FORWARDING ADDRESS

I'm glad you stopped by so I can tell you that

and I am waiting to greet you at my new home

http://www.lindavigenphillips.com

PLEASE EXCUSE THE MESS...

Maybe you can relate to this.  You keep thinking you should do something about that drip in the upstairs bathroom faucet, but inevitably the thought occurs to you when you are flying out the door late for an appointment.  So you forget about it, until one day you come home to a flooded bathroom or leaking ceiling because somebody left that particular sink plugged and well, you know the rest.

I've been thinking for quite a while now that I would like to expand this blog into a full-blown website with a few more bells and whistles.  So yesterday I decided to try linking my blog with Google+ because Google made it sound so advantageous and easy, and then I went out the door without checking the results.  When I came home I found that all the pictures on my blog had disappeared. I took it as a sign that it was finally time to REMODEL.  (If anyone out there has had a similar experience, I would love to hear about it.)

So, pardon the mess while I move on down the road to a new location with expanded features and lots of exciting news about my debut book, CRAZY (tentative title) and WIP, THE SCIENCE PROJECT (working title), as well as a Mind-Full of musings about anything to do with reading,writing, and mental health.

Please check back soon for my forwarding address, and thanks for your patience!

ON THE ROAD

Well, that's a bit of a stretch......I'm not really on the road yet, but I have to admit I do spend some time daydreaming about when I will hit the trail to promote my debut book, tentatively titled CRAZY,  around August, 2014.  In the meantime, I'm keeping busy pushing ahead with the second book.  I'll be talking more about that in future blogs.  

More than one snowflake, Charlotte, 2010

But today why don't you follow me over to my good friend Carol Baldwin's place carolbaldwinblog.blogspot.com and listen in while she asks me a few questions.  I'm honored to be her guest this week.  She's been my best sounding board and writing buddy since 1998, and I'm sure you'll see from her blog how well-versed and talented she is in all things to do with the written word.

HOORAY FOR WNBA

In a continuation of my last blog, I want to say "hats off" to another great organization that is helping me along on my writing journey.  At first glance you might not guess from its name, Womens National Book Association, that there is much in it for writers, but after all, where would a book association be without its supply line?

In my brief association with this organization I have witnessed a wonderful synergy within all the entities in a community that pertain to anything BOOK.  On Feb. 19, I attended a perfect "bookstorm." The Charlotte Writers Club and the WNBA combined meetings to present a panel discussion,  From Book Idea to Bookshelf:  The Process and Business of Publishing.  It was open to the public and full of useful information for writers, readers, lurkers, visitors, and more.

Joyce Hostetter and Chris Woodworth (authors) meeting Lynn Bonner and Trisha Miller (guests)

Here are a few gems I picked up from some of the following panel members:

• Agent Josh Adams, Adams Literary
• We look for a story we love.  Then we will google you and look at your site. For us the site isn't critical but it tells us how serious you are about your work. The author needs to be comfortable with the media process. Do great writing first then support it with your website.  We look for a good personality fit.
• The time frame from acquisition to publication can be as short as a year, but is usually one and a half to two years.  With picture books, it can be two to four years
• Adams Literary always asks the author "what is next"  
• Independent Editor Betsy Thorpe, Betsy Thorpe Literary Services
• Some typical turn down phrases editors might use are:
• not right for my list=we publish "this" but you sent us "that"
• the shelf is too crowded=too many books of this nature are already printed
• we already have a book like this on our list
• too small=not likely too sell over 2000 copies 
• Kelly Bowen, Publicity Director, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• We meet with the author to brainstorm promotion ideas
• Promotion might include book tours, local and national advertising, social media, and platform building (best thing author can do)
• (Kelly shared some unique out-of-the-box marketing schemes here)
• Amanda Phillips, MarComm Manager at distributor/wholesaler Baker & Taylor
• We do corporate marketing
• When an author is on TV or radio and their publisher lets us know, we usually see an order spike
• Independent Bookseller Sally Brewster, owner of Park Road Books in Charlotte
• The sad fact is that there are more books than readers.  Read more books!
• We do sell consignment books (self-published) and we take 40% 

Sally Brewster helps Kelly Brown demonstrate some unique marketing strategies. 

