I SPY...the strange ornament

Tip of the Day: it's not a good idea to search for a house right after you just move.

This week has been a bit crazy, which means trying to be creative has been put on the back burner. In it's place has been dealing with home inspections, mortgages, relocation companies, packing again, and a ton of other very non-creative stuff that's built to make you go crazy. Not that I'm complaining. Buying a house is very exciting! Just saying it would be nice when the next few weeks are over with. Anyone know of any packing fairies for hire?

I did, however, manage to complete my last assignment to spice up my writing. This week was to hang found objects from a tree. I'm not entirely sure how this helped with writing, but it made for an interesting project this evening.

And since I love Where's Waldo and I SPY if you want you can play a game out of what all you can spot hanging from a grass-like plant in my apartment (which if you squint, kind of looks like a tree :)

Legacy Writers: What Will Your Kids Do?

Tip of the Day: The best way to get a good night's sleep after the Daylight Savings Time switch is to break out the cozy flannel sheets for the season.

On Saturday, my daughter and I volunteered at the 14th annual Rochester Children's Book Festival. We had a blast! We were stationed in the Read to Me corner, setting up picture book authors to read their books to happy kid audiences. My daughter was Technology Girl, clipping the authors with microphones. I introduced the authors and timed their talks to make sure they didn't go over, and a local children's librarian helped me with introductions and had the hard job of entertaining the little ones in between authors. The three of us were a great team. At the end of the day, my 12-year-old got to do her favorite job: giving out helium balloons to the kids.

It got me thinking: my kids have a leg up on this literature thing. This year, my daughter is disappointed because her English class is reading The Westing Game, and she's already read it with me and knows the answer to the mystery. Both my kids have lots of books (I've never resisted the pull of a book sale), and in fact, they both have lots of personalized, signed books. I read to each of them several times a week. They meet my writer friends. I look over their homework for spelling and punctuation. And I expose them to events like the Children's Book Festival. Add to that all the times they listen to my rants on revision and how "one day the rivers will run red with the blood of those who can't spell," and I think if they ever wanted to be writers, it would make sense. They're all primed for it.

It's probably similar for your kids. It makes writers who run in the family seem reasonable. (Not so much politicians. I suppose it's the same principle, but it seems too Divine Right to Rule for America somehow.)

My parents weren't writers, but my mother dragged me to the library every other week. Both my parents are readers. My mother is an artist, and when I decided to be a writer, she congratulated me on my willingness to take criticism and told me that would be the crucial factor in my success. (Neither of them can spell, but I suspect they'll be spared when the revolution comes and the Phonics rises from the ashes.)

How did you get primed in childhood to be a writer? What do you do to prime today's kids (your own or somebody else's) to be tomorrow's writers?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Juggling with the WIP

Tip of the Day: Want to see the cover of my next YA novel, THE DAY BEFORE? Go HERE and check it out!!


So, I'm a little worried that my WIP has too many things going on. I think it has like 4 different sub-plots going on. ACK!! But I like them all! And I have plans to tie them all together and bring meaning to each of them, so it's okay, isn't it?

Isn't it???

You might be wondering, is it making it hard to write, having so many things going on? Um, kind of. It's a lot like juggling. Don't drop that ball. And wait, what about that one? Haven't thrown that one up in a while, better do it now.

I'm 26,000 words in, so I can't worry about it now. I just have to keep plugging away, and see how it all turns out.

To make me feel better, can you think of any YA novels that have a lot going on and it really works well?

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

Shock Factor

Tip of the day: Hungry-Girl.com has a no-guilt choco-pumpkin muffin recipe that is soooo easy. Mix a 15oz can of 100% pure pumpkin and an 18.25 oz box of devil's food cake mix. That's it! Put it in the oven at 400 degrees for twenty minutes. Makes 12 muffins (181 calories, 3.5 grams of fat).

I took my kids (2, 4, 6, and 8) trick-or-treating Sunday and we had a blast! There was one house in particular that I absolutely loved though. Throughout the neighborhood people have set up all kinds of scary decorations outside of their homes. So the kids were pretty used to seeing all the decor. When we approached this house:

my kids were walking ahead of me so I was just coming up the sidewalk when I saw them peering into the huge bowl of candy that said take some. The outside lights were off (indicating not home during trick or treat time in our neighborhood) and the oldest was reading the sign to the others and deciding what to do. Do we take one or two candies? Which one should we choose? and so on. All four kids were hanging in the bowl though. Suddenly, the "prop" on the chair jumps up with his hands over head and screams RAHHH!!!! Oh. My. God. I about lost it. I was completely hysterical on the man's lawn at how good he got my kids. My kids giggled but were mostly shocked. I won't lie, one peed her pants. But still, it was so freaking funny! And unexpected. And I looooved it!

