So it’s 75 degrees here in Denver today. Beautiful sunny day but I can’t let it fool me. It was 80 on Tuesday and snowed on Wednesday—that’s Colorado weather for you.
I’ve been spending a ton of time on my new website, and I’ve also been working this week on getting my new Shout Out stuff going. People can subscribe and receive a quarterly newsletter (starting in May) and occasional announcements in between if something amazing happens that absolutely cannot wait until the next newsletter issue—like maybe I’ve won the Nobel Prize in Physics—right.
So that’s kept my sister and me very busy—she’s my moderator and all-around assistant. I couldn’t do all this “extra” stuff without her. She also took the photo of me that will appear on the book jacket for Grandmother, Have the Angels Come? Multi-talented woman.
My other fun thing was finishing the book trailer for Fact of Life #31, which comes out May 13. I created the trailer and then my bro-in-law, Wayne Applehans, wrote the “score”–original music that goes perfectly with the visuals. Another multi-talented person in my family! They’re everywhere, let me tell you, and it’s fantastic to be able to go to family for help and have all these amazing things
happen.
This week I also made some progress on the Male POV book but I realized I have to change the name of his best friend. I can’t use the name because I keep thinking of my son’s friend with the same name and they aren’t the same people at all. So now I’m on the hunt for a new name. It has to be one that can have a nickname—like Jon for Jonathan or Bill for William. But not those, because I know people with those names too!
I also wrote a brand new picture book manuscript last week and had two people in my online critique group review it and give me feedback. Caroline Stutson and Marjorie Blain Parker are absolute masters of the picture book, especially the rhyming picture book (as is Linda Ashman, who is also local). If you want to learn the craft of writing a picture book—get books by these authors! I made several changes to my manuscript based on their feedback and then sent it to my agent. We’ll be talking about what publisher to send it to when she has a chance to read it.
So, how proud am I that I’m writing here again this month? Very, very proud. And I also added a new entry for Erin’s blog. Three cheers for me.
TTFN
