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Hello out there in LJ land. Just a quick posting (perhaps we will number it.)
1. I have one week left to complete two critical essays, 20-40 new pages of writing, a quickee autobiography and a sincere letter of progress to the awesome Sharron Darrow. Everything is started, nothing is finished. (I'm starting to grind my teeth at night again.)

2. My Maine homecoming has been absolutely awesome. I've managed to connect with so many people who are welcoming us home with open arms. I feel so thankful to be a part of this community (and I love being in MY house again.)

3. If you are close by, you are invited to our first once a month potluck. We all say we are too busy to make time for each other, but friendships are what life is all about. Email or comment if you need more info!

4. I've had the DVD "Penelope" on my counter for over a month from Netflix (even in Maryland) so I finally watched it tonight. LOVED IT. It has that weird super saturated art direction of Pushing Up Daisies.

5. So here's the awful part. "Penelope" is rated PG, I thought my kids would love it. I'd never seen it before. So we're watching and there is this one part. Takes about 3 seconds, when the smarmy rich guy (who saw Penelope once and got scared and thought she was a monster) re- imagines Penelope as a monster with fangs and scary eyes and a boarish face. He sees this monster in his imagination through a car window in the dark. OMG my boys (10 and 8) shriek and scream and start to sob like someone is coming after them with a chainsaw. They run to my chair and hug me and sob and shake (for what seems an eternity but was probably all of 10 minutes) and all I can do is apologize over and over and hold them and love them and validate their fear. Now they are in my bed and I'm stuck sleeping with kids who are each almost 5 feet tall.

Okay so that's five on Wednesday. I'll be back after my deadline is past.

Okay, I may not be heading to SCBWI but I am, in October, going to the VCFA event in the Lone Star State.

Anyone else going?

I am registered and now entering the "how do I decide which hotel to stay at" phase. This phase is soon to be followed by the "ohmygosh how am I going to get from point A to point B and everywhere else phase" which is also known as the typical (for me) transportation panic phase. Other phases soon to follow will include the "what if I have forgotten how to do the chit chat in person networking phase," the "everyone will be younger or skinnier or more talented than I am phase" and then of course the "is it too late to change my mind and cancel phase." Oh, and let's not forget the "I have nothing to wear phase" which I'm sure I will pass through several times.

I kid you not.

Yes, I am an introverted wimp but I am really going to try and break out at least a little bit.

I think I am going to go a day early on the chance that I can have some time to meet some local friends. So if you live in the area, please let me know because otherwise I will go early and then sit in my hotel room playing the stupid bubble game on my phone until the battery dies.

After the hard work of residency, I opted for a little down time before jumping right into my first packet. Hopefully, if any of my advisors are reading this - Tim, Ellen - they won't be upset with me for skipping school those first few days.

Please [she begs]. I'll read extra books!

Even if I have to read twenty extra books, it was so worth it. A friend of mine was vacationing in Stowe at the Trapp Family Lodge, you know, the lodge the family from the Sound of Music built after they arrived in the U.S. I'd been wanting to go there ever since this friend, my roommate from my freshman year at Notre Dame, Julie, had told me about the lodge and how her family vacationed there every summer. I mean, honest, I'd watched that movie every Thanksgiving since I could remember. I just had to see the lodge!

Seeing it turned out to be a long time in the making. Twenty-two years. Still, the idea simmered in the back of my mind, waiting.

When I found out the first residency for Vermont College was in July, it bubbled to the front again. I emailed Julie, trying to keep my excitement to a low but pretty sure I totally failed. I asked if her family was, by some wild coincidence or the lucky alignment of all the stars in the heavens, going to be there. They were!

Gleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Tuesday morning, after a night of celebrating the fact I'd survived my first residency, Jules arrived in Montpelier to bust me out of the dorms. It was pretty surreal. My roommate from college meeting up with me in my new dorm where I was in college...again.

When I walked out of the dorm, I felt drained. It had been an amazing residency, but my head was mush, full of stuff to sort. Stowe, Julie, the Trapps, the mountains, running, sleeping, chilling out, shopping...just being, rather than thinking, put me back on the road to writing. I filled up again, especially on Ben & Jerry's ice cream. The plant is about fifteen minutes from Stowe and Jules and I took a tour. They give you ice cream at the end! Perfect temperature, not too mushy, not too hard. And it was a new flavor. So delicious.

Hiking up to the Trapp family chapel was pretty amazing too. It's not often I get that far out into nature. Jules had me petrified of bears, but anyone who's read my post on the bear encounter in the Shenandoah's hopefully understands my paranoia about bears in nature. The only thing we ran into were gnats. Huge relief.