Of course this makes me think about writing. And I recalled something Deena had said after getting back from the NY SCBWI conference and how Libba Bray had said not to use the first idea that comes to mine because it's the same one everyone will automatically think of. And how awesome surprise is when reading. I think I need to work on that harder in my writing. Take what the reader thinks is going to happen and completely turn it around on them.

Do you guys work on that with your writing?

Kristina, Miss See Me On the Shelves

I Sympose (or A First Class Ticket to Albuquerque*)

*With apologies to Weird Al Yankovic

Tip of the Day: Doing NaNoWriMo? Tether yourself to your keyboard by plugging a pair of headphones into your PC and clamping them to your head. Works for me when I need to stay BIC!

Tomorrow morning I am heading to the Second YALSA Symposium on Young Adult Literature and I am psyched for a number of reasons:

1) I've never been to New Mexico before and it looks lovely
2) While the temps here in Rochester will be near snowy, the Albuquerque forcast is in the mid-60s and sunny
3) A keynote speech by Lauren Myracle and Ellen Hopkins, amazing writers and speakers
4) Free books! I'm remembering my empty suitcase this time
5) A breakout session featuring the hilarious Michael Zadoff (FOOD, GIRLS, AND OTHER THINGS I CAN'T HAVE) who grew up in Rochester
6) A fascinating breakout session "Commercial Success and Diversity: Are Both Possible, or Are They a Contradiction in Terms?" that is highly relevant in my diverse library population
7) Time to work on my November goals in the evenings

Is that enough reasons? Will any of you be there?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

The wonders of chalk!

Activity of the Week: hang found objects from tree branches (ha...should be interesting)!

This will be my final week for awhile of trying to Spice Up My Writing. It's been fun, and I think everyone should try it. If you want ideas of ways to get creative with your writing, here's the link to the original list of 100 ideas to try.

For this past week my task was to write in a journal in a different medium (such as paint, charcoal, old typewriter, crayons, etc). I normally don't keep a journal, but I do write down lots of ideas throughout the day. Some of them are writing related and some of them are not. So I attempted to take some time and write down ideas using chalk this week.

The results weren't pretty (enough so that I won't share), but the idea itself proved useful in tricking my brain into being creative. Somehow using a different medium--even just chalk--makes your brain start to think differently. It breaks it out of its normal, everyday cycle and gets it to think of new and exciting things. Probably works much like when you print out a paper to edit you catch many mistakes you don't recognize on the computer.

But who knew something as little as what you write with could make you much more creative?

I think I'm going to start doing this at least once a month, to keep pushing my creativity. This month it's chalk, maybe next month it will be calligraphy...or maybe chocolate! Who wouldn't be able to get creative writing with chocolate :)

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

November the First, Pass Me the Sudafed

Tip of the Day: This weekend is the fabulous Rochester Children's Book Festival! Check out the list of visiting authors and drool with envy. Come if you can; it's free!

Deena noted last week that our local crit group is into November goal setting. NaNoWriMo is awesome if your goal is a fast draft, but my goal this year is discipline. My life has been more hectic than ever this year, so here's my November goal:

I will write something every day, even if it's just a paragraph, on a work in progress.

I was actually doing very well in October, but wouldn't you know it, I woke up Saturday morning with a killer cold. I spent yesterday on the couch watching the Buffalo Bills play the longest football game ever. (My son wore his Bills jersey, and we told him he'd be better off dressing as something more believable than a Bills fan, like a Martian or a crazed robot.)

And did I tell you about my Tuesdays? Work all day, drive out of city to pick up boy so young and adorable he still roots for the Bills, cook dinner super fast to get both kids to piano lessons, run them home so daughter can get her karate gear, get son set up for homework, drive daughter to gym, work out, find daughter gossiping in lobby with karate friends, drive home, and oh look, it's 9 p.m. and I need a shower desperately.

Ahem. I will write something every day, even if it is just a paragraph.

I don't have a kitchen. Did I tell you I don't have a kitchen? My husband tore it out. There were sledgehammers involved. He told me this morning that he threw his back out and has to go to the doctor's, so I'm guessing that's a work stoppage situation.

Every day! Just one measly paragraph!

I found in October that sitting down to write one paragraph usually turned into writing two or three pages. I'm thinking that won't be my experience this week, but that's okay. It's developing the habit that counts. Care to join me?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages