Blogging All Over The…
January 2026 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
PB learns to ride the unicycle!
UPDATE: my unicycle hangs from a hook in our garage. Sometimes I tell it: I'll be back.January 1, 2025-
Join 343 other subscribers
-
Written To Date…
Tag Archives: children’s literature
KNOCK IT OFF, CUCKOO
Please go to this wonderful post by Beth Hull and read—especially if you are a certain literary agent. Or any literary agent or critiquing-type who believes they are so busy and important it’s perfectly fine to be brusque and quippish instead of … Continue reading
Posted in books, Children's Books, Fiction, Writing
Tagged 2012, children's literature, critiquing, cuckoo, fiction writing, Literary Agents, middle grade writing, yoga
3 Comments
Quote For The—Blrrrrrrrrrrgh
This is what I remember about Friday: feeding the boy, hug-sandwich as we said bye-bye to his dad, finally getting the boy to preschool (I thought I was a slow eater!), speeding to Starbucks as forgot to buy coffee for … Continue reading
Posted in Children's Books, Fiction, middle grade, Writer quotes, Writing
Tagged 2012, children's literature, fiction writing, middle grade writing, personal goals, writing
2 Comments
Middle Grade Tidbit
In case you’re missing it, agent Michael Bourret from Dystel & Goderich and editor Molly O’Neill are conversing via their blogs about middle grade novels–what they look for, what they like, what middle grade is or might be or possibly isn’t but … Continue reading
And Now This
Remember in the movie Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs when Flynt pulls up that kitten bit on his computer screen and 3 hours fly by? Or maybe you don’t as, unlike me, you have not seen the movie 40,000 … Continue reading
Posted in Children's Books, Fiction, middle grade, To Explain
Tagged 2012, children's literature, fiction writing, personal goals, preschoolers, writing
6 Comments
Quote For The Weekend (Late Edition As Was OOT With Feet In Ocean, Wot!)
Most of us are called on to perform tasks far beyond what we can do. Our capabilities seldom match our aspirations, and we are often woefully unprepared. To this extent, we are all Assistant Pig-Keepers at heart. —Lloyd Alexander I … Continue reading
And Fire
Heretic? Yes. However, one thing is certain: having a Kindle Fire will not stop me from buying books. Ever. Actual books, not the virtual kind that pale and irritate on the screen when compared to the hearty, my precious, real deals … Continue reading
Posted in Children's Books, Fiction, Poetry, Writing
Tagged 2012, children's literature, Kindle Fire, personal goals, revision, The New Yorker, writing goals
2 Comments
Quote For The Weekend (Pulled Muscle Edition)
“Writers are notorious for using any reason to keep from working: over-researching, retyping, going to meetings, waxing the floors–anything.” —Gloria Steinem I opened the door to my son’s classroom and an invisible claw grabbed the muscles in my right side and … Continue reading
Spring Spirit 2012
Recently writer Beth Hull turned me on to the Spring Spirit conference, an annual SCBWI California North/Central event held in Rocklin, CA. This year, I’m excited to say I will be attending. The lineup is top notch, including the YA Muses … Continue reading
Time Spent
Roaming the house looking for my reading glasses when on top of head entire time: a good 15 minutes (additional minutes tacked on when distracted by each room’s white elephant: mound of clean yet hopelessly wrinkled laundry on guest room bed, … Continue reading
Posted in Avoiding My Writing, Children's Books, Fiction, middle grade, Pets, To Explain, Writer's Angst, Writing, Writing Progress, WTF
Tagged 2012, children's literature, fiction writing, Llamas, Starry, starry night, tapas, Van Gogh, writer's angst, writing
4 Comments
Quote For The Weekend (Christmas Edition)
The best sitting room at Manor Farm was a good, long, dark-panelled room with a high chimney-piece, and a capacious chimney, up which you could have driven one of the new patent cabs, wheels and all. At the upper end … Continue reading
Posted in books, Children's Books, Quotes, Writing
Tagged 2011, Charles Dickens, children's literature, fiction, writing
