Daughter, reading about Mount Everest: Everest. Everest. That's a funny name.
Me: I suppose so.
Daughter: I can see why it's called "Ever." Because it's the highest mountain of them all. Like "forever." But "rest"? That doesn't make sense. Why not call it "Mount "Forever." Like goodbye, forever! Or: Mount "so long, suckers!"
Showing posts with label name dropping in general. Show all posts
Showing posts with label name dropping in general. Show all posts
Friday, April 1, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
That's What I Would Have Called Her
Daughter, in tub: Mom, will you get in with me?
Me: Nope. I had a shower this afternoon. I'm good.
Daughter: Please?
Me: Not tonight.
Daughter, sounding desperate: But... I need someone heavy so the water will go up over the jets!
Me: Oh... So that's what this is about? You need water displacement?
Daughter: No! It's about me being your little angel.
Me: Nope. I had a shower this afternoon. I'm good.
Daughter: Please?
Me: Not tonight.
Daughter, sounding desperate: But... I need someone heavy so the water will go up over the jets!
Me: Oh... So that's what this is about? You need water displacement?
Daughter: No! It's about me being your little angel.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
... And Other Mythical Creatures
Son's note to the Tooth Fairy last night: "Here is my tooth. If you have any teeth of mythical creatures, or gods (Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, etc) please leave them."
The Tooth Fairy (paternal version) was gracious about not having mythical teeth to leave, and while she did point out that gods don't tend to lose teeth, she conceded that son's 6th tooth was indeed beautiful enough to have belonged to "one of the big three."
Son has read The Lightning Thief (great series to read), and now flings around references to the Greek pantheon with ease. The Tooth Fairy is jealous, in fact.
Thanks for voting on the "talent show" poll! Seems we are all singers and jokers, with a bit of stage fright thrown in for good measure. Watch for the new poll, coming soon!
The Tooth Fairy (paternal version) was gracious about not having mythical teeth to leave, and while she did point out that gods don't tend to lose teeth, she conceded that son's 6th tooth was indeed beautiful enough to have belonged to "one of the big three."
Son has read The Lightning Thief (great series to read), and now flings around references to the Greek pantheon with ease. The Tooth Fairy is jealous, in fact.
Thanks for voting on the "talent show" poll! Seems we are all singers and jokers, with a bit of stage fright thrown in for good measure. Watch for the new poll, coming soon!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Poor, Slighted Laura Ingalls
Well, the polls are soon to close, and Laura Ingalls is not someone we own up to being like. BUT, here is why we should?
Ahem. Herewith, my journal entry on Laura Ingalls acting out in LHBW:
The textbook Children’s Literature, Briefly (4th edition) recommends a list of indicators for “good” children’s books for classroom inclusion, and the list includes: “not depicting inappropriate behavior.”
In Little House in the Big Woods, Laura acts out spectacularly: “Laura’s throat swelled tight, and she could not speak. She knew golden hair was prettier than brown. She couldn’t speak, so she reached out quickly and slapped Mary’s face.”
For this indiscretion, Pa “whipped Laura with the strap.” I was surprised by how my memory of Laura Ingalls had blurred over the decades.
The debate over who has the "prettiest hair" has been brewing all day. Furthermore, when Laura’s pocket fell off her dress for the weight of stones she has put in it, Laura compares her fortunes with Mary’s:
“Nothing like that ever happened to Mary. Mary was a good little girl who always kept her dress clean and neat and minded her manners. Mary had lovely golden curls, and her candy heart had a poem on it.”
Right before Laura slaps her, Mary has just boasted that “Golden hair is lots prettier than brown.” The wonder becomes not that Laura slaps Mary, but that she waited so long to do it.
Pa whips Laura with a strap, and she is not so “naughty” again in this book. Cousin Charley, by contrast, who cries wolf three times “and still, Uncle Henry did not tan his hide,” gets his comeuppance in the form of hundreds of yellow jacket stings.
Pa’s comment?: “‘It served the little liar right.’”
Oh, Pa. I fondly misremembered you from the TV series... In any case, while the textbook has me unconvinced on this point I voted for Madeline, who doesn't stay in line either! Why did you vote the way you did?
Ahem. Herewith, my journal entry on Laura Ingalls acting out in LHBW:
The textbook Children’s Literature, Briefly (4th edition) recommends a list of indicators for “good” children’s books for classroom inclusion, and the list includes: “not depicting inappropriate behavior.”
In Little House in the Big Woods, Laura acts out spectacularly: “Laura’s throat swelled tight, and she could not speak. She knew golden hair was prettier than brown. She couldn’t speak, so she reached out quickly and slapped Mary’s face.”
