So, right now I am busy.
I mean very, very busy!
Then, what are you doing writing a blog post, you may ask. Why aren’t you busy being busy?
Good question. Please don’t mention this to my editor. I’m just taking a short rest.

Here is what I am busy doing:

This is a picture of my novel as it looks when I write out a short summary of each chapter on an index card and chart it on a posterboard to look at the pacing of the book in a three act structure:

This is a picture of my novel as it looks when I realize the pacing is off and I must rearrange and condense the end and expand the beginning and generally do a lot of work:

Gulp.

I think my rest had better end.

It’s the cover for THIRD GRADE BABY!
I’m head over heels in love. It’s so much fun to see Polly Peterson on paper.
I’ll tell the truth. She does look different from the way I imagined her while writing, but when she looks so cute, who cares?

The new season of Project Runway has begun! If you are not convinced that this is not your typical reality TV show, then listen to this!

Okay, good. Now that I’m preaching to the choir we can get on with things. I can’t quite decide who my favorites will be this season. Maybe Rami and Victorya.

I just love seeing everyone’s different creative process unfold right before my eyes. And of course, I love finding the ways in which writing is similar to designing. A designer will have an ideal dress in his or her head. Maybe the sketch comes really close to that ideal, but making it out of fabric is another story. It doesn’t drape the way they thought it would. They can’t figure out how to construct it.

Just like writing a book.

Before I begin I hold that ideal book in my head, but it never quite drapes on the paper the way I thought it would. (Thank goodness for revision.)

Author Alan Grantz and his wife, textile designer Wendi have made Project Runway a participatory experience. Over on their blog they are playing along with each weeks challenge using Barbie doll as models…Project Barbie. I read about this fantastic endeavor on Sara Zarr’s blog. (As well as reading about her exciting experiences as a National Book Award finalist. Congratulations, Sara!)

So, a part of me would totally love to participate in Project Barbie. (I have a sewing machine. I sort of know how to sew, and I totally also have pictures of halloween costumes I’ve made to prove it, but, uh, my scanner isn’t working?)

Anyway, I am about to begin a different, rather large project.

Project Revision–in which an author takes 65,000 words and tries to rearrange them, add and subtract from them, hem them, add topstitching and maybe a little ruching and hopefully come up with a book that more closely approaches her mental sketch and also the mental sketch of her editor which she can’t really see because it is inside of her editor’s head but her editor has tried to communicate to her with helpful thought-provoking questions penciled all over the manuscript as though it were muslin. Oh, and also it must look fabulous on and fit all sizes!

If only Tim Gunn would show up at my house, read my manuscript and cheer me on with a “Make it Work.”

Hi all! I’m back from Prairie Writer’s Day, SCBWI Illinois’ fall conference, so excited by all that I’ve learned. (Such as how to stand when I do a presentation, what new books must land on my TBR pile and the way the children’s book publishing world has changed over the past decade.)

Yay for me!!! I remembered to bring my camera!

Shame on me!!! I forgot to take one picture…

Until the very end of the day when, while rummaging in my purse for a business card, I noticed said camera, pulled it out and snapped off a picture the most beautiful cakes I’ve ever seen. The cakes were baked by Chris Vasilakis and eaten in honor of Rosemary Stimola’s birthday.

And they were sooooo good too!

You know I love a good quiz and here’s a great one–What Jane Austen Character are you? I took it and here are my results:

You scored as a Elinor Dashwood

As Marianne’s older sister, Elinor lives at the other end of the emotional spectrum. She rarely reveals her intense feelings and is more concerned with being honest and loyal than having what she deserves. Even though her intentions are pure, she sets herself up for loss by constantly placing other people before her own needs. Overall, Elinor is gentle and rational but is just as capable of radical emotions (despite her withholding them) as her sister.

Elinor has never been my favorite Jane heroine, but even as I was answering questions I knew she was who I’d be. It’s all about the reserve. I have rather too much, I suppose. I guess I’m going to have to take a closer look at Edward. 😉

Click here to take the quiz yourself!

Please let me know who you are!

Goodness, I must have been more tuckered out from the kidlitosphere conference than I thought. It’s taken me almost a complete month to recover and post again. (Well, that and I was lost in a corn maze for a very long time, either about fifteen minutes or eight days.)

So here’s the part with the irony. Guess what am I going to post about? Another conference!

Tomorrow I’ll be attending Prairie Writer’s Day, SCBWI Illinois’ fabulous fall event. I am going to learn all kinds of amazing things about the publishing business. I will glean beaucoup d’informative tips on making my writing stronger. I will hobnob with other interesting and incredibly attractive Illinois writers.

Last year at this very conference my editor (who was not then my editor) asked me to revise the chapter book manuscript I had submitted to her. The very chapter book manuscript that is now THIRD GRADE BABY, actual chapter book.