Then there was the shopping in Burlington. And eating at the Trapp Family Lodge. Tasty. Very very tasty.

But most of all, there was spending time with a person I'd lived together with in the closest of quarters for a year. Someone who knows as much about me as pretty much my husband because of that intense dorm living, and who, after all that, still likes me.

It. Was. Awesome.

I can't wait to do it again.

Whaddya say, Jules? I promise, you won't have to pose with me in the Ben and Jerry's ice cream lid again...probably. I think.

[Note to teachers: while this post is aimed at adults trying to write commercially publishable picture books, the Writing Workout at the end can also be used with young writers creating there own illustrated stories.]My childhood was similar to Jeanne Marie's in that no one read picture books to me. But when I started reading them to my son (more years ago than I care to admit), I fell in love

Perhaps you have been thinking that the Green mountains of Vermont had swallowed me up in their morning mist and starry nights. It is not so. When the VCFA residency ended I drove back to my parent's home in south central Pennsylvania, packed my older son I. for his first sleep away camp experience and then drove him three and a half hours to northern Pennsylvania where the camp is located. On the way, largish-son, smallish-son and I met up with my hubby and camped. (For those of you who don't know, Hubby is away with the Navy which is one reason I am at the parent's place.It had been three weeks since we had seen one another.) Now smallish son and I are packing up as much of our belongings as will fit in the minivan, and I am snatching bits of time for reading and writing assignments. (Three books down and one critical essay started as well as some important character discovery work)

Come Thursday we will get back in the van and travel back to the sleep away camp, pick up largish-son and drive to Newport, RI where we will see hubby again. Twice in two weeks, not bad. When the renters move out of our Maine house and we can move back in... I will have a home. And my screen porch. And my kitchen.



Oh, how I miss my kitchen. This kitchen will be the site of many a potluck in my new and improved Maine life. You see it took leaving to realize how much I missed my Maine friends.



Just click your heels together and say, "There's no place like home..."

I wish it was that easy. Instead, moving (on our own, piece by piece, storing stuff in my parent's barn and basement that we will have to come pick up later in the fall) has been a big pain in the tuchas! Anyway,  I've resolved to have monthly potluck dinners and whoever can come is welcomed! Bring a dish to pass and if you want, bring a board game that your chidren like to play or we can herd them outside to play in the driveway. Save the date-- Saturday, August 22nd. (I assume I'll be home by then, you might have to unpack a box if you come though.) You are welcome to arrive anytime past 2 but dinner won't start till between 4 and 6 when others arrive. If you think you can come and you'd like details, send me message through Live Journal or Facebook. Hope to see you then.

Bless me father, for I have sinned. It has been way too long since my last post. I have a couple of good excuses...I think. First, I spent the latter half of June in Germany picking up my kids. They were going to school there with the children of friends of ours. They got a real taste of German elementary school, and loved it! When school was over, we toured Germany. We went to Bremen to see the Stadtmusikanten (pictured left), then to Kiel for the huge regatta held there every year, and finally to Berlin where a friend of mine lives. We even made it to Frederick the Great's Sans Souci. Awesome awesome trip.

Only to be followed by a 10-day residency in Montpelier at Vermont College. I decided to take the plunge and applied to their MFA in Writing for Children. Even more amazing, I was accepted. It is a two year program. Each semester begins with an on-campus residency. My first was July 10 - 21.

How can I describe that experience? Eye-opening. Elevating. Chocolate-craving stressful. Enriching. Writer's mecca. Those ten days were packed with more kernels of ideas and thought on craft than the last six months of my life. I'll need another six months to process it all.

If you are thinking about honing your writing skills, man, Vermont College is the place to go. I learned so much, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'll be spending the next two years writing critical papers, reading way more than I already do, and rolling up my sleeves and learning how to use a few more tools of the trade. POV, metaphor, prologues here I come!

Seriously, Vermont College is a writer's dream. I got to talk shop with people as interested in writing as me. A writer can really let her hair down and wax on about the finer points of writing in this program (or the stuff you just hate, can't understand, want to change!). It's awesome.

If that wasn't enough, I got to revisit dorm living. Not that I was missing it. Still, it turned out to be pretty fun. I lucked out and got an amazingly wonderful dorm roommate. We bemoaned and celebrated together. And hey, this time, I was old enough to buy my own beer. What's more, I could afford the good kind.

I'm psyched to get going on my first packet. Can't wait to dive in and try my hand at critical papers on craft.

Of course, after I get that first packet back, I may be groaning a little more than usual because I'll probably have loads of revisions to do, but growth is painful, any kind of growth, right?