For this indiscretion, Pa “whipped Laura with the strap.” I was surprised by how my memory of Laura Ingalls had blurred over the decades.
The debate over who has the "prettiest hair" has been brewing all day. Furthermore, when Laura’s pocket fell off her dress for the weight of stones she has put in it, Laura compares her fortunes with Mary’s:
“Nothing like that ever happened to Mary. Mary was a good little girl who always kept her dress clean and neat and minded her manners. Mary had lovely golden curls, and her candy heart had a poem on it.”
Right before Laura slaps her, Mary has just boasted that “Golden hair is lots prettier than brown.” The wonder becomes not that Laura slaps Mary, but that she waited so long to do it.
Pa whips Laura with a strap, and she is not so “naughty” again in this book. Cousin Charley, by contrast, who cries wolf three times “and still, Uncle Henry did not tan his hide,” gets his comeuppance in the form of hundreds of yellow jacket stings.
Pa’s comment?: “‘It served the little liar right.’”
Oh, Pa. I fondly misremembered you from the TV series... In any case, while the textbook has me unconvinced on this point I voted for Madeline, who doesn't stay in line either! Why did you vote the way you did?
Friday, January 8, 2010
Sweet Nothings I Love to Hear
Things I really do love to hear in this first week of 2010.
From the surgeon, after surgery that was going to reattach a torn tendon in my rotator cuff: "We didn't have to do open surgery, and in fact it wasn't the tendon at all. We removed an inflamed bursa, and shaved down your bone a bit."
It makes me wonder, retroactively, about the efficacy of the two MRIs I had that diagnosed the problem, but hey. No tendon or muscle cutting = fast recuperation. I'm already typing with both hands!
From the lovely editor of KC Baby:
"Would you like to do that piece on Baby Signs you pitched for our spring issue?"
YES! Yes, I really would. I will have it in early. It will be no more than 750 words. I can't wait to get started.
From the school automated phone call system, Thursday morning:
"Due to extreme cold temperatures and blowing snow, school is canceled today and tomorrow."
Because I am still on vacation, and getting up early to get kids to school in frigid sub sub zero temps is actually no fun for the parents either. So yay! Snow days!
From the editorial staff of a certain Australian kids' magazine:
"We are considering your story for our next issue."
Really? I'm thrilled. I think it's a neat story too, and it would be a first fiction publication in magazine format, and my mom lives in Australia, and she could read it fresh off the newstand... Ahem.
If 2010 can just hold on like this, it's gonna be sweet.
From the surgeon, after surgery that was going to reattach a torn tendon in my rotator cuff: "We didn't have to do open surgery, and in fact it wasn't the tendon at all. We removed an inflamed bursa, and shaved down your bone a bit."
It makes me wonder, retroactively, about the efficacy of the two MRIs I had that diagnosed the problem, but hey. No tendon or muscle cutting = fast recuperation. I'm already typing with both hands!
From the lovely editor of KC Baby:
"Would you like to do that piece on Baby Signs you pitched for our spring issue?"
YES! Yes, I really would. I will have it in early. It will be no more than 750 words. I can't wait to get started.
From the school automated phone call system, Thursday morning:
"Due to extreme cold temperatures and blowing snow, school is canceled today and tomorrow."
Because I am still on vacation, and getting up early to get kids to school in frigid sub sub zero temps is actually no fun for the parents either. So yay! Snow days!
From the editorial staff of a certain Australian kids' magazine:
"We are considering your story for our next issue."
Really? I'm thrilled. I think it's a neat story too, and it would be a first fiction publication in magazine format, and my mom lives in Australia, and she could read it fresh off the newstand... Ahem.
If 2010 can just hold on like this, it's gonna be sweet.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Touche!
Daughter, across dinner table, during ice storm: I have the power... of ICE!
Son, in riposte: Oh yeah? I have the power of FIRE.
Mom, kidding: I have the power of chicka chickaaah!
Daughter: I have the power of love. That's the best.
Son: I have the power of Donald Duck. You can't defeat that, because I'm fictional.
He has a point, you know.
Son, in riposte: Oh yeah? I have the power of FIRE.
Mom, kidding: I have the power of chicka chickaaah!
Daughter: I have the power of love. That's the best.
Son: I have the power of Donald Duck. You can't defeat that, because I'm fictional.
He has a point, you know.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Oh Yeah!
