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Golly!  The summer is just flying along, isn't it?

I can't believe it's half-past July already!

I hope you are all enjoying tons of happy family time, vacationing, beaching, camping and marshmallow roasting... whatever blows your hair back :)

Now...

I bet you're all wondering who won the June Pitch Pick, so I won't keep you in suspense.  (And this time I'm serious - I really won't!  We all have pressing things to get back to like lying in hammocks :))

The winner of the June Pitch Pick is MICHELLE with her pitch for The Sunflower Traveler!!!  Congratulations, Michelle!  Your pitch is winging its way through cyberspace to editor Erin Molta and I'm sure you'll hear from her soon!

Congratulations to all our other fabulous pitchers, too!  You all did a fantastic job.  The choice was SO tough!  I hope at the very least everyone feels they got some helpful feedback from all our generous readers!

And now, I feel the need for Something Chocolate!  How about you?  Due to this heat wave, I've got cold things on the brain, so I think we'll go with a Frozen Brownie Sundae... er, Wednesdae?!  Sound good?

from the Brown-Eyed Baker - recipe HERE  http://www.browneyedbaker.com/frozen-brownie-sundae/

Enjoy!!!

Today's pitch comes to us from Kirsten who says, "I am a children's writer, a mother of three active preschoolers, a lover of all things salty and fattening, and an avid avoider of cleaning. I have been writing seriously for about 4 years. I LOVE the supportive writing community that I have found and I love my supportive hubby who looks past the piling masses of dirty laundry and asks me how my book is going."

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: Sourpuss: Stuck In The Muck
Age/Genre: Picture Book (ages 4-8)
The Pitch: Sourpuss is a cat that loves bubble baths, kitty facials, and manicures. When he comes whisker to whisker with a mangy mutt named Sunny, Sourpuss is desperate to remain pristine. Then Sunny gets stuck in the muck and it looks like Sourpuss is her only hope...if he is able to brave the sticky mud.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

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Hellooo Dearies!!!

I am so glad to be back after my August off of blogging, and so glad to see you all!!!

I know the year officially begins on January 1st, but really, September always feels like the new year to me.  Too many years in school, I guess :)

It's lovely to see so many friends reappearing on their blogs after a summer off.  There is energy and excitement and enthusiasm in the air.  I am, as always, full of ideas I don't have enough time to implement (but that never stops me from thinking I can follow through on them somehow :))

There will probably be some changes afoot around here.  I'm not sure what yet, exactly, but I might want to try something new and different on Mondays at some point... feel free to make suggestions in the comments if there's something in particular you'd like to see.  And I'm going to try (after today :)) to make my posts a little shorter...  Stop laughing!  Seriously!  I can HEAR you!

I find I'm having a hard time keeping all the balls in the air, what with writing, teaching, critiquing, blogging/social media, school visits, marketing, continuing ed, and my position as COO in a home with a husband, 5 kids, 2 dogs, aging parents just down the road and a pony up the road, so my answer to that is A SCHEDULE.  Novel idea, don't you think?  I haven't written it down yet, but I am cogitating on it (er, since January...), and I feel confident that at some point a Master Plan that is helpful and productive will emerge that will allow me to get everything done in half the time.  There is a faction here on Blueberry Hill that objects to me working 24/7 :)  You'll know the Master Plan is in place when I tell you I've read a book longer than 32 pages for fun :)

I'm already looking forward to the upcoming writing contests! and I'll give you a heads up: The Halloweensie Contest will run from October 27-31, and The Holiday Contest will run from December 8-12.  In both cases the judging, voting, and winner announcements will occur in the week following.  So mark your calendars :)

Now, before we go a step further, there is something CRUCIAL we must attend to after these weeks off!  It's time for...

SOMETHING CHOCOLATE!!!

Ultimate Brownie Sundae - YUM!