• Lisa Williams Kline, Author the middle-grade novels Eleanor Hill (winner of the North Carolina Juvenile Literature Award), The Princesses of Atlantis, Write Before Your Eyes, and the Sisters in All Seasons series
• Most of my books deal with contemporary stories
• I've had experience with lots of publishers, and my first two books were not agented
• I am shy on Face Book, but I do guest blogs and always accept appearances
• Volunteering at writers organizations (like Charlotte Writers Club and WNBA) helps make contacts
• I have a web site but I don't blog.  I do what fits my personality
• Independent Book Marketing, Sales and Promotion Consultant Susan Walker
• Kudos to Susan for a great job moderating this great panel

If you love to read, write, think about, order, caress or even sniff books, you probably should drop in on WNBA sometime.  

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS....

I'm working on the second book.  Yikes!  I never thought I'd hear myself say that. It's exhilarating and daunting and full of completely new territory all at once.  In its young life, this WIP already has a history.  It's not the manuscript I took to work on at Lorin Oberweger's Free Expressions Workshop last October.  I trashed that one after the first round of critiques when it became clear that I would waste my time, money, and grand opportunity for professional input by continuing with this book that I knew in my heart wasn't working.

So, in the kind of crazy, frenzied blitz that can only be fueled by the electric atmosphere of a writers' gathering, I wrote two chapters off the top of my swirling brain.  I salvaged the setting of a castle in Switzerland, but I boldly transformed my YA girl into a middle grade boy protagonist, switched the mood from haunting to humorous, and ventured out of my novel-in-verse comfort zone into prose.

I'm currently on chapter 7 and cruising right along......like a cat picking its way around mud puddles.  I suppose it's typical to have doubts about the second book, but MEOWZERS,  these are some pretty deep water holes I'm tiptoeing around.  Will I be able to pull off prose when I've spent my whole writing life buried in poetry?  Will my experience as a mother of twin boys and former middle grade teacher be enough to generate one viable middle grade boy's voice?  Will I be able to sustain a humorous tone after having lived with such a somber first book for so long?

I really don't know if I can pull any of this off.  But the great thing about being a writer is that we are a needy bunch (lol) which makes us extra good at giving and receiving help and support one to another.  I am forever indebted to organizations like The Institute of Children's Literature, SCBWI, the Highlights Foundation, and Free Expressions Workshops for the excellent instructional input as well as the wonderful network of like-minded spirits I have gained.

As the Beatles told us long ago, "I get by with a little help from my friends."  In the writing world, that means opening yourself up to the best support group available and staying open to the possibilities, even if it means trashing a finished manuscript.

SILVER LININGS AND MENTAL HEALTH

The recent movie, Silver Linings Playbook, based on the book by Matthew Quick, struck a chord in me.  Why?  Because my book CRAZY, coming out in 2014, happens to deal with the same subject--bipolar disease--and I was sufficiently entertained and duly impressed with how the movie handled this often delicate subject.

Patrick Solatano, admirably portrayed by Bradley Cooper, is released from an eight-month stay in the hospital with a determined, if not unwieldy, desire to get back on his feet.  He faces a restraining order from his wife because he severely beat up the man he caught her in the shower with when he returned home unexpectedly. He now reluctantly must see a court-mandated therapist and take regular medication.  If this isn't enough, he is ordered to live in his parents' house where his comically OCD father is running an illegal bookmaking business.

While the movie is billed as a romantic comedy, the humor depicts the often painful and embarrassing events surrounding mental disorders discreetly and realistically.  In fact, many realities of mental illness pervade this movie: Pat's reluctance to take the medication he needs, the existence of similar traits in both father and son, the gravitational pull that often exists between two neurotic/psychotic people (Pat and Tiffany, beautifully portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence), the benefits of physical outlets (Pat and Tiffany develop a dance routine and enter a contest), and the inevitability of numerous setbacks and regressions along the road to recovery, or at least stability.  

While the happy Hollywood ending is both predictable and oversimplified, I applaud this movie for its depiction of two resourceful people with mental baggage who have the guts to keep working towards better mental health.

I hope when my book hits the stands in 2014 readers will be reminded that better mental health can be a real possibility for those who keep striving towards that goal.

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD...

Now that I have come down from the ceiling (directly related to having landed a book deal) and settled onto firm ground once again, I have had a chance to reflect on the journey thus far.  The Beatles would affirm that it was "a long and winding road."  

Perhaps my trek could be useful to some out there who have set out on a similar journey.  For those who have already traveled this road, it might be interesting to compare notes.  Here are just the facts, ma'am (relying on memory in many cases because, as you will see, the journey was long and arduous):

• 1994 - Sitting under a palm tree on Myrtle Beach, while my husband watched our twin boys, I wrote a poem called "Oceanography," a cathartic exercise in dealing with my mother's mental illness
• 1996 - "Oceanography" published in The Texas Review
• 1994-2004 - Numerous poems dealing with the same topic were written and published in various literary magazines.  
• 2004-2006 - A collection of twenty poems materializes, and writing buddy Carol Baldwin suggests that they need to be a book.
• 2007 - Work begins on the first draft, called Breakdown
• 2009 - Attend the Highlights Foundation Writers Workshop at Chautauqua, NY and work directly with Patti Gauch, retiring senior editor of Philomel Books
• 2010 - Sign with Julia Kenny, agent at MarksonThoma Agency in New York
• 2011 - Revision requested by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company on YA novel written in verse titled CRAZY 
• 2012 - Receive 3 offers within 2 weeks, sign with Eerdmans for a 2014 publication date

If you are good at math, you already know this process spanned eighteen years. Eighteen years!  I feel like this has to be some kind of record.  Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.  But hopeful writers listen up.  Life went on as usual for most of those years, with full-time teaching, full-time kid raising, and full-time being a minister's wife.  I would have to say that the last year of waiting was probably the nearest I got to pulling my hair out, sitting on pins and needles, chewing my nails to the quick, being totally driven to distraction.  Perhaps if it had been fewer than eighteen years, I may have been able to eliminate a few of those cliches!  

But I write this to ENCOURAGE all writers out there.  If I can wait eighteen years you can stay the course, whatever your course may be, and all the while keep believing in your work.  

AT LAST....

You know the old 1941 song made famous by Glen Miller, sung by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Beyonce.  Its love song lyrics go like this:

At last my love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song.

It goes on to say:

I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I could call my own......

Writing a fiction book is a lot like entering a love relationship with a real, live person.  You certainly have to get inside the character to the point that he or she becomes real, and you have to love that character through and through.  That's the writing part.  Then, you have to find an agent and/or a publisher who falls in love with that character.  That's the hardest part.  And all the while, you have to hang on to that dream that drove you to the writing and carried you through the desolate days, weeks, and months of waiting for someone in the world out there to connect.

This is my official announcement that my YA novel written in verse, CRAZY, will be published by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company sometime in 2014. Today I've been running around the house like a mad woman singing this song, because the tune is as seductive as a contract offer, and the words lilting enough to lift my feet right off the floor.

I have lots more of the process that I want share in the days and weeks ahead. But for now, I simply want to bask in the warm glow, give all the glory to God, and keep on singing AT LAST......

HERE WE GO AGAIN......

So here I am on pins and needles (feels more like daggers and spears) once again because my yet-to-be-published book CRAZY is making an appearance at yet another acquisition committee.  The first time around my agent wooed a larger, well-known house into "loving" my book onto the acquisition committee, only to leave me dangling indefinitely.  Still dangling I am, while their last word many months ago was "everyone at BLANK HOUSE loves this book."  Go figure.

At my agent's suggestion I have spent the past several months knocking on smaller doors without her representation and have landed once again on the chopping block, er acquisition committee.  This time, along with the full manuscript, they requested a marketing plan and have used words like "interested in publishing.....looking forward to working with you."

Should I be excited or filled with dread?  Should I bask in the fact that someone wants my manuscript (or do they)?  Will this time be any different than last time?

These questions swirled in my head this morning when Augusta Scattergood's blog found its way to me (thanks to my good friend and writing buddy Carol Baldwin.)  The post is titled Celebrate Everything, and in the writer's world, that means even rejections accompanied by a personal note (as opposed to no note at all or a stock phrase:  Doesn't fit our list.)

Thanks, Augusta, for reminding us that every step along the way has value and is worthy of celebration if we just pause to consider how far we have come.

Bring it on, Acquisition Committee #2.  I'm ready for whatever you have to say (but please, could you make it snappy?)

Self-publishing or Not, That is the Question....

Recently I had the privilege of speaking to a group of writers at the Charlotte Write To Publish Group. They invited me to talk about my experience acquiring an agent, so I gladly stepped up to the plate and gave them the full monty.  I traced my humble publishing history from Sunday School supplements to write-for-hire curriculum, to adult poetry, to my yet-to-be-published YA novel, CRAZY.

I talked about the time and money I have poured into professional critiques, workshops, and conferences to fine tune my manuscript.  I described my 4-month quest to snag an agent. I detailed the grueling year-and-a-half of rejections, close-calls, near misses,  agonizing waiting and elevated blood pressure. And I bravely divulged that my agent and I have come to the recent conclusion that I should launch my own search targeting small, independent presses who do NOT wish to see an agented piece of work. The writers listened politely and showered me with intelligent questions in the end.

Then I sat back and listened to them share their stories, and one after another they unveiled their self-publishing or subsidy publishing journeys.  Someone passed around a shiny finished product, another shared pieces of his glowing Kirkus reviews, and yet another outlined the ease and efficiency of getting her book edited and uploaded.  I listened politely, asked intelligent questions, and left with my head spinning.

This morning I woke up with a gross WHY headache.  Why am I doing this to myself when I could take half the money I was going to spend for yet another workshop, go to CreateSpace.com and within hours be on my way to published bliss?  In fact, with a little design savvy I could click my manuscript into the published realm before dinner tonight without spending a pretty penny.  Why not?

Fellow writers who have gone this route, please hear me.  I am not bashing you, your work, or the choices you have made.  Quite the contrary, for the first time in my writing career, I am seriously asking myself why not?

My head is in a muddle, but I'd love to hear from clear thinkers out there on either side of this slippery slope.

AN ANGELIC OPPORTUNITY

On this fascinating sojourn to find a publisher for CRAZY, my Young Adult novel written in verse, I find myself launching into new territory.  Backing up a bit, I have worked with an agent for the past year and-a-half to no avail.  While she loves my book and has found a publisher who also claims to love my book, no contract offer has been made, and the hope of one coming in any time soon is fast waning. The tight state of the writers' market these days, particularly for Young Adult fiction, is a whole topic for another day's discussion.  

But getting back to the here and now, my agent has become a friend and advocate who has agreed to look over any contract offers I might land on my own and to help with foreign rights should this book ever make it to the shelves.  So I find myself once again polishing up the queries and cranking out the submission lists, something I mistakenly thought I could abandon forever once I landed that agent.  

My intention here is not to invite you to a pity party, but to join me in a new venture which is the exploration of e-publishing and alternative markets.  As luck would have it, one of the first days out on this new trail I snagged the interest of Tod Davies,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivvoM-5FR5A, publisher of Exterminating Angel Press and its e-magazine by the same name.  And no, neither she nor her site is about eliminating heavenly beings, and I'll leave it up to you to discover the origins of this unique name.  She has invited me to share some of my work from CRAZY. If you will go to http://exterminatingangel.com/ and click on EAP: The Magazine at the top, my piece called "Beth's Opinion" is listed in the column on the right.  It wouldn't hurt my feelings if you "liked" it and I will love to receive comments here, since that option is not open on the site.

Thanks for joining me on this arduous but ever-fascinating journey!  

