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I’ve temporarily shelved the middle grade novel I’ve been working on to let it stew, and I’ve started another that I am jazzed about. Thanks to this handy dandy word meter I know that I have already completed a wonking SEVEN PERCENT of my first draft. GO ME!
I was perusing the Disco Mermaids biggest hits and read Jay Asher’s account of how he found out his smash hit first book, 13 Reasons Why, had an offer offers, and how he told his family and friends. He even bought flowers and took pictures of their reactions! I don’t know Jay, and it was a couple of years ago, but it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Belated congratulations and may we all have the good fortune of multiple offers and a circle of loved ones to celebrate with.
You! The creative one! Go get involved.
Have a poetic picture book that doesn’t have bad rhyme? Send the first bit to Editorial Anonymous for a contest by Sunday. Will she beg to be your editor? Probably not. Will she mock you? Maybe. Good luck.
Last but not least, 826 Seattle has created a series of writing workshops for GROWN UPS. Woohoo! I went to the first workshop in the Write Like I Do series with Ryan Boudinot and John Moe on How To Be Funny. Ryan gave good insight, but John Moe was a HOOT. I thought about how great it was that I shared a city with this funny man and then he dropped the bomb that he was moving to Minnesota the next week. Lame!
John Moe writes the Pop-Music Correspondences for McSweeney’s. My favorite is 39 Questions for Charlie Daniels. If I had a quarter for every quarter I put in the jukebox at the Moose Lodge to hear The Devil Went Down to Georgia while I waited for my grandpa to finish his beer, I could buy a moleskine notebook.
Have you read The Highest Tide? Then why haven’t you signed up for Jim Lynch’s workshop on How To Pull Novels from Nature?!? For some odd reason, there’s still room. The Highest Tide has recently been re-released in adult and YA format.
Good call. 
The greatest kid lit conference of the year is NEXT MONTH, and it’s just a bridge away. Arthur Levine! Susan Patron! Betsy Bird! Mo Willems! The list goes on!
I sent my submission for a manuscript consultation a few days ago. I rushed through some last minute revisions to try and get it polished, but I think it’s a strong piece. We’ll see. The last time I had a manuscript consultation at the conference the person I met with HATED IT and didn’t mince words. In retrospect it was pretty lame, but still.
Working on revisions for my middle grade novel. 
Reading Clementine and The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker. I LOVED these books I think Ms. Pennypacker did a fantastic job creating such lovable characters- particularly Clementine and her patient, sweet dad. The voice is very distinct and authentic. The next of the series, Clementine’s Letter, is out in a month and I can’t wait. 
You probably have already read A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. It won the Cybil, it’s getting the hype. It’s well deserved. An organ contest? Neil Diamond? Lovable, but flawed and alive parents? Yes! I hope kids everywhere pick this up.
