inspiration!

Inspiration can come from any where or any thing I always say you just have to be open and observant to your surroundings. But this past week I was struck with inspiration and I did not know from where it came, but came it did, and I was obsessed with writing a poem. Something that I have rarely attempted.

I recently finished up one project and was moving on to try and wrap up a second when, well the best way I can describe it is, a muse sat down on my shoulder, and wouldn't leave, then said, "Do this instead." Well I started writing a poem for one of my holiday books and I could not stop until it was finished. Fully edited as well! I am so excited about it! More than I have been about any project in a long time. I think it is some of my best work to date. I finished the photo illustrations for this book several months back and now have the words to join them, and it is a perfect union. I have made the final selections of photos for this project as well. Now I start to try and find a publisher that this book will be perfect for, but more about that in my next blog.

I simply wanted to share my excitement about this holiday book with you, and hope aloud that that muse visits me again. It was a truly unique experience. I have heard of the actors high, and experienced it once many years ago when I was still doing theater. The actors high is when the character that an actor is playing takes over the performance and does it effortlessly. But I am not sure if there is such a thing as a writers high? If there is I may have experienced it this past week. I look forward to sharing this new children's book with you all very soon.

Good luck and keep writing.

Writing Children's Books: Getting it right!

Writing Children's Books: Getting it right!: After wrapping up my collaboration with my friend Coni I turned my attention back to my own project. That being a series of ...

Getting it right!

After wrapping up my collaboration with my friend Coni I turned my attention back to my own project. That being a series of holiday children's books, starting with my favorite holiday, Halloween. Last week I finished my third book and have now started the editing process.

Don't ever ignore this important part of book writing. With my first book, The Deep Black Pond, I thought that the book was in good shape when I started to send it out several years ago, but I then received rejection letter after rejection letter. They were always polite but never really provided any feed back, then one day a wonderful women in Chicago told me through an e-mail that my work needed quite a bit of editing and when I had done that I should resubmit my work. I went back to my manuscript and reworked it for several days, and then I sought the help of a professional editing firm. After that I worked with it some more. When I felt it was ready I started to send out submissions again. This time I received two offers to publish with in as many weeks. And even after all of that and the added publisher's editing of the book, it was still released with one word misspelled in it.

Most publishers like to do as little work on your book as they can. So it is so important to have it in the best possible shape it can be before you submit. Editing is also very subjective. You could send your work to seven different editors and get back seven different manuscripts. You then have to be true to yourself and pick which changes you want to keep and which to discard. When submitting it is also important to get the submission guide lines from each publisher that you want to send to. Not all publishers have the same guidelines and their can be dramatic differences. One of the most common in our new age is some publishers will only accept e-scripts while others prefer had copies.

For right now I must get back to my editing. And this weekend I was struck with inspiration from my muse and I have been writing for several days straight. I think I might be able to finish my Christmas book soon as well. Then I must edit that.

Good luck and keep writing!