AFTER THE HIATUS

I'm back.  It's been almost a year.  I told myself I wasn't going to blog again until I had something substantial to blog about.  So I retired from teaching.  That may not be substantial to you, but it is major to me.   Today, as a matter of fact, would have been my first official day back in the classroom.    So I set the alarm for 6:00, in spite of the advice from other retirees who said I should never have to set the alarm again.  I was at my desk by 8:00, well.... maybe closer to 9:00 by the time I read the paper.

The point is, I am now Writer-in-Residence-at-My-House, and I made it to work almost on time this morning.

I'm not at all sure about the substantial information I am going to write about, but I can tell you this:

I will be writing about writing
and writing to make it right
and righting as many wrongs
as I can
through writing
and writing the right way
if at all possible
and sometimes maybe
writing
just to be writing.

You're brave to be hanging in there with me.

I'll see you at my next substantial post.

Writer-in-Residence-at-My-House,
Linda

CLIMBING TOWARDS SUCCESS

Every year at about this time, we take our sixth-graders on an overnight camping excursion to a nearby YMCA facility.  For some this is a first-time experience, and a big part of our planning is dedicated to relieving the anxiety and answering all the questions about the unknown.  This is especially important for our 26 students, all of whom have some form of a learning disability, usually dyslexia and/or ADHD, which is often accompanied by anxiety.

It's no small task putting it all together and pulling it off successfully, but the rewards are worth their weight in gold.  These are some of the nuggets I came home with.

The group really struggled to line up according to their birth dates in an opening team-building exercise.  One boy solemnly informed the facilitator that he was dyslexic and therefore unable to understand positional directions.  The facilitator glanced somewhat desperately towards us teachers before plunging into the next task, which required that all the students line up on two long wooden blocks with one foot on each block.  They were instructed to take ropes attached to the blocks in their hands, and work together to move both blocks across a field while still standing on them.  The same dyslexic boy quickly took the lead position on the blocks and effectively got the team organized and moving towards their goal in no time.  By the way, one of his directives involved instructing the students on the use of left and right feet!

In another team-building activity students had to take turns moving through a maze made of roped off squares on the ground.  They were not allowed to talk until the whole team got through, and every time a student made a wrong move he had to go to the end of the line and start all over again.  Slowly the students began to figure it out.  The pay-off came in watching the quicker students gently and patiently use silent communication to coach the others to the exit.

Perhaps the greatest number of triumphs happened at the climbing wall this year. Student after student overcame various degrees of fear to meet goals they set for themselves.  Some wanted to get to the edge of the first ladder, others to the top platform.  One particular student who has overused the word "can't" in the classroom delighted us with a comical and self-assurred account of how he was overcoming "dangerous conditions" all the way to the top.  I'll look forward to reminding him of his successful climb the next time I hear "can't."

My pockets are weighted down with golden nuggets today, each a small victory in a special student's climb to success.

RADICAL INDIVIDUALISM

The ups and downs of the first full week of a new school year have come to pass and with it, a sigh of relief.  At least now we can begin to establish a routine and settle into some semblance of normalcy.  But that old word--normal--dogs me once again.  Many of the students in the learning disabled population where I teach want nothing more than to blend in, to become like the rest of "them."  Yet sadly, many arrive with fresh wounds having been inflicted by "them."

So ironically, I marched through the week finishing a book featuring one of the most radical nonconformists in young adult fiction, Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli.  Her real name was Susan Caroway, but one of the many names she created for herself was Stargirl, because "I didn't feel like Susan anymore."  She arrived at unspectacular Mica High with an array of long hippie-like skirts, accompanied by her pet rat and a ukulele for singing happy birthday without an invitation to anyone and everyone.  Put off at first, the students began to warm up to her random acts of kindness and her infectious enthusiasm.  Largely due to her cheer-leading charisma, bottom-ranked Mica High was headed for the basketball championship for the first time in years when things fell apart.  Stargirl not only cheered for both teams at games ("I root for everybody"), but when a star opponent became injured, she rushed onto the court to help him.  Overnight the entire student body turned against her.  They shunned her. There was no turning back, even when Stargirl made a brief and painful attempt to look, act, and sound just like "them."

