Tag Archives: children’s literature

Anteater Elegance

At the Santa Barbara Zoo, a fellow mother and I gazed at the anteater flicking its tongue at grass and slowly waving its unbrushed, showhorse-arched tail. Behind us, our 4 ½ year old boys practiced “Ninja” moves and tested their … Continue reading

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Quote For The Weekend (Yet Another “Revision” Edition)

I work hard, I work very hard. All the books at leat 30 revisions. —Ha Jin In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don’t enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover … Continue reading

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Deep Summer Checkpoint

Two summers ago I wrote: I create escape beneath my yard’s wind- bent gazebo, books on spread gingham, the shrunk house I dragged into our shade, ticking stove, stranger’s voice in the toy wall phone he refuses. Create with a … Continue reading

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Deadwhat?

Deadlines, deadlines, self-imposed deadlines. Sometimes, while the boy attends summer camp,  I sit in a small boat in the silly above ground swimming pool and deadline-away. Floating, bumping into pool sides and ladder and capsized toy boats titillates the creative side of … Continue reading

Posted in Book Club, books, Children's Books, Fiction, ocean related, To Explain, Writer's Angst, writing, Writing Progress | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Wrinkly Time, Melamine

I recently discovered that anything made of melamine, i.e., my preschooler’s plates and bowls, should not be tossed into the dishwasher. Ever. And if you make a knife cut in melamine? Chances are toxins will seep into your child’s food. … Continue reading

Posted in Adult writing, books, Children's Books, Fiction, Madonna, writing, Writing Progress | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Guest Blogging

Yesterday, which I thought was Sunday due to the 3 day weekend and synapses firing improperly or not at all after my husband and I watched a late-night Sunday (which I thought was Saturday) Mad Men marathon accompanied by intensely seasoned … Continue reading

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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

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Switched Hats

All week I’ve taken a break from my children’s novels in order to scour my grownup novel—a few chapters a night. I have revised as I’ve read (of course), refusing to backtrack until I make it to The End. Or—something mostly kind … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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 , , , , , | 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

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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

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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

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I Told You So

We hit town late afternoon-ish and I immediately honor the request for the museum and its entertaining dinosaur footprints indented in cement, pgymy mammoth bones, taxidermied (the fraying sort) mountain animals and vultures, buttons igniting barn owl shrieks and snake … Continue reading

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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

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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 , , , , , , , , , | 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

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Book Impatience (Stop It!)

Part of me is content with our preschooler’s current home library (I’m referring not to a digital library, but the kind housing the real things–colors, textures, scents, sounds of pages turning, imagine it) and I can be heard gleefully spouting … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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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

Posted in Avoiding My Writing, Fiction, Me and Us, Poetry, To Explain, writing, WTF | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

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

Posted in Fiction, Steps In Promotion, To Explain, Writer's Angst, writing, Writing Progress | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Adult writing, books, Fiction, middle grade, Poetry, poetry reading, Writer's Angst, writing, Writing Progress | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments