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It's almost a month since my last post. I've dealt with some minor overuse injuries, and am trying to learn from them.

 In the meantime, my daughter's started third grade, and I am easing back into the school year storytelling/doll-making schedule. This autumn, instead of trying to get my training done before my daughter goes to school, I take care of the lunch-making duties for everyone while Bede draws at 6 am. (Just so you know, Bede has made breakfast for everyone almost every day for the past 10 years.)

After Bede brings the girl to school, I exercise, run errands, and then settle down to sew or work on stories. I try to get housework done, too. This is the pattern: when I am uninspired, the house is cleaner. When I am in the midst of a project, the dust-bunnies gather, the kitchen floor gets sticky, and people have hastily thrown together meals. I'm trying to work on balance, but so far, have only been able to find it in tree pose. (That's a little arch, but I couldn't resist.)

My newest dolls are two guitarists:



Lefty and righty

In other news, my inspiring friend of the week is The Jogging Clydesdale. You may read his 5k race report here, and his rant about the 5k haters here.

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Originally published at Mad Woman in the Forest. Please leave any comments there.

The weather has cooled down nicely up here. Our wood for the winter arrives on Monday and its a darn good thing; we’re going to need fires in the woodstove to take the chill out of the air very soon.

Banned Books Week is almost upon us. What will you be doing to recognize it this year?

 Bookmans, an independent bookstore with six locations in Arizona, created this video for the 2012 Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out.

I have not heard any banning attempts on any of my books so far this school year. Have the censors moved on to other targets? Even though Speak was restored to the shelves of the high school in Liberty, MO, Slaughterhouse-Five was not.

In other news, Kristen Stewart named Speak as one of the three books that changed her life.

This PSA aired after the first showing of Kristen in the Speak movie. The hotline had never gotten such a tremendous response. Blew. Up. The. Phones.

Someone sent me a link to a recent interview in which she said that the response to both the movie and the PSA helped her see the impact that film can have in people’s lives. The embed code for the video is screwed up, but you should be able to see it on The Hollywood Reporter site. She talks about Speak starting at about the 3:40 mark. She was so, so young when she made the movie, but her talent was undeniable. It’s been fun to watch her develop as an actress. (Though when the press hounds her, I get really defensive and want to start yelling at people!)

Along with writing like crazy, I’m getting ready for my trip to Arizona at the end of the month, where I’ll be speaking at the Arizona English Teacher’s Association Conference.

I’m also trying to pull together the Common Core Standards that can be met by using Chains and Forge in the English or Social Studies classroom. Do any of you have any experience with this?

That’s all for now. Time to dig out a sweatshirt and get ready for a bonfire tonight.

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The Boiler Journal invites you to put yourself and the audience under pressure and submit to our FIRST ANNUAL 500 FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE! This year’s genre will be Fiction.

Write a good piece in 500 words or less. and you’ll be able to pat yourself on the back, knowing you did something worthwhile and get paid for your sweet effort. We have published flash fiction from Jillian Grant Lavoie, T Kira Madden, Marina Rubin, Caru Cadoc, Justine Haus and others.

1st place will receive $1000 prize.
2nd place will win $500.

Finalist will be considered for publication in future issues of The Boiler. Entry fee is $10.

Deadline is February 15!

Visit our website for more details.

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Mary C. Mohr Poetry Award for 2012

Submission Guidelines
Southern Indiana Review will award a prize of $1500 for poetry submitted under the following guidelines.
Download Printable Guidelines for online submissions.

Each submission must:

Be available for exclusive publication in Vol. 20, No. 1 of SIR. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but if the entry is published/accepted by another publication while under consideration, the author must promptly notify SIR in writing to withdraw the entry.

Include an entry fee of $20 ($5 for each additional entry submitted). This non-refundable fee includes a year's subscription to SIR. Make check or money order payable to Southern Indiana Review.

List the author’s name, street address, email address (if applicable), phone number, and title(s) of poems submitted on a cover page.

List only the title of poem(s) on each page thereafter.

Consist of no more than four poems (with an additional limit of ten total pages in 12-point font, no more than one poem per page) per each individual submission.

Be addressed to:

Southern Indiana Review, Mary C. Mohr Award
University of Southern Indiana, 8600 University Boulevard
Evansville, IN, 47712

Be postmarked by October 1, 2012.

Include SAS postcard for receipt acknowledgement and/or SASE for contest results. All manuscripts will be recycled. Results will be posted on the SIR web site.

Current and former students and employees of the University of Southern Indiana are not eligible for the Award.

All submissions will be considered for publication. All themes and/or subject matters are eligible. All rights revert to the writer upon publication.

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Subject: Call for Undergraduate Writing and Art Submissions to Albion Review, $200 in Prizes.

The Albion Review is currently seeking undergraduate submissions for the 2012-2013 edition of our nationally-recognized literary magazine. Only undergraduate student submissions will be accepted. Staff is looking for submissions of fiction and poetry, as well as art.

$200 prizes will be awarded for fiction, poetry and art.
Check out our website for submission forms and further instructions.

Deadline: Friday, October 26, 2012

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Jessica Brody knew from a young age that she wanted to be a writer. She started self "publishing" her own books when she was seven years old, binding the pages together with cardboard, wallpaper samples and electrical tape.
After graduating from Smith College in 2001 where she double majored in Economics and French and minored in Japanese, Jessica later went on to work for MGM Studios as a Manager of Acquisitions and Business Development. In May of 2005, Jessica quit her job to follow her dream of becoming a published author.
In four short years, Jessica has sold nine novels (two adult novels to St. Martin's Press and seven young adult novels to Farrar, Straus, Giroux.) The Fidelity Files, her debut, released in stores (in real binding) in June of 2008 and the follow-up, Love Under Cover in November 2009. The Karma Club, Jessica's debut young adult novel released in April of 2010 and her second YA release, My Life Undecided hit bookstores in June 2011.
52 Reasons to Hate My Father (which was recently optioned for film) just recently released in July 2012 and Unremembered, (also optioned for film), the first book in a new teen sci-fi series, will be released in March 2013.
Jessica's books are published and translated in over fifteen foreign countries including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, Portugal, Poland, Bulgaria, Israel, and Taiwan.
Jessica now works full time as a writer and producer. She currently splits her time between Los Angeles and Colorado.

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Barely South Review is looking for literary fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art that moves us. We keep an eye out for works that reinterpret and energize perspectives on or notions of space and borders—be they rigid,
precarious, liminal, transcendent, transgressive, provocative, or porous.

Our Fall reading period runs from September 1st until November 30th. For more details, please visit our website.

About BSR: The students and faculty of Old Dominion University’s MFA program in Creative Writing form a lively and supportive community of writers in beautiful southeastern Virginia. The Tidewater region’s story is shaped by its history and its diversity—by its dynamic fusion of old and new. There is great complexity in any form or creative assertion of “here,” and it is in this spirit that BSR embraces the opportunity to feature works from emerging as well as established writers. We are interested in great writing in its myriad forms. We seek to present many voices, especially those that defy easy regional, thematic, and stylistic categorization.

Any questions can be directed to:

 odu.creative.writing(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @)

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Call for submissions RGR. Fall 2012.

The RIO GRANDE REVIEW (RGR), the Department of Creative Writing at the University of Texas at El Paso’s literary magazine, invites all writers to submit works of fiction, non-fiction, criticism, comic, poetry and artwork for our 40th issue, which will come out this Fall 2012. We welcome any style or theme.

This edition of the magazine will also have a special section dedicated to works of visual literature and performance and criticism of these genres. Submissions must be in a format, either text or image, reproducible in a print journal. Each work submitted for this section may be used both for the RGR website and/or for the print version of the magazine. By submitting work to the Rio Grande Review the author gives authorization for the use of his work in both mediums.

The deadline for submission is October 31st 2012. Texts can be in English and/or Spanish. We are also accepting submissions in indigenous languages if they are translated into Spanish or English.

Please email your submissions to:

 rgreditors(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @)

along with a short biographical note.

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I returned from Asbury Park and Bruce Springsteen Appreciators to an email from Quinn Colter, a young friend destined for a big career as a copy editor.  I had invited Quinn to join the Dr. Radway editorial team, and she had—plying my text with wonderful questions and delightful commentary (it seems that Career, one of my primary characters, has won our Quinn Colter over).  Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent, my 1871 Philadelphia novel about Bush Hill, Eastern State Penitentiary, Baldwin Locomotive Works, Schuylkill River races, George W. Childs, and two best friends, now goes into design and will be released next March by New City Community Press/Temple University Press.

I left the desk at last to take a walk.  Meandering through my streets, I discovered Kathleen, a very special green-eyed woman, who had, she told me, read Dangerous Neighbors a few weeks ago.  Kathleen grew up in Philadelphia at a time when circus elephants walked the streets of Erie and Broad, and in Dangerous Neighbors, a book about Philadelphia during the 1876 Centennial, she discovered many details that resonated with her.  Standing there in the glorious afternoon sun, Kathleen told me stories about the Oppenheimer curling iron, the fifteen-cent round-trip trolley, the ferry one took from Philadelphia across the Delaware, and the shore years ago.  Kathleen's grandmother was an eleven-year-old child during the time of the Centennial, and so Kathleen remembered, too, whispers of the great exposition.

I had published an essay about the Jersey shore in the Philadelphia Inquirer a few weeks ago, and that story prompted for Kathleen memories of her own trips to the sea as a child.  We spoke, then, of this, too—this shared geography that has been transformed by time and yet remains a signifier, a home.

As much as I often wish I were back in the city living the urban life, I am tremendously grateful for the streets where I live.  I am grateful, too, for the people who enter my life—for Quinn now on the verge of her career, and for Kathleen with her storehouse of memories.

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It’s back to school time! I know because they just celebrated Coffin Night here in Key West.

What’s Coffin Night, you ask?

Well, it’s a Back To School ritual uniquely Key West . . . and also a subplot of the Abandon series, in which a teenage girl discovers that beneath the cemetery of the small Floridian island to which she’s recently moved lies the Underworld.

This is partly because of a young man whose corpse was never adequately buried (maybe because he never actually died. We’ll find out in the final book of the series, Awaken, due out in May 2012, God willing and the creek don’t rise).

Photo courtesy of yours truly

How messed up would that be, if you started a new school this year, and you found out an UNDERWORLD existed beneath it?

I’ve had some pretty messed up back-to-school moments, but never anything THAT bad.

Anyway, every Homecoming here in Key West, the senior class builds a coffin and hides it somewhere on the island, to “bury” the competition (the junior class). If the junior class finds the coffin, they get to “burn” the seniors (literally. They burn the coffin on the field at the Homecoming game).

Of course, the real reason they’re doing all this (but the tradition goes back so long, no one remembers), is to bury the corpses that were washed away from the Key West cemetery in the a Great Havana Hurricane of October 1846, the second-strongest storm on record, a Category 5 that wiped out much of Havanna, the Keys, and swept all the way up the east coast to New York City to take out one hundred yards of the Battery, before dying down somewhere along New England.

The storm destroyed both the lighthouses in Key West, the naval hospital, and 594 of the island’s 600 other buildings, besides upending all the coffins in the cemetery, washing many of the skeletons inside out to sea. The ones that could be found had to be reburied in above ground tombs on higher ground, in what is today’s Key West’s beautiful cemetery, and popular tourist spot.

Photo courtesy of yours truly

Coffin Night marks the start of every school year in Key West. It is not condoned by any school official, but it goes on anyway.

This year, it’s rumored that a responsible adult found the coffin (or at least a small decoy coffin) well before any student did, so the burning of it was thus avoided (thanks to Key West Diary for that information, and for the photo of said coffin, below).

Photo courtesy of Key West Diary

As you might have read in Key West Diary, above, even though Coffin Night got cancelled this year, there was still a lot of egg throwing. I did not choose to include the egg throwing part of Coffin Night in the Abandon series (which is set on the fictional island of Isla Huesos) because I consider sneaking around in the dark, throwing eggs (and, in some cases, bottles) at moving vehicles to be behavior more befitting of middle schoolers than high schoolers. Therefore, it had no place in my series, which is a tale of straight up paranormal mystery and romance.

Special Note: For anyone considering coming to Key West on vacation, the Coffin Night egg throwing takes place almost exclusively the first week or so of September in New Town, which is somewhat far from Old Town – where Duval Street, the main drag and tourist center of the island, is located. It can be presumed that this is because Old Town is more heavily policed, and egg throwers would immediately be caught.

Anyway, for everyone who is going back to school, we’re having a writing contest on the Meg Cabot forums. We want to hear YOUR Back to School story, whether it’s about something like Key West’s Coffin Night, trouble fitting in, a mysterious new boy (or girl) in your class, fictional, true, or whatever. The best story will receive a free Meg Cabot book of his/her choice! Users will vote on the story that is their favorite. Click
here for the details!

High School Graduation! I thought this was the best moment of my life. But things got even BETTER after that! Who knew?

To inspire you, I’m posting MY Back to School story below. It’s a re-print of a story of mine Seventeen Magazine ran a long time ago. I swear it’s all true! No one was as surprised as I was when, after years of struggling to fit in on the first school, I stopped trying, and . . . well, you’ll see. Enjoy:

I got it every year, just about this time: that giddy, excited feeling, that anything—anything—could happen. Sure, I’d never been the prettiest or most popular girl in my class before. But this year?

Things were going to be different.

Why shouldn’t they? Hadn’t I spent the whole summer—well, in between babysitting gigs to raise cash for that all-important back-to-school wardrobe—working out and giving up dessert so I could lose those last pesky five pounds? Not to mention laying on the roof of our carport, smothered in Coppertone with Sun-In in my hair, trying to get that healthy summer glow … no mean feat while battling a mom who kept calling me inside to empty the dishwasher.

But if I could just get him to look at me—and you all know who he was: Mr. Perfect, the guy with the locker next door to mine, who never gave me a second glance because of her, Ms. Perfect, who seemed to have achieved the ideal wardrobe, body, and highlights without the slightest bit of effort, and who was consequently glued at the hips to him—it would all have been worth it…even the hours I’d spent in the mall, attempting to replicate the cute outfits I’d seen in the pages of the two-inch thick fall issues of my favorite magazines.

And okay, by mall I mean outlet mall. But the stuff I found there looked almost exactly like the designer stuff in the photos, for a fraction of the price!

By the time the first day of school finally rolled around, and I’d strutted to the bus stop (because my friends and I had parents who couldn’t afford to buy us cars for our birthdays), I’d barely be able to contain my excitement. Sure, the guys my best friend and I rode to school with (and had known since kindergarten) pretended they didn’t notice a difference…but we didn’t miss the sidelong glances they shot us from behind their Raybans. We looked good. They knew it. We knew it.

This year, things were going to be different.

The excitement lasted all the way until I got off the bus….

And then I saw her, Ms. Perfect, getting out of the red convertible her parents had gotten her for her birthday.
She was wearing my exact same outfit…only she had the real designer stuff I’d seen in the magazines, not knock-offs from the outlet mall.

There wasn’t an ounce of spare fat on her. Her tan was all over, the result of water-skiing at the lake all summer, not hours stolen here and there on top of a carport. Her highlights were salon-perfect, not the result of at-home experimentation.

When I finally made it to my locker a few minutes later, there she was, in a liplock with him, Mr. Perfect.

And then it would hit me, all over again:

Nothing was going to be different this year. Nothing had changed. And nothing ever would.

Until, it turned out, college.

It happened the first month of college: I had finally given up on trying to be the prettiest, or the most popular. I didn’t bother tanning, or trying to lose weight, or even getting a new fall wardrobe before school started. I was more concerned about getting into the right classes and making new friends in the dorm at the massive state university I’d gotten into.

I was barreling along campus—I still didn’t have a car, but I had a kickass computer to write my novels and short stories on—so I almost didn’t see the guy until I practically ran into him, and he said my name.

I looked up, astonished. On a campus of thirty thousand people, what were the chances that, at eight thirty in the morning, I’d run into someone I knew?

But there he was: Mr. Perfect.

“I didn’t know you go here!” he cried, happily. “You look great. Hey, you should stop by the frat house tonight. We’re having a party. I’d love to see you, catch up on old times. Here’s my number.”

I stared at him, confused. Where was Ms. Perfect?

Then I remembered. They’d broken up right before graduation.

This was my big chance. Things were finally going to be different now.

“Sorry,” I heard myself saying. “I can’t. I’m busy.”

His face fell. “But—”

“I gotta go,” I said. “Sorry. Bye.”

When I got to class, I threw his number away. Because things were different now. The most important thing of all:

Me.

More later.

Much love,

Meg

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Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon's eighth novel, is the most low-concept thing he's written since the last century.  For a little over a decade, Chabon has been the standard-bearer for the intermingling of genre tropes and literary fiction (and the writer to whom genre fans would frequently point to as an example of an outsider who "gets it" and values genre's contributions to our culture).  The

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My Creatures and Critters 2 fabrics with Robert Kaufman have arrived and should be shipping to stores very soon. Keep an eye out. Here are some fabric photos.

There are three colorways (Nature, Bright, and Bermuda) of the following prints:
critters
dogs
cats
animals in motion
floral
geo
stripes
circles

I hope you enjoy this collection. Stay tuned for give aways soon.

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I've noticed that anytime I do something mundane I hear voices. Not only voices but dialog, darn good conversations. It used to scare the proverbial living daylights out of me. Now, I look forward to them because not only do they wind up in my stories, but they are fun. I like my imaginary characters.

Once I've reached that decision and have something that I truly love waiting for me, there is a sense of freedom. The sameness is slowly ebbing away, and excitement builds for what's ahead. Now I to want to push the time forward, but still enjoy the coming holiday season with friends and family.

All this electronic connectivity is not my thing. People can't even enjoy lunch or dinner without their gizmos. Is there something that is so important that you would text yourself off a cliff, or fall into a well or get run over? Is it so important that you can't even hold a conversation with a friend without an electronic interruption? Maybe I'm missing something...

Margot Justes
A Hotel in Paris
Hearts & Daggers
Cool Crimes Hot Chicks
www.mjustes.com

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Welcome to Author Marissa Marchan

Marissa Marchan is a Child Support case manager, wife, mother of two and grandmother of three, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She published her autobiography, A Marriage Made in Heaven and Hell, in 2003. She is currently working on the second book in the series, And Then There's Haley. She enjoys spending precious time with her family. She is the eighth of ten siblings.

Links:
http://www.aboynamedray.com/
https://twitter.com/marissamarchan
http://www.facebook.com/marissa.marchantheauthor




A Boy Named Ray

A Boy Named Ray is a story of love, respect and family values. It's about learning, acceptance, forgiveness, and taking responsibility for our mistakes. It will take us on a wonderful journey filled with exciting adventure and unforgettable characters that will surely become a family favorite.Theo and Mary are good-hearted husband and wife but have disfigured faces and deformities that make them the subject of daily ridicule in their small town. When the townspeople drive them away, they take all their belongings and deep in the woods find an enchanting and magical world, where they set up their home. Soon thereafter, a son, RAY, is born. Ray is kind and wiser beyond his years. He possesses special gifts, including the ability to speak with the elements and animals. When his parents discover he has great natural powers beyond their wildest dream, they want to uncover the mystery behind it as it slowly begins to emerge. With a series of unexplainable events surrounding them, Theo and Mary learn to accept that their son's magical gifts come from above. As they witness the miracle from the Lord, it helps them develop not just an appreciation for nature but they learn to love and respect other living things as well. Realizing their son is exceptionally intelligent Mary and Theo overcome their own fear of humiliation and send Ray to school when he is five. At school, Ray wins over a group of bullies led by Matt through a combination of his special powers in healing a bird and his friendly nature. Later, Ray, Matt, and two other boys risk danger in the forest to find another boy who has run away from home because of problems with his parents. Ray is able to locate the boy, and then Theo finds the group and assists in their return to town. The townspeople are so grateful to Theo that they plan a big party in the family's honor. When told of Theo's concerns about rejection, the town instead throws open its heart and mind to welcome the family into their community. Theo gives a speech that brings home to the town the meaning of unconditional love, responsibilities of parenthood, and the knowledge that true beauty comes from within.

Giveaway Details
1 paperback copy & 1 ebook
Paperback open to US only, Ebook open Internationally
Ends 10/4/12


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I missed doing my August recap, probably because it would have been embarrassing (consisting largely of Kindle samples of memoirs by female escapees from polygamist sects). Have, as usual, too many books going at once and dozens more piled beside my bed. And queued on the Kindle. But, you know, in for a penny, in for a federal reserve. What’s on your nightstand?

