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Pick a random word and do Google image search on it. Check out the eleventh picture it brings up. Write about whatever that image brings to mind.

First of all, you’re probably wondering how I came up with the word “Eskimo”. Well. Kevin and I do not sleep together. He uses a sleep apnea machine and sounds like Darth Vader, I’m a fish – I flop constantly because I can never find a comfortable spot.

If we don’t sleep together, then we actually get some sleep.

We switch off between the bed in our bedroom and the futon with an air mattress in the man cave (i.e. the screen-in back porch that Kevin enclosed and made into his office). This week, it’s Kevin’s turn on the futon. So. He’s in there stripping off blankets (because I’m hot throughout the day, but for some reason, when I go to sleep, my body temperature drops and I FREEZE – hence the multiple blankets). And he laughed and said, “What are you, Eskimo?” at about the same time I was looking at this prompt …

The picture of the woman above – the first thing I think of when I look at her is, “ugh – no teeth.” The second thing I think of is “look at those wrinkles. I bet she’s really about 30.”

I’m not trying to be snarky. When I look at her face the one word that comes to mind is “rough.”

She looks like she’s had a rough life. I bet she’s had to work tooth and nail (no pun intended) for every little thing she’s ever acquired or owned in her lifetime. I imagine her to have grown children with three or four grandchildren. I can see her getting up at 4:00 in the morning to begin her day. I bet she spends the majority of her days preparing to survive her day and upcoming night. I bet she makes all of her own breads and comes up with creative ways to cook meals given her harsh environment. I’m sure she can skin a fish faster than I can skin a banana.

And I bet she’s happy. She’s content with her life because she was conditioned to live this harsh life. She has purpose. She’s never idle. There is a reason for everything she does. Sitting down is a luxury.

But laughter comes easily for her. She is respected and she is likely more healthy than 60% of lazy Americans. She has a lot to say and a lot to contribute, but she respects her husband and allows him to make the majority of decisions.

And she doesn’t resent him for it.

I compare my life to my preconceived notions of this woman’s life and I come up short. Way short. I’m lazy and spoiled compared to this woman. I take my life luxuries for granted and though I work hard, my efforts are minuscule in comparison. I can not IMAGINE living my life in such a harsh and unforgiving environment – I like my electricity and fast food restaurants. I like my conveniences and instant entertainment.

Though I can’t imagine my life like this woman’s, I’m quite certain I COULD live my life like her, if I was forced to. I wouldn’t like it, it would be incredibly hard and a huge adjustment, but I could, and would, do it if it meant making a life for myself, or my family.

Life is about surviving, not simply existing.

Filed under: Daily Prompt

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by Britta Teckentrup

{published 2013, by Barefoot Books}

I just lost myself on Britta Teckentrup’s portfolio. Entirely charmed and swept away by every single piece. She’s new to me, and I’m happy to have flailed around in her brain for a bit. And it looks like I have a lot to catch up on!

I have an unusual affinity or board books. Proof: here and here and here. And that’s just a select smattering! But everything that is perfect about a picture book is even more so in a board book.

Smushier, sweeter, chewier.

And these are especially delicious.Fast and Slow shows those opposites side by side. Directly in contrast, varying by speed. The comparison is limited to that spread only, which is a detail that I love. One of the later spreads shows a train and a bus, which of course is double decker and European and fancy. But isn’t a bus faster than even that motorbike up above? Sure, but one spread isn’t competing with others. Little brains noodling that out? Smart.

And speaking of the motorbike page – total favorite. That scarf!The colors are saturated and leap into your eyes.

The type! It’s that perfect teacher-handwritten-style.

But it’s the texture that I love the most. Clean shapes, easy lines, and the slightest bit of grit. Smooth, flat color might have been an easy choice to match those shapes and lines. But in a book about contrast, splashing in some texture is smart.

And it looks awesome.Big and Small’s pairs are tightly knitted. Inside a giant apple is an itty-bitty seed. On top of a vast mountain are individual snowflakes. Those connections are beautiful, and the cat-lion standoff might be my very favorite spread.A perfect addition to your baby-shower rotation, your art class, your tiny one’s library, or just the ever-growing stack surrounding you.

