| The countdown begins......... |
[May. 15th, 2008|09:45 am] |
Summer vacation starts at the Sauer Hacienda in seven days.
Eep. |
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| Whew! Today I'm cruising..... |
[May. 15th, 2008|07:42 am] |
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I already revised one of yesterday's 3 revised sentences. |
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| I spent the entire day... |
[May. 14th, 2008|04:25 pm] |
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...revising 3 sentences. |
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| mini update: |
[May. 12th, 2008|01:53 pm] |
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It's nearly 2pm CST and I have yet to get on a rooftop. |
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| Scorpios.....let's convene on the rooftops |
[May. 12th, 2008|09:35 am] |
So Susan Miller has this to say about today:
"One day I would like you to watch for your career rates four stars: May 12. The Sun, which is the natural ruler of your tenth house of fame, will signal both Jupiter and Uranus on that day, so it should bring all sorts of exciting career news, the kind that will make you want to shout it from the rooftops!"
LJ, if I have any rooftop-worthy news, you will be the first to know. |
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| Friday Five |
[May. 9th, 2008|06:03 pm] |
1. I had a great school visit on Wednesday...my second to last one for the 07/08 school year.
2. On Thursday, Clifford the Big Red Dog joined me to help celebrate the winners of OETA’s annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers & Illustrators Contest held at the state capitol. The Sauer Bambinos have declared me cool by Big Red Dog association.
3. Tonight DH and I have a hot date with ALIAS and take-out from Carino's.
4. The kiddos came home from school clutching hand-made Mother's Day goodies.
5. I'm still in my pajamas b/c that's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. |
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| 30-word Tuesday Teaser |
[May. 6th, 2008|09:50 am] |
Okay, people. I am such a cliché! It looks like I'm a children's book author working on a bunny book. I don't know if this thing will go anywhere, but we shall see where Bunny takes me.
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Bunny had troubles that were worse than no carrots,
worse than big brothers,
and worse than fleas.
She was teensy. And fluffy. And cute.
No one ever took her seriously. |
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| Extra! Extra! Read All About It! |
[May. 5th, 2008|12:10 pm] |
The Summer Conference information is UP!
http://scbwi.org/events.htm
Soooo....will YOU be there? |
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| More hibiscus!!!!!! |
[May. 1st, 2008|08:09 pm] |
I JUST got off the phone with my brilliant editor at S&S. She revealed a deep, dark secret.
SHE TOLD ME WHO WILL ILLUSTRATE YUCKY VALENTINES!!!!!!!!!!
People, I am blown away. Blown away, I tell you.
Early on, my editor asked me for an illustrator wish list, and this person was At The Top Of It!!!
AT THE TOP.
I'm under orders not to give you the secret identity of this illustrator wonder until this person's agent posts the information on PublishersMarketplace.
Okay. Off to go chug some Dr. Pepper. |
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| HIBISCUS! |
[May. 1st, 2008|11:53 am] |
I'm getting a peek at my May hibiscus, fellow Scorpios.
I was just contacted to speak at a special ceremony at the Oklahoma State Capitol Building for OETA’s annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers & Illustrators Contest.
The link: http://www.oeta.onenet.net/kids/rrcontest.html
Oh, the joy of LeVar Burton association! |
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| behind-the-scenes, installment 3 |
[Apr. 30th, 2008|09:15 am] |
On Monday, I shared how I got the idea for COWBOY CAMP.
On Tuesday, I did the same for NO BOLOGNA! and LAUNCH TIME!
And today I bring you behind-the-scenes of CHICKEN DANCE, YUCKY VALENTINES, and PRINCESS-IN-TRAINING.......
CHICKEN DANCE (Sterling, 2009):
One summer, I took the kids to visit my sister who, at the time, lived in a gorgeous area outside of Plymouth, Massachusetts. I loved every bit of the trip--except for my early morning wake-up call. Each day, the sun would come up around 4:30am and the rooster who lived about a quarter mile away would let me know it. Each morning, my dislike for that rooster grew. And grew. I got to hoping that bird was missing out on a lot of barnyard fun since he had to make sure he was ready to greet the early morning sun in such an excessively loud and enthusiastic way. Sooo...since I was up at 4:30am anyway...I started brainstorming. What did that rooster miss out on? What had the other animals been up to when he was catching his zzzzzs? Then I knew--a barnyard talent show.
The joke's on me, though. In the book, the rooster didn't sleep through the talent show after all. Instead, he ends up being one of the stars of the story as everyone who partakes in the competition is out for the grand prize--tickets to see Elvis Poultry in Concert: The Final Doodle-Doo.
YUCKY VALENTINES (Paula Wiseman/S&S, forthcoming):
A couple of years ago, I attended an SCBWI Conference in Florida and was paired up with an editor from S&S for my ms consultation. The editor loved my pb (which, btw, was the aforementioned CHICKEN DANCE), but she had to eventually pass b/c a different S&S imprint was publishing a pb with a similar setting that fall. The editor told me she still wanted to work with me, liked my writing, liked my humor...and one day approached me about a topic she was after. She wanted a funny, young Valentine's Day story about friendship. So I thought and thought and brainstormed and brainstormed. I went to the library and to all the nearby bookstores and read tons of Valentine's Day books. I knew that if I wrote a Valentine's Day book, it wasn't going to be a cutesy one about kittens or puppies or mice. I wanted my story to be different, so I thought as un-cutesy as possible. And came up with Bernadette. Bernadette is an ordinary monster on the outside, but, underneath her fangs and fur, she has a deep, dark secret. She has a sweet side. On Valentine's Day, she lets it loose.
