Taking a Break

Due to the overwhelming amount of tasks I have going on right now (planning a wedding, finishing up the school year, writing longer works with the intent of publishing, developing my photography business) and the fact that only one other person has been interested enough to join this writing community (thank you Victoria!), I have decided to take a break from this blog.

If more people show interest in joining and contributing their writing, please email me to let me know and I will begin writing it again. Also, if I am compelled by a certain topic and think it would be interesting for other people to write about, I may sporadically provide the prompt topics.

My goal is to bring this blog back in full force towards the middle of July.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sun

"Photosynthesis"

maintaining the normal level of
life
ultimate source of
energy immense
power of human civilization
wavelengths of support

A Found Poem, Discovered outside of the home or workplace

"what it takes to excel"

purpose.

It's absolutely necessary.

our realities

become

success.

the world

as art

is

one splendid

camp.

Twitter Pitch Contest

In honor of Shelley Watter's contest (check it out!), feast your eyes on my 140 character twitter pitch (for a picture book or easy reader):

When a twister dumps a cache of socks near Joey's home in the Aussie bush, she saves them in her pouch & uses them in a surprising emergency!

This was really hard to do in 140 characters! One sentence is easy when there is no character limit, but Twitter really makes me pick and choose exactly what I want to say. Joey is a young kangaroo, and I can't decide if this manuscript should be formatted as a picture book or an easy reader. I have several illustrations and the ideas for lots more, but it might be kind of long for a picture book (~2600 words). What do you think?

PS: I don't know if it's against the rules to share my thought process in writing my pitch, but at first I almost wrote: "When a dust devil rips through the Aussie outback, Joey finds a cache of socks from a farm, which allows her to later help the school bully." I decided it wasn't grabby enough. Then I had: "When a dust devil dumps a surprising cache of socks near Joey's home in the Aussie outback, she stuffs them in her pouch to save for later..." but I still felt it was lacking conflict.

*For any members of SCBWI, I currently have a discussion thread in which I am looking for feedback on my manuscript, and another on my query letter (which obviously needs some changes, now that I changed the genders of two characters). manuscript thread. query thread.*

EDIT: I took LK Gardner-Griffie's feedback and changed it to this:
When a twister dumps a cache of socks near Joey's home in the Aussie bush she saves them in her pouch & uses them in a life or death struggle
Is that better than the first pitch?

NEW EDIT: When a twister dumps a pile of socks near Joey's home in the Aussie bush she saves them in her pouch & uses them in an unexpected emergency

Per Scott's comments, I tried to begin the pitch differently. A new option:
Struggling to grow up without a mother in the Aussie outback, Joey faces challenges with the school bully and her own identity.


EDIT #4: When kangaroo Joey found a pile of socks in the Aussie bush, she had no idea they would help her change the life of the bully who'd hurt her
Why do I feel like this could truly be a never-ending process?!

EDIT #5: When Joey finds a pile of socks in the Aussie outback, she saves them in her pouch & uses them to change the life of the bully who'd hurt her.

National Poetry Month

In honor of National Poetry Month beginning this week, I am challenging the writers of A Fearful Trill to choose poetry as their writing genre for the entire month!

An Animal's Perspective

Ruby's Morning

*yawn*
*stretch*
What's on the agenda today?
Eat. Sleep. Poop.
Try to sneak into places
I'm not supposed to go.
I think I'll go visit the girl.
She just turned on a
light in the other room.
*hop. hop. hop.*
*scurry down the hall*
*hide in the hutch again*
She saw me!
She always knows
when I am trying to be sneaky.
How does she always know?

I was the kid...

I was the kid
who made up worlds
escaping from my own,
finding creek shells
on the playground,
pretending they'd broken
from unicorn horns.

I was the kid
who never saw recess
all through first grade,
a punishment
for talking to friends,
no one talked to me
at home.

I was the kid
with the Where's Waldo
110 camera,
photographs of puddles
and clouds,
seeing with a lens
so I could shut my eyes.