The Pyrenees---Southern France

The Pyrenees---Southern France

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Go, Go, Go--ReviMo!

      Do you have a picture book that is collecting dust? Do you have a picture book manuscript that needs some serious slashing and burning revising? Have you been procrastinating busy, and keep shoving that picture book draft to the side? If your answer to any of those questions is "yes," this is the nudge foot up your rear encouragement you need.

      Cathy C. Hall got me on the trail of Meg Miller's ReviMo. If you're interested, you need to register by Saturday, January 11. Different from the NaNo 30-day nightmare, you only have to focus on your picture book from January 12-18.


      I have a picture book manuscript. I have a long, tear-stained story about past publishing attempts (a story I will never tell) when it comes to this manuscript...but now I have a new publisher in my sights, which means I need to shine it up and get it as spiffy as possible.

    This is just the prodding I need. Thanks, Cathy and Meg. In seven short days, I will have a new and improved picture book (she said, as she pulled the draft out of a drawer and blew the dust off. Ooh, even a spider had made its home on one of the pages, the writing had sat there dormant for so long...).


Monday, January 6, 2014

You Can't Always Get What You Wa-ant!

     But if you try sometimes...you'll get what you need.

    Okay, I'm almost always in the mood for a good dose of Rolling Stones, so forgive me. My fourteen days off (holiday break) has been extended by another day (today) and I'm wondering about tomorrow, with the big dump of snow and the wind chill. And more snow is supposed to come on Wednesday.

    If you're in the St. Louis area, you should be working on your Listen to Your Mother story. They're accepting submissions for the next month or so...

    Chicken Soup is looking for stories about forgiveness. I don't know if I can forgive myself for eating the small smallish not-jumbo sized box of Godiva chocolate I got from a skinny friend as a Christmas gift (the gift that keeps on giving, 'cause cellulite's forever), but perhaps there is a story in there... 

     I got an email that a story (written for the upcoming Chicken Soup Alzheimer's collection) has made it through the first set of hoops. My fingers, my eyes and my feet are crossed. (Wait. Sorry. My feet are almost always crossed and twisted-up.) However, I had sent in several stories, and really wanted a story written about a family friend to be chosen. They didn't pick that one, but am I going to argue and beg and plead with them to change their mind? No way.

                                                          

      If you're a writer, what are you working on? If you're snowed in, what are you doing to keep yourself from going all redrum-crazy? Do you have some Godiva sitting around? Send it...I'm all out.