Review copy provided by Barefoot Books.

Tagged: barefoot books, britta teckentrup, color, comparison, contrast, texture

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Here are some ways I'm trying to protect my creative side:

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• It's not the mind but the emotional self that gives us confidence or causes doubt. We are directly and indirectly taught the mind is a truer compass than the heart. And this is right oftentimes, especially for highly emotional people like me (and I would suspect most other writers, who tend to connect deeply and passionately with people, ideas, stories, and universal truths). The thing is, we writers know in our heads plenty of things that never penetrate our hearts. Whether we realize it or not, the emotional "truths" that occupy our lives influence our creative selves far more than we realize. How can we protect the vulnerable place stories spring from?

• Surround yourself with supportive people. Obvious, right? Find a friend or group of people who support and understand you. While non-writing friends and family are wonderful, they don't always understand the writing world. Form a critique group. Become a part of a professional organization like SCBWI. Find people in the same phase of the journey you can encourage and commiserate with. Find people farther along who can show you the way.

• Step away from the constant noise of the Internet. Never before have authors been asked to live the writing life so publicly. As soon as a book sells, the solitary falls away. We've got to find ways to protect our creativity in the midst of it all. There are too many ways to lose confidence -- reviews written by professional organizations as well as book bloggers or Goodreads account holders, articles in accessible publications like Publisher's Weekly or GalleyCat that praise our peers or their books and leave us feeling left out, or publications that praise us but leave us feeling like we'll never measure up again. 

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Two months ago, I switched to a MacBook Pro. Am I feeling the Mac love yet?

Sorta.

The transition from PC to Mac is not easy. Everything seems backward, nothing is automatic, you must think about everything. So, let me walk you through some of the changes.

Why Change?

I switched to a Mac because, my old PC was eight years old. Ancient. Prehistoric. The processor—which was once young and strong—was antiquated. I was running WindowsXP, like half the computers in the world today, but Microsoft recently announced that with the new Windows 8 operating system coming out this fall, they will no longer support XP.

Worse, I am doing more and more video and my PC kept hanging up. The old processor wasn’t designed to handle 1080HD video. See my YouTube page (youtube.com/DarcyPattison) for some of my recent videos. I’m planning more for this fall.

Once I decided to get a new computer, it was up in the air: Mac or PC.
PCs were cheaper. But I was definitely in the iPhone halo; I love my iPhone and wondered what Macs would be like. I went to our local Apple store and blatantly told the salesman, “I am a PC person; convince me.”
Wow, that salesman was great.

Basically, what I expected is that Macs would handle video and photos in a cleaner way than PC. That’s the main reason I changed.

Making the Switch

One immediate purchase was Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Lion version. It is, indeed, the missing manual and should be required reading when making this switch. It explained the difference in keyboards: I still stumble over Mac’s missing “Delete” key (reverse delete), but I’m dealing with it. It explained where files are kept and the structure of the files. It explained and explained until I started to understand and could function again.

Technology Binge

I downloaded programs and generally went on a technology binge: I bought a Wacom pen tablet ( to do videoscribing and play with digital art, a Bose headset for computer work and travel, and a Samson Meteor microphone to do webinars, tape audio for video and for podcasting.

I am using MicrosoftWord for Mac, Aperture photo organization program, Thunderbird for Email, Firefox for browsing, FinalCutPro for video editing, Audacity and GarageBand for audio editing. I am playing with my new pen tablet and may eventually download Corel’s Picture 12 drawing program. Everything works fine, few hang ups, and those

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I've been thinking a lot lately about the ways we, as writers, see ourselves. Not how we see other writers, how we actually view ourselves.

Be honest for a moment. It's hard to see your own work without comparing it to another writer's, isn't it? This can be really good: we can learn from others' work and make our own better. We can compare our style, topic, or even voice (though this last one might not be the smartest idea) to another author's, helping better explain our writing.

These comparisons can lead to a lot of heartache, too. If you're anything like me, you've thought along these lines before.

What if others don't see my work as...