And something specially NOT chocolate for Julie R-Z because she did something deserving of a special treat and she doesn't like chocolate for breakfast - go figure!  (And if you give me a few minutes I might remember what it was she did - all I have here is a note that it had something to do with a survey... :))

Glazed Apple Crumb Muffins! Recipe here: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/10/glazed-apple-crumb-muffins/

Alrighty!  Now that we have bolstered our blood sugar, let's continue, shall we?

(The problem with vacation is there's always catching up to do afterwards.)

First, did I get a chance to tell you who won the June and July Pitch Picks?

I think I mentioned that Kimberly had won the June pick with her pitch for Sprinkles The Clown.  But we can't have gotten around to the July winner yet because we haven't been here!  The July Pitch Pick was won by Brandie with her pitch for The Trouble With Keeping Vikings!  Congratulations to Kimberly and Brandie as well as to all the other brave and talented writers who submitted pitches.  Your pitches were ALL so good, and it's such a wonderful opportunity for us all to learn from each other!

Second, we have Straight From The Editor for both June and July!

Let's start with June since that appeals to my sense of orderly chronology.  Because I am so orderly :) (Please refer back to the Master Plan under construction :))

You will recall Kimberly's pitch for her picture book, Sprinkles The Clown:

Here are editor Erin Molta's insightful thoughts:

This sounds cute, though for a pitch you need to be a little more specific. Don’t worry about giving it all away. I’m assuming that all the kids are clowns, right? So I’d say something like I’ve done below. Also what is a “true” clowning skill? I would definitely say what Sprinkles did that made all of the other little clowns feel safer or less afraid.

Sprinkles the Clown wants to fit in with her classmates on the first day of Kindergarten, but when her show-and-tell juggling act goes wrong, all the other little clowns laugh at her. However, as a storm rolls in scaring all the students, Sprinkles puts her own fears aside and [does what?] to save the day!

Brandie's pitch for her picture book, The Trouble With Keeping Vikings, was as follows:

Erin had this to say:

I love Vikings and they are somewhat "hot" now, so this definitely has potential, but no need to hide so much. Who is the boy calling? An editor might be so curious that they'll ask for the manuscript to find out, but usually they'll ask because the idea intrigues them and they want to see how you go about it. So it's much better to give them as much information to aid in that process as possible.

Thanks as always to Erin for her very helpful thoughts.  We are so lucky that she is such a cheerful contributor to this series!

Now, then.  The moment you've all been waiting for - Would You Read It!

Today's pitch comes to us from Hope who says, "I used to travel around the globe, working as a contract interpreter for the US State Department and a freelance translator until I became a mother. Now as the mother of two children, I continue my love of language by reading with them and writing."

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: Cleo And Pinkie
Age/Genre: Picture Book (ages 4-8)
The Pitch: Cleo is always busy doing something, but that often turns into trouble. As Mommy grumbles, Cleo brings in Pinkie, her imaginary, mischievous friend, and blames him for everything. “Pinkie did it!” But soon Mommy can’t tolerate it anymore and declares, “No more Pinkie!” With Pinkie gone, the house is quiet and trouble free until Mommy discovers another mess…this time to her delightful surprise.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

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Dog saga alert!

So yesterday on my way out to meet a writer friend for coffee (okay, actually lemon bars (her) and oatmeal raisin cookies (me)... thank you for the cafe, Barnes & Noble :)) I saw a stray dog.

He was a chocolate lab, young-looking, wearing two collars (a choke chain and a regular collar), but wandering about with that definitely lost look.

He wasn't far from the main road where cars drive VERY fast, and there were heavy thunderstorms in the forecast - both bad things for most dogs.  Plus, he was wearing that choke chain and I don't like to see dogs on the loose wearing things that could get caught on a branch or something and potentially choke them.

So I stopped my car, got out, and spoke to him nicely.

He took right off into the woods.

Ah, well, I thought.  Maybe the people at Crazy Acres across the road got a new dog.  (They have a lot of dogs over there and they're always getting loose.)  I was going to be late, I had no hope of running fast enough to catch a dog that didn't want to be caught, and I certainly didn't want to accidentally chase him toward the main road, so off I went to meet my friend.

