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It wasn’t even a full 24 hours after I turned in Yes, I Know the Monkey Man before I got it back one last time with copyeditor’s queries. So I took that opportunity to go over the manuscript one last

I turned in Yes, I Know the Monkey Man yesterday. I won’t see it again until it’s typeset, which means…I’M DONE!!!! Except I don’t get real excited about being done. I want to keep tweaking. I could tweak forever. But

So, I was supposed to do this ALAN chat three weeks ago. (ALAN = Assembly on Literature for Adolescents) But the night it was scheduled was the night my dog took a turn for the worst. That was the night

The book will be out next spring!

1. The election is over! 2. Everyone I voted for won! 3. My dog is hanging in there Maybe that’s why I’m finally making some progress on that series proposal? After many starts and half-starts, not to mention downright STOPS,

My dog is doing better again. That sac of fluid on her neck has decreased. She’s actually walking around a little…and she’s more alert and interested in what’s going on around her than she’s been in quite some time. She’s

Our dog took a turn for the worst again this weekend. Our vet is a saint! He lets me call him at home…on a Sunday evening…and assures me it’s okay that I called him. My husband told me Molly was

So, Mary Grand Pre’ (the illustrator for the American version of the Harry Potter books) is in town! Well, she’s not in MY town…she’s in Cedar Rapids. For the next three months, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art will be

1. Last night I took a long walk with a friend. She said, “I’m glad it’s going to be nice tomorrow night.” I said, “Oh, do you have plans for tomorrow night?” (She has a 1, 3, 10 and 11-year-old

One of things we talked about at our authors dinner last night was selling a proposal vs. having a 2-book contract (where the second book is unknown). I’ve never had a 2-book contract, but a number of my most recent

100_6276Originally uploaded by tometrekkers We had a great “children’s writers dinner” in Iowa City last night. Barbara O’Connor (seated on the far right) was our guest of honor. And I’m going to post a picture of us before I forget

I wouldn’t say my dog is back to normal, but she’s definitely on the mend! For the first time in about 10 days, I did not have to carry her outside…she was able to walk on her own. She still

Anybody play Fluxx? It’s a card game where the rules change based on which cards are on the table. There’s a card called “I need a goal!” I keep seeing that card in my mind because…I NEED A GOAL! A

I blogged at Kidlit_Central today. Actually, my friend sarah_prineas did most of the work. I interviewed her, so all I had to do was come up with some questions and refresh my memory on how to post photos. She did

Wow! There are actually people who read this blog! More of you than I would’ve thought…thank you so much for the comments on my last post and for the e-mails. There are a lot of pet owners (and pet lovers!)

That subject line is misleading…it looks cheerful. And I’m not feeling very cheerful right now. It IS like a weekend because I worked all this past weekend (with the exception of the 3-hour fall colors hike I took with my

BTW, I DID actually sell books the other night…even though I showed up dressed for yoga. I started my presentation with an apology and explanation for my attire, then I asked the kids if they knew what yoga was. There

It’s Fire Safety Week…which means I will be reading F is for Fire Fighting and signing books at the Coralville Public Library tonight and also going to tell about fire extinguisher which they can have from https://mrfireextinguisher.com. I feel like

We made these Friday night: Chocolate cake in a mug…in the microwave. Not quite as interesting as Lisa Yee’s peeps in the microwave, but still pretty bizarre in its own right. Here’s the recipe, if you’re really interested: 5 MINUTE

1. That title (Yes, I Know the Monkey Man) is actually starting to grow on me. And if that’s going to be the title, it might be good to make a few connections TO the title in the book…which is

So, my Monkey Man sequel is coming out in the spring and I’m still referring to it as “my Monkey Man sequel.” That’s because we still don’t have a definite title. I proposed two: T.J.’s Story and I’m Not Who

My children’s writers book discussion group met yesterday. We discussed the first book in a really popular YA series. I’m not going to name it because, well…I wasn’t impressed, and I wouldn’t want the author to get her feelings hurt

My 25th class reunion is going on this weekend. It’s going on without me. (Hey, I haven’t gone to a reunion yet, why start now?) I was talking with a good friend of mine about class reunions a few weeks

Our performance last night didn’t go quite as we expected…we knew there was going to be a group of professional musicians (College Student said, “hey, they opened for you!” HA!) on stage before us, but we did not know that

