Tag Archives: Los Angeles

The Flexible Writing Schedule

I love when authors I admire share writing schedules/non-schedules. Most seem to have a set routine–which I marvel at as I tend to ricochet around the hours–or the hours ricochet around me when I’m at my computer. I’m most focused … Continue reading

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Merry Christmas!

Hope that on the 25th you were warm, dry (even if in an airport), or getting sunburned, but most of all SAFE. Yours in love, PB

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Solstice Check-in

December 21st and I’ve written or revised novels every day this month except for 1, when I was in the throes of that chest cold going around. Still feeling the chest cold. Writing anyway, keeping to agent Nephele Tempest’s December … Continue reading

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SCBWI-LA and CenCal Writers Day ’22

So happy to finally attend in person again. Looking forward to seeing one of my favorite kidlit authors, librarian and conference host, Sally Rogan. Full day of mass-info-absorption in an inspiring environment. See you there. #WritersDay2022

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O Summer! (Goals Edition)

School’s out for summer! My giant goal–apart from making every Tuesday an outings-day for the teen, i.e. museums, Olvera St., 3rd Street Promenade, Zuma, downtown library, Vasquez Rocks, that room where you can go and break crockery for an hour, … Continue reading

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NANOWRIWAYMO WHAMO

The current issue of SCBWI Insight has an article with NanoWriMo tips. Succinct, logical tips for writing 1,667 words a day. And while I probably won’t follow all tips, I have been nudged (shoved?) by said article to participate this … Continue reading

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Winter Busy

As the countdown to 2020 begins, I wonder how it is I forgot how busy the holiday season is. VERY busy. We’ve: been to Santa Barbara and back, hosted relatives and their little dogs, hosted a Christmas party, followed a vital … Continue reading

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Festival Weekend (creativity-obsessed edition)

Saturday morning, my husband and my middle-grade son zoomed to the Los Angeles Convention Center for its uber-serving of Minefaire. Minecraft. All. Day. While up the street at USC I attended the Los Angeles Festival Of Books. Mostly I hung … Continue reading

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Home

Usually I’m the one taking our kid on a road trip and usually during the summer, but this week my husband took our kid on a road trip for 2 days to visit family up north and I was suddenly: … Continue reading

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Writer’s Retreat: What Was It Like?

SCBWI Working Writer’s Retreat, September, 2017 The “working” aspect in Working Writer’s Retreat (for me)=the retreat provided printers, so there was no excuse (for me) for not sprinting to my sparse (sweetly existential) weekend bedroom after a workshop, whipping open … Continue reading

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Summer Diary

  Not my rash! Finally. Fire breath. Thank you, GOT. I see you, arm muscle.  #workingout6weeksstraight Muscles missing. Hijacked in the night, IMO. So what? I have brie. Total eclipse of sun predicted. My prediction? Revision, revision, submissions, submissions….But only … Continue reading

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Coffee Kick & Go (Tremble Edition)

It may be poetry month in the USA, but here at PB Writes the author was up late revising her MG novel, prepping it for the agent requesting a read. This sweet, cool and sunny spring morning–after creating pancakes-secreted-with-carrot-puree for the boy, feeding … Continue reading

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SCBWI-LA Writers & Illustrators Day 2017 (Links Edition)

I was asked by SCBWI-LA to write about my experience at the recent WID. The piece is up on the Kite Tales blog. 1, 2, 3: LINK. Such a luxury for me to discard certain hats (taxi-mama, chef of sorts, … Continue reading

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Kids Poetry Night

Tuesday, February 28th, a freaky political event occurred on TV, but also Poetry Night at my son’s school. Children and parents gathered to read/share poems from books they brought to the event and books supplied by the school’s librarian. Loved hearing … Continue reading

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SCBWI Event Coming Up!

I am looking forward to next Saturday, 2/25/17. The Skirball is a choice location, indeed. Are you going? If so, see you there! https://losangeles.scbwi.org/events/writers-illustrators-day/

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SCBWI

Have you registered for the (Los Angeles chapter) SCBWI Writers & Illustrators Day 2017? It’s happening February 25th at the Skirball Cultural Center, a venue I once frequented in order to exercise my former toddler in the  intriguingly lit Noah’s Ark … Continue reading

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Flurry

Newsflash: It’s December, 2016. I know because the seasonal falling snow plugin is up and running on WordPress. Tonight, we welcomed in December’s Holiday craziness with snowman carousing and a bit of tubing on Leo Politi’s old property in Elysian Park. … Continue reading

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Turkey Day Craze

I may as well have woken up in a luxurious spa-hotel, expecting breakfast in bed, or morning tea on an ocean-view patio, sipping from real china in a froofy dressing gown, in any case a stress-free morning despite it being Thanksgiving and I … Continue reading

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Boo On Drugs

I wrote in a frenzy from 10 a.m. to 1:00p.m., then lay down for a nap before zooming to fetch my 3rd grader from school, but my iPhone was on mute, so I didn’t hear the alarm, but I did hear, … Continue reading

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Fres-yes? (Wild Kratts Edition)

The Wild Kratts are based in Canada. In addition to their TV shows, which are broadcast all over the world, they occasionally venture over the border–mostly into eastern states and the mid-west–to entertain select child-filled crowds with their live show. The energetic brothers have … Continue reading

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RIP Poem

Because my father resides in me I am what others expect to see– though not as or not ever without less this or that & always 1 count behind or is it ahead of much worse: that 70’s divorce, old split/split … Continue reading

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Seasonal Conundrums

Researching summer camps for my 8 year old, round about last March/April, I became frustrated: Sports camp in triple digit heat? No. Great white shark and hammerhead shark sightings along our southern coast. Surf camp? No. Science Camp? He loves … Continue reading

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Valley Chapbook

Part of our summer my son and I spent with family in my Ye Olde Hometown. We ate organic foods. Socialized con gusto. And my soon-to-be-3rd-grader attended a local summer camp. His hands were slobbered by the purple tongues of … Continue reading

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O Summer!

I’ve been quiet since May, after a brief, powerful writer’s retreat. I’ve been busy this summer with what the retreat inspired: Writing. Revising. Writing. Revising a new short story, one screaming for edits of late. It’s almost ready for submission. Compiling … Continue reading

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Remember the Bunnies

WRITER’S RETREAT! Oh, that’s long over now. ‘Tis a distant dream. T’was  2 1/4-ish days of nothing-but-revising, surrounded by foliage, sculpture/fountains and wild bunnies with super white tails. Sequestered in a simple room of my own with a nun’s bed, I … Continue reading

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