The Candy Cane Queen cover reveal!!!

I am so excited to reveal the cover of my Christmas pamphlet, The Candy Cane Queen, to the world! (Drum roll please!)

Isn't it cute?  I'm so excited for the Candy Cane Queen to come out.  It goes to press in August.  I'll post the release date when I get it.  Woot!

Dancing Dead Rats and Query Letters

A few years ago a restaurant used singing dead rats in their commercial.  I found it on YouTube.  Watch at your own risk.

They were ugly, deformed, and wore festive hats.  I still remember my horror.  I also still avoid the restaurant.  Someone truly believed that using dead rats in a commercial for food was a good idea.  They might have thought it was funny.  They might have thought it was memorable.  They probably weren't thinking very hard.

Query letters are like commercials.  There are query letters we think are brilliant, funny, and sure to make the agents come flocking to us.  In reality, the letter is just a dead rat in a fancy hat.  I'm not an agent.  I don't have an agent, but I would like to get one some day, so I've been working hard to make sure that once my manuscript is ready I won't be sending dead rats to the agents I'd like to work with.

How can we make sure we aren't sending out dead rats?  I'm still working on figuring that out.

1- Submit your query for review on an online forum like Absolute Write.  You will get a lot of conflicting suggestions, and occasionally a troll will try to hurt your feelings.  Get thick skin.

2- Writeoncon is also coming up! WriteOnCon is a forum based writer's conference.  Plus there are agents involved.

3- Submit your query to online contests. I'm taking part in a superintern contest right now.  The intern hasn't commented on my query as of yet.  I'm really hoping it isn't a dead rat. It's hard to know since I'm so close to it.  http://motherwrite.blogspot.com/ will resume contests in September, I think.

4- Follow the submission guidelines.  Most agents will stress what they like and dislike in a query. It's not too hard to find if you Google their name.

5- Follow agents through Twitter.

6- Read http://slushpilehell.tumblr.com/ and see some dead rats for yourself.

7- Go to writer's conferences and take query classes. I had the opportunity of having my dead rat shredded by Holly Root at a writer's conference last month. I learned that my dead rat was too fat and should lose the hat. (This is starting to sound like an early reader.)


The main point here is that you have to do some research and you have to let someone else see your work.  If you want to work with an agent, don't send them a dead rat.

My rose garden

We didn't have a yard when we first bought our house.  We had dirt and weeds.  Maybe more weeds than dirt.  Oh, yeah and gophers, voles, mice, wasps, and squirrels.  I think one of my neighbors poisoned the squirrels.  I haven't seen them in years.  They were the one pest I didn't mind.  Ever seen a squirrel trying to run with a tomato in its mouth?  Hilarious. Those neighbors are moving.  (Please someone nice buy their house.)

Anyway, I bought a bunch of specialty roses from a catalog. (That's where the real gardeners get their plants.)  I've since stopped buying plants from catalogs. The gophers and voles showed their appreciation of all my expensive plants by turning them into salad.  Yum.  (I guess that means I'm not a real gardener.) They left the roses in the front alone.  Gophers love roses.  They're in the backyard.  Voles are in the front yard.  They prefer highly expensive tulip bulbs. (sob)

Back to my special roses.  I am deliriously happy about these first couple of pictures.  For one, this is the only special rose that is the color it's supposed to be.  It's a green rose.  It has a touch of pink and yellow, but it's green.  Pretty, isn't it?

Two winters ago I thought this rose bush had died.  I was very sad.  So I cut back the dead stuff.  I was brutal.  (And I added weird warm wet winters to my list of enemy pests) Then, joy of joys! A little green shoot appeared in what I left of the roots.  I ran around my front yard yelling, "IT'S ALIVE!" (A few neighbors moved that year.)

Anywho, this year it's blooming again! 

 Here's the peach rose that is yellow.

