A late WOW...but a good one...

It's been a nutsy kind of week. Although most schools have another couple weeks of school left (and some are open until the middle of June), we - thanks to our bankrupt state - are having our last week of school this week. Because of that, I've been running behind, as usual, but I had not forgotten this week's WOW.

So without further ado, the WOW is....

Understatement

Understatement - n. The act or an instance of stating something in restrained terms, or as less than it is.

That having been said...to say this has been a nutsy week is a vast understatement! In between packing and moving my curriculum out of my current classroom, to dealing with my son's 3rd grade play, and MORE baseball...it's taking all my strength just to keep my head above water.

However the school has stopped posting their WOW, starting with this one, so I'm on my own. I've already got my next one for Friday, so I'm a head of the game. Thank goodness!

Have a great week!

Why I feel like Ellen Tebbits....

I originally posted this last September. But in honor of Beverly Cleary's 95th birthday a couple weeks ago, I'm reposting it because it's just as true now as it was then. Enjoy!


Why I feel like Ellen Tebbits . . .
I am a HUGE fan of Beverly Clearly. Apart from not reading Dear Mr. Henshaw, I've read nearly every book of hers out there (including her "teen" books - Fifteen, Sister of the Bride, etc.)

Some of my most vivid childhood memories involve her books . . . Like when I lost my 9th birthday party (don't ask why) but I still got a couple of presents and one of them was Ramona and her Mother. And then there was the time I cured myself of reading in the bathtub when I accidentally dropped my beloved copy of Ramona the Pest and made it 3 times its normal size.

I do have my favorites: Ramona the Pest, Socks, Fifteen, Emily's Runaway Imagination, Mitch and Amy, and my all time favorite . . . Ellen Tebbits.

Last week, during quiet reading time at school, I pulled out a copy of Ellen Tebbits from our class library and suddenly I was 9 years old again. And I realized that of all the Beverly Cleary books I have read, Ellen Tebbits is the only one I could probably recite, part and parcel, the entire story from beginning to end.

And that made me wonder . . . why is that?

After mulling this question over and over in my brain this past weekend, I figured out it probably has to do with how much I identify with Ellen. Then as much as now.

Ellen tries her best to be perfect . . . to do her best at everything. Obey her mother, desperately wants her teacher's approval and is devastated when things don't work out the way she plans.

For better or for worse, that was me as a kid. And to a certain extent, that's me now. The great thing about Ellen is that she does learn from her mistakes.

And just like Ellen, I like to think that I do too. :)

A new WOW! A day late, but not a dollar short!

I was hoping to get this posted yesterday, but with baseball/softball/whatever stuff going on in my life, I didn't get a chance. However, I'm here now....

I'm hoping the WOW for this week has future applications for me since I have less than 3 months until LA!

So this week's WOW is: JUBILANT!

Jubliant: adj. - Feeling or expressing great happiness and triumph.

Now I have had jubliant times that had nothing to do with writing. In fact, I've had quite the opposite experience in many cases - especially when I see that dreaded manilla envelope in the mailbox - but I can tell you the jubliant times I've had related to my writing are the reasons why I'm still writing now.

- Hearing the happiness in my Grandma's voice when I explained to her Grandma's Secret was written for her.

- Getting my first magazine acceptance from Boys' Quest (even though it was going to be 5 years before my article would be published).

- Listening to whoops and hollers my 6th grade class gave me last year every time the teacher told them I was reading to them...and having those same kids come up to me every other day to ask me, "Are you reading to us today Mrs. Aikins?"

- Receiving such a favorable response from an agent last year about Sophia with her telling me, "This was my favorite manuscript of the conference!" - Even though things didn't pan out.

There are many more instances I could tell you, but it is Saturday night and I do have a manuscript to polish for LA...

So I hope you all have a jubliant night and fabulous weekend!

Facebook Vs. Twitter...may the battle begin!

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm hooked on Twitter.

About two and a half years ago, one of my best friends suggested I go on Facebook. We were about to have our 20th high school reunion, and she said it would be a great way to connect with people before and after the reunion. So, I did.

Since then, Facebook has been a great resource for me. Not just in finding long-lost old friends, but also keeping up with long-distance cousins and family members. Then last year, after the 6th graders in my class told me they wanted to keep up with my literary accomplishments, I started my own "fan page". That's been pretty cool, and I have to admit, easier to keep up on than my blog. *cough, cough*

Then last Spring, on the recommendation of several friends and comments from the Kid Lit world, I decided to take the plunge into Twitter. I signed up, and then did nothing.

Within a few days, I found there were a few people following me even though I only made one or two tweets. Of course those people un-followed me and my poor twitter page went south.

