SCBWI Carolina's 16th Annual Conference Day is Here!

Conference Day is Here! The count down clock is set to mark my first scheduled activity, which is a 10 page critique with Martha Mihalick, editor at Greenwillow. I'll be sure to take lots of notes, and pictures and I'll take time to blog about all the things I learn!!!! I'm so excited. I love conference time! :0)

I Love your blog Award Nominations!

Brenda - has awarded me the "I Love Your Blog" award! Thank you Brenda! That made my day! :0) I do LOVE Brenda's blog about writing and her Going Green tips, but since I'm supposed to pass on the award, I don't think I'm allowed to pass it back to her. but if I could, I would. :0)

Here are the rules...

1) Add the logo of your award to your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.
3) Nominate at least seven other blogs.
4) Add links to those blogs on your blogs.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

And now I get to nominate 7 other blogs for the award...so here goes These are the blogs I love:

YA Fresh = authors Kelly Parra and Tina Ferraro talk up all things YA and have fun contests with book giveaways. They are generous and funny! I love what they do!

The Bookshelf Muse = Becca and Angela probably already received this award, but for all the hard work they do on their emotion and setting thesauraus, they deserve the award again!

Jacqui's Room = Author Jacqui Robbins posts pert' near every day about books, writing and life in general and manages to keep me laughing!

Trees are not Lollipops = This is Kate's blog about life, art and writing. Her title alone captured me! It makes me smile every time I look at her logo. :0) I'm smiling right now just thinking about it.

Roots in Myth = Author PJ Hoover shares tips on writing and insights into her writing journey.

Writermorphosis = I'm proud to say that Janelle is a critique buddy of mine and a very talented writer. She was a Cybils judge last year and writes insightful posts about writing and books. Her last post cracked me up!

Ian Sands = Another one of my critique buddies, Ian is crazy-genius creative! His imagination is inspiring!

Thanks for the great blog-reads guys!

I've been meme'd

I've been tagged in a Meme by Brenda. I'm supposed to tag some people too, so I'll tag Karen Lee, Janelle, Beth, Kathy, Kia, Jacqui, and and I'd tag Ian too, but he never responds to these kind of things . :0P

So, here's my answers

1. What are your nicknames? My brother calls me Chris. That's about it.
2. What game show and/or reality show would you like to be on? I'd like to be on What not to wear. It would be humiliating at first, but to get a $5,000 shopping trip and makeover in New York . . . . . who cares! :0)
   
3. What was the first movie you bought in VHS or DVD? 1st VHS was Bird on a Wire w/ Goldie Hawn and Mel Gibson
   
4. What is your favorite scent? Vanilla or coconut
5. If you had a million dollars that you could only spend on yourself, what would you do with it?
   I'd buy a beach house.
   
6. What one place have you visited that you can't forget and want to go back to? France
7. Do you trust easily? Nope.
   
8. Do you generally think before you act, or act before you think? depends
9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days? What me? Unhappy? No way! I'm a little ball of sunshine! :0)
   
10. Do you have a good body image? nope. I avoid full length mirrors at all costs and cringe when I see a photo.
    
11. What is your favorite fruit? blueberries or strawberries
    
12. What websites do you visit daily? facebook
13. What have you been seriously addicted to lately? skinny Vanilla lattees from starbucks
14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is? thrifty, earth conscious, smart, funny, and strong.
    
15. What's the last song that got stuck in your head? Jenny Says by Cowboy mouth
    
16. What's your favorite item of clothing? Yoga pants and a t-shirt
17. Do you think Rice Krispies are yummy?sure
    
18. What would you do if you saw $100 lying on the ground? first I'd see if it belonged to anyone else. If there were a lost and found, I'd return it. If not, I'd pocket it.
19. What items could you not go without during the day? my laptop, my car and wireless internet. hmmmmm. . . maybe I should forget about becoming Amish.
    
20. What should you be doing right now? There's always stuff that needs to be done, but since it's 11:00 at night, I think I'm safe to say there's nothing else I SHOULD be doing now.
    

Seeing Through the Eyes of a Child: Object and Word Association

As parents or adults, we love to hear the cute ways kids use words in unusual ways. They use words in the way that they understand them. They have yet to learn appropriate context. As writers this gives us opportunity to relearn our world. Break out of the box of appropriate context.

Some recent examples from my house:

My 4 year old uses the word "timber" in place of "fall". ie: "I timbered off the chair."
No, we are not a family of lumber jacks. I have no idea where she got this.


My 2 year old calls polka dots "bubbles"
When I pull out a polka dot dress or shirt she gushes "Oohhhh! I like bubbles!" When I try to tell her they are polka dots, she adamantly exclaims, "No! Bubbles!"

And the other night my 4 year old prayed that her older sister would get 100 percent on her spelling test. Instead it came out "Dear God, please help my sister get 100 tents on her spelling test."


