In Which, to My Great Surprise, I Write a Picture Book Text

 I have always loved picture books. When my kids were prime picture book age, I read piles and piles of picture books to them. Even though they're 10 and 16 now, there are still a handful of picture books that they both appreciate- particularly if they involve squirrels in my son's case and cats in my daughter's case. We still read Christmas picture books as a family during our advent readings. Both kids still have some picture books on the bookshelves in their rooms, and I saved my favorites that they didn't want on a shelf in the dining room. I have to admit that there were some I got really tired of (I can still recite Is Your Mama Llama? from memory), but it was so sweet to see my kids begin to fall in love with stories.

People who don't know much about writing often make the grave mistake of thinking that writing picture books is really easy. "Oh, that book has under 1,000 words (most often under 500 in more recently published books)" they think, "I bet the writer whipped that story out in under and house. Easy money."

Now, if you know anything about writing, querying agents, and the path to being traditionally published, you should know that that path does not, at any point in any genre or age group involve "easy money". Writing is hard work. Writing a picture book, precisely because it's so short, is in a way even harder than writing a novel. When I write a middle grade novel, I have at least 30,000 words and sometimes more than 60,000 to introduce my characters and world and take them on a journey, whether that's primarily an interior or exterior journey. In a picture book I have 500 words to do the same thing. You are likely familiar with the writing adage "show, don't tell". That's even more important in picture books. And if you're a picture book writer only and not a writer illustrator you need to leave a lot of room for the illustrator to show the story. No big scene or character descriptions like you can get away with in a novel. Your language needs to be really sparse, but at the same time vivid and lyrical. It's a tall order.

For all these reasons, I always thought I would never in a million years attempt to write a picture book. Then I shared a funny story with the #MGwaves about a time I thought there was a dog inside a vent in the kitchen and it turned out to be an alarm from an ipad sitting in a backpack below the vent. Several of them said I should turn that story into a picture book. I laughed then I thought, "Why not try?" So I wrote a story about a little girl who was sure there was a dog in the wall of her new house. And I sent it to some friends who have been writing picture books for awhile. And they didn't hate it. Actually, they liked it, and had some great suggestions about how to improve it.

It turned out I had fun writing a whole story in one sitting. So I wrote another picture book. This one was about a little girl who conquers her fear of the dark in a unique way. And that one was well received too. That's where I've stopped for now. Those two stories still need polishing before they're ready for an agent to look at, let alone an editor, but I think it's something I can do.

I'm not sure if I'll ever query an agent with one of those picture book texts. Don't get me wrong. I believe in them and would love to see them on shelves one day, but my heart is with my middle grade books. It's more likely that I'll keep seeking representation for those and look for an agent who will also represent the picture books once they've signed me for the middle grade. Or maybe I'll go wild one day and send out a picture book query. I would need to have at least one more polished manuscript to do that, since the equivalent of asking for a full in the picture book querying world is asking for more manuscripts and at least two are expected.

Either way, it's been fun to experiment with a very different type of writing and I'm glad I took the plunge. Turns out you don't know for sure if you can write something until you actually try it.

In Which I Am the All-Powerful Overlord (Overlady?) of a New World

There's lots of advice out that there in writer-land that, in order to stop yourself from going crazy while querying agents with one manuscript (or while one manuscript is on submission after you get an agent), you should focus your attention on writing a new one. I ignored that advice for a few months after finishing MOUSECRACKER, the book I'm querying right now, but I've finally narrowed down the book I want to work on from among my many ideas.

I won't announce my tentative title since it's so tentative and not that great, but the book is in the steampunk genre, which, in case you don't know, is a subgenre of science fiction. A quick definition of steampunk is that it imagines a present or future in which, instead of the internal combustion engine having been invented, the steam age continued, and produced all kinds of amazing technology. There are nearly always airships present in steampunk (think 19th century sailing ship crossed with a blimp or hot air balloon), and technology powered by a dazzling array of metal gears. As I dug into my main character, I came up with a new aesthetic.

My WIP stars 12yo Harbor Lightkeep, who has grown up at an inn and lighthouse for airships with her twin brother, father, and grandfather. Because imagining a world powered by steam was not enough for me, I'm creating a completely different version of earth - divided into artificial climate zones and controlled by powerful empires, most of which have never existed in our world. 

I shared some of my process with my writing peeps, the #MGWaves, and one friend pointed out that I'm basically the all-powerful overlord (or maybe I should say overlady) of this world I'm creating. It turns out worldbuilding for science fiction is many steps above worldbuilding for the contemporary and contemporary fantasy books I've written so far. It's a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. I mean, really, who but a writer gets to create a brand new world? Here's a sneak peak of my first attempt to divide up the world map in a new way.

I've so far sent about 30 queries out for MOUSECRACKER, and received mostly form rejections in return, despite having changed my query letter and opening pages twice. The only slightly positive response I've gotten was from an agent who took the time to say that the story wasn't for her, but the query and pages were very strong and she was sure someone else would request. I was starting to feel discouraged about my chances of ever finding an agent. I still love and believe in that story and am far from giving up on it, but, for the moment, I'm loving my new story even more and believe it may turn out to be even better. At the very least, it's a great way to occupy my mine while I wait for news.

In Which the Newbery and the Caldecott Are Not the Only ALA Youth Media Awards

 Yesterday the American Library Association (ALA) announced their annual youth media awards during their midwinter conference. What are those you ask? I guarantee you have heard of two of them: The John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to Children Literature and The Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children.

In addition to the medals, four Newbery Honor and four Caldecott Honor books are named. The Newbery Winner for this year is When You Trap a Tiger  by Tae Keller. The Caldecott winner is We are Water Protectors illustrated by Michaela Goade. 

Notable among the Newbery honors is that writer Christina Soorntornvat won for two of her books: her fiction book A Wish in the Dark and her nonfiction book All Thirteen: The Incredible Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team.

You might be familiar with the Coretta Scott King Book Award, that is given to recognize an African American author and an African American illustrator of books for children and young adults.

The author winner this year is Jacqueline Woodson for Before the Ever After

The illustrator winner this year is Frank Morrison for R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul

I was not aware that there is a Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author award.

This year's winner is Tracy Deonne for Legendborn. This is the first of the award winners that I have read, and I agree wholeheartedly with this decision. Legendborn is a masterpiece.

I was also unaware of the Coretta Scott King - Virginia Hamilton award for Lifetime Achievement.

This year's award was given to Dorothy L. Guthrie, who is "an award-winning retired librarian, district administrator, author and school board member". Among many other accomplishments, her book Integrating African American Literature in the Library and Classroom has inspired educators to pull from the rich collection of African American literature as they teach. She also founded the first African American museum in her home of Gaston County, North Carolina.

I'd heard of the Michael L. Printz award, which is the equivalent of the Newbery for Young Adult literature, but it's definitely lesser known. This year's winner is Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story) by Daniel Nayeri. Four Printz Honor books were also named.

I was unaware of the existence of the Schneider Family Book Award, given to "books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience". There is an award given for books for young children (0-10) and one for middle grade books. 

The winner for the young children award is I Talk Like a River written by Jordan Scott and illustrated by Sydney Smith.

For middle grade, the winner is Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte. I actually have this book checked out from the library and it's sitting on the table beside me right now. I plan to start it right after I finish a Newbery medal winner from three years ago: Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly. I also found it notable that one of the honor winners was Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen by Sarah Kapit. Sarah was one of the mentors I applied to for Pitch Wars back in the fall, and I've interacted with her quite a bit on Twitter. Her book was already on my to be read list. I think it should probably move up the list now.

I really love that this award exists. While its definitely improving, there is not enough disability representation in children's books. One of my goals as a writer is to create characters who live with the disabilities I know well as the mother of children who live with invisible disabilities and a person who lives with ADHD.

Another award I have never heard of is the Alex Award for the ten best adult books that appeal to teen audiences. As the mother of a teen who consumes a lot of adults books (via audio - he's dyslexic and can read but doesn't enjoy it) I think it's cool that his award exists. I'm not familiar with any of the winners, but there are several I plan to recommend to him.