This is the blue rose that is purple. And also aphids.  I don't like aphids.  This is after I tried to squirt them off the plants.  They have an incredible grip for creatures so tiny.  I bet they hang on with their nasty little aphid mouths.

This is the black rose.  (To be fair, it looks black at night.) They might not be the color the catalog claimed they would be, but they're still pretty.  I still want a black rose.  How cool would that be?

These are my miniature roses.  My sister made use of my yard for a few years to get rid of plants she didn't have room for. I didn't mind. Aren't they cute? It's nice to have a sister with a plant addiction.  

Baby Shower!

A few months ago we found out that my brother and his wife were expecting.  This was amazing news because they'd been trying for about 15 years to have kids.  They were told it wasn't going to happen.  Then about a week later we found out that they were actually 6 months along. My sisters and I scrambled to get a baby shower planned and my brother and his wife scrambled to get the nursery ready.  Then the baby decided to come 5 weeks early. They had about 2 months to get used to the idea of being parents.  lol.  The baby is in the NICU and My sister-in-law has had a lot of complications but she wanted to go ahead with the shower anyway.  I thought I'd post my part of the shower.

The activity:

Tye dye onesies! I've done this with my kids for an off-track activity several times and thought it would make a cute activity for the shower.  The onesies turned out pretty cute.  The tweenagers loved it the most.  

 

I bought onesie packs in every size so they will always have some from the shower for as long as she's wearing onesies.

We colored them with permanent markers and then dripped rubbing alcohol on them to swirl the colors.  I found some Sharpie Stain markers that don't swirl.  They were great for making patterns and writing words.

Put the cups inside the onesie and attach a rubber band.  This keeps the color from soaking through to the other side.  The picture above shows my daughter with her onesie attached to a cup and my brother aka. Proud Papa.

Not everyone used the cups.  It just colored both sides of the onesie.  All in all it was a fun activity.  I took all the onesies home and they're in the dryer right now so the colors can set.  Then I'll wash them and take them to my brother.

The drink:
I volunteered to do the punch because I saw the cutest little baby shower punch on Pinterest and then I realized I didn't pin it.  Dang.  It was pretty simple so I did it anyway.

It's rainbow sherbet and Sprite.  I scooped the sherbet in the punch bowl and poured the Sprite over the top to make the bubble effect.  It's like a little baby bath.  Awwww

I hand washed the rubber duckies before I put them in the bowl.  I should have covered the holes on the bottom of the duckies but I forgot.

All in all, my brother and his wife got some nice things for their cute little surprise.  I love seeing his face when he shows people her picture on his camera.  ♥ I dare say she was worth the wait.

the dreaded humdinger

I am proud to announce that my daughter passed off the humdinger, the final rite of passage into the 36 club.  The humdinger is 36 addition cards + 36 subtraction cards + 36 multiplication cards + 36 division cards mixed together and completed in 5 minutes or less.  Humdinger doesn't even begin to describe it. You have about 2 seconds per card.  There isn't time to get stuck on one problem. Every problem must be memorized. There isn't anything I can do to help kids pass them off at school, but there are things parents can do to help their kids pass it off at school.

Many students decide they can't do it before they try.  One little girl came out in the hall today and told me she wasn't ready to do the humdinger.  She wouldn't even try.  It sounds intimidating but most students can do it if they work on it at home with a parent on a daily basis.  Here are some tips to help your child on the road to success.

1. Work on individual sets until your student has their time down to 1:15 per set before you mix the cards together. (This is 15 seconds less time than they had when passing off the individual sets.  Mean.  I know.)  Make sure they know they can already do all the problems in 5 minutes.  They just have to learn how to do it when they're all mixed up. (The cards, not the student.) Once they are combined, don't expect a great time.  They have to train their brain to take in all those signs and numbers and spout off another number in less than two seconds.  It takes time.  If they get stuck, remind them if their adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.

2. They have to go through the entire deck every day.  I noticed if my daughter missed a few days she would add a lot of time to her score. It was frustrating for us both. The repetition also helps them get over their nerves when they do it in school.