Big party night here in Montpelier, Vermont. The fourth semester students throw a themed party for the graduating students. The theme-- Hawaii. I can't imagine the end of the tunnel, as I have just started to travel this road but the community here is such that I am extremely happy for my new friends who are moving on in their journey. The alumni who visited this weekend have also been kind. I know quite a few people  from SCBWI-NE so it is nice connect without having to wait from next spring's conference. Jennifer Richard Jacobson, Sally Reilly, Julie Berry, Martha Caldero, Sarah Aronson, cfaughnan  and Anindita arialas were here too. Anindita is busy already on plans for next year. (By the way the CFP is up on the website if you are interested in presenting in 2010, due date September 15)

My biggest epiphany this week is that I didn't know what I didn't know. I came to the program thinking that I knew how to write and read and this week has shown me how much I have to learn. The lectures were certainly helpful for me and I took something from each. The workshops, though, were crucial and most educational. Certainly it is important when someone gives me feedback but it was listening to co-workshopers critique another person's work that was most helpful and accessible. They unveiled the psychic distance, POV issues, flat characterization, etc. in the writing we analyzed. I have a lot to work on this semester, that's for sure.

So first of all, a  very happy birthday to my conference co-conspirator arialas . I hope you have an awesome day. If you come to VCFA for the alumni day I'll see you there. If not, here is my family's traditional birthday breakfast just for you. Enjoy! (I'm going to announce the CFP for 2010 at lecture today.)

You may have noticed the early hour of this posting. Sometimes writers get up early to savor the early morning peace before the chaos of the day begins. I just can't sleep past 5 am here. Perhaps it is that we eat dinner at 5 pm or that I drink tea and wine before I go to bed, or that my honey is not here to snuggle, or that the bed is too small in my dorm room, or that mattress is not as good... whatever the issue, it is insanely frustrating. My bedtime doesn't seem to matter. My bladder seems to rule the situation and then I can't get back to sleep despite the sleeping mask and earplugs. Oh well, I suppose I'll make it up when I get home or I'll start savoring the early morning peace before the chaos.

Insomnia
By Anna Boll

I curl.
Head and toes
touching cool
cinder block.
Mimicking
the solidity
of you.

1. Some people are seashore people, I love the mountains. I love to see the cloud shadows slide over the folds and peaks of the land. As I drove north through Vermont today I felt that I was painting with my eyes. In my imagination I was squeezing oil paint silky slipping out of the tube onto my glass palatte: greens, blues, and violets. I could imagine mixing the green and violets together to make those places where the land undulates into cool shadows and slapping the deep olive green of the pines onto the canvas with palette knife their prickly needles poking the colbalt of the sky. I am a mountain person.

2. Because I had a shorter drive today, I was able to tool around a little on my way to school. On the advice of eluper I stopped at the Northshire Bookstore. I don't write this very often but-- OMG! Here are a couple of pics. Jessica and her staff of amazing children's book sellers were just awesome. So helpful and welcoming. These are the places I dream of visiting as a published author.

 Yesterday I packed the car with clothes, books, my lap top, and a fan and hit the road headed for my first Vermont College residency. After a long day of driving I met up with eluper last night and he told me about his most recent contest to give away a copy of BUG BOY the winner of which was chosen by a horse race. Check out the race and Eric here. 


Today I move on to the second leg of my journey tooling through Vermont on my way to Montpelier. It is a sunshiny day here in North with comfortable temps and I'm eager to see what this chapter of my life brings. Wish me luck!

1.I'm pleased to say that we are safe and sound in Pennsylvania with my parents. We spent most of the last month, and all of last week boxing up our things, sweating in the heat and humidity, packing the trailer and moving from St. Mary's County, Maryland. This stop at my parent's home is for the month of July and then we are back to our home in Maine. After reading the blogs of other New England friends it is obvious that they are saturated with rain. I hope things dry out a bit by the time we get back... but even if it doesn't, we know what we're getting into. 

2. I'm getting very excited about the Vermont College residency that is coming up quickly. I'm doing all my required reading and workshop notes. My bag is packed (as long as I wear the same clothes for the next 10 days) and the financial aid stuff is moving forward. I still have to look at the workshop choices and try to make make some decisions. Even though this seems like a solid step forward in my development as a writer, I still have a little bit of a lost feeling. Is this what I should be doing? Should I just be giving up instead of investing this time and money in something so subjective and unstable? 

3. If you didn't get to see the images from my Art Show and Sale they are up on my facebook page. Here is the link. If it doesn't work... you may need to have a facebook account.