I have something else to obsess about besides my writing today. My girl band is performing tonight! No, that’s not right…we’re providing “background music” for the chili supper at Old Brick. If the word “performance” had been used, I’m not

I’ve done nothing the past three days except rewrite the same scene over and over and over. (Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration…I’ve practiced my mandolin, ridden my bike, jogged, gone to yoga, gone to Toastmasters, gone out for

I have not messed with chapters one through thirteen AT ALL. However, I did e-mail my editor some pointed questions today that would involve messing with two scenes in those first thirteen chapters. I also asked her what she thought

…that I will not touch chapters one through thirteen of my Monkey Man sequel again until my editor has finished with them. Any editor who has ever worked with me knows that I am a tinkerer. I can’t look at

I still haven’t received Monkey Man 2 back for revision. I still don’t have an official title for that book, either, though I did propose two: T.J.’s Story and I’m Not Who You Think I Am, which, coincidentally, was also

I blogged about contracts and one thing you can do to find out how your contract compares to everyone else’s at Kidlit_Central today. Come on over!

I’m back from my annual writer’s retreat. It’s not a formal retreat…really it’s a group of creative friends who get together once a year to eat, talk about our projects, eat some more, talk about what’s going on in our

Okay…I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon working on my series proposal. It shouldn’t be too hard…I’m still excited about this proposal and the writing is going well. Here’s a list of things I’m NOT going to do

I went to a screenwriting workshop this weekend. Actually, I accompanied Fourteen (that’s Junior High Kid’s new name now that he’s not in junior high anymore) because HE wanted to go. I’ve been to LOTS of writing workshops over the

I just turned in my revised picture book…and I’m feeling pretty good about it. It’s WAY better than it was before…and I believe I have addressed every single issue that was pointed out to me. Whether or not I have

So, I took the comments I got from the two editors and from my trusted reader and started my picture book completely over. From scratch. I even changed the names of the characters since it was a completely different story.

I blogged over here today. Come on over and you’ll see I was one wacky teenager.

Is it just me or is August 18 awfully early for school to start??? They start so early here that it’s not unheard of for school to be dismissed early because of the heat. Not today, though…it’s barely even 80

Our local children’s book discussion group (made up of mostly children’s book authors) met yesterday to discuss Ingrid Law’s Savvy. Fabulous book, by the way…and I’m not normally a huge fan of fantasy. But this is the kind of fantasy

This is the first year College Student is not home to celebrate his birthday with us. I’m guessing we won’t be spending many more birthdays with him…he’ll be out in the world, probably not living around here. But a mom

The good news is I didn’t have to wait very long to hear from the folks at Albert Whitman on my new picture book (2 1/2 business days, to be exact). The bad news is it still needs work. Quite

When one has as much trouble figuring out how things work in one’s “series world” as I’ve been having, it is entirely possible one is trying to write the wrong series! Like I said this weekend, the general premise was

I write a wide variety of things…I’ve written picture books, novels for children, series fiction for children, nonfiction for children, magazine stories and articles (both for children and adults), educational materials for all age groups and reading levels, online content,

Well, I did “finish” that picture book yesterday and sent it off to the editor. Now I wait. But I’m guessing I won’t have to wait too long…this editor asked me about this manuscript at least three times, so she

I’ve set up google alerts for all my books so I know when they’re mentioned in newspapers or online. This is how I found out that a library in Indiana held a teen dessert contest and somebody made and decorated

I was supposed to be on my way to Chicago for a girls weekend today. We’d (three writer friends and myself) planned this trip months ago, but unfortunately the Chicago friend has been having some health problems lately, so we’re

I am really out of the habit of blogging (but at least I’m back in the habit of writing!). Last week I was going to blog about the picture book I’m working on, my teen writer’s group (which wrapped up

I’ve had to find myself new biking routes this summer because many of my regular routes have been impassible due to the flood. And because it’s been so difficult to bike this summer, I’ve been jogging more. I’ve been switching

My husband had jury duty today…and he got assigned to a trial! “It’s not fair,” I said when he called me during his lunch break to tell me. “I agree,” he responded. But I meant it’s not fair that he

My husband would do a lot for me, but I think he would draw the line at going to see Mamma Mia with me. That’s why I was really excited when a couple friends called yesterday morning to tell me

Our neighborhood feels very surreal. It’s like nothing ever happened here. I went down to the park to jog this morning (for the first time in close to a week…I figure I got my exercise sandbagging last week!) and saw

Thank you for the e-mails wondering whether we’re okay. We lost our Internet connection (cell phone service, too) a couple days ago because the place where our connection comes from is under about eight feet of water. But my husband

We’re back! (And College Student leaves again today for his internship…I’ve been so happy for him that he’s going to have this experience and so proud of him that he got it that I don’t think it really hit me

Well…our trip is basically over now. It sure went fast! Knowing the Changing of the Guard was at 11:30 (and it was recommended we get there at 10:30), that made it kind of hard to do anything else this morning.