The Children's Literature Legacy Award is given to "an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children through books that demonstrate integrity and respect for all children’s lives and experiences. " I was thrilled to see that this year's winner is Mildred D. Taylor. I still remember the first time I read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in fourth grade. It had a big impact on me, and was one of the first windows I, an upper middle class white kid from the suburbs, had into the experience of a childhood very different from mine.

There's also an award for lifetime achievement in writing for Young Adults: The Margaret A. Edwards award. This year's winner is Kekla Magoon. I've actually never heard of her, probably in part because I've never been as interested in young adult books. As a kid I skipped right from middle grade books to adult fantasy and science fiction. As an adult I ready mostly middle grade. I definitely need to read at least one of Kekla Morgan's books now, though.

And I was unaware that the ALA even gives an award for a non-American book! The Mildred L. Batchelder Award is given to "an outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States". This year's winner is Telephone Tales written by Gianni Rodari, illustrated by Valerio Vidali, and translated by Antony Shugaar. It was originally published in Italian as Favole al telefono.

The Odyssey Award is given to the best audiobook produced for children or young adults. This year's winner is Kent State, which is produced by Paul R. Gagne for Scholastic Audio. It is written by Deborah Wiles and narrated by Christopher Gebauer, Lauren Ezzo, Christina DeLaine, Johnny Heller, Roger Wayne, Korey Jackson, and David de Vries.

The Pura Belpré award is given to "a Latinx writer and illustrator whose children's books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience".

This year's illustrator award was given to ¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat which is both written and illustrated by Raúl Gonzalez.

This year's writer award was given to Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros. This is another book that has been on my to be read list for awhile. Among the honor books is The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas. This is another book that I've been meaning to read for awhile. Adrianna is very friendly on twitter, and I've interacted with her quite a bit.

There's also a Pura Belpré award for a young adult book. This year's winner is Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez.

The Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award is given to a producer of excellent digital media for an early learner audience.

This year's winner is "The Imagine Neighborhood", which is produced by Committee for Children.

The Stonewall Book Award - Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award is given to excellent children's a young adult books that embody the LGBT+ experience. This year's winner is  We Are Little Feminists: Families, which is written by Archaa Shrivastav, designed by Lindsey Blakely and published by Little Feminist.

The Theodor Suess Giesel award is given to the most distinguished book for early readers. This year's winner is See the Cat: Three Stories About a Dog. I don't pay much attention to early readers these days since it's not what I write and my kids are well past that stage, but this book sounds like something both my kids would have enjoyed.

The William C. Morris award is given to a debut author writing for teens. This year's winner is If These Wings Could Fly by Kyrie McCauley. Four finalists for this award were also named.

Also in the young adult realm is the YALSA award for excellence in nonfiction for young adults. This year's winner is The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming. There were four finalists for this award. It's notable that among them is Christina Soontornvat's All Thirteen, which also won a Newbery Honor. 

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature "promotes Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage and is awarded based on literary and artistic merit. The award offers three youth categories including Picture Book, Children’s Literature and Youth Literature.  The award is administered by the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), an affiliate of the American Library Association."

This year's picture book winner is Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist written by Julie Leung and illustrated by Chris Sasaki.  The children's literature winner is When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller. As you may remember, this book is also the Newbery Medal winner. The Youth Literature winner is This Light Between Us by Andrew Fukuda.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Sydney Taylor book award which "is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience. Presented since 1968 by the Association of Jewish Libraries, an affiliate of the American Library Association, the award encourages the publication and widespread use of quality Judaic literature".

This award has both gold and silver medalists. The gold medalist picture book is Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail, written by Lesléa Newman and illustrated by Susan Gal. The middle grade gold medalist is Turtle Boy by M. Evan Wolkenstein. The young adult gold medalist is Dancing at the Pity Party, which is both written and illustrated by Tyler Feder.

The silver medal winners in the picture book category are I Am the Tree of Life: My Jewish Yoga Book by Mychal Copeland and illustrated by André Ceolin along with Miriam at the River by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Khoa Le.  The silver medal winners in the middle grade category are No Vacancy by Tziporah Cohen, Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack, and Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman. In the young adult category the silver medalist is They Went Left by Monica Hesse.

