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Happy Birthday To Me!  Daniel the Draw-er FREE 6/21 and 6/22!

6/20/2014

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Tomorrow is my *mumblemumblemumble* birthday, and Sunday is my husband's birthday (though I'm not afraid to say how old he'll be--37). 

To celebrate, I want to give a gift to YOU. "Daniel the Draw-er", my imaginative Children's/Middle Grade book, is free for download from Amazon on 6/21 and 6/22!

Please share with kids and adults alike. I know I might be a liiiiittle bit biased, but I know you'll enjoy it. :-)

CLICK HERE to go to Amazon!

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This is a cake. Cool, right? I want it.
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Do It Anyway

6/14/2014

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I am the little sister in the mosaic of my family.  With that title comes a certain reputation: the spoiled one, the brat.  I'm sure my siblings would agree with that stereotype.  I even agree.  It's okay.  I've accepted it because, hey, it's okay to be spoiled.  Being the baby also comes with its own set of negatives, though.  Even though I'm mumble-mumble-mumble years old now, I'm still widely viewed as twelve years old.  

As a perennial tweenager, clearly I do not have a career.  How could I?  I'm a child!  All of my years of working with expectant families hasn't counted as a legitimate job.  Writing certainly doesn't count, either, because I write in my pajamas while my kids (and usually other neighborhood kids) destroy my house.  Plus, I like writing.  People don't like their jobs.  That's against the rules.

But writing is what I want to do with my life.  It is what I want as my career, but I don't want to call it my career because that word just sucks the joy out of all of it.  But this is what I do.  

I didn't go to college and rack up student loans to learn how to write.  I didn't intern anywhere to prove myself.  I merely sat down with a laptop and the words in my head and let them fly off into the atmosphere.  Most days it feels like I don't have a clue what I'm doing, but the words are finding other people and doing something so unimaginably far beyond me.  

This is real.  It doesn't feel real at all, but it's real.

Half of my family and a great deal of my friends don't really understand the person I've become.  They don't appreciate the long nights composing sentences and developing characters.  They don't care.  Well, maybe they care, but in that disjointed way someone pretends to be interested so feelings won't be hurt.  Truth be told, they don't have time for books, they'd rather save themselves the trouble and wait for the movie adaptation.  If I waited for these people to open their eyes and see that this is important, even as their 9-5 office job is important, I'd be waiting a long time.  Forever, maybe.  

Is that discouraging?  Sure.  But I don't let it stop me.  I pick myself up, knock the dust off my sandals, and find people who want to support me--and people I will support in return.  My Cartel.  My Skywriters. My posse.  My kindred spirits.
.  
Conditions will never be 100% perfect for me to write, and people in my own village will never fully respect me because they see me that same old bumbling kid, but I'm doing this anyway.  


What about you?  Do your friends and family support your writing or your career goals?
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The Icing on the Cake

6/10/2014

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Today I visited my boys' school.  Two classes and a writing club, to which both of my boys belong.  The woman who runs the writing club began the visit by giving me a plant.  A pineapple lilac or something.  It's purple.  And it looks like a pineapple.  It's a clever name, really.

"I asked your boys if you were a plant person," she said. "They said no."  My boys don't lie.  I used to have plants... until the cats chewed every last one of them to bits.  There's not a sprig of color in my landscaping, either, because DOGS.  And now we have horses in our backyard.  So, yeah, maybe someday I'll try to cultivate life again.  Today is not that day.  Well, except for the really pretty flower thing named after fruit.

The writer's group was great, of course.  There was so much enthusiasm in that small group.  Each of them had written questions on index cards and took turns reading them out loud.  I made my boys blush by sharing the bits of "Daniel" based on them, which may be my favorite part of being invited to the school (but don't tell the boys).  The teacher spun my answers so that they related to concepts she's been teaching the kids.  She left out the part about drinking too much caffeine and popping Cinnamon Fire Jolly Ranchers like they're going out of style.   

The writing group teacher bought copies for each of the kids who weren't able to buy a copy for themselves, so that was really sweet.  I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say that out loud, but she did it.  I liked it.  I'm telling you about it.  

Then we had cake.  Really, really good cake.  Chocolate with that whipped cream frosting.

I may just sign books for her class, like, every day.

Next I spoke with my 10-year-old's class.  They read the whole book, but they asked me to read a section out loud for them anyway.  We agreed that the part about Whiskers in the tree was the perfect section.  I got to talk like a robot and, for a few seconds, a cat spinning on a ceiling fan.  My life is weird.

One of the kids asked how I came up with the character "Annie", Daniel's best friend.  For several years, my son had only one very good friend, a girl who is still in his class.  When I told the kids that I had based Annie on a girl they knew, I had to quickly make sure they knew she probably didn't eat worms.  

I've said my life is weird, haven't I?  Just checking.

My next stop was my eight-year-old's Second Grade class.  They had only made it through eight pages of the book because their teacher hadn't been able to do more than that due to multiple family emergencies the month before.  As expected, the kids weren't very excited about me being there.  One girl, who spoke in a cute little whisper kept mentioning something about her mom writing a book about ninja ballerinas?  At least, I think that's what she said.  It was hard to hear over the class next door's Kidz Bop version of "Fireworks".

The teacher gave me her microphone thing and let me read a couple chapters of the book.  Once I did that, the kids were much more excited about me and "Daniel the Draw-er".  I got to use my acting skills to read as Daniel, Annie, Whiskers, Pi-zzabot, Tommy, Lila, Ms. Konkle, and Mr. & Mrs. A.  It made me miss drama class.

