Accckkkkk!!!!!!

That is all. Carry on.

Showing Real Estate (Your Pages)

Mary Kole at Kidlit.com wrote a thought-provoking post today for writers. She compared the pages of a novel to prime real estate. The first page, the introductory paragraph of each chapter, and the the closing paragraphs are what hook the reader and keep them turning pages.

Go here to read the full post.

As an aside, revising to query is kind of like getting your home ready to show. You dust, vacuum, carry out the trash, throw out clutter, rearrange furniture. And if small children are in the house, one last run through to make sure everyone has flushed. (Or is that just me?)

But we should do the same with our manuscripts before we show/ send them. We revise, tweak, cut the clutter. Scrub it until it shines. Even *gasp* move some scenes around. Proofread for typos. Anything to make it polished, immaculate, enticing. So the buyer cannot refuse.

Get your mops out. There's work to do. ;)

PW Spring 2011 Sneak Preview

Curious to see who is publishing what this Spring? Check out Publishers Weekly Spring Preview of Children's Books.

I dare you not to drool.

Layers & Cliches

Subplots are plot lines given to different characters.

Layers are plot lines given to the same character.

In Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Mass notes that breakout fiction makes extensive use of plot layers. Real life is complex, so our characters' worlds should reflect that.

Main characters who only have one layer are in danger of becoming boring. That's the last thing you want.

Bored readers. Stop. Reading.

But don't be cliched when you add on layers. Think through several ideas first before attaching one to your character. Mass suggests 10. I guarantee you the first few ideas you come up with will not be unique.

I'm guilty. It requires brain cells to think beyond your first three, four, dozen or so impressions. Dig deep to find that original spark.

Say you need a job for your main character's dad. He is gone from home. A lot. Distracted by work. Brainstorm 10 occupations.

1. Pilot

2. Motivational speaker

3. Salesman, pharmaceuticals

4. Con-man

5. Professor/ lecturer

5. Architect

6. Landscape Architect w/ a specialty in zoo design

7. Speech writer for top government official, who happens to be his wife

You get the picture. These were jotted down as they came to me just now. Not super great, but I think 6 and 7 are intriguing. (Btw, my family knows someone who designs zoos.)

Keep thinking, and push yourself beyond that initial thought. I promise to do the same and have with a picture book this week.

And click here for a list of cliches to avoid like the plague. Ha.

Happy writing.

I predict

much salsa in my future.

What I'm Reading Now

Grown-Up Addition.

I Should Have Been A Travel Agent

Every now and then, I get in a slump. My house is cluttered. Writing is too hard. Reading great books causes me to despair. Not over their prose, but my own. Will I ever catch on?

So I plan vacations.

I don't actually go on every trip. Okay, I don't go on a tenth of them. But I love looking at centuries old buildings and art. Don't even get me started on food.

Or history. Or literature.

Oh, I've been lucky. I've visited, and revisited, some amazing places. Had some crazy adventures. With people I love. But it feels like I've left a bit of me behind. I'm divided over the ocean. Part of me wants to be here, the other part there. I can hardly wait to explore this world with my kids. And, oh, are they asking.

The grass is always greener. And I have one blessed life. Every day is better than I deserve.

Yet, I'm thankful, and richer, for those cities I can't get enough of. So when I stumbled upon this stamp set, you better believe I snapped it up. I felt a tad foolish, but I'm telling myself it's for art. I have some happy ideas spinning around in my brain -- stories about travel and collage with whimsical patterns.

We'll see where it takes me. If only inside my home.

Au revoir.

"If I discover within me a longing that no experience in this world can satisfy, then the most probable reason is that I was made for another world." C. S. Lewis.

P.S. I would like to master foreign languages. But I kind of stink at that. Ask my husband who once found me yelling azul over and over into our computer. Rosetta Stone (amazing, btw) has it out for Southerners. You heard it here first.

Hilarious. StarWars for GPS.

Yoda: "Make a left turn you must."

Darth Vader takes a turn, too.

Book Birthday

Picture Book author Jean Reidy's newest book, TOO PICKLEY! releases today.

She wanted to throw a big party, but she's in Uganda, Africa, reading to a bunch of cute kids and mending mosquito nets at the Musana Children's Home. (Musana means sunshine in the local language.)

Could you help spread the word about her release? I know it'd mean a lot.

I LOVE pickles, but I suppose there comes a point where something can be TOO pickley.

If it is anything like TOO PURPLEY, which my daughter adores, then we'll get along just fine. ;)

(Besides, who can resist that adorable cover?)