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Hi folks! I am giving away a copy of Being Frank on June 14th! Here are the rules for the giveaway: 1. In the comments section below, share a time when you were too honest for your own good OR when someone was too honest with you (keep it family friendly!) 2. Share this post …

IT is almost here! *SQUEE!*

And since you are reading this post… you probably already know what IT is!

IT just happens to be the most fabulicious, wondermous, funkaperfect challenge this side of Gallifrey!

IT is…

Picture Book Idea Month! (aka PiBoIdMo)

Thirty ideas in thirty days wrapped in unlimited potential!

And did I mention there are prizes, too?

So why, oh why, am I stuffing myself full of gluten and chocolate?

BECAUSE….

Right now, all I have is:

1. A blank PiBoIdMo notebook.
2. Two twitching eyes.
3. And a bewildered expression as I stare at the aforementioned blank notebook with my two twitching eyes.

I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my action plan for PiBoIdMo. And though some of my thinking has been helpful… much of it has been less than positive. Here’s a preview of my sordid thoughts:

How in the world will I come up with 30 different picture book ideas in 30 days and still manage to maintain any reasonable semblance of sanity? AAAHHHH!

How will I get all my homeschool stuffs done?
And what about my endless mound of dirty clothes?
Then there’s that whole clothing and feeding the munchkins gig.

And I definitely, positively have to diffuse the Dustbunny uprising happening in my living room.

But the question I should be asking is this:

How am I going to get rid of this stinky thinkin’ and get back to creative thinkin’??

Well…

Pooh Bear had his Thinking Spot.
Henry David Thoreau had Walden Pond.
Doctor Who has the TARDIS.

And I…

I have the shower.

That’s right folks. The shower is where I often go for:

• Refuge,
• A moment of clarity,
• And ideas!

It’s the one place no one follows me—especially if I’ve missed a shower the day before. (Don’t judge me. I have three kids… it happens.)

Matter of fact, the shower is where the idea for BEING FRANK was born! (Seriously. It was!)

So instead of staring at an empty page with twitching eyes and a blank expression throughout the month of November, I’m gonna do this:

1. Jump in the shower.
2. Ignore the soap scum crawling up the walls.
3. Add water and suds…scrub.
4. Pray. Think. Pray. Think.
5. Then try and wrangle the new ideas as they slide across my brain.
6. Rinse and repeat—until all the stink is gone (inside and out).
7. Then, I will hurry to my notebook to jot down the latest idea.
8. And by the end of the month, I will have 30 ideas.

Some of the ideas might be the definition of brilliant…

and some might make me yell, “Why in the world did I think that would work?”

But I WILL STILL HAVE 30 NEW IDEAS!!

Yeah, baby! I like this plan!

Visiting my “thinking spot” for 30 days in a row will afford me the chance to do more thinkin’… and less stinkin’. I want my thinkin’ to smell more like a mountainside full of flowers and less like fertilizer.

So is your stinky thinkin’ clouding your vision for PiBoIdMo? What’s your plan for getting rid of it? Whatever it is, get busy! You have 30 ideas waiting to bloom and break down those walls!

“The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.” ~Tennessee Williams

When Donna isn’t homeschooling or battling the laundry, she’s writing children’s stories, poetry, songs, an mysteries. You might find her fishing the Pee Dee River, hiking in the mountains with her family, or visiting her hometown of Cordova, NC. She lives in Concord, NC, and BEING FRANK is her first picture book. You can find BEING FRANK in B&N, on Amazon, Books-a-million and in most independent bookstores. For more information and reviews, check out Flashlight Press’s website.

WordFest: Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival is an annual literary festival taking place Oct. 9 - 14, 2007 in Alberta, Canada. One of Canada’s premier literary festivals, WordFest 2007 features over 75 writers of local, national and international stature and will attract more than 12,000 individuals.

Children’s and young adult’s literature will be highlighted in the First Calgary Savings Book Rapport Programme. Festival Director Anne Green tells us:

“Book Rapport brings students up-close and personal with their favourite authors, which is a rare and fantastic opportunity for them. Students can hear the authors read, ask them questions, while teachers have a creative way to bring life into literature.”

Anne adds that this year’s Book Rapport Programme offers a superb line-up of KidLit writers, including the following award winning Canadian authors:

Canadian superstar Kenneth Oppel. Oppel, recipient of numerous prestigious literary awards, is the author of the million-copy-selling Silverwing Saga and has more than twenty children and young adult books to his credit. “To have Ken Oppel attend WordFest is great news for Calgary’s schools, students and families,” says Anne.

First nations writer Larry Loyie and his partner Constance Brissenden. In 2003, Loyie and Brissenden won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction for their children’s book, As Long as the Rivers Flow which was inspired by Loyie’s Cree childhood and the true story of his grandmother’s confrontation with a grizzly. As Long as the Rivers Flow is about a First Nations boy’s last summer spent with his family in the bush before being taken to residential school. The second book in this series When the Spirits Dance recounts the dramatic changes to the boy’s life when his father is sent overseas in World War 2.

Quebec writer Michel Noël. Noël has over fifty books to his credit and has written several award-winning books for young people, including Pien, which won the 1997 Governor General’s Award for French language children’s literature. His novel Good for Nothing, winner of the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, takes place in northern Quebec in 1959 and is the story of young Métis who seeks to establish his own identity and find out more about the mystery surrounding his father’s death. The book provides compelling insights into many issues faced by First Nations people during this time (residential schools, racism, land claims etc.) as well as the ongoing struggles of native communities today. Noël was named Citizen of the World by the Canadian Association for the United Nations for his work in seeking better understanding among people.

For those of us who can’t attend WordFest in person, we can still take part! Pop culture writer Hal Niedzviecki will be writing the first official WordFest blog. Niedzviecki describes it as “a gossipy insider look at what’s going on and where to be, what’s not to be missed, who is who, and the opportunity to have your questions answered.”