and I’m not sure why. Today was a light day! One presentation in a library only half an hour’s drive from home. And yet I feel completely exhausted. I stopped by the gym on the way home thinking that would pep me up. Nope. Made supper, ate supper and went on the treadmill. Didn’t even […]

They didn’t get what I was trying to do, or maybe they did and they just didn’t want it. I read the email at the end of a gruelling day! I’d had two presentations in the morning. One a set of kindergarteners! I always find them the most exhausting group to present to! And then […]

I had this week off. No school presentations, got a chance to catch up on my exercising and health routines and I had hoped, in all of that time that I had, I’d get an idea for another picture book. Nope. Zip. Which just goes to show how hard the darn things actually are to […]

When I first started publishing I believed that getting the novel out there was the most important thing. Then I thought I could create a sort of grass roots movement to buoy my efforts. Haven’t we heard of people who got successful doing this kind of thing? Christopher Paolini self-published his book Eragon didn’t he? […]

Ever see the circus performer spinning plates on the end of sticks? I feel like that. There was one in particular I saw, who actually had a kind of rack with different plates spinning on top, and while he set up other aspects of his performance, he’d go back and give a plate that was […]

They sent out the press release and now I can say that I’ve won the GOLDEN KITE award for picture book text!!!! The news has literally left me numb. I’ve been numb since Wednesday evening, when I first found out. This morning I woke up and thought, “Wow, I really did win the Golden Kite […]

but completely different!” That was the verdict from one of the toughest critics I’ll ever face,  one of my daughters! She was talking about the sequel to Wanting Mor. All three of my daughters, having grown up with me in the book writing business, can see right through it and are extremely hard to please, and […]

They just sent out the press releases! I won the 2011 Charlotte Zolotow award! It’s for the best picture book text for the whole year! And my book Big Red Lollipop won! Between this and the New York Times pick, wow! And wait till you see the runners up! They include the likes of Mo […]

I’ve had some FANTASTIC news that I can’t tell yet! Oooh, it’s excruciating! All day yesterday I’ve been pondering it, hardly able to believe it! And just the night before I’d been thinking that I really was crazy to think my work would ever really get recognized. Well, in a few days I’ll be able to […]

Had an interesting conversation with a friend. One of the few that I imposed the sequel on for critique. Between the feedback that she gave and those angry reactions I talked about earlier, I have more than enough fodder to go back to the sequel and spiff it up. Really make it SPARKLE. That’s the word […]