But when I came back 3 1/2 hours later (yes, 3 1/2! Don't get all judgy!  It was a half hour drive there and another half hour drive home, and we had a lot to catch up on and a lot of dessert items to eat :)) ANYway, as I was SAYing, 3 1/2 hours later I saw him again in almost the exact same place.

Once again I stopped the car and got out and spoke to him sweetly.  This time he lay down and looked at me, but then decided either me or the car or both were too scary and off he ran again.

I went home to get some chicken to lure him with, and discovered that my daughter had seen him as well on her way in from work an hour earlier, although at that point he had been all the way in near our house.  We set out on foot with the chicken, hoping to tempt him close enough to catch and see if he had tags.

No luck.

We couldn't find him.

So we walked home.

But we were both worried about him out there, wandering lost, with darkness falling and thunderstorms coming and that road not far enough away.

I was about to suggest running down to Stop & Shop to see if anyone had posted a lost dog poster on the board there when my daughter, who is much smarter than I am, googled lost dogs in our town and discovered a listing on a FB page that was definitely the dog we had seen!  There was a photograph of him and a phone number to call.

It had just gone up!  If we'd googled before we walked out with the chicken we wouldn't have seen it!  So I called right away and told the woman we had seen her dog multiple times over the past few hours.  Turns out, she lives up on the corner less than half a mile away!  She was very grateful for the information on where we had seen him and set out at once in her car, hoping that if he was nearby and heard her voice he would come to her.  I was worried, though, because by the time I spoke to her I hadn't actually seen the dog for nearly an hour.  He could have wandered off anywhere.  And she said he wasn't very good about listening or coming when called.

"I hope she finds him" and "I hope he gets home safe" we all kept saying to each other.  But we didn't expect to find out.  I hadn't given the woman my name or phone number in our hurry, just the info on where the dog was so she could get right out and look for him.

Well, we comforted each other as we started making dinner, at least we saw him and called, and she's out looking for him.  We did what we could do.

And then, to my surprise, the phone rang about 20 minutes after I'd spoken to her.  She was very kindly calling back (thanks, redial :)) to report that she had found him and he was home safe and sound (although extremely smelly and requiring an immediate bath :))  "I can't tell you how grateful I am," she said.  "He's my husband's best friend, and he didn't even want to come home if his dog was still missing."

Truthfully I didn't feel like we had done all that much, but it was a happy ending to the adventure all around, and an instance of when social media really works well and is great to have! :)

I know after that emotionally wrenching story you must all be ready for Something Chocolate!  How about some Mississippi Mud Pie (because we are having torrential downpours here which is making a lot of mud, so mud pie seems very apropos :))

Mississippi Mud Pie! Recipe here: http://www.cookingclassy.com/2013/11/mississippi-mud-pie/

Ah!  That's better!  I feel refreshed enough to tell you about the June Pitch Pick, which I know you have all been wondering about so desperately that you got up early just so you could rush over here and find out! :)

So it is my pleasure to announce that the winner of the June Pitch Pick is . . .

Congratulations, Kimberly!  Your pitch has already been sent to editor Erin Molta and I'm sure you'll hear from her soon!

Congratulations to all our pitchers from June as well!  You all did a terrific job, and your stories sound wonderful and engaging and I would read them all!  Give yourselves a pat on the back for writing the story, writing the pitch, being brave enough to submit the pitch for feedback, and then being professional enough to revise your pitches based on that feedback to really improve them.  Excellent job everyone!

Today's pitch comes to us from Lavanya who describes herself on twitter as Engineer (13 years), Parent (4 years), Writer (fledgling), Actor (sometime), Dreamer (always)

You can follow her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/vanyala) and ask her about following her blog which is protected.

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: Sophie Vs. The Monster
Age/Genre: Picture Book (ages
The Pitch: The very first night that Sophie lays her head down in her brand new big girl bed, she meets a monster… who likes to rhyme. When the monster challenges Sophie to a riddle game, she must use her wits to guess the right answers. Will Sophie survive this ordeal, or end up in a monster meal? 

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

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