While Spinelli doesn't sell himself as a Christian writer, returning an angry slap in the face from a jealous cheerleader with a kiss on the cheek is right out of the New Testament.  If you don't go with the Christian theme, you might be tempted to swing to the other extreme, wondering why Stargirl didn't have a total and complete mental collapse, so unpredictably, out-of-this world crazy she seems.

So at the end of this long first week of school, I look at my sweet students and want to say "go for it!"  Be who you are.  Don't let "them" ever stop you or try to remake you into someone you are not.  And I look at myself as a teacher and writer and wonder, how willing am I to step out there and be so different, so innovative, so creative beyond imagination, so other-directed that my own sense of normalcy becomes significantly redefined.

Radical individualism.  If you've had a brush with it, I'd love to hear from you.

RENEWED PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE

Summer as we teachers know it is drawing to a close.  In order to make the journey back to the classroom more palatable every year, I go through a systems check to assure myself that I did, indeed, accomplish all the items on my hearts-desire list for one more summer.  

Inside painting: check; closet purging: check; deep cleaning: check; renewing a bicycling sport: check; seeing my first book published: negative.  As Jan Karon would say, "there's the rub."  After ten months of being shopped around by my agent, my book, CRAZY, has yet to find a taker.  I've had close calls, and wonderful affirmations by reputable, big-name publishing houses, but in an increasingly tight publishing market, my book is risky.  Written in verse, set in the sixties, dealing with mental illness, it lacks all the earmarks of blockbusters these days such as dystopian themes, werewolves and sexual innuendos.  Those, of course, are all the reasons why my agent loves it. 

My woe-is-me outlook took a wonderful upward turn when I attended my 45th high school reunion at pristine Lake O' the Woods in Oregon last week.  To begin with, you can't walk in a grove of ponderosa pine and douglas fir, paddle on a lake at the base of a snow-capped dormant volcano, and watch bald eagles cruise overhead without experiencing the blessings of this life, and the insignificance of our own petty concerns.  

And then there is the human element.  My best girlfriends and I picked right up where we left off years ago, sharing laughter and tears, heartaches and triumphs, now peppered with inevitable health issues.  Twenty percent of our class of just over 400 is now deceased, and many, we learned, were facing serious or life-threatening health concerns.  But hope and a zest for life prevailed, and we fed off of each other's thankfulness and determination to live life to the fullest as long as we can.  One friend said she works on "gratitudes" each day, and in our short weekend together, it became a theme.  

No, I didn't accomplish all my goals this summer.  But I think I came away with a greater appreciation of who I am and where I am in life's journey.   As I lay in wait for this sunset picture, dragonflies danced around my head, fish jumped just off the dock, and bullfrogs rehearsed for the nightly concert.  There's a whole lot of living going on each day before that sunset, and as a teacher, writer, wife, mother and grandmother, I promise not to waste a moment going forward.

Renewed perspective on life:  check.

SWEET DREAMS

It's half over.  Exactly one month from today.   I avoid looking at the calendar because that's just way too in your face.  I try to ignore the way the clock seems to be racing on its own time-warp schedule, getting louder and more menacing as it tickety-tocks my carefree days away.  But there is one reminder,  regular as clock-work about this time every summer, that is totally out of my control.

The inevitable back-to-school nightmare syndrome!

It was that typical first day when the little darlings arrive so fresh faced and eager, unaware that their fully rested and rejuvenated teacher has already been launched into overload by too little time in her room, too  many new programs to learn, and too little sleep the night before.

I arrived late and discovered that I had left something vitally important in my car. Whatever it was, I simply couldn't do first day without it.  I raced back to the parking lot, just on the edge of the campus that resembled a cross between New York City and Disneyland, only to find that I simply could not remember the way back to my room.  Who knows how long in dreamland it took me to find my way out of the maze but thank heavens for quirky coincidences.  I spotted my fellow teachers at the football stadium along the way and suddenly remembered it was the opening day assembly.  My luck continued when my colleagues, gathered in a tight cluster in a dark corner at the foot of the stands, assured me they had covered for me, and my class was in good hands.  No admins in sight.  Whew!