• Commercial enough: Will it ever sell? Will it appeal to a lot of people?
• Literary enough:  Will it be respected? Will it only appeal to a few?
• Strong enough:  Will it only draw the dreaded rejction "too quiet"?
• Hip enough:  Am I trying to be cool and not getting it? Are my characters really authentic?
• Long enough / short enough?  Do I fit within my genre's range?

And the biggie...

• Good enough?  What if others are being kind in their critiques, not sharing what they really think about my work? 

Then there's comparing your own work to itself...

What if:

• I only have one story in me? / I'll never write anything as good as this story again?
• I'll write and write and never sell?
• I haven't found my voice yet?
• All of my work is a joke?
• I work and work and never improve?

You get the idea. I think I can say with a degree of accuracy that writers can be insecure. It's hard to gauge our skill, ideas, or style in the midst of creation and often, even after. The world is largely quiet in response.

A healty dose of comparison can be good, keeping us on the right track. Too much comparison will keep you from writing the stories you have to tell, even those really, really bad ones.

Writing is risky. There is no guarantee others will like it or even you will like it. You might end up looking foolish, untalented, perceptive, or great. Comparisons can only get you so far. It's only when you're willing to move away from the security of comparison (because even though it can be discouraging, it can also feel very safe), you'll be able to tell the story you need to, in all its wonderful (or terrible) glory.

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Author: Rachna Gilmore (on JOMB)
Illustrator: Renne Benoit
Published: 2006 Second Story Press
ISBN: 1897187122 Chapters.ca Amazon.com

They say comparison is the source of all suffering. Yet, while we can usually resist comparing one child to another, most of us are guilty of the occasional contrast between our children and our former — possibly imagined — selves. This hilarious and delightfully ambiguous book allows us to chew on and chuckle at this perennial parental ploy.

Tags:childrens book, comparison, memory, parenting, Podcast, Rachna Gilmore, Renne Benoit, review, When I Was a Little Girlchildrens book, comparison, memory, parenting, Podcast, Rachna Gilmore, Renne Benoit, review, When I Was a Little Girl

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Also of interest in the Book Industry Study Group press release on the future of ISBN-13s is the fact that the International ISBN Agency will eliminate language prefixes in the 979 world.

As it stands, ISBN-10s that start with 0 or 1 are from publishers in English-speaking countries (e.g. the US, UK, Canada), e.g.:

0887394302, The Chandler Apartments by Owen Hill, Creative Arts Book Company, Berkeley, California

Those that start with 2 are from French-speaking countries (e.g. France, Belgium, Canada), e.g.:

2070754618, Cher Jean Renoir by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, Gallimard, Paris

Those starting with 3 are from German-speaking countries (e.g. Germany, Austria, Switzerland), e.g.:

3257016581, Der Kontrabass by Patrick Süskind, Diogenes, Zürich

Most countries don’t fall into the national groups, and have their own blocks, e.g. Bangladeshi ISBNs start with 984.

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The global book industry has been slowly moving toward full ISBN-13 compliance.

According to the Book Industry Study Group, the International ISBN Agency will issue its first 979-prefix ISBNs in early 2008.

All traditional 10-digit ISBNs can be represented in a 13-digit form, by prepending 978 and recalculating the last digit:

0007149824 -> 9780007149827

Conversely, You can work back from any 978-prefixed 13-digit ISBN back the the 10-digit ISBN, by removing the 978 and recalculating the last digit:

9780007149827 -> 0007149824

But 13-digit ISBNs that start with other numbers, like 979, can’t be converted back down to 10 digits:

9790007149827 -> ?

The first 13-digit ISBNs on the market have been 978s, easily convertible back to 10 digits. This made it easy for many businesses to get started dealing with 13-digit ISBNs; they could just rewrite them as 10-digit ISBNs and keep going.

But with the introduction of 979s, there are no shortcuts anymore. Publishers, booksellers, distributors, libraries, collectors — anyone at all who uses ISBN codes — will need to be able to accommodate the new 13-digit ISBN. The transition’s taken much longer than initially planned; it’ll be interesting to see if it’ll be pushed back even further as 2008 approaches, as it’s been before.

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