Between Two Books

I'm jumping back and forth at the moment between two books I am writing. One is Nellie & Norman which started to be a picture book and is becoming a novel. The other is another picture book for my Emma Jean collection. It seems like it would be easier to focus on just one book, but when it comes to sitting down and writing, sometimes I'm just more inspired to work on another project. I still have my other middle grade novel Believing is Seeing that I'm at least 1/3 the way and keep it going in my head with ideas and plot directions. I can't forget Pig Boy either. This is going to be a great story. I'm not sure what time period I want to focus on. I have lots of information on the Gold Rush and live in California, so that could work. But, I think I see Peter set in the Great Depression too.

I have so many ideas and great starts. I am just plugging along each day and adding more to whatever inspires me. I trust where I am lead.

Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market

I sit before me a lovely purple copy of the 2008 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market. On the cover is a fish that already tells a story if you listen carefully, but I need to dive into the pages find a publishing company/agent to represent my lovely body of work. As is flip through the pages I stop on art work and successful published books, they are all inspiring and hopeful and I feel their magic. The possibilities are unlimited. I am ever hopeful.

More Books Beginning to Bloom

Sometimes I go through phases where book idea just keep coming to me. I seem to be in a vacuum of ideas streaming into me and I can't jot them down fast enough. Yesterday I began two more ideas: Fairy Quilt and Negative Nelly & Negative Norman. I'm excited about both ideas and have created scenes for both. The Fairy Quilt is magical and fills the mind with wonder. Negative Nelly & Negative Norman is funny and will keep them laughing. Maybe it's spring and everything is blooming new! With so many great ideas, I will be writing for years to come.

Book Ideas

So many times book ideas come to me and I want to dive right in and begin a new book. This would mean that I would begin another new book every few days. I know this all sounds a bit crazy, but it's true and it happens often. I'm inspired by the strangest things. Today I remembered the feeling I've had since a little girl. I've always believed that if there was a disaster of any kind, I would be the one to survive. It may be a very natural feeling, but I don't ever hear anyone mention it. I think there may be something there for a young reader. Not just surviving, but the belief that the character will survive no matter what.

With so many choices and unfinished books to write, I will have to survive for a long time!

Submissions to Agents and Publishing Companies

When submitting to literary agents and publishing companies, the song comes to mind...."ON the road again. Just can't wait to be on the road again.,,,"
So as I hum the tune I think about the journey I set off with reading, re-reading my queries, checking lists of Editors and Predators, every list that my have a good connection or suggestion to send a query to, and just filling my good vibes and energy into each submission in hopes of an offer.
This time, I think I'm gonna have a different attitude. Instead of waiting for an offer, I'm just gonna keep going and "truckin'" along down the road. I'm gonna just wait to see what comes across my path on this next journey. Sure I'll get lost, but it's all part of the adventure. Who know what will come about with each adventure???
"On the road again...........

April Fool's Day

The first day of April is a day of trickery, kind of like the October holiday of Halloween. I wonder how it all started? I love history! I not really big on tricking others, because I don't really liked to be tricked. For me this day marks the first of a month and another beginning. My beginning this month is to organize all the notes I have on publishers, agents, and editors. Hopefully after that I will have this grand list that I can easily find who and when I have sent submissions. Off to find a great database for this task.

Another Wish

This is another lovely wish I am sending out to the universe....A John Newberry Medal. If wishes come true, then why not wish big?! I can already see my book published with this lovely symbol attached to the front cover. Yes, it's only a sticker, but it means my book is accepted and honored for making a difference, and this is my goal.

All My Wishes Come True!

Just recently I tested the Law Of Attraction with a little wish. I asked for a 1961 penny to come to me. Now if you think about this, a penny in the 70's is quite rare, and even rarer to find a penny from the 60's, so asking for this specific date was a sure sign for me.
After a couple of days, I started to wonder if my wish was too impossible since I rarely use cash (I'm always trying to get air miles on a credit card), but I let it alone and left my wish out in the universe and hoped. Days passed and even a week and still no sign of my 1961 penny until one day when I was cleaning up the family room where my son and his college buds hang out, when I noticed a penny sitting on the couch cushions next to the remnants of lottery scratchers. I asked one of the kids (Ryan)sitting in the room, what the date was on the penny, not expecting it to be one even close to the date of my wish since it didn't have that extra worn look of a 47 year old penny.
You guessed, it was a 1961 penny! In all my excitement I explained my wish and was validated that all my wishes come true.
Ryan of course, suggested next time I ask for a nickle and by the way, he was sure Grace left the penny with her scratcher mess.
It was a sign to me to know that what I ask for may not come in the expected way, but to know it will come.

Writing and Exercise

Writing is like exercise. It feels sooooo good when you do it, but it takes the "get up and go" attitude to do it. I only bring this up because I have found myself doing everything but writing the past few days. Yes, I know it's spring and it triggers spring cleaning, but a writer must write, just as a human must exercise to keep the body moving. Oh, this photo is my goal. I want to feel like my daughter did for this shot. So thankfully, I have this blog to write a bit, so I can leap into the air and feel the high.
By the way, today I declared it a day I was ready for positive change....wait, SO ready for positive change.
Off to change, yet again!

5 Random Things About Myself

The idea of writing 5 random things about myself was proposed to me by a dear friend in her blog. She shares it all and exposes all the aspects of herself freely. It got me to thinking about how so many of us, especially myself, only expose the safe parts of our beings. Why is this and why not? Being a great writer is to expose oneself and reveal the ever amazing heart connection. So here goes off the top of my head.:
I adore the smell of spring.
I long for more touch.
I am filled with joy when the sun touches my skin.
Water is a glorious element that makes me feel new.
I believe in fairies.

Writing a query

I have written the same query many times now. Condensing and twisting the few sentences and adding, rewriting, rewriting, and rewriting, I still am searching for the best words to explain my finished middle grade novel on sexual abuse. Stating facts and a bit of detail from the book, just doesn't do it justice. Movie trailers do it so well......off to read the back of video and DVD boxes. Wish me luck and good vibes.

What Fear??

Fear is the interesting thought of the day. It's not that I am experiencing fear or I am filled with fear, it it the very fact that we create fear. I am pondering why, how, when, you get the idea. Without the answers, the only solution is to release any and all fears that may creep, sink, or appear in our lives, bodies, environment. What lucky fools we are to be able to simply release and we can dissolve a feeling into a new one. If this is the case, then why do so many of of walk this earth in a state of some kind of fear?
I don't have the answers, only some solutions......affirmations:
I am free.
I stand in my own power.
I am secure on all levels.
I TRUST in the process of life.
I deserve my good, and so it is!
All I need is always taken care of.
I am safe.
I am loved.
I love who I am.