Given the way College Student has mocked me for all the pictures I’mtaking, he sure is worried I’m going to accidentally delete some! He’s caught me deleting bad pictures three times now and he’s gotten mad at me every time.

It rained in London today. All day. So College Student and I thought it was a perfect day to do the British Museum. Apparently so did half of Britain. At least, that’s how it felt…we haven’t experienced crowds like this

College Student and I are SO not prepackaged bus tour people! I knew this all along…and the only reason we booked the tour we took today was because, as we’ve already established, I’m not willing to drive to Stonehenge! (Besides

So after our complimentary English/continental breakfast (we weren’t too impressed by the black pudding…but I love the salmon/cream cheese bagels!), we set off feeling pretty confident about getting around on the Underground. There are three lines that run through the

How cool is this? We have a computer in our hotel room in London! (Okay, it would be cooler if it was a PC rather than a Mac…I am SO not a Mac person…and becoming less of one the longer

1. I got my hair cut today. That is actually worth mentioning because getting a haircut is something I only do about once every year and a half. I grow it down to my waist, then get it cut to

When I wrote Tank Talbott’s Guide to Girls I had no trouble deciding where to start the book…no trouble deciding how much of Trading Places with Tank Talbott needed to be included or how to weave those sections in. But

1. I can jog 3.2 miles without taking a break to walk in between. I know because I did it today. And I did it in 31 minutes, which yes, is still slow, but it’s faster than I used to

Are there more beautiful words in the English language??? I think not. Not if you’re a writer…not if you’re a writer who has struggled to write a book the way I have struggled to write this one. I pushed hard

I don’t normally do memes, but whatever. I feel like doing one today. 1. The writing is going WELL!!!! There is a chance I will actually reach the end of T.J.’s Story in a week…which then gives me two more

Our SCBWI conference was this weekend. There were some really good things that happened and some really bad things that happened. First the bad (because I prefer to end with the positive): our regional advisor wasn’t around because her husband

I haven’t been blogging much these days. Not because I haven’t had anything to blog about…I’ve actually had quite a bit to blog about — lots of school visits, author events, new book possibilities, my kids etc. But when I

Wow. If you actually TELL your friends you’re doing a reading, some of them will come to your reading! Who’d have thought? I don’t normally tell my friends when I’m doing a reading because I don’t want anyone to feel

I’m jogging again! I think I can legitimately say that because I’ve been doing it three weeks now and it takes three weeks for something to become a habit. I tried to jog a year ago, but I was about

My husband has been out of town all week…not because he’s a “guitar hero.” That’s not the reason for the subject of this post. (In fact, he’s the only one in the family who does not play a musical instrument.)

I got a great e-mail from a kid last night. He wrote, “Please come to my school. I want to surprise my friend for his birthday.” I wish I could…

A local woman and her four young children were killed early this morning. By their husband and father. (And he was found dead later on…he crashed their van and…died.) I’m a little bit freaked out about this and I probably

Okay…part 2. I have to say the ride inside a police car is actually quite comfortable. Nice seats…smooth ride. After the winter we’ve had there are a lot of potholes in town, but it feels a lot better to go

I had the most interesting night last night. As part of this Citizen’s Police Academy class I’ve been taking, I got to do a ride along with a police officer. (A lot of people in my class don’t take advantage

I finally got to go see my dad this week. I had plans to go several times over the last month and then changed my mind because of the weather. (It’s been a really bad winter!) But I finally got

I am so thankful for my writing friends! I have one friend in particular…I’ve only met her in person twice, but we’ve known each other online for about eighteen years. We go back to the days of FIDO net (anybody

I’m not blogging as much these days…I’m not doing much of anything these days except 1) shoveling snow and 2) working on my Monkey Man sequel…which, more often than not, involves me staring at my monitor rather than me typing

