Tag: about me

Webwanderings

Sometimes my webwanderings and research for my ballet book link up with my webwanderings as a conference director. That’s how I came upon Mark Siegel’s blog posting on First Second Books blog. This is a great posting about character development. Short sweet and visual. Mark Siegel is the illustrator for the graphic novel To Dance, with the subtitle A Ballerina’s Story (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum) written by his wife Siena who danced at School of American Ballet with Balanchine.  The connection is that I’m trying to pull together a group of graphic novel folks for an Illustration Academy at the 2009 conference. For info on this year’s Illustration Academy, keep your eyes on the mailbox and at NESCBWI for the conference brochure. It will be posted and mailed in Mid-February.

In other news…
1. I got a digital voice recorder for my interviews in New York. My kids want to record burps and other such bodily functions, so I’ve had to hide the recorder.
2. My lovely writing partner gave me feedback on my first chapter yesterday. I had high hopes that she would look at it and say, “Oh this is perfect don’t change a thing.” I’m glad she didn’t. The revision is a million times better.
3. We got a storm of “wintery mix” here last night and my driveway is like a skating rink. Only down hill. Eek.
4. Balanced the check book yesterday.
5. Printing images for the portfolio today.

NYC trip looming

Here is a unique idea in the world of gallery shows. “Fill in the Blanks” marries art and performance art by providing canvases, frames and lumps of clay for artists to develop over the course of the show dates. Mary Brooking of the Maine Illustrators’ collective will be one of the featured artists.

I am busy prepping for my trip to New York. The SCBWI conference does not start until Friday, the 8th but I am going early to show my portfolio to Art Directors and do research at the New York Public Library and meet up with friends and family. A week away from home! ACK! I’ve thrown myself into a whirlwind of laundry, packing, and list making. Lists for portfolio revisions, lists for what to take, lists of addresses and phone numbers, subway maps, amtrak timetables… I like traveling, love the train, and can’t wait to visit the city but I am a little nervous too.

A list:
1. Remember to breathe
2. Work on Chapter 2, Ballet
3. Revise cat montage
4. Finalize portfolio, make sure you have 2, dummy books attached
5. Pack clothing
6. Pack sketch book, traveling drawing kit.
7. Confirm appointments
8. Mapquest directions for Providence train station
9. Highlight relevant subway routes.
10. Check on subway passcard for the week
11. Society of Illustration hours?
12. Breathe.

Five things on a Saturday

1. It is amazing how normal things continue to happen even though extraordinary things dot the landscape of life. Preparing dinner, cleaning up after, walking the dog, carpooling children… these things still need to be done even though I’m staring at a contract from a lovely agent.
2. Because of snowdays and Martin Luther King Day my children will end up with only one full week of school in January. Those luck dogs. No wonder I’m behind on my blogging duties.
3. Anne Marie is right. (Of course) Just having the agent offer has given me a sense of purpose and time to create. No longer do I have to worry about where the proposal is going next or running to check my mailbox for rejections. I can concentrate on the project that is most important now and give it my full attention. I got so much done on Ballet yesterday.
4. My trip to NYC is fast approaching and I am so excited. If you are going to SCBWI-NY I hope to meet up with you. Leave me a comment. While I’m there, I’ll be able to meet with “my agent” (oooo, that sounds so sweet) and hopefully do more Ballet research at American Ballet Theatre and School of American Ballet. I’m crossing my fingers that I get to meet Angel Corella. (swoon)

5.When I get up at 5 am on a Saturday to work, my children (who refuse to get up at 7 am on school days) manage to wake up by 6:45 needing me.

I resolve…

To be more organized. Now some of my on-line friends think that I am super organized. I organize conferences, send out submissions, search for agents, blog regularly (ahem). Okay maybe not I’m not a regular blogger. Maybe if I give Frank, the  LJ goat, some Metamucil, I’d be more regular. But I digress. The fact is that if you saw my studio/office in the last couple months you’d be shocked. Shocked that I dare to be so hypocritical as to tell my children to clean their rooms when mine is such a wreck. As my son E. says, “It looks like a junkyard.” Gotta love a kid who tells the truth. That’s a family value right there. So I’ve been slogging through piles, and recycling, and buying drawers for supplies, and reclaiming file cabinets, and vacuuming, and dusting and cleaning and…. I’m organized. There are a few more things to do. I need shelves for my  closet and Hubby is going to help me rearranging things and hang pictures. Then I’ll take a few photos and post them. I’m so excited to show you. When I was little, I’d finally clean my room and my Mom would make a big deal of coming upstairs and exclaiming her joy and pride. Today I marched everyone in the family through the room and they all had to make a big deal about it. Ahhh… now back to work. I’m sure that novel will be finished in no time.