"Where are my students?"  I inquired with relief and a good bit of curiosity.

"Students?  What students?  We're just here to watch the game.  Have a beer!"

Wow, I thought.  School start-up has really improved.  This is going to be a great year.

I somehow found my way to my room and was further delighted to find not one, but two brand new state of the art computers.  I must be dreaming, I thought.  I remember only putting in for a new power cord on the wish list.  Suddenly someone down the hall said they saw a cloud of locusts moving across the campus in our direction.

The students have arrived!

By now my computer elation had morphed into panic when I realized my room had no electrical outlets, indeed no electricity, and I had forgotten to prepare a lesson plan.

Give me a few more dreams like this one, and I'll be powered up for another great year!

SUMMER FUN

It's finally here.  Summer.  I'm free as a bird for a precious cluster of weeks and I don't want to waste a minute.

First, I tackled the to-do list, starting with the windows inside and out, upstairs and down.  My husband and I chuckled over our choice of bonding time as we shouted and pantomimed directions through the brightening panes.  Somehow he thought he could get by without the aids (hearing) that day, sort of like one of my students showing up for a field trip without the meds.  I forgave him when the sunshine practically burned a hole in my spotless windows much like horseradish kickstarts a stuffy nose.

Next it was the floors.  Down on all fours Cinderella style until the original colors began to emerge.  Out out, "darn" spots, I commanded. Lady MacBeth couldn't have washed away the sins of the year any better, and Anne Lamott would have been proud of my tile-by-tile technique which reaped some fertile plot points and colorful character ideas as my mind drifted way beyond the floor.

Don't get me wrong.  My idea of summer doesn't translate into a self-imposed hard-labor camp.  It's just that teachers and writers both tend to let things really pile up during school and writing projects, and it makes us feel extremely efficient, well-organized and productive to stir up a bunch of dust once a year (maybe twice) before settling into the fun stuff.

And what about that fun stuff?  First I took one giant leap for woman-kind (at least for this kind of woman) and invested in a smart phone.  I began to experience the length and breadth of my leap when I ran into one of my sixth-grade students at the phone store who escorted me around the displays with sales tips that put the customer service rep (and me) to shame.  This is supposed to be fun?  I secretly vowed to go home and cram like a freshman before finals lest my smart phone outsmarts me.

But the fun event that tops all so far this summer is the resurrection of two nostalgic 3-speed bikes:  my husband's 1966 Rudge and my 1972 Raleigh.  This culminates several years of debate about whether or not anyone could even work on such antiques, and assuming they could, how cost-effective it would be compared to buying new bikes.  It turns out the process was much easier and less expensive than buying a smart phone, and the learning curve just a matter of practice and review.

                                                                 1973 - Queens, NY

                                                                    2011 - Charlotte, NC

Now if I can just stay upright and use the GPS on my Droid to find my way home, I can truly say I am at least as smart as a sixth grader!

NOSE IN A BOOK

I've not had a spare minute to blog the past month because I've had my nose in a book.  The one I just finished writing, that is.  It's my second novel and I've been on a self-imposed fast track, staying up late and getting up early and all of this during the last frantic six weeks of the school year.  Why?  It has to do with trying to get pregnant.  No, wait.  I'd better back up and explain.

We've all probably heard about women who try and try to get pregnant and eventually give up.  They then try adoption, and within a short period of time, they finally get pregnant.  Suddenly they have more of a blessing than they bargained for, but that's a whole other story.  Well, my first novel has been out there seven months now, trying and trying to get published to no avail.  That's with the help of a beloved agent doing her level best to push it.  So I decided to throw all my energy into cranking out a second book, with the hopes that that will somehow magically increase my chances of getting the first one published, or maybe even both. 

I know the metaphor is a stretch, but I can't help it.  Writing books makes you weird like that.

So I decided to give myself a day off, get completely away from it, do something normal for a change.  Here's how it went.

