Author Angst

This picture represents me at this very moment. I have the house to myself. Plenty of time to sit down and write. I took advantage of it. Sat myself down, opened my file and realized, 'Crap. This scene isn't going anywhere. Don't know how to fix it right now. Blah!' So frustrating! This might have something to do with the fact that I tend to write by the seat of my pants. A 'pantser' if you will. (seriously, it means you write without a plan. No outlining. I didn't make it up.)

So, now I'm annoyed that I have this time to write and I'm not using it to advance my story. I love this story. It's going to be fantastic. But, clearly, I haven't given it enough thought yet. All in good time.

Since I have the writing time, I thought I'd return to my blog. (aren't you delighted?) Since you're hoping for some information here, I'll mention some of the top songs on my writing playlist for this story I'm not writing currently. What do you think of this?

1. Paradise - Coldplay (this is the song that actually inspired the whole thing.)
2. Shadow Boxer - Fiona Apple
3. Stay or Leave - Dave Matthews
4. Broken Crown - Mumford & Sons
5. I Will Not Forget You - Sarah McLachlan

And, lest you think I've forgotten about it. Dream Girl is out to publishers at this very moment. She's on her job interview, waiting to get hired. So, here are some of her top tracks too, in order of most listened to while writing.

1. Fear - OneRepublic
2. Vanilla Twilight - Owl City
3. Evangelina Butterfly Dupree - The Aldous U Collective
4. Distance - Christina Perri
5. To the Ghosts Who Write History - The Low Anthem
6. Won't Stop - OneRepublic
7. Lullaby - OneRepublic
8. Porcelain - Moby
9. Trapeze - Iron and Wine
10. House of Wax - Paul McCartney

There Was an Old Woman

It's here! Yesterday, my third MeeGenius picture book, There Was an Old Woman: Alphabet Adventure went live.

I am blown away by Lori Taylor's brilliant artwork. What do you think?

I'm going to be writing an article about this book and how it came about for the SCBWI Michigan Chapter newsletter, so I don't want to give away all the info. right now but I do want to mention one thing. I can't stress how important it is to join a professional organization like SCBWI.

Now, it's true that traditional publishers don't usually allow an author to choose who illustrates their books. In my case, I've been privileged to choose, and work with, two extremely talented and fun artists. (Ingvard the Terrible for my Pajama Girl books.)

For me, working with an illustrator who belonged to SCBWI was of the utmost importance. It led me to choose Ingvard, besides his awesome illustration style. And I met Lori while carpooling to a conference on the other side of the state. We wouldn't have met if it wasn't for SCBWI. If we hadn't met, I wouldn't have decided to look up her portfolio. And the rest, as they say, is history. Well, in this case, not ancient history because our book just came out yesterday.

Please check it out and let me know what you think. I'd love to see some reviews in the comments.

Thanks for your support!