The muddy middle

I’m working hard to break through the middle of my novel manuscript. It seems that the characters need me take a break so that they can reconvene and figure out where they’re going. I won’t let them rest for too long though. I’ll be plugging away again tomorrow. For now, a joke. Where do fish keep their money? Answer: In a river bank. I. told me this one but my answer was “In off shore accounts.” I laughed hysterically but he didn’t get it.  I need to make portfolio appointments in NY for the week before the national SCBWI conference. Anyone else going? Let’s meet!

10889 / 30000 words. 36% done!

Hello 2008

Dear Friends:
It seems that it is 2008. Funny that. I’m just going along, writing, mothering, and drawing… and planning conferences, submitting manuscripts, researching agents, job hunting, developing adult ed classes… that another year has come and gone. It is true that 2007 was a busy year and I’ve come a long way but it was not as fruitful as I’d hoped. Looking back on my 2007 journals it seems that some goals never seem to be complete. I keep saying I’ll write the first two chapters of my non-fiction but never do. My Roar book is a like a millstone around my neck. I keep revising and reworking getting farther from the original vision of the book.

What a downer. Who wants to read that? Okay… 10 highpoints of 2007!
1. The awesome feeling of possibilities when I started my novel for JoNoWriMo.
2. Fall Folio Feast 2007. Third time was a charm. Great speaker, great event and I was relaxed enough to enjoy it.
3. Volunteering for Meals on Wheels. I love what I do there and it makes me feel great.
4. New Friends and old. The schmoozes at Tami’s, the amazing LJ community, Botherhood 2.0, (The Project for Awesome was indeed awesome!)
5. Go SOX! Go Patriots!
6. Proposing classes for adult ed and being accepted.
7. Being asked to direct the NESCBWI conference and getting to know Janet and Francine.
8. My family is healthy and happy. My boys are growing into very nice people that I like to spend time with. My parents and siblings are well.
9. The satisfying feeling of doing interviews for various projects.
10. Travel up and down the east coast and through NY State that allowed me to see people and places I don’t usually see.
11. (Okay 11) I read A LOT this year and loved it.

Hope that is better reading for you. Finally, a question. What do you think of getting and MFA  in Writing for Children? Is it all for the experience? Do the contacts and crits help you get published? Or do you feel that the experience made you a better writer and THEN you got published?

Six things on a Wednesday.

1. I am a master procrastinator.
2. The world is wintery white and cold as icicles.
3. I would like to curl up and crawl into the clothes dryer.
4. Chocolate brownies make me happy.
5. My husband makes awesome soup. Today is pumpkin soup.
6. I got a bike for Chanukah last night. How cool is that. I’m not too old to get a bike for a gift!

I’m writing, I’m writing.

3:00 Yeehaw!

7797 / 30000 words. 26% done!

Down Day

So let me just clarify that I am not down,  or blue, or sad. No, it is a “Down Day” because I have no deadlines or places to rush to. Today my parents are coming to visit. That means that I should be cleaning house.  But since they are my parents, they will understand when they arrive and have to wade through the dog hair puppies. Therefore I am coming to post on my blog, check in with the numerous wonderful friends I have on LJ, catch up on Brotherhood 2.0, and order new illustration promotional postcards for the Fall Folio Feast and my fall mailing. I am in the waiting room on so many things but I’ll try to list them here:
Illustrated Activity to Highlights High Five
Written story to Highlights High Five
Non-fiction query and board book to agent
Numerous picture book manuscripts to various publishers.
Illustration samples to Boyd’s Mills and an Educational publisher with local author.
Conference work:
8 spaces left for the Fall Folio Feast– sign up now!
Reviewing over 65 (WOW 65!) workshop proposals for NESCBWI meeting next Friday. (Hmmm… maybe that’s what I should be doing instead of cleaning my house. Isn’t that conveeeenient.)
Here is the postcard. You get it first!