Tuesday, March 4, 2008

March Update

I seem to be continuing my trend of not blogging very regularly. You know, maybe if a few more of you guys left comments once in a while... ;)

My MFA application has been completed and submitted, and so now I get to wait. Luckily, I am very good at this part, since being a writer often involves lots and lots of waiting (to hear from editors, agents, etc.). I don't mean I'm patient or anything, I just mean I'm familiar with how the waiting process works.

This month I'm participating in a "March Madness" project with a great group of children's book writers. It's sort of a mini-version of National Novel Writing Month. We each pledged to write a certain number of words or pages (or some other kind of measurable unit) each day in March, with the goal of having a complete (rough) draft by the end of the month. And if that weren't enough of a reward in itself, we get to eat one peanut M&M for each successful day. Mine are in the freezer, which makes them extra delicious. The combination of candy and peer pressure seems to be working so far: I've hit my goal of 1500 words per day for March 1, 2, and 3. The project I'm working on is a new young adult novel. I plunged in with only a vague idea about the characters and the story, so it will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

4 comments:

  1. Splendid idea for getting a book finished. I wish you luck as I try to screw up the courage to follow along, although I may move my start date to the 15th, simply because as a writer I have that power.

    Your site is delightful, as is Library Lion, which I read to my kids' school last evening for Reading Night. Very well received, and a lot of fun to read. I highly recommend the book others who read to grade school kids. They're a tough audience, but they love honest books about breaking the rules for a good reason (and LORD do they ever have to face a ton of rules). So LL was a big hit.

    Good luck on the new manuscript!

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  2. Michelle,

    You are one of the most delightful authors I have ever met. Thanks for hanging out with a group of librarians at SCASL! My daughter wants to know what do you have to do special for a diabetic cat?

    Mary Silgals

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  3. Thanks, Charles - both for the good luck wishes (I need them!) and the nice report on how the kids liked LL. Good luck with your own manuscript, too!!

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  4. Hi Mary!!

    Thank *you* for inviting me along to dinner - it was great, and I really enjoyed meeting you. I hope your 8am session went well!

    As for Cleo the diabetic cat, she needs special food from the vet and gets an insulin shot twice a day. I also have to do urine testing (fun!) to keep tabs on how she's responding to the insulin in between vet visits. It took some getting used to for both of us at first, but these days she hardly even notices when I give her the shots. The only tough part is when I travel, because she's very shy around other people and it's hard to find people she's comfortable enough with to let them give her the shots when I'm away.

    Michelle :)

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