3. Don't do it more than once a day.  With the individual sets I didn't let them stop until they beat their previous time.  There were days when we worked on cards for half an hour. But I've noticed the humdinger tends to fry little brains.  They do it only once no matter their time.

4. Keep track of their time and if your child's time is not improving:
    A. As you go through the cards with your child make two piles.  One for the cards they know as soon as they see them and a second pile for the ones that take them longer than two seconds.  Go through the second deck with your child until they can do all the cards in less than two seconds.  Keep the hardest problems toward the front so they know they can get them over with.  For some reason my daughter hates this method but she can't argue with the results.
    B. Slowly move the cards toward your child as they figure out the problem.  This is similar to the previous method but they can actually see their time melting away.  My daughter hates this method even more than the previous method. I think she improved her time just so I wouldn't do it to her anymore.

5. Make sure they get a chance to pass their 36 club stuff off at school.  Volunteer. My kids didn't pass off their math until I volunteered in their class.  I'm the only parent that does 36 club for both my elementary school aged children.  In previous years the parent volunteers never got to my children because we are toward the end of the alphabet.  They never got through the entire list and always started at the top.  I usually mark the student where I left off.  I don't get to my own kids every time. I wonder how many classes don't get any volunteers at all.  It makes me sad.  I've seen other students improve significantly as I've worked with them individually.  There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the light in their eyes when they finally get it.

6. Bribery.  My daughter really loves gum. I really hate it.  So as an incentive I offered to get her a pack of gum when she passed off the humdinger.  It worked.  She has her gum. (And she'd better not get it in her hair.)


For help on individual sets click the links below
Addition
Subtraction
Multiplication
Division

Comments are nice.  I really like them.  Comments help me to know that I'm not just writing this for myself.

I'm thinking of doing a post on helping kids learn to read.  Anyone out there interested?

A cute and inexpensive way to wrap friend presents

When my kids are invited to birthday parties, they have to come up with the money to buy the present for their friends.  Then comes the problem of wrapping the resulting tiny present.  My kids would have more money if they ever did their chores, but they don't so they don't have a lot of spending money.  The gifts are carefully chosen, but not big.  They look silly in wrapping paper and a gift bag would cost about as much as the gift.  But I found a solution!

I found some instructions for cute little Easter baskets here and here on Pinterest. I pinned them and then Easter came and went.  Then I thought it would be cute to make a little basket for wrapping the present my daughter bought for her friend.  I think it turned out darling.

My daughter used her art paper and chalk pastels for the paper.  Then we cut it into one inch strips and wove six strips to make the bottom.  For the two strips that go on the side, we connected two strips together and trimmed off the excess.  (The two places I linked to above have really good instructions so I'm not putting them here too.) We put a bit of glue on the staples for a ribbon. (I folded all the ends into the basket instead of following the instructions and then secured them with staples) It looks really pretty along the top and we also used it to make a cute bow.  We punched holes in the side and threaded a little card through it. Everything was on hand and I didn't have to make any more trips to the store. (I love when that happens.)

Storymakers 12

Writing doesn't have to be cold and lonely.
(I also really like this drawing and wanted to use it again.)

Someone asked me the other day why I went to a writer's conference.  She thought I knew it all. If only.  I do have some short stories published.  I even have a Christmas pamphlet coming out later this year. But I'm still learning. I smile and nod when other people throw out words like predicate and participles. When I write I go by what sounds right.  I usually get it correct but there are times when those sneaky homonyms trick me.  (Who came up with this language? Aisle and Isle/ Brake and Break  Ugh!) But the writers conference didn't deal with grammar.  I have books that teach about comma splices and semi colons. (And I should read them again.) I have spell check (although it doesn't always help) and the internet to cover the rest.  I also have writing forums and beta readers to help with the stuff I can't see. 

So here is what writer's conferences are for, in case you ever wondered.