Am happily bragging today about my great emailed news from the magazine Appleseeds: my pitch to write a piece on medieval "dirty work" got accepted for one of their upcoming themed issues! Now, how to write a long and interesting piece, and then hack it back into a well- crafted 300 word mini-masterpiece ... I got done with my first example of wonderfully disgusting work and it was already at 344 words, so clearly I should aim for haiku.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Just Do It (Apologies to Bruce Coville, Who Reminded Us to Avoid Cliche)
If you write kidlit, or are thinking about writing kidlit (just do it), you must join SCBWI. And then find out when your regional chapter is having its annual conference (because lovely as LA and NY are, we can't all get there every year...sigh). And then sign up, and GO. The end.
Because (it's never the end) it was fabulous. Friday night we were all put into genre areas to forge new starter critique groups (or, presumably for those who were already in several, to extol the virtues of same). As I'm already in a picture book crit group, I met with three wonderful people who are all interested in chapter book writing, and we plan to try critiquing via Skype (or other conference software). We met Bruce Coville, writer and incredible public speaker (and I like to think I'm a tough audience...probably untrue), who spent an hour or so talking about "voice." And then we met the two editors who had made it in from NY: Eve Adler and Ruta Rimas. Both were great sports for the duration, and very generous with their energy.
Saturday was an all-day affair: longer presentations from each editor on their houses and on their lists, likes and dislikes. A presentation from agent Ted Malawer, of Upstart Crow (formerly of Firebrand Literary). Door prizes. The conference was well-themed the Wild, Wild, West, and guess what playing card I drew for door prizes? The ACE OF SPADES. I got to answer (guess) the second question, and won a gift card from the conference bookstore... how wonderful is that? After lunch there were breakout sessions, and I spent an hour with Dian Curtis Regan on picture books (and am scoping out her seminar at Texas A&M for next summer), then another hour with the incomparable Bruce Coville on plot and character (really, his performance energy is astonishingly generous), and then an hour in a group critique with Eve Adler. And then, ANOTHER presentation by Bruce, on writing in general (just do it). And networking, networking, networking. Handing out business cards, and making new contacts. A lot of people I recognized from the July workshop, so it's a small-ish community you can meet quite easily.
Oh, and my crit partner told me on Saturday that "she liked my piece." As I wasn't packing, despite the conference theme, she filled me in: a piece I wrote called "The Inside Joke" (advice for picture book writers) was published in In the Wind, the regional SCBWI newsletter. I only just subscribed (oops), so had missed it... much mutual hilarity with Jenn Bailey for same. Kudos to Sue Ford and the fleet of volunteers!
I can't wait for the next one. Oh, and if you volunteer, which I didn't yet, you usually get a reduced conference fee. Come on! What are you waiting for?!
Because (it's never the end) it was fabulous. Friday night we were all put into genre areas to forge new starter critique groups (or, presumably for those who were already in several, to extol the virtues of same). As I'm already in a picture book crit group, I met with three wonderful people who are all interested in chapter book writing, and we plan to try critiquing via Skype (or other conference software). We met Bruce Coville, writer and incredible public speaker (and I like to think I'm a tough audience...probably untrue), who spent an hour or so talking about "voice." And then we met the two editors who had made it in from NY: Eve Adler and Ruta Rimas. Both were great sports for the duration, and very generous with their energy.
Saturday was an all-day affair: longer presentations from each editor on their houses and on their lists, likes and dislikes. A presentation from agent Ted Malawer, of Upstart Crow (formerly of Firebrand Literary). Door prizes. The conference was well-themed the Wild, Wild, West, and guess what playing card I drew for door prizes? The ACE OF SPADES. I got to answer (guess) the second question, and won a gift card from the conference bookstore... how wonderful is that? After lunch there were breakout sessions, and I spent an hour with Dian Curtis Regan on picture books (and am scoping out her seminar at Texas A&M for next summer), then another hour with the incomparable Bruce Coville on plot and character (really, his performance energy is astonishingly generous), and then an hour in a group critique with Eve Adler. And then, ANOTHER presentation by Bruce, on writing in general (just do it). And networking, networking, networking. Handing out business cards, and making new contacts. A lot of people I recognized from the July workshop, so it's a small-ish community you can meet quite easily.
Oh, and my crit partner told me on Saturday that "she liked my piece." As I wasn't packing, despite the conference theme, she filled me in: a piece I wrote called "The Inside Joke" (advice for picture book writers) was published in In the Wind, the regional SCBWI newsletter. I only just subscribed (oops), so had missed it... much mutual hilarity with Jenn Bailey for same. Kudos to Sue Ford and the fleet of volunteers!
I can't wait for the next one. Oh, and if you volunteer, which I didn't yet, you usually get a reduced conference fee. Come on! What are you waiting for?!
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