kwkidswriter

Christmas, in fact most of the month of December, has been hard for me emotionally. Ever since my brother's funeral 12/12/95 - I have gone numb almost every December. I'd just go through the motions and mostly stay home and be sad.

Except this year!! *\0/*
I feel happier!
and I can listen to Christmas songs without crying and going into a mini-depression.

Last Christmas I realized that the Christmas songs 'struck a cord,' after I heard just one I would feel sad. I finally put my thoughts to trying to solve this and realized that The Spirit of Christmas that I was hanging on to was the little girl version of hoping Santa brings THE present I was wishing for & the older me version of knowing that when Christmas came - the one present I wanted [= my brother] wouldn't & couldn't be there. That's when I'd get sadder and mad that everyone else looked joyous about Jesus' birth and kids were excited about Santa.

Now -- this December, I have filled my home and heart with Christmas music. It's a GREAT feeling. Like a missing part of me is back.

When I listened to this song by Peter Paul and Mary = when I posted it to my blog for a Hannukah song - I could almost feel brother saying - "Ibby, Don't let YOUR light go out!" It dawned on me that I let my light go out every December.

Thanks for 'listening!'

Have you been watching The Sing Off??

http://www.nbc.com/sing-off/


The Beelzebubs Voices of Lee and Nota made it to the finale
















These ladies didn't make the finale -- but I love watching them do this song!

My Christmas present to my LJ Friends --

a collection of Christmas tunes
- by the a cappella group - Straight No Chaser

For 12 weeks 10 of us = wonderful writers = shared our stories and writiing concerns and worked on middle grade and young adult novels.

Erica Sussman - editor at Harper Collins was the instructor

http://www.mediabistro.com/courses/cache/crs5012.asp

[Heads up - she's giving the class again starting in February ]

Tonight is the last chat and they are workshopping my novel for part of it.

I didn't get as far in the novel as I wanted to but I learned tons from Erica and her critiques and from all of the other talented writers in the class!!!


Quote of the day --

"When you get a form rejection, remember that this is a sign that you should lift your shoulders and then drop them again in what is known as a 'shrug.' Then move on."
-- Editorial Anonymous at her blog
http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/

The Highlights Workshop I went to last month - It's All About Character- really opened my eyes, mind, and heart to getting to know the characters in published picture books.

Today I used some of what I learned there and "envisioned again" the main character of a picture book I've worked on over the years and had comments on from editors in the rejection letters for it - comments about not being able to visualize the characters. And I took comments from other pb critiques - especially "you have to decide -who is this story about?"

I realized that what they were saying wasn't so much about description [because that's part of the illustrator's job ] as it was about showing the character of the character.
AND SO- I took the story apart went deeper got to know the nature of the main character and watched his journey - helping him help me.

All that's left from the original is the next to last scene and the MC and the basic goal he had before. But the Why and how he gets there are very different.

All in all it was a great writing day! =)

That's what I'm calling this = the massive Fall cleaning and clearing /throwing things away.

And I bought myself some cook's tools as a reward. I LOVE watching Ina Garten's [ Barefoot Contessa ] show on the Food Network and using her cookbooks.

Soooo it was time for me to get some 'professional' cook's cookware and tools.

What does all that have to do with writing...

I've been neglecting the house and rarely cooking anything while I spent much of the Fall writing, researching and taking courses and going to the Highlights workshop/writing retreat.

AND when things look less 'busy' I feel more creative =)

I've been thinking of my writing plans and resolutions now that the online writing class is over this week.


I came across this article written by Ann Patchett.


Resolved: Writing is a Job

so now I'm thinking -- Maybe [ no really, not maybe ] I need to give my own writing time and career the focus it needs - for 32 days to get a jumpstart on making the time a habit =)

What about you?

I'm in a Christmas music sort of mood.

Outside it's sleeting and windy.

I'm listening to these songs






Be patient as the first minute or so - is David Bowe and Bing Crosby talking