Monday, January 18, 2010

Three Day Weekend

Today's edition of he said/she said:
Son got in the middle of dispute between Father and Daughter, thus getting himself into trouble. I attempted to comfort him by telling him that I, as the oldest child, had that same tendency and used to get into trouble for inserting myself in parental vs. sibling disputes too. "So," I added with a sense of maternal sufficiency, "I know how you feel." Son's victorious reply: "So THAT'S where I get it from."

Good news from Australasia: acceptance of my first ever published fiction, a story called "Monty is from Mars," forthcoming in April 2010 issue of Explore Magazine, an Australian kids' mag published by an education publisher!

Finally, after enjoying Julie/Julia (the book, but of course with Meryl Streep the film was great fun too), and now reading Not Buying It (a year without shopping), am wondering what great venture I would task myself with for a year. I tried to read a book about a family who only ate what they grew for a year, but it was unspeakably exhausting to read if you just aren't a large scale (or competent) gardener to begin with. I then realized that I am in fact still in my first year of writing for children (begun May 24, 2009), so if I can get something amazing to happen before the end of May, I could reverse engineer a wittier blog and write a book about it. Don't worry; I think that was a joke!

Met in KC at Borders with my critter group yesterday, and it has been a big month for two of them, at least. They have launched new and exciting ventures in the web. One, similarly inspired by the Julie/Julia project, has gone live with a commercial blog meshing nursing/parent advice/humor called, appropriately enough: NurseMommyLaughs. Already she has pediatricians beating a path to her door! Another is growing Blessing Beans, a devotional website with spinoffs, and already has a trademarked product. And for a third, with whom I meet for chapter book critiquing, she says she has given up lucrative employment possibilities to carve out 90 minutes of writing time a day and stay home with her three children. Vacations have moved from Florida to nearby St. Louis instead, but she and her husband are bucking the trend of the Joneses they run with. So we're back to Not Buying It again! (But of course, I had to buy the book.)

5 comments:

  1. CONGRATS on your story! Woot!

    And LOL re: the irony of having to buy Not Buying It...

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  2. Congratulations on the story!

    And hey, you can always use your library if you don't want to buy the book... :)

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  3. Ink; irony never enters into the equation when it comes to book buying... I'm a fetishist!

    RichLayers; you are so right. And I'm torn. How to support the public library when all I want is to have the books for my very own? Still, we do a booming trade in borrowing too!

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  4. Ditto what they said! Congrats on your story! That's so great. And it's so great what your friend did--letting the Joneses go on ahead while she does what is meaningful to her.

    I also read "Not Buying It." I bought it on sale. Apparently, I haven't taken the message totally to heart . . .

    And keep us posted on your class!

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  5. Thanks, GEW. What did you think of the book NBI?

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