One of the boys from the writing group was there for the reading, too, and he was actually finishing my sentences as I was reading.  Like, from memory.  

Wait.  Do I have a fanboy?  Because I really want some fanpeople.  That's awesome.

All in all, 19 books found their new homes, and that makes me happy.  I'm pretty sure it would have been more with more notice (or with more reading), but it was a good--and long--visit anyway.

And I got cake.  Thumbs up, friends.  Thumbs up.
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Good Book Day

6/1/2014

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A local fourth-grade teacher read Daniel the Draw-er to her class recently, and invited me in to talk with her kids. I had no idea what I was doing going into this thing, but my friend Courtney helped me make bookmarks and I ordered extra copies of my book.  Just. In. Case.

Last night I went to Kohl's to pick out a new shirt to wear.  It took me an hour.  How come the size I need in the shirt I like is always gone? Like, always.  So annoying.  And then I wake up and my friend texts me to ask if I want to wear my pajamas into the elementary school for my talk because it's pajama day at the school.
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Well, okay. I'll wear the cat pants... If you insist.
So I squeeze myself into my cat pants.  The picture isn't so great, but they are basically the best pants ever.  What's not to love about space cats?  On your legs!!  The lady in the office pauses a few seconds before deciding we probably aren't as shady as we appear in my cat pants and Courtney's owl jammies.  Muahahahaha!  My plan, she works!

While the teacher brings the kids back to the classroom, we admire the projects on the classroom walls.  "Who is your favorite character in DANIEL THE DRAW-ER? And why?" and " What would you draw if you had a magic pencil?"  Courtney's especially happy with these projects because one kid gave Octobear purple tentacles (which is totally crazy, because everyone knows they're green!).  I just think it's awesome because the kids had projects.  About MY book.   

I begin by telling the kids that I had, once upon a time, been a student in their elementary school; and when I wrote the playground scene from the book, I'd pictured their playground.  None of the play structures from my era remain on their current playground.  That's a little sad, but the kids think it's cool that their playground is famous.  And, of course, I tell them about the earthquake that cracked the sidewalk behind the school.  I forget to tell them about the petrified green been that's been clinging to the cafeteria ceiling for the past forty years, though.  Next time...

The teacher asks me about my writing process. I'll have to work on my answer for next time, because I don't think mine is currently all that great. She uses my answer to emphasize the importance of revising and having friends look over your work. Then she lets the kids ask questions.  

How did you come up with Whiskers?
Was Annie based on someone?
How do you make your characters sound different?
How do you think up these characters?
When did you publish your book? 

And, most importantly, will there be another book?

Yes, there will be another book.  <cheers>.  And when I hint about what Daniel's up to next, their hands shoot up with all of their ideas.  So many ideas, and several of them fall very close to what I have in mind. That's pretty impressive.

Then the kids--nearly 2/3 of the class--buy their books and I sign them.  Heck, Courtney even signs a few because the kids know she must be awesome, too (Duh! Owl jammies!).  Each of the kids receive a cool autographed bookmark because I wanted them to have something, even if they couldn't get a book.
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You know you want one.
After that, the kids start bringing me random things to sign.  I sign crumpled scraps of paper, a notebook cover, a pencil case, and I'm pretty sure a contract of some kind, but I'm not 100% on that last one.  A few kids ask me to write notes to their siblings.  One wants me to draw Octobear; another, Whiskers. That's a newbie mistake because then ALLLLLLL of the kids want me to draw something, and there just isn't enough time. I would've done it if there had been time.

Before the kids run off to lunch, one boy drops a note in front of me.  On his note, he thanks me for coming, then there's a sketch of the pencil from my book cover.  I flip the paper over (as instructed), and he's given me his phone number so I can call him when book #2 is finished.  



"Look!  I scored some digits!" I shout to Courtney and the teacher. That's so awesome.

One of the girls tells me she's going to frame my autograph.  "You're her favorite author," the teacher says.  Another boy agrees.  I'm someone's favorite author?  Someone who doesn't know me? Really? Is that possible?

I ask the teacher if I can donate a copy of "Daniel the Draw-er" to the school library, and she says sure, and she'll introduce me to the school librarian.  On the way to the library (and then the office, because the librarian isn't in the library), we pass a neatly-dressed woman exiting the school through the main doors.  I mean, this chick's in a dress, pearls, and heels--the whole nine.  She obviously didn't get the pajama memo.  


The teacher whispers, "that's the head of the township children's library.  Want me to introduce you?"  

Uh, yeah. I wanna meet ALLLLLL the book people. 

The poor prim and proper librarian looks confused by the lady in the totally awesome cat pants (me) handing her an unknown but equally awesome book.  It makes me smile just remembering it.  Oh, cat pants.  Making friends and influencing people, as always.


So, I'm going to go ahead and call that a huge success.

In other news, today I decided to celebrate my first author event by offering the Kindle version of "Daniel the Draw-er" for free for one day only.  So far, 544 people have downloaded it.  
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Resulting in this.
While I wish that meant royalties for me (on 544 copies!  Sweet), what it really means is more exposure for this fun story... maybe a few reviews.  But, really, the sharing is all I'm hoping for.  The more people who read Daniel's story, the more chances I have to make someone smile or prove that someone else can do what I've done.  

My sixth-grade self wouldn't have believed that one day I'd walk into my old elementary school wearing cat pants with my published book tucked under my arm.  
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