Happy Halloween

My mom's favorite holiday. My favorite holiday. My daughter's favorite holiday. AND my granddaughter's favorite holiday.

I wish you the best frights, the biggest candy-eating bellyache, and the most fun ever.

Life is frightening!

Great Link

A little newsletter-type thing that I've been getting via emails for the last few years. I'm embarrassed to say that I've often NOT had the time to read them. There is a truckload of info in this little newsletter. It comes out of  the University of Wisconsin.

http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/extrainnings/

A couple things I'd like to share that really impacted me in the latest #25 letter. There was a cute little story about a magic pen and if you bought and used that magic pen, you would be a writer. I got a kick out of it. I know better. It's me and my Muse that write. :)

One of the best things in this issue is:  "Oft-overlooked rules of English." Page 3. Quite fun! My favorite, being as I'm from Ohio and I think we are born to do this, is Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. In Ohio - they are! Another favorite is: One should never generalize.  In a sentence, the nouns has to match the verbs. You get the idea.

I liked Perry "Paw Joe" Stone's column. He does what I do, which definitely makes me his fan. He writes and then immediately edits. Sometimes he only writes a paragraph or a sentence and then edits. Made me feel better about myself.

Norma Sundberg wrote: A friend listened to me going on and on
about my publishing success and said, "Oh! we all know you like to brag!" “NO, I told her. It's called MARKETING! And we all know that marketing is a whole 'nuther world' altogether??!!

I very much like this thought - mostly because I feel a bit self-aggrandizing when I'm telling folks about 'Blue.' But now I understand. I'm just MARKETING!  :)

Life is such fun.

Closing Libraries

I'm getting a little nervous here. As a writer. But more than that...

The schools in my state are just dying - one by one. They've cut sports, transportation, music, art. Today I learned some schools in my area are going to close their libraries.

As an author, this sounds like a death-knell for any hope for future readers. Yet, putting myself aside, I weep for our children. 

With the resurgence in reading after the Harry Potter series started, I had hoped that children would feel the love for a book that I did and still do. 

Parents are out of work and food is hard to come by. What priority do books have when the basics of life are tenuous? When children live out of cars? When a federally-subsidized breakfast is the only meal a child will have in a day?

We must change. We must remember that art is worth the cost. That a society without poets is doomed. Somehow, children must be nourished, physically first, and then mentally, spiritually, and morally.

Life is learned.

Center Of Gravity

When a child is growing, their center of gravity changes. Truly! When you're one height and one weight and then change in a matter of days/months, as little ones do, then the center of gravity changes. It takes awhile to get used to a new center of gravity. The body has to learn to walk differently. To bend lower. To squeeze through. That’s probably why toddlers stumble a lot. Clumsy kids are probably not clumsy, just dealing with a new center of gravity.

When I hurt myself or have a debilitating illness, my center of gravity changes because I do things differently to compensate. I KNOW I had a different center of gravity when I was pregnant!

So – does this mean that I, as an author, have a center of gravity, too? Perhaps there is an emotional center of gravity. Perhaps there is a spiritual center of gravity. When I struggle with a story I’m working on? When the character seems to have twisted herself into something totally NOT what I’d thought? Are these the results of center of gravity changes?

I think I’ll accept this and not be so hard on myself when I’m struggling. When the Muse seems to have flown to New Zealand for the year!

Life is challenging.