And speaking of THIRD GRADE BABY, actual chapter book, recently I got to see the actual fonts in which the book will be printed. THE FONTS! And I love them. (I’m not just saying. Fonts are something I care deeply about. As proof, I offer this fact: the most exciting thing I got for my birthday, which was on October 18th–a day when I might still have been in the corn maze–was Print Shop 22 with over 700 fonts! True, it does take a rather long time to scroll through them, but still. The alphabetic variety!)

And then, only days later, I got to see the illustrations! (Yeah, they sort of blew the fonts out of the water.)
It’s so unbelievably cool to see your characters in pencil-created form. Especially extra-extra cute pencil-created form. I can not wait to show you them, but I fear it may still be a while.

Oh, if you think of it, please remind me to bring my camera tomorrow. (I never remember my camera.) If I remember it (and then also remember to take pictures.) I’ll post them for you!

How does one remind oneself to remember things?

Well, I’m chiming in late (the conference was Saturday, October 6,) but I have a good excuse. I was throwing a Transformers party. Both were amazing fun. One was more edifying.

Seriously, my head was stuffed with new knowledge. Bits and scraps were leaking out my ears and nostrils.

The conference was populated by (amongst others) amazingly motivated and generous people who offer up their time to blog about children’s and young adult literature. People who care about kids and adults having the opportunity to read phenomenal books with young people as main characters. And Jen Robinson’s presentation looking to the future of the kidlitosphere made me feel like I was there at the start of something (already big) that’s going to be huge!

It was such fun to get the behind the scenes peak into the world of book reviewing. Now I know how bloggers get ARCs, thanks to Tasha Saeker. I’ve learned that while any contact with print reviewers is taboo, authors can and do have contact with bloggers. (And a little thank you email or comment is nice to do. Good to know, Liz Burns.)
Anne Boles Levy’s presentation on how to write reviews made me fantasize about doing just that. But when the magic sparkle dust of her presentation disappeared, I realized that no matter how nerve wracking it will be, I’m more comfortable as the reviewee than the reviewer.

Pam Coughlan’s tips on how to improve your blog were fantastic, too. But intimidating. I’m not sure I’m up for daily posts yet. (Thank you readers who keep checking back to see if I’ve posted!) Once, maybe twice, a week is all I can manage at the moment. I do actually have to write books, you see. It’s my job! That’s why the blogging for author’s panel was so reassuring. Robin Brande (conference organizer extraordinaire), Barry Lyga and Gregory Pincus discussed this very issue. Blogging is fun, but books come first.

Mark Blevis and Andrea Ross’s inspiring introduction to podcasting got my brain whirring. Look for a top special secret project happening in the next couple of weeks!

The highlight of the day for me was the Meet the Authors session hosted by Esme Raji Codell. It was my first time ever participating in such an event! People asked me to sign the special Planet Esme poster provided just for that very purpose. I got to tell people about THIRD GRADE BABY and about the amazing books of The Class of 2k8. (website coming soon!)

Now I’m almost as tired just writing about the conference as I was attending it. (So tired in fact that me and my writing pals left before the dinner. 🙁 )

Next year the conference will be in Portland. I think I’ll need the whole year to get ready.

I’ve been thinking a lot about teachers lately. We’re a month into the new school year and both my kids love their new teachers. Yay! I’m working hard on creating a teacher’s guide to my first book and also writing my school visit presentations. (Can’t wait to get back into classrooms!)So I thought I’d reminisce about one of my favorite parts of teaching.

I taught preschool and kindergarten and when you are with the under six set not a day goes by when you don’t hear something priceless! Here are my top seven favorite student comments:

1. Child: Guess what! My mom got pregnant this morning!

2. Child (during afternoon recess): Look the moon is in the sky! It must be the Olympics! (He meant an eclipse.)

3. Child (after stowing mittens in the pockets on the front of her winter coat): Look! I got boobs!

4. Child one: What kind of baby do you think your mom will have?
Child two: I don’t know. It could be a boy. It could be a girl. Or, it could be a bunny.

5. Child one: Did you know that when your mom has a baby sometimes they cut her stomach open?
Child two: Eeeeew! They see her food!

6. Child: Did you know that sometimes my mom has yellow boogers?

7. Child: Mrs. Teacher, what’s your name again?

When I was teaching something brought a smile to my face everyday. (Although that happens being a parent and a writer, too.)If I thought I could handle my momming load and my writing load along side a teaching load, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Hat’s off to the many men and women who accomplish this amazing feat!

Any teachers or parents out there have their own great lines to share?

Just a quick post to tell you guys about a neat interview and a neat book.
The book is called Click. I haven’t read it yet, but after learning about it on NPR this morning I sure want to.
The premise is this: It’s a novel with ten chapters each written by a different author. Linda Sue Park, Ruth Ozeki, Gregory Maguire, Tim Wynne-Jones, Nick Hornby, Roddy Doyle, David Almond and Eoin Colfer. (Not too shabby, huh?) The editor is Arthur Levine. (He’s the American editor for Harry Potter.)