I was most excited see Sofiya's win, since she's very interactive on Twitter and she did a zoom call with the #MGWaves. This makes two of her books that have won a Sydney Taylor book award medal.

It could be tempting as a writer pursuing publication to look at all of these awards and think "Oh, this is hopeless. I'm never going to win one of these awards. I may as well give up now." I think that's exactly the wrong attitude, however. First of all, there are a ton of good books that are adored by readers and never win any awards. Sure, it would be amazing if one of my books won an award someday, but my main goal is to get my books into the hands of young readers, especially young readers with invisible disabilities who often don't see kids like them in books.

My other takeaway is that I've realized in the year I've been interacting with the #WritingCommunity on Twitter that these award winning authors are, above all, just people. People with a lot of talent who write amazing books, but still people. As a child I put writers in general and writers of award winning books in particular up on pedestals. It turns out writers are normal people who lead normal lives and spend parts of those normal lives working hard at the writing craft and writing excellent books. They don't live in gilded towers. They live down on earth with the rest of us. I know that Sofiya Pasternack loves goats. I know that Christina Soontornvat has a 5th grader whose teacher streamed the ALA awards live. If you're an aspiring author, don't be afraid to reach out to these writers both with praise for their books and with questions. They're people just like you, I promise.

In completely non ALA related news, and partly just so this blog entry can feature a picture, the MGWaves now have a logo! Check it out below!

 

In Which I Find My Community - The #MGwaves

2020 will go down in the history books as a year full of the word “unprecedented”, won’t it? Well, in the year of an unprecedented global pandemic, I experienced unprecedented success in my journey as a writer. No, I didn’t get an agent or sign a book contract. What I did do is make a decision to take my writing seriously, complete two manuscripts, and get connected with other writers.

Right about the time I decided I’d maybe queried my contemporary manuscript to death I was reminded of Pitch Wars, and I figured, “What the heck, it can’t hurt to submit. Maybe a mentor will choose me and I’ll be able to fix whatever it is that’s stopping me from getting requests.” Spoiler alert: I wasn’t chosen. I didn’t even get a full request from any mentors. What I did get, however, was an amazing community of fellow writers. It started as a support group of middle grade writers to cheer each other on during Pitch Wars. Some people had gotten requests. Some hadn’t. Two ended up getting mentee spots. Since Pitch Wars the group has evolved into a more general writing group. We share resources, read each other’s work, share book recommendations, cheer each others’ successes (so far, three members have gotten agents since Pitch Wars ended and one has gotten an SCBWI mentorship!) and commiserate when we get rejections. The group features members from around the globe, and we’re able to be open and honest with each other and bounce ideas and questions off each other on topics that can be hard to address in the general writing world. We call ourselves the #MGwaves.

We’re doing a blog hop to get to know each other better. I’ll start with myself.

I’m Beth. I grew up in west Michigan, but have spent most of my adult life in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but only started taking my writing seriously about a year ago. I’ve since finished two middle grade novels - a contemporary and a contemporary fantasy. The second one is my true love and the one I’m querying now. I’m also honing in on ideas to take the setting and characters from my contemporary and drop them into a contemporary fantasy story. It turns out I'm better at writing contemporary fantasy than straight contemporary. Just for fun, here's an aesthetic for that hypothetical story.

I always aim to include characters who share the challenges I know intimately - type 1 diabetes (as the parent of a T1D), ADHD (as both an ADHDer and the parent of one), and dyslexia (and the wife and mother of dyslexics). The book I’m querying is THE MOUSECRACKER. It features a boy dancer with type 1 diabetes, two stuck up talking mice, and a version of the beloved Nutcracker story in which the hero is the villain. Here’s the pitch:

Prepare to rethink the Nutcracker. Twelve year old dance William is about to be schooled by a mouse, and traveling to the Kingdom of Sweets as a diabetic is just the beginning - throw in an evil prince, a kidnapped girl, and a possible war.

Here's an aesthetic for THE MOUSECRACKER.

