A Muddy Stream of Consciousness

Sometimes, when I start writing the blog entry, I have a theme or specific outline in my head. Today however, my thoughts are muddled. I do have a few things going for me. First, my children (who were up at 6 am using the mini-microphone on the electronic keyboard we own) have been herded toward the toy's room and are parked infront of Saturday PBS cartoons. Second, my husband is sleeping (after an uncomfortable night on the pull-out because... we have been too lazy to pull out an extra matress for ourselves) while my parents are here. Third, my parents are here and I know that they will take care of things, and me, while they are here.

It has been a productive week, which is probably why I haven't kept up the blog. My photoshop class was a real break through. I have been learning how to scan in my drawings and use photoshop to color and revise them. My amazing teacher, Leonard, gave me a black and white cartoon as a practice piece and I worked to color it. I felt as if I was making a Sunday cartoon, all be it a psychedelic one.

Okay, allow me to digress. My small child is no longer watching TV. Instead he is telling me it is time to hide the Easter Eggs. I keep saying no. He keeps pushing. Let me explain. It is not Easter. So that event will happen tomorrow. Also, I am Jewish. My husband is not and we celebrate a little of everything. But after a great Shabbat dinner last night, it is a little hard to perpetuate the Easter Bunny. My oldest is six and I'm starting to feel like I'm lying to him. I realize I'm not talking about the art of writing and drawing anymore but this is the chaos part of the blog, so stick with me here. Dying the eggs was really a craft project after my youngest came home from pre-school with two dyed eggs in a basket with treats. Which leads me to my perennial rant about the prevalence of Christmas and Easter related activities in public school situations. I'm all for cultural exchange but not the cultural monopoly that exists.

Back to the blog...
Last weekend I had a wonderful road trip with my friend Mona to visit with Paula Morrow the editor of Ladybug and Babybug magazine. This program was put on by Writer's Web (www.writersweb.biz) Paula did a "first pages" reading and had some positive things to say about my piece. She also gave me some great criticism which helped me revise the writing. I sent two pieces in to her this week.

I started feeling that I wasn't keeping track of my submissions very well. There was a great thread about this on the SCBWI message board that helped me create an Excel matrix. After logging in all my submissions over the past five years, I am feeling very organized. (Read: Anna procrastinated this week by cruising the message boards and playing with Excel.) Truly, I can see more clearly what is out and what is not. With this info, I can create writing goals for the week.

Now, my children have left the TV entirely. I suppose this is good. They cannot be controled by the smellevision. (as we call it in our house) But now they are fussing, and fighting, I hear tears, my husband refereeing. General chaos.