Progress report

Thank you, Lord, for this perfect day.

Gray.

Rainy.

Cold.

Miserable.

A perfect day to NOT work in the garden.

A perfect day to NOT walk the dogs.

A perfect day to NOT tidy up the screened porch.

A perfect day to work on revisions.

I have worked nonstop (almost) all day and have revised 31 out of 118 pages.

Not bad.

Only one little distraction.

A mouse.

I saw evidence of him (her?) yesterday under the kitchen sink (aka: droppings).

Today, I HEARD him. Scritching. Scratching. Under the sink.

Earlier in the day, while working diligently on my revisions, I had gone temporarily insane and decided to eat potato chips. I regained my sanity and threw the chips in the trash (well, okay, not ALL of the chips, but SOME of the chips).

I was convinced the mouse was in the garbage can eating the chips.

I took the garbage can outside and turned it over and scooched around in there with a wooden spoon.

No mouse.

Went back to work on my revisions.

Scritch. Scratch.

I can hear the mouse again.

Very distracting.

Gift for a book lover

This is kinda cool - custom design a bookmark!

Uh oh

It's baaaaaack!
Revision time has arrived.

Slowly, slowly, I remove the contents.

Well, okay....it doesn't look too scary.

TLA Part Nine

Okay, so....after yammering, yakking, schmoozing, chattering, and otherwise TALKING the livelong day.....my voice is now......GONE.

I. mean. gone.

The brilliant marketing team of FSG has organized a fabulous dinner with me, two other authors, and six librarian/book folks - and all I can do is WHISPER to them!

I felt like a cross between this:

And this:

But, pioneer woman that I am, I soldiered on and forced myself into the limo to go to the fabulous restaurant to eat fabulous food with fabulous people.

(l to r) Jeanne McDermott (FSG Director of Marketing), Katie Halata (FSG Marketing Associate), me, author Mona Kerby, Sylvia Vardell (Professor Texas Women's University), Rose Trevino (Youth services coordinator; Houston Public Library), Jeana Actkinson (librarian; Bridgeport High School; past YART chair)

Mona, Katie, Jeanne, Sylvia

Jeanne reminding Mona and Katie to stop having so much fun

Mary Jo Humphreys (left) and I taking a picture of ourselves. Mary Jo is TALS Chair.

Rose Trevino, Houston Public Library; Chair of the 2009 Newbery committee

FSG May/June Newsletter

Farrar, Straus & Giroux May/June Newsletter

TLA Part Eight

I know, I know...I'm really dragging this TLA thing out, aren't I?

So, anyway....I leave the Bluebonnet luncheon, smiling and nodding and not talking to anyone because of my hoarse and scratchy voice.

Next up - the publishers' cocktail party at the Hyatt.

ALL the publishers and ALL the authors! Woohoo!

My voice made a comeback and I was able to schmooze with lots of librarians, publishers and authors.

(l to r) Gennifer Choldenko, Toni Buzzeo and me

(l to r) Betty Birney, Gennifer Choldenko, Toni Buzzeo

In addition to loads of librarians, I spent time chatting with Linda Sue Park again, Lynne Rae Perkins, whom I met for the first time, fellow FSG author Will Weaver (one word: gentleman), fellow FSG author Mona Kerby (one word: adorable) - and of course, the amazing FSG marketing team of Jeanne McDermott, Director of Marketing, and Katie Halata, Marketing Associate (thanks to Katie for many of these blog pics).

More later....I promise, it's the last one....

TLA Part Seven

After my signing, I went to the Texas Bluebonnet Award luncheon.

That ole cliche about everything being BIG in Texas is true. I'm telling you, this thing was BIG. I read that there were 8100 folks at the conference. I think at least half of them attended this luncheon.

This picture doesn't do this luncheon justice.
It was BIG.

I didn't save my program so I can't give you this kid's name, but he was amazing. He was one of the student representatives. He was introducing the award winner and giving some of her bio. He hardly ever even looked at his notes! (You are viewing him on a mucho gigundo screen because I was sitting so far from the podium.)

This is Bluebonnet Award winner Lucy Nolan, who won for her book Down Girl and Sit: On the Road. Her speech was terrific. (Very DOG-oriented, which suits me to a tee.)

Now, by this time, I have almost no voice at all.

So there I sit at a big table full of librarians and all I can do is whisper, "Please pass the bread."

I smiled a lot, though.


More later.... (I'm dragging this conference out to maximize my blog entries. Clever, huh?)

Go immediately....

...go...

....right now....

....to Sara Lewis Holmes's blog and check out her cool VoiceThreads thingie.

(But pretend like I didn't leave TWO comments because I was too dumb to figure out about the identites thing.....)

And of course, I'm totally copying this. I copy everything Sara does because she's cooler and geekier than me. (Can you be cool and geeky at the same time? I think so....)

TLA Part Six

After my presentation - my signing at the Farrar, Straus & Giroux booth:

After an hour of so of yakkity-yakking, my voice continues to get hoarser and quieter and hoarser, and quieter, and crackly-er (that's not a real word, but it should be), and.........

