There's a file with my name on it...

I'm doubting that anyone is looking at my blog thinking, "What am I going to do, Anna didn't update her blog!" So I will only apologize once for not writing for this week: "Sorry." And only give one excuse: "Sick kiddo." That should be enough.

Today I had my nicest rejection so far. A phone call with a wonderful person from Great Arrow cards. She had nice things to say about my writing and had some great hints about how to make the art better. She said that they would "keep a file," on me. Now a lot of Art Directors say they keep files on artists but one never knows if one has a "file" anywhere. (Except maybe the FBI since the patriot act...) So I am thrilled to know that there is a file in western New York with my name on it. I imagine the yellow post-it notes on the inside of the folder: "nice copy", "images crude", "simple design, and space good," "too childish, should be more sophisticated." Maybe after a few more designs the notes will say, "this one's a keeper." I can always dream.

A Day at the Beach

I am truly happy and should remember this feeling as it doesn't come all that often. My kids and I spent a glorious day at the beach doing beach things and not worrying about appointments or pick-ups or errands or house chores. If this is summer, then I don't know what I was worried about. I think I'm actually getting good at this Mommy thing as I brought everything I was suppose to bring (a Herculean feat) and noone whined or complained. Everyone had fun. Both kids listened, nobody fought. Uh-oh some thing is amiss in the universe. Hmmmm....

Weekend update

What a great but very tiring weekend. Friday, I took my figure drawings to be matted. I am going to submit them to the "Figure Revealed II" show at the Lewiston-Auburn campus of the U of Maine system. It is a juried show and I am once again expecting spam. I have never entered a juried show before so we will see what happens. I have been attending the figure drawing group sporadically as they meet Wednesdays and I have meetings at least two of the Wednesdays of each month. However, I always feel great when I attend. I am proud of the work I create and that is really enough. If I am not chosen, I will be fine. (And as you know if you read this regularly, I'm pretty used to rejection.)

On Saturday, my husband and I went to a grown-up party. It has been a while since we have been out alone and even longer since we have socialized with other grown-ups. Great to blow off steam and commiserate with other parents. The hot tub was pretty great too. It was very relaxing.

Sunday, Father's Day, our family went to the Seadogs game. They let us onto the outfield a couple hours before the game for fathers to play catch with their kids. My son, huge baseball fan, stayed out there throwing ball after ball for an hour or more. Quite a bit of work for a 6 year old. He wasn't going to leave till they threw him out. Seadogs lost, but the weather was beautiful after another week of rain. My younger son never makes it through to the ninth inning. The added couple of hours at the beginning combined with the sun just wore him out. He fell asleep under my legs in the stands.

I'm trying out some new babysitters this week and hope to get some writing done this week. To do:
revise early reader mystery
novel work
gather materials for cherry blossom poster entry
tear sheets editorial/childrens separate
fall postcard mailing.
update website

Re-Vision

One of the wonderful thing about bringing your work to other people is that you get to see it again in a different way. Isn't that what revision really is. Seeing-again. At the schmooze, I was able to see some of my rejected work in a new way. A poem I think is a picture book may work well as a magazine poem, a mystery I wrote for a magazine may really be an I Can Read early chapter book. We will see. Anyway, I made some revisions and will be sending the work out again as soon as I can.

I don't know why I'm so behind but I finally checked out Illustration Friday. The website with an optional assignment each Friday. Check out the responses, they are all so varied. www.illustrationfriday.com I'll try one this Friday, you should too.

Spring Schmooze

Tomorrow, I pack up my children and bring them to a friends house for a sleep over. I wave goodbye to my husband. Next, I drive to the spring writing schmooze at Tamra Wight's campground (BY MYSELF) and get wonderful critique time from friends I respect and love. I'm hoping to get some concrete feedback on some of the pieces that have been recently rejected. Then I can form a game plan. I will write again when I get back. Have a great weekend.

Got spam

Yup. A rejection from Charlesbridge in yesterday's mail. Okay, now I go through the to revise or not to revise cycle and the researching publishers cycle. Usually, while I'm waiting for the rejections I have a good idea who it is going to next. I went to one workshop that suggests having the next envelope ready to go so you get it out right away. I think my glimmer of hope keeps me from doing that.

I wore my "Rejection Survival Kit" hat all day yesterday. I straw hat with various cards pinned to it. The card in the middle is shaped like a light bulb it says, "New Ideas. Around the brim are cards for family, friends, and hopes/dreams. It only helped in that people kept asking me why I was wearing such a silly hat. At least it keeps things light.

My figure drawing group met last night. That always makes me happy. We had a wonderful model with long braids to the middle of her back. Beautiful. I'd post some of my drawings but they are too big and would require photoshop time which is hard to find right now. Maybe later.

Another beautiful day today. A little hot, but who's complaining. Not me! Kindergarten fun day today, I painted faces of many small girls and boys wanting kitty faces, turtle tatoos, rocketships and ofcourse, snakes. "Seven days of school left," my child says to me. "Great," I reply with not enough enthusiasm.

Expect spam

I received a rejection today from Cricket group for a preschool activity and an older mystery. It was a very kind and personal rejection which is great I suppose. They enjoyed reading it but it's just not right for them at this time. This year, I seem to have graduated from forms to personal rejections. This is a true step up. Still, it is difficult to receive rejections one after the other. I need to somehow get out of the rejection cycle. I send in a bunch of writing, it sits with the publishers for three months then they all reject me at the same time.