Favorite Advice or Resource:

I’m a plantser, or, as I saw recently on Twitter, a discovery writer. Unlike a plotter, I don’t know exactly where a story is going to go when I start it, but, unlike a true pantser (someone who flies by the seat of their pants), I have a general framework for what will happen when I start. However, I always discover something new along the way. When I started THE MOUSECRACKER I thought William would only travel to the Kingdom of Sweets with one mouse. Then another mouse pushed her way into the story. I don’t really like following other peoples’ advice about how to write and structure a story, but I’ve found two resources that I don’t hate : Story Genius  by Lisa Cron and Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. These books can help me build a general framework and let me check the pace of my story without making me feel stifled.

When you’re ready to query your book, I recommend checking out the Query Shark Blog. This is a great resource for learning what does and what does not work in a query letter. If you want even more guidance, I also recommend Kathy Ver Eecke. She offers several different paid classes to help you find the perfect agent and write the perfect query, as well as an occasional free seminar on query writing as a tease to convince you to buy her other services (which I’ve never done, but which writers I know recommend).

Favorite MG Books:

This is super hard to narrow down, because I've been reading MG since the 1980's and I love so many books devotedly. I'll start with my favorite series that I discovered this year: The Love, Sugar, Magic series by Anna Meriano. Pictured below is the second of the (so far) three books in the series.

The series introduces Leonora (Leo) Logrono, a Mexican American girl from a small town in Texas who learns that the women in her family don't just run a bakery - they are, in fact, brujas concineras - witches of the kitchen would be a good way to say this in English. I love fun stories about witches (spooky stories not so much), Mexican culture (the two degrees I have and don't use are in Spanish), and baked goods (I mean, who doesn't), so this series is a perfect meld of all the things I love. I shared it with my nine year old, who attend a Spanish immersion school and shares my love for the Spanish speaking world, and I think she loved it even more than I did.

My second great discovery this year, actually over the last few years, is the books in the Rick Riordan Presents imprint. I never really thought about it as a kid, but, growing up, nearly all the characters in the books I read and loved looked like me. I mean, sometimes they were boys, and I was super jealous of Anne Shirley's red hair, but they were pretty much all white and most often middle class like me. I fell in love with Rick Riordan's takes on popular mythology and appreciated his introduction of diverse character as the books progressed, but I wanted to learn about stories from even more parts of the world - not just the ones that influence Western culture. My wish was granted when the Rick Riordan Presents imprint was started. I have loved every single book I've read from this imprint. I've introduced them to my daughter and she loves them too. I love that she's growing up reading books with characters who look not only like her, but like all sorts of kids from all sorts of cultures and places. A small selection of these books are pictured below. I'm particularly drawn to those featuring the many cultures of the Spanish speaking world, but they're all great. If you or your kids love magic and adventure you can't go wrong with any book from this imprint.

I could go on, but I'll spare you the many more pages. Sometime soon I'll post about my favorite books from my childhood.

Check out the other MGwaves’ posts to learn about them, what they write, and the awesome resources and books they recommend.

Malia Maunakea

Anushi Mehta

Thushanthi Ponweera

Jennifer Mattern

Susan Leigh Needham

Maureen Mirabito

T.C. Kemper

Sabrina Vienneau

Rebecca Chaney

Kathryn Faye

In Which I Share Our Family's Holiday Reading Traditions

I love Advent and Christmas. Advent, for the nonobservant, is a season in the Church calendar that begins four Sundays before Christmas and is meant as a time to prepare your heart and mind for Christmas. Some liturgical Christians are super strict about it and don't put up any Christmas decorations until Christmas Eve, but I'm not an Advent purist. My family and I are observant Christians, but we mix plenty of general cultural Christmas traditions into both our Advent and Christmas traditions. 

One of my favorite things to do when it's time to pull out the Christmas decorations (never until after Thanksgiving, of course) is to bring up the book reindeer from the basement storage closet. These two reindeer were crafted by my father in law's students many decades ago when he taught wood shop in high school. They've suffered some abuse over the years. Both have lost their antlers, but they continue to do their job of holding our Christmas books.  I'm not sure what they were originally intended to hold, but they do a fabulous job of being the bearers of the special books that only come out between the weekend after Thanksgiving and January 6th (that's right, there really are twelve days of Christmas, feel free to keep celebrating after the 25th :)). Our Christmas books have become so great in number over the years that they've spilled out of the reindeer and some are now stored under and leaning against our Christmas book holders. Here's one of our reindeer today. Our Elf on the Shelf, Sam, is even reading a book under the reindeer.