Leave a comment
Quote For The Weekend (TGIF Edition)
Gore Vidal on E. Nesbit (1858-1924): “I do not think it is putting the case too strongly to say that much of the poverty of our society’s intellectual life is directly due to the sort of books children are encouraged … Continue reading
Posted in books, Fiction, middle grade, Quotes
Tagged 2011, children's literature, E. Nesbit, Five Children And It, Gore Vidal
1 Comment
Quote For The Weekend (Late Edition As was Ocean-Distracted–Luckily It’s Never Too Late For Quotes)
“One of my favourite places to read was my elder brother’s bedroom. It was a tiny room with a bed, a chest-of-drawers, bookcases full of books, and shelves where he kept his seashells, butterflies, pressed wild flowers and microscope, because … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, middle grade, Quotes, Writing
Tagged 2011, beach, children's literature, fiction, Joan Aiken, middle grade writing, ocean, The Cuckoo Tree
1 Comment
NBF Torture
I find this disturbing and wrong and a certain deeply suspicious/dark sunglasses wearing/fedora sporting/trenchcoat draped (except not in this heatwave)/notebook carrying (yeah, enough already) part of me wonders what the real story is. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD YOUNG ADULT NOMINEES ARE BACK … Continue reading
Posted in books, Fiction, Quotes, Writer's Angst, WTF
Tagged 2011, children's literature, Lauren Myracle, National Book Award 2011, Shine, writer's angst, writing
Leave a comment
See? Not So Proud
Tripping on stage at the very end of a performance, during the denoument, the final vital monologue. Tripping. So hard, so clumsily, there was no hiding it. Tripping. So that everyone in that theatre was yanked out of their suspension of … Continue reading
Not Avoiding My Writing
See previous post. Now read this: THE PASSAGE OF AT LEAST 2 UNINTERRUPTED HOURS There is no blogging when working. There is no Hulu and bad actors living with dinosaurs. No Elephant Man. No social network. No Internet. They just. … Continue reading
DUMMY
I have a new special writing/revising trick. Starting with the first three chapters of my novel, I copy and paste them into a brand new fresh document, print, then edit/revise/correct/read-aloud/enhance/make-marvelous, etc. I throw the hardcopy edits into the brand new … Continue reading
Quote For The Weekend
I’ve been so busy writing, I haven’t blogged this week—except for this about my armchair—and now this quote for the weekend. Preschool has started up again at last (which my son loves—who wouldn’t love fingerpainting with chocolate pudding?) and I’ve had the … Continue reading
Posted in books, Quotes, Writing
Tagged 2011, children's literature, domestics, His Dark Materials, middle grade writing, personal goals, Philip Pullman, preschoolers, writing
Leave a comment
Spa Buzz
It sounds silly, but: I survived the MWO. Within an hour of being at our desert spa destination, I toured, floated on rafties in that one charming pool, flew on tiptoes to my chaise, applied Burt’s Bees sunblock to my nose, … Continue reading
Gypsy Sunset
Now that summer preschool camp has come to an end, life is extremely busy as I organize excursions that will benefit the small mind and help it to expand in positive, utterly enriching ways (I’m talking about the enrichment that … Continue reading
Posted in Avoiding My Writing, Faction, Fiction, Me and Us, To Explain, Writing, Writing Progress
Tagged 2011, chaos, children's literature, domestics, fiction writing, life, personal goals, writer
Leave a comment
Avoidance: 10:30a.m.
Terrified to read my latest revisions, terrified to admit terror to self-terrorized Self, I have: Vacuumed, cleaned the parakeet’s cage, vacuumed, watered outside, worked out (oh the lengths my terror shoves me), and almost resorted to brushing the dog. Made … Continue reading
Posted in Avoiding My Writing, dog, middle grade, Parakeet, To Explain, Writer's Angst, Writing, Writing Progress, WTF
Tagged 2011, cats, children's literature, dog, domestics, fiction writing, labrador, personal goals, writer, writer's block, writing
Leave a comment
PB Rippey Writes 
You must be logged in to post a comment.