Why November is a crazy busy month

We had a great Thanksgiving. I loved going home for the holiday, which happens to be my favorite. I loved watching the Packers beat the Lions. I loved playing Scrabble and Chinese checkers with my mom and kids. It was just an all-around great few days. An ideal Thanksgiving weekend (except for a very bad cold).

I think I like Thanksgiving best as a holiday because, other than the food logistics, it's a restful holiday during which we take time to remember God's goodness and thank Him for it. Even though it is followed by the potentially stressful Black Friday, this year I stayed in bed and didn't even acknowledge Black Friday's existence other than to request my husband pick up a couple of things for me while he was out.

However, November as a whole has not been stress-free. This month is Nanowrimo. Also, it's PiBoIdMo. Also, I made it into the panel for the First Five Pages Workshop on the Adventures in YA and Children's Publishing site. Also, Examiner.com has been reminding me to submit faithfully.

Then, on top of my normally busy life, I got really sick.

So as November ends, I'm making some quality decisions. I do not plan (at this time) to participate in Nanowrimo next year. It was too hard on both myself and my family. Burning the candle at both ends resulted in becoming sick. I will not do that again. I do plan (at this time) to be part of PiBoIdMo. It's not overwhelming to come up with 30 picture book ideas during the month, and these ideas make great springboards for the following year. I'd also like to use this coming year to finish and polish my two novels and work on some nonfiction ideas for picture books.

So what are your plans for 2011?

Nanowrimo day 7: on the front lines

Nanowrimo day 7 is almost at an end. At this point, we are almost one fourth of the way through the month, and, hopefully, that far through our 50k word goal. Personally, I hit some snags this weekend. Besides housing and feeding ten teenagers (in addition to my own) and a couple of chaperones at my house this weekend, I had to catch up with grading and life in general. I wouldn't have missed a bit of it, but I did have to sacrifice a little of the word quota buffer I'd built up because I was so tired. 

As a result, I am 700 words behind my absolute minimum for today and 2800 words behind my aggressive goal. 

How about you? Where are you in your Nanowrimo journey? 

Vote on my Nanonovel cover

Just for kicks, here are some of my Nanonovel covers for this year's book. Vote for the one you like the best.

Choice A

Choice B

Nanowrimo day 3

It's day three of the writing event of the year (at least for me) which is known as Nanowrimo.

Here's my take on it right now: I already feel like quitting. (Not that I would, you understand. I'll make it to the 50k unless something bizarre happens.) And it's not that I'm discouraged. Mostly it's just that I'm lazy. I'm tired because I've been taking from sleep time to keep my word quota going, but that won't last much longer. At some point, I'll have to get a decent night's sleep.

So forgive me if this is short. I'm over 3400 words and am hoping to add another 2k to it today.

Happy writing.

NANOWRIMO

Sometimes the only cure for stress is to escape it. And I do that by writing fiction. In fact, I am looking forward to NANOWRIMO - the frenzied month of November where participants eat, sleep and breathe 50,000 words in 30 days and live in a world of their own creation. In pleasant anticipation, I have created my book cover, which I present here (ta da!).

It's time for PiBoIdMo in November

As if there wasn't enough going on in November, I just wanted to remind you that it's also PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month). That means that you come up with a picture book idea every single day of the month of November. It's a lot easier than Nanowrimo, and it's absolutely FUN! Stop by Tara Lazar's blog to get the lowdown and sign up. (Here's extra incentive: there will be prizes!)

Everyone likes a good mystery

Most authors, at least the ones on the wrong end of the slushpile, often feel like the publishing industry is a vast mystery. They stand at one end, clutching their manuscripts and hoping against hope that an editor will fish them out of the slushpile only to declare, "Eureka! I love this book!"

On the other end are the editors, agents, and publishing professionals who stand at the door of the publishing arena. Except for the self-published writers, they act as gatekeepers, and they're a tough bunch to get past. They have to be. Their own livings ride on their abilities to choose literary winners. For them it's about the bottom line, the connection of art to money. Not an easy spot to be in.

If you are one of the few who has made it for the first time into the hallowed halls of publication (meaning that an editor has verified your existence by making you an offer), you may have responded with all the confidence of a deer in the headlights of a Mack truck intent on making venison sausage. What on earth do you do now?

Aaron Shepard's invaluable pink book The Business of Writing for Children brings the formerly unpublished writer up to speed in less than 100 pages. It covers everything from how to submit to what you should look for in your contract to what you can expect in the publishing process. After taking a zip through it, I highly recommend it. Why?

Because although everyone likes a good mystery, your path to publication shouldn't be one.


Source of review copy: Gail Borden Public Library