1. Meet other writers.  

 - The other people at the conference understand what I'm going through.  They've experienced the rejection.  They've had other people look at them like they're delusional when they admit to writing a book.  There have been times they haven't admitted to being a writer.  They are also great people to go to when you need feedback.

2. Meet industry professionals. 

 - I got to meet my editor.  (I love how that sounds. My editor.) She's the acquisitions editor so she won't do the final edits but she does have a say in what else they will accept.  It's nice to meet the people you work with.  They are a wealth of information. (The cover for The Candy Cane Queen isn't done yet and they are still reviewing my other manuscript.)

 - This conference had an amazing lineup.  Classes were taught by Kevin J. Anderson, Holly Root, Molly O'Neal, Kathleen Ortiz, Michelle Wolfson, James Dashner, J. Scott Savage, Weronika Janczuk, Janette Rallison, and several other industry professionals.  What an amazing opportunity. I got to have my query critiqued by Holly Root.  It isn't often do you get the chance to have an agent tell you what they really think of your query.  And, after she ripped it to shreds, she said I rocked.  How cool is that?

 - Pitch sessions are another way to meet agents and editors.  You get 15 - 20 minutes to make them fall in love with your project.  I haven't done one of these yet.  My manuscript isn't ready yet.

 - The publisher's meet and greet is also a great opportunity to meet acquisition editors from local publishers. 

3. Amazing feedback.

 - Last year I entered the First Chapter Contest and tied for second place in my genre (which has since changed).  This encouraged me to finish the book.  It also came back with some fantastic feedback that helped me improve that first chapter. 

 - I already mentioned my query critique.  It's still bleeding in the corner of my folder.  I'll pull it out when I'm ready to query and patch it up.  

 - Other agents gave the attendees the chance to have their work critiqued too.  This takes a super thick skin.  Imagine having your hard work put up on a screen in front of hundreds of people while someone points out everything you did wrong.  It's not easy.  They also point out what you did right so it doesn't hurt so much. But still...it's not for the faint of heart.

 - Last year I attended the publication primer.  We were separated into groups, given an industry professional, and spent two hours critiquing each other's work.  Everyone had already read each other's work so the entire 2 hours were spent talking about how we could improve.  I kept in touch with two members of that group.

 - There is also boot camp which is a full day of the publication primer. I haven't tried this yet.  maybe next year.

4. Classes

 - Two days of classes taught by industry professionals.

 - I took two marketing classes.  One by Kathleen Ortiz and one by Elana Johnson.  These classes are a must for anyone published (or will some day be published.)  What good is getting a book on the shelves if no one knows about it?

 - The range of classes was amazing.  I'm using that word a lot but it's true.  I already dove into my manuscript using some of the tips from the conference and I'm giddy with excitement. She Came From the Hill is going to be incredible.

On a side note.  Things you should bring to a writer's conference.

1.  Notebook and pens.****

2.  Laptop (they had a free WIFI connection)

3.  Pepto (dinner the first night was brutal on my stomach.***)

4.  Tylenol (for brain overload.)

5.  Contact info

6.  Camera (and don't forget to use it like I did)

7.  Open mind.

8.  Conference schedule.  Know what classes you are going to take and bring the materials they suggest.

9.  Cell phone so you can call your kids when you miss them.

10. Clean clothes. (No one wants to sit in a room with a stinky writer.)

If you are serious about being a writer, I highly recommend a writer's conference.  Find the one closest to you and go! LDStorymakers is the biggest one in Utah.  (You don't have to be LDS*) 

*I almost giggled like a schoolgirl when Weronika Janczuk** added swear words to a piece she critiqued for a class.  Half the people cringed and you could almost feel a collective gasp.  We're so sheltered.  lol

**I never did figure out how to pronounce Weronika's last name. Everyone said it different and sort of coughed halfway through. 

***Don't order the chicken.

****Paper is especially useful when your laptop battery has the energy of an eighty year old.