Snow Day

We don't get a ton of snow where I live (usually ice), so this Christmas was a special treat.
(Nixing the fact that my husband came down with the stomach bug at 3 AM Christmas morning. I have a deeper respect for you single parents doing holidays solo.)

However, we were blessed that morning to wake to a yard covered with white. Somehow in the midst of the chaos, I was able to take a mere 233 pictures! (No worries. I'm not posting them all here. They're, ah, for the grandparents.)

After the great gift wrap clean up and frenzy of finding snow clothes that fit (the boy in blue above has mismatched mittens), snow angels were made. Icicles were plucked, if that's what you call it.

Thanks to Hubby who warned the camera was on the wrong setting. I'm sure he saved our pictures (all 233 of them) from certain doom.

Hope you are healthy and warm and consuming hot cocoa with marshmallows. And reading tons of great books. I have four going at once. (It's starting to drive me crazy.)

In the news

Amazon sold more Kindles than physical books this Christmas.

Love the last line: The users do need stuff to read.

My Christmas Gift to You

Pride & Prejudice: a drama in triple i parts, as told by Yahoo!Emoticons.

Year End Stats

And, no, I'm not talking about mine.

Agent Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency posts hers here.

I'm choosing to not focus on the 38,000 but on the 55 instead. =)

Merry Christmas!

We Love Lucy

Our silly dog. Think Benji with a shorter doo. See how Lucy keeps an
eye on those rascally rabbits in our yard. In between her gazillion
naps, of course. At least someone catches enough Zzzzs in this house.

Posted via email from Another Gray Day

Goals and New Year's Resolutions

Here is a thought provoking article by writer Ann Patchett for the Washington Post.

It's resolved. Writing is a job.

Perfect Pumpkin Crisp

I heard a Greenwillow editor speak about this book, Me and the Pumpkin Queen, at a recent conference and knew right away I needed to read it. I have, twice.

I even emailed the author, Marlane Kennedy, because I loved the voice that much. And I learned a lot about pumpkin growing while reading.

I love pumpkin. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pancakes. My son loves making pumpkin pie. But last year, I stumbled on a pumpkin recipe that was D.I.V.I.N.E.

I know we've moved on from fall into more of winter, but it's so comforting served warm with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream. (I'm sure it would be heavenly eaten cold out of the fridge. But what uncivilized person *cough, cough* would do that?)

Perfect Pumpkin Crisp

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
1 (12 oz.) can nonfat evaporated milk
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9×13 pan.
In large bowl, whisk together pumpkin and dry ingredients. Stir in milk. Add eggs one at a time.
Pour mixture into pan.
Sprinkle cake mix evenly on top. Sprinkle pecans. Drizzle butter over toppings.
Bake 55 minutes. Cool slightly. Serve with scoop of ice cream.

Happy Birthday, Greenwillow Books!

Greenwillow Books turns 35 today. To celebrate, the company has started a blog that will open on January 4, 2010. It will comprise of posts by Greenwillow staff, artists, and authors and run all year.

I grew up with Greenwillow, so I'm so excited about this new project!

Many thanks to Martha Mihalick, editor, Greenwillow Books/Harpercollins for announcing the news.

Here is a run down by Christy Evers about Martha's talk on voice.

Later in the week I'll blog about one of my more recent favorites, which happens to be a Greenwillow book.

In the meantime, would somebody save me a piece of cake?

Love, Joy, & Lots of PEACE

via tweetie

Posted via web from Another Gray Day

Good Things Come to Those who Wait

Wasn't it the old Heinz commercial that had that slogan? Well it seems to be the mantra of the publishing world as well. Patience is more like three-fourths the battle in my book.

For instance, I stepped on the scales this week (why oh why did I ruin my holiday fun?). Pounds sneak on so fast, yet come off so slow. I want to just blink my eyes and not do the work. You know, fast forward.

What does this have to do with the craft of writing? Our readers need to wait. They need to experience our characters, our plot slowly revealed.