So, here's your creative challenge for the day. Try to think about the words and objects that you encounter throughout your day. How could a child precieve them?

Or please! Share some of your "cute" kid association stories to help get us in a creative frame of mind.

Setting your imagination free! Creative exercise. What turns your creative wheels?

These pictures were snapped a couple of years ago in the early spring. I pass by this location often and I am always compelled to the scene. I've never known why. I get the same feeling whenever I go into an antique store or see any run-down barn.

Most people would see this as an eyesore. But to me, there's something that draws me in. I don't want to live in one, but I sure like to look at it.

Then, earlier this week I was reading a blog post by Kathleen Duey. She posted a picture of some ruins from a trip where she could see one of her characters "shivering" (if I remember correctly.)

Reading her post was like switching on a light! I figured out why I'm so drawn to these locations. Old places: ruins, run down barns, antiques -- they trigger my imagination. There is a story that my mind wants me to see. There are stories in these old places and wheels in my mind start turning, wanting to speculate what might have happened.

I sat down, concentrated on the pictures and let my imagination go free. What was my creativity trying to show me?

This is what I came up with:

olden times scene:
I see a young girl, barefoot with golden pigtails and an aproned frock. Her brother is in overalls putting down his work pale and chasing a frog. Avoiding chores due to the carefree abandon inherent to childhood.

Modern scene: A runaway teen seeks shelter on a rainy evening, but when she enters the abandoned barn, she finds much more . . . . .

There. Whew! My brain feels so much better now.

So, answer me this

what kind of places set your creative wheels to turning? And/Or What do you see in my pictures?

Tutored By the Tale: hooking a reluctant reader

"I don't usually get into Sci-fi." "I don't usually get into ghost stories."

I found myself saying these two phrases this past week after finishing "The Seer of Shadows" by Avi (ghost story) and starting "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary Pearson (sci-fi).

However, looooved Seer of Shadows. Couldn't put it down. And I'm totally inspired by The Adoration of Jenna Fox.

I'm not the only one who has made such statements. So I asked myself "Self, what makes someone like a book that is in a genre that doesn't usually hook them?"

I thought of a blog that I posted a little while back about combining rhetoric and literature to draw a reader into the story. You can click here if you're interested in reading my thoughts on that post. If not. The basic premise was this "Start your story on common ground; a place where the author, characters and the reader find themselves in familiar territory."

Both of these books are perfect examples of that thought. So, I disected the begining of these books to see what they had in common. How do these books create a "common ground"

Here's what I came up with:

Setting: Though none of us have been to 19th century New York, and few of us (if any) have woken from a trauma induced coma, they set the scene in a way that a reader can, at the very least, create their own view of what the scene looks like.

1st Pesron Narrative: I think the books point of view should be whatever tells the story best. In these cases, I think the 1st person narrative was a good choice because it helped me to put myself into the protagonists shoes. 1st person gives us a more intimate knowledge into the mind of our character. It helps put "us' in the story, even though it's a place or a circumstance to which we can not relate.

Hints of what is to come: Within the 1st page of the book there are many hints of what is to come. Although Avi's "ghost" doesn't show up til many chapter into the book, there are a lot of hints and descriptions that set the reader up for what is to come.

Jenna Fox hints at problems, situtation, confict, etc. I'm not finished with it yet, so I don't know what all it hints at. But I know hints when I see'em and them there iz hints if I've ever seen'em! :0)

So, these tales have tutored me in this: Don't whiplash your reader into a new world or a strange circumstance. Start at a place where they can understand, set them up with hints and reel'em in nice and steady. Don't give them whiplash. :0)

Ain't nuttin' like a good book! What are some books that you didn't want to put down?

Make-up is off, pony tail is up, candles lit, pillows plumped, kids in bed, tea is made. I'm ready to dive into a book that I picked up at the library today.

I'm rather excited because I love to read, but I've been in a reading rutt. For the last year my goal was to read at least 4 books a month. Many months I exceeded that goal. I've given up t.v. time so I can read and write.

The problem is, I'm a little burnt out now. I love to read, but for about 2 months I've picked books up at the library. Good books, but I just couldn't get into them. I'd read a couple of chapters, and then return them, unfinished, until I could find a book that would draw me in and capture me. I'm in a mood for that type of book. a "Capture" book

I love a book that can take me away to a different time, a different place. A book that can make me forget the here and now and take me on an unforgettable journey. A book that I get excited to read and don't want to put down. It's been a long time since I've been able to find a book like that. Well, a long time for me. like 2 months.

Dear friends, I am happy to say that I've finally found a book to break me out of my rutt. It's "The Seer of Shadows" by Avi. I'm sure I'll write a review when Im done.

As for now, I don't want to type anymore. I want to get back to my book!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and I was wondering, what are some books that have captured you? Books that you haven't wanted to put down? After all, I'll need some suggestions for when I finish this book (which may be very soon. Like tomorrow.) What are some of your "Capture" books?