Happy October...

I am not condoning drinking until you puke... laughing until you puke is a whole 'nother story! See my contest in the last post...it's a great one! You can win an ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATION by Moi! I was sitting here, minding my own business. Being a writer. Not bothering anyone while trying to edit a manuscript until I heard men yelling... A giant hole is being cut into the basement wall of my house as I type. We are adding a daylight window and of course they come during nap time... Most children can't sleep with a jackhammer vibrating every surface of their living space. But he's sick so I think Dimetapp is keeping him intoxicated enough to ignore the "JJJJggggdddddt JJJJggggdddddt" going on below my feet. Trying to get into the zone. The writing zone. The vibration in my office makes me have to pee. I get distracted easily...I think I have adult ADD. Yeah, cuz now I am thinking about ice cream. I am working on a great picture book that will dispel a mystery about something you may never have considered being a mystery! It's set in a Saloon...and that's all I am sayin'! (Grrrrr. Phone is ringing. Friends IMing. And a partridge in a pear tree!) Anyway, my sweet "mammau" (grandmau) was Pennsylvania Dutch...we live in Amish Country...and she had the funniest reasoning behind the most mundane things. Things you NEVER thought you cared about, until she told you the reason it happens. Then you spent the next 9 days thinking about it! (oh, crap...I forgot to email my editor to tell him which humor column to use for this Friday's paper! Emailing.....) So, anyway ("JJJJggggdddddt JJJJggggdddddt") I submitted my manuscript to two different critiques at the SCBWI conference I attended last weekend and got some amazing reviews and tips! A group of 10 esteemed writers made comments and scribbled ideas. And Caroline Abbey from Bloomsbury USA Children's Books and I had a one-on-one and we chatted about my idea. She loved the idea for my book which thrilled me to no end. I wasn't as excited for me as I was for my Mammau. It's her creativity that tells this story, I am just the vessel this time. A vessel with creative license, of course. So, needless to say, I have been editing non-stop since Saturday night. I have had my manuscript in the sandbox, in the driveway with sidewalk chalk, on the couch and dare I say, the toilet! (LOL! My mom will just DIE if she reads this!) I have cut about 400 words, gotten rid of an underlying theme that was making it difficult to follow and I am now changing around the characters. This is why I love writing! It gives me goosebumps! I am very excited to get Mammau's words into print. Kids will love her story. OK....enough "JJJJggggdddddt JJJJggggdddddt" I have to go do something....sheesh!