For some reason, with the upcoming LA SCBWI conference coming up, I decided to blow the dust off my Twitter account and actually Tweet.

I'm here to tell you I am SSSSSSOOOOOO glad I did!

Within two weeks, I have just over 100 followers, have entered two pitch contests for my YA novels and got the inside scoop on an additional critique opportunity in LA. Plus, I have found a really fun, cool group of peers that I wouldn't have otherwise met.

So am I still using my Facebook, absolutely.

But unless something better comes along, I'm a tweeter for good. If you want to follow me, I'm @elabkwrm.

Have a great night! :)

A new WOW....WOW! :)

I know it's been a while, but I'm finally back to working on my Friday WOW (word of the week). Unfortunately, now that I have only 3 weeks of school left, I only get to borrow 3 more words from our school's marque. So, I'll be back to making them up myself. Bummer!

However, the one of this week is a doozy.

Drum roll, please....

This week's WOW is: SERENDIPITY

Serendipity - (n) The occurance and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

I love this word, because just about everything I have written in the past 15+ years has come out of some sort of event, meeting, or person. I know I've written about this before, so I'll not repeat myself, but I truly believe people and events happen to you (good and bad) for a reason. Serendipity is the word for the good stuff.

Short, sweet, and too the point!

Have a wonderful weekend! :)

I'm back...and hopefully for good!

I know, I know...I've posted this before.

I'm BBBBBAAAACCCKKKK!

Only to have something else in my life come up and screw everything up. And of course when that happens, the one thing that suffers first, is my blog. But no longer. I'm back with a new layout, a new attitude and renewed hope that I will do everything with this blog that I hoped to do...talk about kid lit.

So Hello again! And welcome! :)

An update, baseball, and a WOW . . .

Jeez! I turn around for what seems like a moment, and suddenly nearly two months have gone by with no posts! However I have good reasons . . .

Well, semi-good reasons . . .

To start with, I haven't been able to get much writing done lately. Work, my family, and other obligations have been taking away what little writing time I have. Then there's the fact that I got yet another rejection of a short story I had submitted about a month ago. What made this one so hard was not only the particular story that got rejected, but that I had received some confirmation of the manuscript's receipt and I mistook it as a possible acceptance. I obviously WON'T be making that mistake again. Then I had my picture book critiqued, and I was disappointed in that . . .

Basically, I was not feeling very optimistic about my writing life.

This is where baseball comes in . . .

Baseball is one of my passions. I became a baseball fan when I was about 12 and my Dad took me to Dodgers Stadium for the first time. Then I saw an exhibition game there during the 1984 Olympics. When I started dating my husband when I was 16, I became a SF Giants fan. And have been ever since.

Now if you've spent any time following baseball lately, you'd know the Giants won the World Series this year (on my birthday - November 1st - to boot!), so this past month I have been glued to the TV or the radio listening to all the playoff games (not that I wouldn't have even if the Giants hadn't been there, but obviously I was a little more interested than in past years). So there you go.

Now, time for WOW . . .

I know I'm shifting days, but I wanted to use this last week and couldn't get myself together enough to get it done. So the WOW for the week is . . .

SOURCE : The point or place of which something originates.

Now when I looked up the definition, there were some six different ones, but this one applies best to this post.

All my stories have a source. They come from people and experiences I've had either as a kid, or as a grown-up. But recently I sent the first 250 words of one of my novels to a YA pitch contest and the source of the book came from a familiar place . . . baseball.

When I started seriously writing, I wrote down a half-page story of what it was like to be at the NLCS in 1989 when the Giants beat the Cubs for the pennant and chance to go to the World Series. I wrote down the sights, sounds, and my feelings about what it was like to be in Candlestick Park on October 9th, 1989. Even though we lost the series, that was one of the most memorable games I've ever experienced.

Then in 2002 the Giants went to the World Series. I saw game 5, but we lost the series . . . again.

But during that time, the little bud of an idea started. A year later I told my niece the story of a girl, Cat, who had a passion for baseball but because of a series of conincedences and situations, was dangling between playing baseball and softball. The first thing she told be when I finished the story was , "When is it getting published?" My response was, "I have to write it first Katie."

And so I did.

It took me nearly a year and a half to write the first draft. Then I talked to a writing coach about my concerns about the character development of Cat, and she gave me 3 pieces of advice. The biggest one was for my to write it in Cat's voice.

And so I did.

When I finally finished the "second" first draft, I thought about that short story I ahd written all those years ago and realized, I had written about Cat before . . . in my recollections of that baseball game.

I am grateful for (and to) all the sources of my stories. But I hope this year Cat finally catches someone's eye and will some day get into the hands of some girl or boy who has the same passion as I do.

Until next time . . . have a good week.