A week ago I got a message on my answering machine from the Iowa SCBWI Regional Advisor. She said she’d called the Peachtree office to see if they had an editor (preferably one who did novels) who might be willing

So…that picture book that I had to cut 400 words out of last fall? It made it through the acquisitions committee…Pelican Press is offering me a contract on it. That’ll be my second book with them…and we’re all hoping that

Some Lego enthusiasts (including my son) are into building “Vignettes.” A Vignette is a “scene” built with Lego pieces on an 8-stud by 8-stud base (which is VERY small). There are newsgroups and blogs on this…and several places to post

I really should be WRITING instead of blogging (especially because I haven’t actually done my 5 pages yet today…and Junior High Kid has a four-day weekend…and I really need to get back up to northwestern Iowa to visit my dad

One of the many things I like about living in Iowa City is I get to attend fabulous events at Prairie Lights. Last night I heard Natalie Goldberg (of Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind fame). I’ve been a

Last week after class, my yoga instructor thanked us for “allowing her” to teach us. She said she LOVED teaching us. She loved sharing her passion for yoga with us. She LOVES yoga; she could do it all day long.

So I took my list of things I decided needed to be in chapter 1 of T.J.’s Story and e-mailed it (along with a write up of why my chapter STILL wasn’t working) to several of my writing friends. This

So I’m struggling with the beginning of T.J.’s Story. Again. What I’ve written accomplishes everything I set out to accomplish in chapter one (I actually made a list of everything I need to include in chapter one…it’s all there!)…it SHOULD

When I set out on my walk this morning, it was 37 degrees and drizzly (after a high of 54 yesterday). When I returned from my walk an hour later, it was 32 degrees and still drizzly. When I got

I spent a lot of time rethinking T.J.’s Story last week. Then I started over. TWELVE times. Yes, I really did write twelve different beginnings. I didn’t like any of them. So…after getting some feedback from one of the members

The University started back up again this week. College Student was going to take an economics class (yes, the fact that it was ECONOMICS is important…or at least “interesting” in the context of the story I’m about to tell). He

I took the morning off to go read words and be a judge at the junior high Spelling Bee. What fun! I actually knew well over half the kids who were in the bee…they were either friends of Junior High

Last night (at my Citizens Police Academy class) I held a gun in my hand for the first time. It wasn’t as heavy as I expected it to be. The baton, on the other hand, was MUCH heavier than I

I was the Table Topics Master at Toastmasters last night. Table Topics Master is my all-time favorite role because it means that for this one night, I’m “safe!” I don’t have to worry about the Table Topics Master asking a

I’m having to rethink some key sections of T.J.’s Story. I changed the plot quite a bit after I wrote the first draft last November, so I decided I’d better write up a new outline and send it to my

My wonderful yoga instructor has added a second class each week. My best friend, who takes the class with me, said we should go twice a week. I agreed…except I can’t until the end of March because the second class

I went to visit my dad yesterday. I was just there a little over two weeks ago, but I went again because my mom’s in Florida now. I don’t like that she leaves him in a nursing home to go

My in-laws were here this weekend. Having my in-laws visit does not strike terror into my heart the way it does with some of my friends. I actually like my in-laws. (And I’m almost positive they don’t read this, so

About six or seven years ago I decided I wanted to take each of my kids on a big trip, anywhere they want to go, just the two of us, sometime before they move out. I’m not sure they (or

The vast majority of my fan mail comes in the form of e-mails, but every now and then I get a few handwritten letters that come forwarded from my publishers. Usually 2-3 months after the poor kid has written the

I feel like I have to mark this date somehow. It’s the only weekday all month (not including Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, since that’s a holiday) where I have NOTHING on my calendar. No meetings to go to. No

I decided that since T.J.’s Story has changed some since my original outline (and well, my editor and I did have a slight disagreement on where/how the story should begin a few months ago), I should write up a revised

College Student is recovered from his surgery…Junior High Kid is back at school (though if the school calendar had been left up to me, kids in Iowa City would’ve gone to school the whole week right before Christmas and had

It’s been a good year…to start with, I dropped close to 25 pounds. And I’ve only gained two back since I quit biking for the season. (I could still stand to lose 10 more…but I’ll be happy if I can

I baked this weekend. (BOY, did I bake!) Besides the Mexican wedding balls, which are College Student’s favorites, and the easy candy cane/almond bark/pretzel things that I like, I also baked and decorated 160 cut-out cookies. I didn’t mean to