My friend from college always said, "Expect spam and if you get steak, you'll be happy." The problem is I really believe in the pieces I'm sending out. By the time they've gotten to the envelope, I've revised them three or four times and brought them to my critique group at least once. I think they are good. I start to believe in myself. I start to expect steak. Then I wait. I check the mail each day hoping the SASE never boomerangs back my way. My own handwriting jumps out at me and burns into my heart. Another rejection. Turn it around send it in again. The next bunch goes out this week, so the next rejection cycle should start mid-August.

A picture book is still under consideration with Charlesbridge right now. I'm expecting spam any day now. But still hoping for steak.

First the good news...

The good news is my wonderful family left me to attend the birthday party of my now three year old niece in Massachusettes. All day Sunday. All day Sunday!
First I went to my book club and didn't worry about when I left. On the way home I got lunch alone and read 1793 Fever while I ate. At home, I created three new school programs to offer for the fall and designed my brochure that I hope to mail out in the next week or so.

I also revised three or so chapters of my novel. This is where the "bad news" comes in. I think I've come to the realization that I either need to just put this novel away and chalk it up to learning or really chart and outline the whole thing and rewrite it from scratch. I probably would still use large pieces of it. I guess this is the moment that separates the what... Women from the girls? Novelists from the...I don't know? Lazy people from the hard working? My goal is to work on it until August then I am going to either send it or file it away.

I am psyched for the annual writer's schmooze that I have with friends and hope they can give me some advice.

Beautiful Day

Well, after all my kvetching about the weather it finally turned on June 1st. Today was in the 80's. Let me tell you, going from 50, gray, and rainy to 80 sunny, blue skies is a shock to the system. I went to exercise this morning and almost passed out from the heat. I had little pools of sweat on my belly during sit ups. Then I took some time to myself and set up an easel at the farmer's market. Mostly I did gesture drawings of people. I tried a pastel scene to practice the perspective of the various booths, the shadow and light. I didn't like it much so I'm not going to post it. I ended up with a nice petunia that made me happy. If I can fix it properly, I'll scan it in. Anyhow, I didn't think about sunscreen and now my shoulders a screamin' red. We went straight from mud season to summah!

Here is a work in progress. Need to put in shadow under bird's nest. Trying to use complementary colors for shadowing. Comments always welcome. 

Quick sketch of skater at Brunswick skate park, June 2nd.  

Read and drive but not at the same time.

Every once in a while I feel as if I am not "doing" anything because I am not creating or revising a manuscript or I am not finishing a piece that will be "used" in my portfolio. Still, I am sketching, blogging, jotting down ideas for stories, and driving. Yes, driving. That wonderful motherly occupation that affords me time with my children (strapped into their seats with space between them. ) Driving, although my Mother will not want to read this, let's my mind open, not wander exactly, to new ideas. I talk to myself, try out dialogue, compose poetry. So I've got plenty of that kind of time as I prepare myself for a summer of swim lessons,field trips, dance classes, and day camps.

The other extremely important thing I do is read. I tend to read a lot of middle grades/YA books and tons of picture books. Whenever I take my kids to the library, I spend their computer time looking at picture books one after the other. I analyze pacing, how illustration and story complement each other (or not), story elements, etc. One really helpful thing to do with picture books is type out the text on one page, no line breaks. It is surprising to see how short they really are. So when someone in your critique group says "nice- but half as much" you'll see where they coming from. I read the following middle grade and YA books in the past month and they have quickly become favorites: Stained, Jennifer Jacobson; The Music of Dolphins, Karen Hesse; Heartbeat, Sharon Creech; A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray. Next on my list are Fever,Laurie Halse-Anderson; The Killer's Cousin, Nancy Werlin. I suppose that sometimes I hide from my own manuscripts when I get lost in these wonderful books. But I am learning too.

For all who might have been wondering... I did not win the Highlights Fiction contest along with 1,397 others. That's okay (she says remembering her father's words "Buck up old sport.) I will submit it as a picture book. I think it will do better that way than as a magazine story.

Anna's to do list:
submit to new publishers: Our Normal Bus, Preschool Jumble, DC for Me
dummy: Wanted, New Mommy and Our Normal Bus
revise: Family recipe
create new paintings that force me to practice people and watercolor technique
keep reading
keep driving

Skate park

There seems to be bits of blue in the cloud covered sky today. I know this is not supposed to be a political blog, but I'm just recovering from the Memorial Day parade. It was very emotional for me. When the peace activists marched by in black with the totals of dead soldiers from Iraq I cried wondering how many will die still. And yet, the military machine is so economically tied to me in my family and in this town that I am conflicted and would not march myself. Why not?

I went to the skate park with my children yesterday. They love the idea of it but they are really too young for skate parks. Luckily, for other skaters, there was no one there. I tried to convince them that the walking path would give us more exercise but they prefer to ride back and forth inside that fence like tigers in the zoo.

My toddler, in his footie pajamas, red rain boots, and blue flowery helmet, went scootering around the pavement. My six year old, who just got a cool, new helmet rode up and down ramps and even tried the half pipe. Up a little, turn, down a little. Up a little, turn, down a little. I was pretty impressed that he could control the bike as he only just gave up his training wheels at the end of last summer. I guess it is true that you don't forget how to ride a bike. I scootered around a little too until some older boys showed up. Then I pulled out my sketch book and did a series of quick gesture drawings as they 180ed and skidded and jumped.