Walk The Dinosaur

If you've been hanging around here long enough, you'll know that I'm a bit of a dinosaur. Tech is not easy for me, since I don't like it when I have to figure things out. Call it lazy, old school, whatever.

So leave it to Blogger to throw me a curveball and make it impossible for me to respond to comments. Sorry guys! I like to chat with you all, but alas. I feel a dinosaur fight coming on...

Until I figure this out, enjoy Queen Latifa, who even makes dinosaurs cool.

Calling Aspiring Colorado Teen Writers

There's a great Pikes Peak Writers (and free! we're fans of free) event for my Colorado-based aspiring teen writers (that's 14 and up). Meet your fellow teen writer folk, starting tonight at 6:30. Check the PPW website for more specifics.

Here's what the PPW Youth Club has to offer:

--information, advice and resources on fiction writing
--the opportunity to ask any and all writing-related questions
--tips and info to help prepare for the next PPW workshop and Write Brain
--a free Writer's Digest magazine
--home-made chocolate chip cookies
--a TWO-FOR-ONE discount to the full-day workshop on June 11th!


The Youth Club meets on the first Tuesday of each summer month (June, July, August)
at the Police Station Community Room located at 7850 Goddard Street in Colorado Springs, CO

I would show up just for the cookies, guys...

For My Writer Peeps: Those First Five Pages

A quick plug of my upcoming online workshop for writers on how to get those sample pages ready for submission. Check it out!

That's it. I'm really bad at promoting myself...

Back, Or Moving, Part One

I'm back! Apologies for the blog absence...

I wish I could say I'd been to BEA, or on a nice vacation, but no. I've been hauling stuff from location A (house) to location B (apartment), where our family will temporarily be parking. The kitties have already fluffed the place up, so that makes location B home sweet temporary home now.

I won't bore you with my uhaul stories, but instead share the link to whadup in MG according to Publishers Weekly.

And in case you're wondering, Moving, Part Two to location C won't be until August-ish, so no worries. I'll keep you in the know on all things kidlit.

Picture It

Teen Read Week is this October, from the 16th through the 22nd! Okay, so that's still a long time off, but I'm all about getting excited ahead of time. This year's theme is Picture It, and it's focused on graphic novels, illustrations, etc.--very cool and fun, especially for your reluctant reader. And for me, too.

Check out all the cool stuff YALSA has on the website, especially if you're a librarian (we *heart* you!). There are mini-grants and everything--free money for libraries, which we like.

Monday Music: Tapdancing On The Table

It's a little gloomy here in Colorado this Monday, so I thought a little tapdancing on the table was in order. Christopher Walken is the man, right?

On Process

My good writer pal Jenny blogged yesterday about process, and how she's still figuring it out. I'm kind of with her in that respect. I thought I had it all figured out when I got ready to write DOUBLE VISION: I would drop the kids off at school, and then I'd write in the morning, and deal with random domestic nonsense in the afternoon. Simple, no?

Well, no. As it turned out, selling your house, dealing with all the stuff that comes with that, preparing to move--it's time consuming and brain zapping. Even when I would carve out a few hours to write, Lincoln Baker wouldn't show up for some reason.

So I tried getting up at 4:30, before Life is up, and before my brain is taken over by domestic nonsense. And it worked! I'd easily write 2,000 words before the rest of the house was even up, which was a sweet deal. Okay, so I ended up a little sleep-deprived, but it was worth it. And my cat Xena (see pic) kept me company, which made the whole early morning session even better. I still don't know why it's so much easier to write at that early hour (maybe because Lincoln Baker (my main character) is in Paris, and it's eight hours later there?), but it worked like magic. So that was an interesting lesson learned about my process.

How 'bout you, writer pals? Any surprises for you when it comes to process?