July 2009

Still not writing, but I was invited and joined another online critique group for picture books. I've also applied for two jobs with a nearby city so life goes on. To know more about what is happening in my life, check out my other blog... http://grandmadebb.blogspot.com

May 2009

I haven't been writing much lately. After getting several rejections from agents and some other setbacks, my motivation has evaporated. Plus my laptop is down so I have limited time on the computer. I have continued to read a lot of books so that goal is still intact. Perhaps I'll get back to the other writing related goals when my laptop is fixed, perhaps I won't. Time will tell....

For an update on my personal life, check out the link below:

http://grandmadebb.blogspot.com/

January 2009

I haven't posted in a long time so here is a fast update. I completed the revision of my book The Picking Bag and renamed it Ammon's Journey Home to better reflect the story. In December, I sent it to an agent that Rick Walton suggested. I've had two people read it (they both liked it) and a third person has the manuscript. Perhaps the agent will like it as well, but I doubt I hear from her --even if she is interested-- for at least a few more weeks.

I received Eve Heidi Bine-Stock's three writing picture books for Christmas. I'd read the first two before and read the third one last week. I've concluded that writing picture books is harder than I thought--and I thought it was hard. I revised Miss Lavender's Shoes but haven't had anyone read it.

I've read a dozen plus books since the new year and set some goals (including a few for writing) and so it goes...

I read a great writing quote today with which I agree wholeheartedly: "The ending has to fit. The ending has to matter, and make sense. I could care less about whether it's happy or sad or atomic. The ending is the place where you go, "Aha. Of course. That's right.""-- Carrie Jones, author of NEED

Happy writing in 2009 everyone!

P.S. See my personal blog for the family updates and photos!

November Rain and Catching Up!

It is raining today. Pouring rain, in fact, with some wind and colder weather. It finally feels like fall--or even winter. We've had beautiful warmer-than-normal weather until today. I took some photos from our window a few days ago because we have such a beautiful view!

It is amazing to me that it is November. I'm not sure where September and October went. My friend, Cinda Chima, did come for her writing retreat in September and she signed some books at Barnes & Noble and did a presentation on her Warrior Heir series at our local library. It was fun and great to see her! Another friend of mine from Ohio, Kate Tuthill, ended up being one of Cinda's writing retreat buddies so I got to see her as well.

October was a fun month for my writing! I won Honorable Mention for my book The Picking Bag in the Juvenile Book Division of the 50th Annual Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition. My husband and I attended the Utah Literay Awards Ceremony for that presentation which was sponsored by the Utah Humanities Book Festival. Besides awards for the writing competition, they gave out the May Swenson Poetry Award and the Utah Book Award (for best published book of 2007). There was a photographer who took lots of photos, a unique musical group --two guitarists, an oboe player, a flute player, a bass player, and a fellow that played harmonica, mandilin, and accordian-- which sang and performed original music about Utah, and then a reception afterward with cheeses, crackers, fruit, and punch. It was very fun to rub shoulders with other authors and people interested in writing.

Also, I had the Writing Picture Books with Rick Walton workshop in October. It turned out well and we raised about $800 for non-profit projects! Author Kristyn Crow talked about what made good and bad PBs and gave us a handout with tips for writing good books. I presented the info I'd researched on using structure to write good PBs. Rick gave us a couple of handouts and talked about many aspects of writing PBs and then to learn what he had taught, we critiqued each other's works. Afterward, a small group of us went to dinner at The Cedars of Lebanon restaurant which was tasty and fun as well. The highlight of the workshop for me, was when Rick made a comment that I would be a published author soon.

Another good thing that happened in October, was that I spent a morning visiting with Rick at his office at BYU to talk about my internship. More about that later. For now, let me just say, I'm working on several WIPs and hope to revise The Picking Bag with six suggestions from the judge of the UAC writing competition and then, as Rick suggested, I will begin looking for an agent.

Finally (for now) in my last post, I said there was an SCBWI meeting that week, but I had it wrong and there wasn't one scheduled after all, due to a combined conference with the Southern Idaho SCBWI group in Boise. I had every intention of attending the SCBWI meeting in October in SLC until I discovered I had a flat tire just a few minutes before I was going to leave. Ah well, there is a meeting scheduled for this week that I plan (and hope) to attend. And I signed up for an all-day SCBWI conference in SLC for November 15th so I WILL get to meet some of the SCBWI members here in Utah.