Every night of Advent, after lighting our Advent wreath, saying a prayer, and reading some Bible passages, we read a part of a Christmas themed book. This year's selection is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Some of the other books we've read are pictured below in front of the second reindeer. I'm a particular fan of Santa Claus origin stories, as you can see.

Saint Nicholas Day falls on December 6th, usually during the first week of Advent. This day is observed most often in Germany and the Netherlands, but my husband's family started celebrating St. Nicholas Day during his childhood because they lived in a heavily German area of Wisconsin and my mother didn't want her children to feel left out. We've given Saint Nicholas Day our own twist in our family. The kids put out their shoes the night before, and they are filled with candy, an ornament commemorating the year in some way, and a book. Actually, the books are normally under the shoes, because the average book does not actually fit inside a shoe :). I used to be a stickler at giving Christmassy books, but now I've given up and just give each kid a book I know they'll like. For the 15 year old this year it was the latest book in the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series, which he loves. For the 9 year old, it was a new graphic novel, Twins, by Varian Johnson and Shannon Wright.  The kids also receive a book and a new pajamas on Christmas Eve, but I don't have a representative picture of that.

Finally, I have a personal reading tradition every December. About ten years ago I discovered the book Kringle by Tony Abbot. It's a Santa Claus origin story told though the medium of an epic fantasy, and it's amazing. I loved it so much, I bought a copy and read it every year sometime in December. It made it into the Advent family reading a few years ago, but my silly children don't want to hear a book more than once, so I normally have to read it on my own. The good news is, I can then read it at my own pace and don't have to stick to a chapter or two a day.

The book I'm querying right now has a Christmas theme. If it gets picked up by an agent or an editor someday, it may have to be our Advent book the year it comes out. Perhaps it will also brighten another family's December. I can hope, anyway.

One final note: I definitely don't think family readings during December need to be confined to families who celebrate Christmas. There are plenty of great Hannukah books, as well as a few for other holidays and a lot of fun winter stories. Cuddle together with your kids on a cold night (or pretend it's cold if you live in a warm climate and/or the Southern Hemisphere :)) and build some December reading traditions.

In Which I Extol the Value of Connecting with Other Writers

 Whether writing is your full time profession, your side gig, or the hobby your pursue in your few snippets of spare time that you really wish you had more time for, it can be a very lonely pursuit. Your actual creating takes place when you're alone in your office, or on the bed or couch with your laptop, or wherever you create. A rare writer might make use of some kind of community office space, but, as a general rule, there's no office filled with people to go into when you're a writer.

That's why it's so important to connect with other writers. Where would I find these writers, you ask? Why, social media, of course. Social media can be a minefield for a writer. There's conflicting advice all over the place, there are published writers making you feel like you'll never be as good as they are, there are all kinds of shiny, fun things to distract you from actually, you know, writing. However, it can also be a gold mine for meeting other writers you connect with. In my experience, the best way to do that is participate in contests, pitch events, and other writing an pitching opportunities available.

I met my first writing friends a year ago when I signed up for a workshop with Kathy Ver Eecke from getabookdeal101.com about perfecting the perfect pitch for a twitter pitch party. I didn't even end up pitching a book that month. I decided my manuscript wasn't ready. However, what did happen was that another woman who writes book for kids asked if any other children's writers would be open to forming a critique group over Facebook. I said I was interested, and, through that group, met three other writers who have been invaluable companions along the path, serving sometimes as beta readers and sometimes as more in depth critique partners. One has since moved to writing for adults, but we still have a lot to give each other.

My second, and even more amazing, find, happened when I applied to Pitch Wars this year. Pitch Wars pairs up writers with mentors who work with them to perfect their manuscript over a few months and ends with an agent showcase. Many, many times more people apply than are accepted for memberships, but there's a lot of buzz about it on Twitter during the application process, and it's pretty easy to spot other writers who are participating in your genre. I was invited into a message group of writers who had submitted middle grade manuscripts, and it was there that I really feel I found "my people". We've since moved most of our conversations over the Slack, but it remains an amazing, diverse group of people with whom I can be totally honest about issues of writing, questions about how to fairly portray characters who are different from me, and more.

