Great giveaways are like a weatherman promising a sunny weekend after a month of rainstorms. Exciting with a hint of promises.

And I've come across a 75 degree, light wind, beautiful giveaway.

It includes a copy of Wonder by R.J. Palacio or a 20 page critique of your MG novel by agent Alyssa Eisner Henkin! Seriously, readers and writers alike- who passes up a free book or an agent critique? So go on over to   http://networkedblogs.com/zihvn and enter.



Awesome Advice

I love this video on being creative. In my own writing I feel I am right in the middle. I know when I've written something good. And I know when I've written something that is either not great or merely adequate. But I can't pinpoint what I need to change to make the not great/merely adequate chapters good. 

They say you have to write 10,000 hourse before you understand how to write stories. If I'd known that in the beginning I would have started a log for my hours.

Let the Journey Begin…Again.

The first time I went to a writers conference, Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers, I went not to learn about writing, but because I had absolutely no idea how to go about publishing my BRILLIANT children’s chapter book.

A week later, and the conference over, I had notes and notes about publishing. Notes on the writing too, but who needed that? I already proved I could write with my finished manuscript.

I submitted my chapter book.

Um, turned out my BRILLIANT chapter book wasn’t quite so BRILLIANT. It wasn’t even just brilliant. In fact, it kinda sucked.

That’s when I decided that maybe I should put some time into learning to write.

So for the past six years that’s what I’ve been doing. There have been breaks. Pregnancy squashes the writer out of me. But now that my fourth child is six months the creative juices are flowing once again. HALLELUJAH!

My plan is to post every Saturday since I have The Hubs disconnect the internet during the weekdays so that I write rather than Facebook, email, Pinterest, visit random blogs, and celebrity stalk.

How is your creative journey going?