4. I'm working (pretty much pro bono) on an illustration assignment. The manuscript is a collaboration of two high school students for a Portland non-profit. The experience should be interesting as includes some cultural research. jamarattigan have you heard about an African dish called Fufu?

5. Grandma and Grandpa get to have us for a whole month and are even taking the kids for one week on their own. Unending thanks and gratitude! (I'm really looking forward to a break.)

In her recent post, "Read Your Brains Out" (part of our Children's Book Week series), Mary Ann Rodman shared some references for recommended reading. As a follow-up, we've added links from this blog to online recommended reading lists--see the sidebar section labeled "Children's/YA Reading Lists." Now you have no excuse for not "reading your brains out." (And if you have suggestions for other

by Jeanne Marie Grunwell FordMy childhood days conjure memories of chocolate ice cream and Cheetos fingerprints smeared across dogeared pages. Books accompanied me to baseball games; they lulled me to sleep (or kept me awake); they helped pass the time on long winter days while I snuggled under a blanket fort or on endless summer days poolside. In short, reading was sheer pleasure. At some time

Posted by Carmela Martino Most writers I know are avid readers. I have been for as long as I can remember. I read so much as a child that my mother often scolded me, saying things like, "You spend too much time sitting around with your nose in a book. Get up and DO SOMETHING!"But I was doing something. I was learning how to be a writer. Without even realizing it, I was studying how writers use

Posted by Mary Ann RodmanI've always been a writer. I taught myself to read from television commercials, "back in the day" when they included a lot of print on the screen. I landed in first grade knowing such essential words as "mouthwash,""antiperspirant" and phrases like "space-age technology" and "ring-around-the collar." Since I could read for myself, no one ever read to me. Better than any

Posted by JoAnn Early MackenI’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember. Most of the many jobs I’ve held included some writing component—or else I invented one. I didn’t find my true calling as a writer for children until my husband and I had our own kids. Inspired by wonderful books we read together, I remembered a poem I’d written in a college creative writing course, dug it out of the

There is nothing scarier to a writer than an empty page and an incessant, blinking cursor. Well, except maybe one-upping yourself.

You're only as good as your last book, after all.

Yet, how far will a writer go to improve? We all go to conferences, sign up for workshops, even take online courses to refresh, renew and reinvigorate. But what about the mother of all honing exercises. What about (gulp) school?

You might be a writer if...you go back to school to become a better writer.

Now this probably gets at what kind of writer you want to be. Do you want to earn a million bucks for your work (popular), or do you want to be read in one hundred years (literary)? It seems like, although by no means is this an all-or-nothing scenario, but it seems like those who are more literary in focus are the ones who end up in school. I mean, it's not the best place to practice or win popularity, at least it wasn't for me, which really outs me, but then I'm 40 and I'm going back to school. Maybe the second time around I'll be popular? I've lost the glasses, but I still play violin. I'm doomed, aren't I?

Sigh.

Nonetheless, I applied to the Vermont College MFA in Writing for Children and got in!! Very exciting. I know, I know, not very exciting for everybody. I mean, I'm going back to homework, reading assignments, deadlines for papers, papers!, lectures, etc, etc, etc. Then again, I really did love college. A lot.

My reasons for going back to school to get this MFA are pretty simple. I want to be the best writer I can be. I'm intent, driven - maybe even a little obsessed - with getting better. This is the first thing I've worked at where I don't feel like there's a limit on "better." As a runner, I know my legs are only so long. My lungs can only process so much oxygen. My muscles can only contract and expand so much. (And I'm not getting any younger, but let's not talk about that) I'm limited physically in what I can do as a runner.

But as a writer? We apparently only use 10% of our brains. That means, 90% is just languishing there, waiting for someone to find the key and unlock it. 90% Think about that. Could be lots and lots and lots of brainpower just waiting to be harnessed and put to good work. I know, I know, I could be way off. Nobody really knows what that 90% is all about. I may only be unlocking, say, defunct, primitive programming that has to be stored somewhere, or storage space, or gobbly gook, but I'm being optimistic and hoping it's extra brain power.

I'll find out come, July 9, when I'm off to Montpelier, Vermont, to start an MFA in Writing for Children. I'm still very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about it. Excited to say the least. After that 8th think piece, I may be singing a different tune, but growing is hard work. Nobody said it would be fun. Then again, I'm going to be hanging out with authors, talking books, dissecting and understanding how some of the great pieces of literature were put together, and then using that knowledge to bring my own ideas to life. Just thinking about it makes me want to rub my hands together and break out into deep, effusive, Mad Scientist laughter.

Bauhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Me thinks, I'm going to have fun...but what about my teachers???