that I've been working on forever.  (It just might be time for me to admit that if another book is actually easier to write, I should focus on that one!)

Spring is here, I think.  After sunshine and record temps on Sunday, the rains came and cooled everything back down again.  But the sun is out today, flowers are blooming and a few new ideas are budding, too.  It's time to help a book grow!