Cheryl Klein tweeted a great #pubtip "Do not announce your character's primary conflict, internal or external, on p. 1. Leave us something to discover on p. 2."

You know what? I caught myself about to do this very thing while revising the first chapter of my middle grade. It was such a great line, too, but I refrained.

Charles Dickens summed up his writing process with "Make them laugh; make them cry; make them wait."

WordServe Literary agent Rachelle Gardner devoted an entire blog post to backstory and the slow reveal of characters. She says, "That's one of the things that keeps readers going - when they're asking themselves questions about your character. They want to know more and so they become engaged in the story. If you try to feed them all the information they could possibly need right up front, readers aren't experiencing that desire for more. You could lose them."

I love that Rachelle says in her post to "be stingy" with backstory. Readers often do not remember what is TOLD (e.g. backstory) because it does not engage their emotions. Sounds like a post on SHOW/ TELL is in order.

I'll be the first to admit I struggle with both.

How do you get a handle on backstory?

Good News for a Friend

Huge congrats to Myra McEntire from Writing Finally on her two book deal with Egmont USA! Her debut timeslip YA, HOURGLASS, is to be released Summer 2011.

Myra's a great writer to follow on Twitter, and her blog posts crack me up. Egmont made quite the impression on me when I was fortunate enough to hear Greg Ferguson speak. I'm sure they're a perfect match. I'm just bummed I have to wait so long for her book!

Hop on over to Myra's blog and celebrate!

The Longstockings' Critique Contest

The Longstockings (Coe Booth, Daphne Grab, Lisa Greenwald, Jenny Han, Caroline Hickey, and Siobhan Vivian) have a great new website! They are running a contest to celebrate.

The Longstockings are going to offer up our workshopping services to TWELVE LUCKY READERS during 2010!

To enter, just send one email to thelongstockings@yahoo.com with the subject line JANUARY WORKSHOP! We will be accepting entries until December 31st.

Here's how this will work...

From the emails received each month, we will select one lucky writer (at random) to submit a maximum of 25 pages to our workshop group. And that writer will receive an individual written critique from every single Longstocking! That's SIX FULL, PROFESSIONAL CRITIQUES chock full of helpful notes, suggestions and (surely) lots of praise!

So enter now for January! We'll announce our first workshop winner on Monday January 4th. And fear not if you don't hit the jackpot this time, as we will repeat this process EVERY SINGLE MONTH OF 2010!

++++++++

So get your fingers flying across that keyboard. Good luck!

Revision 101

Mary Kole of KidLit.com is posting some really helpful revision topics this week. One on plot, another on beginnings and how to fix them. Also, she reminds us to keep our promise to the reader of what our story is about. Good stuff.

What's Your Favorite Christmas Cookie?

I'm going to a cookie swap on Friday, and I can't decide what to bake. I simply love too many cookies.Chocolate and peanut butter, Iced Sugar, Gingerbread. The list of deliciousness goes on. And on. I have two entire cookbooks devoted to Christmas cookies.
Help me decide. What's your favorite? And who made them for you or where did you first have them?
I love my mom's thumbprint shortbread/pecan cookies. Some are filled with red or green buttercream icing, the rest pure chocolate. And they freeze beautifully (so I've been told by others with greater restraint).
Happy Baking!

Write or Die or For the Love of God Don't Erase My Words

My writer friend Mandy blogged about this free online program by Dr. Wicked. It has upped my word count and excitement about writing. And it's free. FREE, people. Sure a kitchen timer would work, but it won't transform your computer screen's typing box into a danger warning red or threaten to gobble your precious words for dessert.

I've met my word count goal each time I've used this. Even when I feel a nap coming on, the rush of seeing the word count ticker creeping towards my goal keeps me plucking away on the keyboard.

If you dare to try it, be sure to copy and paste your writing for the day into a Word doc. You don't want to lose your hard earned words when you exit the screen. Take that, Dr. Wicked, and many thanks.