PRINCESS-IN-TRAINING (Harcourt, forthcoming):
Last spring I was at the library with my kiddos. I absentmindedly picked up a book and flipped through it. The phrase "princess-in-training" caught my eye. It wasn't long before I had my character--an unconventional princess named Viola Louise Hassenfeffer who is more into karate, diving into the moat, and skateboarding up and down the drawbridge than partaking in regular princess stuff. In an effort to be the talk of the kingdom, however, Viola attends Camp Princess. She is a royal failure in every way. But when a dragon arrives at the Royal Bash, it's Viola who saves the day. |
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| Oh, thank you Fed Ex and Dutton and John Green! |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|02:27 pm] |
OOH!
Just got my copy of John Green's PAPER TOWNS.
I tell you, Dutton is BRILLIANT. The ARC has BOTH covers!
The happy yellow one is on the front with raised lettering.
The solemn blue one is on the back with indented lettering.
Oh, so savvy! |
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| behind-the-scenes-idea-footage |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|07:29 am] |
Since I shared the origin of COWBOY CAMP yesterday, I thought it'd be fun to give you a where-did-she-get-that-idea peek for my other books. I'll start with NO BOLOGNA! and LAUNCH TIME! as they were my next sales after COWBOY CAMP.
NO BOLOGNA! (Dutton, 2009):
Back in the day, I was a library media specialist. I worked hard to integrate library skills into the topics the students were learning about in class. I wanted learning to be MEANINGFUL instead of random. Anyway, when the first grade kiddos were studying amphibians, I read a silly frog pb. I also shared a nonfiction frog book with the kids and we discussed the differences. Then I would ask in a mysterious voice, "Does anyone here know what frogs eat?" They'd tell me. I'd ask, "Hmmm...how could we know for sure?" This delved into using the index in the nonfiction book to quickly check for facts. We got to talking about various frog eating habits that people would consider gross but that frogs consider normal. We'd do further research via that index. Among other things, soon the kiddos learned that a frog eats live food after catching it with its sticky tongue. Then the frog's eyeballs sink back inside its head and those eyeballs work to push the food down its throat.
I knew that by going the ewww! route, the learning would be more memorable for kids. Every one of them mastered the index after the frog fact finding encounter.
Anyway, it always stuck with me how a frog's table manners would be considered rather disgusting to kids. This later spurred me to write NO BOLOGNA!, a pb about a frog who goes to elementary school and wants to fit in but his frogness keeps getting in the way.
LAUNCH TIME! (Dutton, forthcoming):
The idea for this book was a little gift to myself courtesy of a brief illustration note I had written for the final page of NO BOLOGNA! My editor loved the twist I had incorporated at the end of that pb. She offered me a two-book deal and wanted me to write the sequel. |
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| Wanted: IDEA |
[Apr. 28th, 2008|11:52 am] |
You know how some writers go on and on about how many ideas they have? How they couldn't possibly have time to write about all those ideas?
Well, I'm not one of those writers.
Not even close.
My pb ideas trickle in at sloth speed.
S-S-S-S-L-L-L-L-O-O-O-O-T-H-H-H-H-H-H-H speed, people.
Back in 2001, I got lucky. One evening, there was an unexpected knock at the door. I opened it and saw a kid standing on my front porch. He was selling newspaper subscriptions in an effort to go to......COWBOY CAMP. I looked at this kid with his everywhere hair and thick glasses and uncowboy-like everything and knew I had a story.
It's too bad all my ideas don't just knock on my door. |
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| Hibiscus! |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|03:48 pm] |
The lovely and highly esteemed ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) artistq brought it to my Scorpio attention that Susan Miller has her May 2008 forecast up and it is a shiny one.
Such a forecast has inspired me to write to Susan via tamarak as I imagine she, and all the other really cool/hip/happening astrologists, are no doubt faithfully reading my every written word.
Dearest Susan,
Please don't set me up for a great month only to have me thunking my head on my desk come early June.
You said, and I quote, "The month of May will burst open for you like a big, beautiful hibiscus flower."
I'm holding you to it, Susan. I want my hibiscus flower.
Your loyal www.astrologyzone.com reader,
Tammi |
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| Date Night at the Hacienda |
[Apr. 25th, 2008|08:48 pm] |
DH just left to pick up a movie and the trifecta:
1) cheese breadsticks
2) regular breadsticks
3) cinammon breadsticks
Yes, we are wild and we are crazy. We know. |
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| George |
[Apr. 25th, 2008|09:00 am] |
LJ, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce George.
He has boundless energy.
He has loads of enthusiasm.
And he does a mean herkie.
May he cheer you on throughout your writing and revising endeavors. |
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| Thankful Thursday! |
[Apr. 24th, 2008|10:11 am] |
Just heard from my agent regarding the pb I sent her last week.
Verdict?
She liked it. She really liked it!
Strategizing will commence next week.
Hee! |
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| Guess what, nerdfighters?! |
[Apr. 23rd, 2008|06:07 pm] |
I'm getting an ARC of Paper Towns courtesy of one of my fine editors at Dutton!
Wow, people. Sometimes life is really, really good. |
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