An authentic voice told me to go shopping because the mood in our fridge was empty.  That set  up an inner conflict due to the absence of a theme for dinner.  After a dialogue with my husband I was able to weave several strands together, nicely layered, that set the tone for the entire week.  The plot thickened when the setting on our street became snarled with traffic, and two shallow characters held us all up with an outer conflict, commonly called a fender bender.  My journey ended with a climax when the grocery clerk overcharged me and I had to query her about the validity of her facts.  When I said her numbers weren't right for my list, she lost it, and I fled the scene.  My synopsis of the afternoon didn't hold my husband's interest.

Maybe I should just get started on that third book........

POETRY IN MOTION

Our first grandson is due any day now, and I can't help but reminisce about his father, our son, and speculate about who this precious little boy will become in life. 

The memories.  I still chuckle when I think of some of the antics of Thomas and his twin brother, Jonathan.  Sometimes, quite honestly, I'm embarrassed to admit how they got the best of me, or how inept I was at parenting.  The day one of the parishioners (they are PK's) shook her head in distress and asked if they were "normal."  Another day, waiting my turn in line at the bank, the teller shuffled the requested cash and muttered tersely, "do they ever shut up?"

In spite of my parenting foibles, I am proud to announce how wonderfully they have turned out.  And ironically, they both put those talkative tendencies to great use.  Tom is an inspiring and eloquent Bible teacher, and Jon is a prolific and creative composer and songwriter.

Now bring on my first grandson!  As my husband always said during the most boisterous times, "be glad they are not dull." 

In honor of poetry month, and the inventive possibilities that lead to an adventurous and inquisitive life, I offer this poem I wrote some years back for my science students.

BLAST OFF

Mrs. Quiggly, how fast will my rocket soar---?

Not now, Robert, we're on our way out the door.

            Line up, class, with rockets in hand

            Launch day is here, it will surely be grand.

Mrs. Quiggly, if I choose an elliptical path---?

Robert, when you interrupt, you inspire my wrath.

            Now class, listen carefully and follow directions

            Take just a minute for final inspections.

Mrs. Quiggly, do you think Newton made a mistake---?

Robert, Robert, what on earth will it take?

            Gantry over here and fuel over there

            In a matter of minutes, we'll conquer the air.

Mrs. Quiggly, I've got it, I figured it out---

Robert, that’s enough, without a doubt.

HAVE A SEAT BY THAT TREE

AND WAIT QUIETLY FOR ME.

            Now then, class, to the launch pad

            If you've not paid attention, you'll wish you had.

VAROOOOOOOOOOOOM   CABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

YEAOOOOOOOOOOOOOW   CAPOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

            Mrs. Quiggly, Mrs. Quiggly, come qui, qui, quickly

            Robert's upside down in the tree,

            and he's looking awfully funny to me.

MAKING GOOD CHOICES

One of the favorite catch phrases of any good teacher or parent is "make the right choice." It's always a triumphant moment when our children or students make a wise decision independently, but more often than not, a teachable moment or a gentle review of the options enhances the learning experience. 

Co-authors Leah Butler and Trudy Peters have joined forces to launch a series of picture books with the decision-making acumen of six through ten-year-olds in mind.  Leah and Trudy, former magazine publishers, didn't let moving to separate cities stop them from their shared goal of writing for children.  They have co-founded Spencers Mill Press with the ambitious goal of creating a 26-book series much like a set of encyclopedias, with one book for each letter of the alphabet.  Each story deals with a different moral, ethical, or personal dilemma that children in this age group face on a daily basis. 

 

To date, two books have been completed; Andre's Choice: In a Land of Opportunity, and Owen's Choice: The Night of the Halloween Vandals.  With the help of beautiful illustrations and a firefly named T. Winkie O'Toole, the protagonists are thrown into ethical dilemmas such as vandalism, bullying, cheating, changing schools and telling the truth.  Through an interactive format the reader has the opportunity to choose how the book will end and consider the consequences of that choice through a set of follow-up questions.

In an era when too many books blur the borders between right and wrong, who can argue against teaching the right choice at an early age? 

Leah spends time reading in various schools around Charlotte, and can be contacted through their website http://spencersmillpress.com/aboutus.htm.