September

The end of summer has arrived. It isn't official yet, of course, but Labor Day has passed. School has started everywhere. And it *snowed* in our mountain's yesterday--that is early--but still, we knew it would happen eventually. To top it off, today the pool in our complex closed for the season. (Just when I was starting to enjoy it!)

But instead of lamenting anymore, I've decided to celebrate the beginning of this new season. After all, fall is traditionally a month for learning so I'll focus on what is ahead and hope to get some serious writing done.

I wish all my Northern Ohio SCBWI friends a great fall conference this weekend! I hope you'll all share your notes. The Utah/Idaho SCBWI group gets back into the swing of things tomorrow evening and I look forward to meeting some new freinds there. Plus my friend Cinda Chima from Ohio will be in town on the 24th for a library visit to discuss her Heir series.

All in all, it should be a great month. Happy writing to everyone!

Writing Picture Books Internship with Rick Walton

I wrote before about attending the BYU conference earlier this year. Since then I've joined two listservs and two critique groups connected to people I met at the conference. I've also started an internship with Rick Walton who teaches writing picture books at BYU. He has published a lot of children's books and is very well known in Utah. He is a bit eccentric --he described himself as obsessive-compulsive, which he says drives him and everyone around him nuts, but he gets a lot done. I've found that he is very kind and willing to talk to authors about their own writing and he does a lot of pro bono projects. Check out his website if you're interested http://rickwalton.com/

We communicate mostly via email, though Rick has invited me to visit his office on campus if I'm ever at BYU. He has 2-3 assistants and about a dozen interns all the time. He assigns projects to the interns according to what they are interested in doing and learning. Each internship is different and lasts different lengths of time. For my internship, I'm setting up a workshop in October for writing PBs. It's a fundraiser for a project Rick is working on with JDRF. They plan to publish a picture book designed especially to help children with diabetes.

As Rick and I were talking about details for the workshop, we talked about three authors we know who use "structure" in different ways to write PBs. We decided that comparing these structure methods would be an interesting topic for research. So the bottom line is that I'm going to include that as part of my internship and I will present my findings at the workshop in October. I'm excited!

So for the first part of the workshop, Rick will teach his approach to writing PBs, how to find book ideas, etc. ; then I'll do a short part to explain the three structure approaches (about 30 minutes total); then attendees will critique each others PB manuscripts for the rest of the day. I think it will be very beneficial, and, since I'm presenting, I'll probably learn more than anyone else. Maybe even enough to get a PB published.

Twilight Series

Okay, I'm like a bunch of other people in this country, I got hooked reading the Twilight series. I had resisted for sometime as YA romance stuff is not my favorite. But when both my daughters were reading the series and one called and said, "Mom, you've got to read them so we can talk about them together," I couldn't say no. I read the first book a couple of weeks ago. Halfway through there was a lull where I put it down and felt like I didn't have to read anymore. But I did read more, and then I was hooked to the end of that book and had to read the others. Book 2 and 3 were fine. There were times of excitement and "must read" and times when I wanted the story to move faster. (How many times can Bella comment on how beautiful Edward is or how much she 'wants' him or how she won't be happy until she's a vampire or how sorry she is that she's breaking Jacob's heart but she still wants him around???) Anyway, the 4th and final book came out on Saturday. I had decided I would wait and just borrow it from the library. But when I realized both my girls had purchased it and were reading it and were amazed at the unexpected plot twists, I couldn't wait. I made a special trip to Wal-Mart at about 7 p.m. Saturday evening and purchased my own copy.

I started reading and read not quite half before deciding it was too late to finish it that night. I didn't read it on Sunday but finished it last night. For those who haven't read it, I can say it has a happy ending and Stephanie Meyer tied up every loose end possible. But though it was happy and, therefore, I couldn't say anything was really wrong with it. I didn't find the ending satisfying. Maybe I've read and critiqued too many books. But for me, the good and evil sides have to be equal in strength and the good side has to win "fair"--no last minute unknown swooping in and saving the day. And though that isn't what happened in the 4th book, something seemed "off" to me. Stephanie Meyer built the story up and up and up to a huge climatic moment and then it dropped/resolved in a split second and everyone walked away happy. It felt too much like she "told" us what happened and didn't "show" us what happened. So bottom line? Great job Stephanie Meyer for changing how YA fiction is written--another YA author called it a new niche "clean teen." And congrats that your book will be a movie. But if you write a sequel, I'll probably skip it. I think I've read enough YA vamp/wolf stuff for quite a while. That is unless my girls read it and want to chat.