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Welcome to Author Micahel Santolini

Michael lives in the Sacramento area with his wife and 3 kids ages 5,3 and 1. Michael started writing his first children's e-book in Late May of 2012 and in July "The Rainbow Stick Boy" was published on Amazon. His inspiration came from reading children's books to his three children. When not writing his blog -- therainbowstickboy.blogspot.com he enjoys family time, bowling, and reviewing other kid's e-books.





Links:
http://therainbowstickboy.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/TheRainbowStickBoy
https://twitter.com/RainbowStickBoy


Chocolate-- I know its kinda boring, but it's so good!


My book has a great message about diversity, the beauty within, and kindness.


I want to continue to write children's books. The next book I have in mind is about a boy that knows a life only of technology and his life experiences with and without technology... I guess that's all I want to say about it now without giving up too much info.


I think my kids were my biggest inspiration, they have taught me to live life differently. They are a great joy to be around. I've always wanted to write a children's book and thought I could do it, but the publishing process seemed scary and lot very probable. With technology today it is possible for anyone to be an author, so I guess the technology was my inspiration also.


The best thing about publishing is just being an author of a children's book, being a indie author is difficult  for promotion. I enjoy interacting with people by social media or email around the world, you get the sense that the internet really is a global market.
Willie Woo its a  vintage children's book about a red fire truck, Willy Woo-oo-oo; his driver, Fireman Jim; the station dog, Daisy the Dalmation; and the pump engine truck, Pete. Written by Betty Ren Wright and illustrated by Florence Sarah Winship
I love to play with my kids (5,3,1) , work in my yard and projects around the house, I love to go bowling and am on a league every year, and of course read (mostly books to my kids)

Coke or Pepsi?
Coke... It has to be Coke!
probably lots of thing,: I have a tattoo  and most people don't know I wrote this children's ebook (The Rainbow Stick Boy) or when they found out they were surprised.
I use to watch Charmed. Mostly because I love Law and Order and it came on in between 2 episodes of Law and Order on TNT. But then I got hooked watching Charmed, I haven't seen it in a while though since I don't have cable anymore.Now I am embarrassed!

PC or Mac?
Mac... I always have problems with PC.



The Rainbow Stick Boy

This is the story of Huey, a stick boy who is born a little different than everyone else in the town. He doesn't let his differences keep him down. Huey finds a friend who is also a little different and together they find the magic at the end of the rainbow, and discover that their differences are really only skin deep.

Giveaway Details
1 ebook of The Rainbow Stick Boy
Open Internationally
Ends 10/4/12


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Happy Saturday! Thanks to Little Brown, I have THREE sets of the cutest board books to giveaway!  I SAY, YOU SAY OPPOSITES! and I SAY, YOU SAY ANIMAL SOUNDS! by artist Tad Carpenter, released on September 11th, and now you have a chance to win a set!

From the publisher:  

I SAY, YOU SAY OPPOSITES! and I SAY, YOU SAY ANIMAL SOUNDS! are interactive and endlessly entertaining lift-the-flap board books that emphasize "word prediction," an important language development step for young readers. As parent readers call out the animal on each page, the child reader is encouraged to triumphantly respond with the correct answer, hidden beneath the flap. Fun and educational, this call-and-response technique offers a playful interactive reading experience and is a delightful and exciting way for children to learn words.

With a bright, retro-style palette and round-eyed animals, the I SAY, YOU SAY board book series is perfect for today’s hip babies and parents.

Tad Carpenter is an illustrator and designer living in Kansas City, Missouri, and an adjunct professor in graphic design and illustration at the University of Kansas. You can visit him at www.tadcarpenter.com.

Here are some interior pages so you can see the cuteness for yourself!

I SAY, YOU SAY OPPOSITES!

So cute!!

Fox leaves Turtle in the dust!

Later, Alligator!!

I SAY, YOU SAY ANIMAL SOUNDS!

So adorable!

Happy piggies!

The nightowls are bothering one of their neighbors!

Entering is easy! Just fill out the Rafflecopter widget below.  Extra entries for following and tweeting.   US mailing addresses only, please.

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About Author Michael Mullin

I live in LA but grew up in New England, where all my sports allegiances remain. After 3 Super Bowls, 2 World Series, an NBA Championship and a Stanley Cup, I have to tell my 10-year-old twins (who are also Boston fans) that this was not the childhood I had. (Ok, maybe for a while with the Celtics . . . )
 I have an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College and have worked as a writer in one form or another for (ever?) … 20 years or so. Before that, I taught preschool and college, two positions I found disconcertingly similar.

