To sell at the MOT spring sale this March – try not to forget anything!!
Start boxing up the stuff for the MOT fall sale too (all those winter goodies!) …
OK, almost everything in Spain is amazing, but there are a few things which could be improved:
1) no high chairs in restaurants (holding squirming toddlers gets old quick …)
2) garbage cans the size of ashtrays (fill ’em up with one diaper change of twins!)
3) teeny-tiny elevators that can barely fit a stroller
4) running out of hot water in the tub/shower/lo que sea
5) this weird thing called “football” instead of baseball …
Yes, we are back from Spain, and are already missing some things. Here are the top 10 on the list:
1) la familia española
2) pan bueno
3) chocolate con churros
4) comida rica
5) la moda española
6) el corte inglés
7) hablar en español
8) el tren y las cercanías buenas
9) ropa mona para niñas
10) la casa del libro
For adults:
For babies:
OK, here we go! Just one more week (and a day, but who’s counting?) until we head off for two weeks in sunny Spain. Well, it’s not super-warm there either this time of year, but it’ll definitely be warmer than here. Anyway, time to get cracking on the packing!
First off, here’s what we’ll need to carry on the plane with us. Next I’ll get to the big suitcases.
For Children’s Literature: Independent Information and Reviews:
http://www.childrenslit.com/childrenslit/home.html
They do a lot of non-fiction, especially for the educational market.
I did my first stack a couple of weeks ago, and have another batch to do before Spain. They didn’t have a military reviewer, and they had a huge stack of military books, so that was right up my alley. I’m hoping for some on language, culture, and history soon too.
kip was busy. see here:
http://kiperoo.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/nanowrimo-statsnanowrimo-stats/
Hands-down, the absolute best thing for me about the Rutgers Council on Children’s Literature one-on-one conference was the one-on-one itself. Of course, I was super-lucky, and got assigned to the best possible mentor ever: Jim Murphy. Read more about him here:
I know, couldn’t have gotten a better pick, what say?
But other than that, it was also great meeting such an amazing group of editors, agents, and authors, and running into ones I’ve met before. It was also wicked cool to meet all the Blue-Boarders (including my cool roommate Jean). Such a nice bunch of people, and such a dedicated bunch of writers.
Yeah, and one last thing that sticks in my mind. The words of the morning speaker Kay Winters (I am not quoting exactly, but from my shoddy memory): “I don’t know anyone in this business who really wanted to make it, kept at it, and didn’t make it.” So, keep at it, keep trying, get to work!
I know this is sort of cheating, but I decided to work on my non-fiction manuscript this month instead, so it’s nanoficwrimo for me, I am going to keep track of my progress here. Some days will be revisions of existing chapters, so I’ll use pages revised for those days, and I’ll use word counts for days where I’m writing new material. Here we go!
11/1/2008 – revised 5 pages
11/2/2008 – revised 5 pages, plus 4 pages to count for tomorrow
11/3/2008 – revised 2 (more) pages
11/4/2008 – revised 2 pages
11/5/2008 – 361 words
11/6/2008 – 516 words
11/7/2008 – revised 2 pages
11/8/2008 – revised 4 pages, plus wrote 155 words
11/9/2008 – 0 words (researched for several hours though)
11/10/2008 – revised 2 pages
11/11/2008 – 435 words
11/12/2008 – 452 words, revised 1 page to count for tomorrow
11/13/2008 – 0 words (date night!)
11/14/2008 – 174 words
11/15/2008 – 595 words
11/16/2008 – 279 words, plus revised 2 pages
11/17/2008 – revised 3 pages
11/18/2008 – revised 2 pages
11/19/2008 – 0 words (work disasters and sick babies)
11/20/2008 – 415 words
11/21/2008 – 479 words
11/22/2008 – revised 4 pages
11/23/2008 – 846 words
11/24/2008 – revised 3 pages
11/25/2008 – revised 2 pages
11/26/2008 – revised 17 pages
11/27/2008 – revised 3 pages, plus wrote 155 words
11/28/2008 – revised 7 pages, including several patches of new words
11/29/2008 – revised 8 pages, including probably about 1,000 new words
11/30/2008 – 1,217 words
DONE! Total manuscript length: 24,306
Kip is headed to the fridge to get her little bottle of champagne now …
No, I’m not chickening out before it even begins!
But I do have an updated plan after attending the Rutgers Council on Children’s Literature One-on-One Conference this past Saturday. I’m taking it a step even farther removed.
Instead of finishing the second half of an unfinished novel I wanted to work on, I’m going to finish revising my non-fiction manuscript on the White Rose, which is, OK, let’s be honest, WAY cooler than a novel anyway (to history geeks at least).
My goal is to get everything in order before November, revising the first four chapters I already have, and then I’ll spend November writing the rest of the new Hans-chapters.
So it is totally like NANOWRIMO, but better.
PS Last night, I wound up with 415 words. Yaaay!