Sometimes, as an aspiring published writer, it's easy to get jealous of the social media relationships you observe between published writers. This isn't always true, but often those relationships developed when the writers were going through the query trenches together. If you look around, you too can find writers in whatever stage you're in and band together to support each other. The #mgwaves have formed a bond, so I'm sorry to say you can't jump in with us, but you can find your own group of waves to catch. They might even cheer you on when you buy an ornament to represent your latest book.

In Which I Need to Eat My Words - Which Might Come in Handy Because I Can't Seem to Make Dinner and Write a Book at the Same Time

 Remember earlier this month when  I wrote  that I had stopped setting definite goals by which I absolutely must be agented or published. I was going to take the rest of the month off to read, and I had accepted the fact that I was not going to have a manuscript ready for PitMad in December and that that was okay.

Well, that lasted less than a week. I suddenly got an inspiration for my Nutcracker inspired contemporary fantasy. I knew approximately what would happen and I knew that one of the things driving the MC's desire to succeed in his quest was his desire to prove to himself that he could thrive despite his recent diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. It seems I have a penchant for creating main characters with some type of struggle. As the mother of a type 1 diabetic I am particularly appalled both by the lack of characters in children's books with T1D and by the fact that, on the rare occasion they occur, the condition is often portrayed inaccurately.

From that point on I wrote furiously. New characters appeared that I hadn't even imagined before I started writing, let alone fleshed out (when I'm brainstorming a new book my first step is always to write a background for all of the important characters). It turned out there was another important mouse, a best friend I didn't know existed, and a set of cousins from Germany.

It all went amazingly well. The book is out to beta readers as of yesterday, and, while it's not guaranteed, it's quite possible I will have a new book ready to pitch in December after all. All that contemporary and urban fantasy I was going to read? Yeah, it's still on my to be read pile, otherwise known as the end table beside the big, comfy chair I usually write in.

I'm pretty proud of myself for getting an idea and sticking with it even though it went against my original plan. You know what I'm not proud of, though? The fact that I am apparently incapable of cooking dinner while writing a book. Actually, I need to rewrite that sentence. It is really difficult for me to simultaneously work on a book I'm excited about, supervise remote learning for three kids (only two are mine, but my 4th grader has a podmate who comes to our house), and remember to do the things I need to do to cook dinner.

Monday was the prime example. Plan A for dinner was a pot roast in the crockpot. Well, as soon as I got back from my morning walk I fired up my computer so I could get to work. Between 8:30 and noon I only actually got about an hour of work time, due to a combination of interruptions from kids and my own ridiculous compulsion to check social media instead of actually accomplishing something. When I went into the kitchen to make lunch for the kids I saw the Crockpot on the counter. That had nothing in it. 

I then initiated plan B. I would put a lasagna together after lunch and stick it in the fridge. At 4pm all I had to do was heat up the oven and stick the lasagna in and it would be ready in an hour. At 4pm I dutifully went into the kitchen and turned on the oven. A little after 5 I was helping my high schooler with an assignment and went to check on the lasagna. The oven was working away - heating absolutely nothing. The lasagna, dear readers, was still in the fridge.

There was no time to both cook it and eat it before three of us had to leave for a Cub Scout meeting at 6pm. I stuck it in the oven anyway. My teenager, who was not going to the meeting, go to eat it when it was fresh. My 9 year old, who doesn't like lasagna, ate spaghetti before we had to leave, which she was going to do anyway. My poor husband and I had to wait until after the meeting and eat warmed up lasagna. 

I've been spending some time in the evenings narrating what I wrote that day to my 9 year old. Since I was done, yesterday she asked me about my ideas for my next book. My husband commented, "I'm glad that you're writing and excited about it, but could you figure out how to also make dinner when you're excited about a book?"

I will try mightily. I promise. However, I cannot guarantee that my family will not be eating cereal for dinner at some point.