More later...

Writing Tip Tuesday

Many years ago I worked as a technical editor for insurance manuals. (I know, I know...BIG YAWN).

But, as boring as that job could be, it also taught me a few valuable processes that I still use today.

One thing I learned from the process of proofreading = focusing on one thing at a time.

For instance, a good proofreader will go through an entire manuscript focusing only on headings and subheadings. Are they in the right font? Are they all indented consistently? etc.

I use a similar approach to revision.

I read through the entire manuscript looking for only one element to revise.

Some examples:

• Focus on consistency of point of view (This is a biggie. It's VERY easy to jump out of point of view and you might miss it if you aren't totally focused on that particular element of the writing.)

• Focus on unnecessary words, sentences, paragraphs, etc. (Eliminate anything that doesn't advance the story, reveal character or enhance setting. Don't be word drunk, as Donald Murray calls it.)

• Watch out for overused words. We all have our darlings to kill. Mine happen to be: now, then, and every now and then. (And remember to use the features of your word processing program - like SEARCH. If you think you may be overusing a word, search for it.)

• Watch for sentences, paragraphs, scenes or even characters that repeat or serve the same purpose. (Resist the urge to repeat yourself - whether it's words or ideas.)

During this stage of revision, don't try to read for meaning or story structure. That's a whole different ball of wax. Just focus on whatever element you're looking for.

TLA Part Five

Okay, so the next day, I was thanking the cowboy gods that I hadn't stayed at the restaurant the night before and had another Manhattan. Instead, I had a lovely evening with:


And woke up refreshed and ready to participate in the panel: 'Tweens in the Twilight: Life's Little Challenges.

Co-presenters: (l to r) Gennifer Choldenko, me, Betty Birney

Panel moderator, librarian Viki Ash and me.

Later that day, at the Bluebonnet Award luncheon, Viki received a MAJOR award for her outstanding achievement in children's library service. Congratulations to Viki - and many thanks for organizing and moderating a terrific panel.

The table is set up and ready for our presentation:

That image on the screen is Pat Boone. Why is Pat Boone part of my presentation, you ask? I'm not telling. I may have to recycle this presentation some day.

Here I am saying something hilarious...or, at least, Viki and I think so:

Now, one thing to keep in mind (this will be important to my story in a later post), at this point, my voice is getting hoarser and hoarser.......

More later.....

TLA Part Four

Okay, so after 8 hours at the airport in Boston, which included three attempts at standby (the last flight I waited for had 37 people on the standby list while they were begging people to sell their seats because they were severely overbooked. American Airlines, I have so many nasty things to say about you.....)

I arrived!
The beautiful Adolphus Hotel in Dallas.

This has never looked so good:

But, pioneer woman that I am, I resisted the calling of the big fluffy bed, jumped in a cab, and headed to the latest Dallas hotspot (according to the cab driver) - to meet up with my DDR bud, Linda Sue Park - and meet for the first time one of my co-presenters for the conference, Gennifer Choldenko.

(l to r) me, Linda Sue, Gennifer

Linda Sue and Gennifer

I was too danged tired to stay for dinnner, but Linda Sue forced me to drink a teeny tiny little Manhattan (I think she and I have many great vices in common.)

Then for once in my life I used self-control, grabbed a cab and headed back to my true love:

More later.....

TLA Part Three

Texas Library Association conference has been amazing!

Dang - there are a LOT of librarians in Texas!

I have lots of photos (thanks the brilliant and uber efficient FSG marketing associate, Katie Halata) but probably won't have a chance to post them until I get home.

My presentation this morning with Gennifer Choldenko and Betty Birney was fun and we survived the technical equipment nerves - and we had an amazing panel moderator (shout out to Viki Ash here....) - photo and info about the award she won later.

Met a gazillion librarians during my signing.

Tonight: publishers cocktail party and dinner with FSG marketing folks, authors Will Weaver and Mona Kerby and a group of book folks I'm looking forward to meeting.

More later....

Oh - btw - I just tried to print out my AMERICAN AIRLINES (boo hiss) boarding pass and there was a PROBLEM. I can't go into details yet, but wish me luck...

Also - I'm losing my voice!

Also - I DID get to hang with my bud, Linda Sue Park, after all (and have the photos to prove it). More later....

TLA Part Two

I have now been at the airport for five hours.

Five.

Count 'em.

And three more to go.

This is not good.

So far I have:
1. Played 219 games of Nintendo and still not beat that big ghost dude in the castle on level 8.
2. Played 43 games of Sudoku.
3. Had my shoes shined. This is the first time in my life I have ever gotten a shoeshine.
4. Made friends with the shoeshine guy. He grew up in Georgia.
5. Made friends with a woman wearing pink stilletos who paid $2000 for a first class one way ticket to Dallas because she was desperate.
6. I'm not that desperate.
7. But getting close.....

I was supposed to be having dinner with Linda Sue Park and Gennifer Choldenko tonight.

That's not gonna happen.

What time is it?

Oh, good....only two hours and forty-five minutes to go...

TLA Part One

Guess which flight I was on....