LINKS:
Website:
http://talespinsbooks.wordpress.com/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TaleSpinsBooks
Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/542904779/talespins-books




From the author of "8: The Previously Untold Story of the Previously Unknown 8th Dwarf" comes an original fairy tale about a teenage princess who hires the witch from "The Frog Prince" to get revenge on a Mean Girl at school. (Intended for YA readers and up.)



Giveaway Details
1 Ebook of The Plight & Plot of Princess Penny
Open Internationally
Ends 10/4/12


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Hello all~

It's hot in here!! Josh and I are listening to the Andrew's Sisters Pandora mix with two fans on high while we slave away.  But it's been fun.  It's always nice when I have the weekend to just work on art.  Anyway, here is the first image for Fadenrot for the new Marie Antoinette series... they are for some adorable lingerie. Anka had asked for some fancy peacock feathers!!

Hope you all like it.  I will now move on to the next... as well as a page of cute little shoes and cakes and jewelry..:* yum yum yum!

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Hi folks, I'm continuing my series about writer myths. I hope that you are taking time to write. A writer friend of mine, Ellen McGinty, had some good advice for me about holding to your vision and not being moved by the fickle winds of conventional opinion. She inspired this post.

This week is for every writer that feels left out in the cold by the publishing industry. Maybe you need three warm dogs to keep you from freezing.

Dog #1: Your story is too different. No one will publish it. This kind of conventional thinking wars against originality  Here is the deal. Your story is not common. That doesn't mean it's not good.  Many, many publishing professionals will confuse not common with not good.  You must believe in your vision and keep knocking on doors. Do you believe in your story?  Be it's advocate. I am sure of this: readers will flock to originals if given the opportunity.

Dog #2: Your story is too regional. When this sage statement comes my way, I always think of this story. This guy wrote a story about a very unlikable slothful, unemployed guy in New Orleans who is looking for a job.  Man, lots of folks looked at this book and passed. The writing was wonderful, genius, really, and the rejections this guy got were flattering and encouraging.  Yep, John Kennedy Toole author of A Confederacy of Dunces hit snags with his regional work. His path to publication was through a university press. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Sadly, John, took his own life before he got to see his book find its way. The deal is that just because it regional doesn't mean its not for the whole world. If you have a regional perspective, but know your story is for the whole world: DO NOT GIVE UP!

Dog #3: Publishing is a business. Writers and publishers have slightly different goals. Publishers want to make a quick buck. Some writers want to make a quick buck too. If you want to make money, "sex sells."  Check out Ellen Degeneres reading some of that shades of gray book.  for example. I guess this will trickle down to the YA market soon enough. Write that if you want to make money. If you have other goals, read on. Some wrriters' goals include to challenge, enlighten, empower, shock, etc.readers. Some write because they know there are folks who feel very alone, and they are not.  Difficult, challenging and deep books are never an "easy pitch"  to publishers. Here is something very important for writers, artists, any creative souls-- just because you are not creating to make money, does not mean that your work is worthless. It may make the publishers money beyond their wildest dreams. It may not. Your risk taking might hinder your success but not stop it. You've risked a lot by choosing a road less traveled. This is not the easiest road, but I believe it is the most satisfying. Publishing is a business but writing is an art form. Be true to your art.

I hope that my three dogs warm you up some.   I will wrap the series next week. :)

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This week on The Narrative Breakdown, James and I go beat-by-beat through this delightful scene from the 2006 version of Casino Royale. We chose this scene because it never ceases to please me extremely in its wit, sexiness, and -- as you'll hear us realize in talking about this -- really well-done power dynamics. Not to mention it offers excellent characterizations, perfect scene structure, a great example of subtext-becoming-text, and of course, discussion of Daniel Craig's derriere. So if you are interested in learning about any of those things:

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Shamefully for us, we did not give credit to the screenwriters within the episode:  They are Robert Wade and Neil Purvis, who have together written all of the Bond movies in the last thirteen years, and more interestingly, Paul Haggis, who also wrote Crash, Million Dollar Baby, and many episodes of The Facts of Life. My sincerest thanks to them.

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