Category: Summer Short And Sweets

Would You Read It Wednesday – The 49th Pitch!

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Wow!  Do you know what I just realized?  This week’s pitch is #49, which means we’ve been doing Would You Read It for almost a whole entire year!  And week #52 – the WYRI Anniversary – is going to coincide with final week of the Olympics!  I have a feeling this calls for a celebration of some kind… I’m just not sure what 🙂  Feel free to make suggestions!  Especially if they involve chocolate cake 🙂 and open flame 🙂

All we need here is a little photoshopping so it says
BLUEBERRY HILL 2012 🙂

I actually do have a special Would You Read It announcement today.  Remember that poll I took last week?  Well, some late voters changed the picture a bit.  The results indicated that the majority of you were happy either way, but a fairly large group were in favor of change, while only 3 people felt it should definitely stay the same.

So here’s what we’re going to try.  Beginning with July (you know, the month we’re in right now… last time I checked anyway… :)), any pitcher WHO WOULD LIKE TO (it is not in any way, shape, or form required!) may rewrite their pitch before the pitch pick based on the feedback they received from all you generous and helpful readers.  They will just have to get their rewrites in to me before the last day of the month.  Sound good?  I’m game to give it a try if you are.  If we all decide we hate it, we can always go back to the old system 🙂  But a lot of people have asked about it and would like the opportunity to improve, and I’m all for encouraging improvement 🙂

I would also like to take this opportunity to say how much fun I’m having with Summer Short & Sweets!  I’ve been amazed and gratified at how many people have been participating, and everyone is so creative and talented!  It’s such a pleasure to see what you all come up with that I find myself eagerly looking forward to Fridays!  Thank you all for being such great sports 🙂

But now, onward!  It’s time for today’s pitch which comes to us from the lovely Vivian whom I’m sure you all remember from last month’s incredibly informative guest post for the self-publishing mini-series, but just in case you don’t know her, here’s a little info:

Vivian Kirkfield has been involved in the care and education of young children for over 50 years.  From babysitting to teaching kindergarten and Head Start to raising her own three children while operating a home daycare, Vivian’s passion for picture books encouraged her to write her award-winning book, Show Me How! Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking.  She shares her mission to help every young child become a lover of books and reading during her school visits with kindergarteners and her presentations to parent and teacher organizations.  Julie Hedlund’s 12 x 12 Challenge was the catalyst that started her writing picture book stories again…and now she can’t stop!  Many of her stories are based on her experiences as a teacher, mother and grandmother.  The Tomato Turner is a true story about her own family…and she plans several sequels…Confessions of the Tomato Turner and The Tomato Turner Returns.
Vivian’s book/author website:  http://www.positiveparentalparticipation.com

And now, here is her pitch:

Working Title:  The Tomato Turner
Age/Genre:  Picture Book (ages 3-8)
The Pitch:  Stuck in the middle between a brainy older brother and an adorable baby sister, four-year old Peter is determined to do something spectacular that will make everyone proud of him – when he sees the basket of green tomatoes on the kitchen counter, he seizes the opportunity to astonish his family.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Vivian improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However, I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)
Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on the Would You Read It tab in the bar above.  There are openings in August, which is not very far away at all at this point, so we could really use some new pitches!!
Vivian is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!

And before we all go off to our wonderful Wednesdays, I wanted to mention a special upcoming treat!  My friend and fellow author, Tiffany Haber, had her debut picture book release yesterday!!!  Here is her book:

Awesome, no?!  And here’s where the special treat part comes in: Tiffany is coming over to visit with us here on Monday July 23 – that’s in like 5 days! – and along with what I’m sure will be a fabulously entertaining post, she will be giving away a signed copy of this exceptionally fun-looking brand new book!!!  Mine is on order and due to arrive tomorrow.  I can’t wait to read it!

Alrighty.  You’re excused.  Have a lovely day 🙂  Hope to see you Friday for Short & Sweets!

Summer Short & Sweet – Week 2

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Happy Friday, Everyone!

Hurray!!!  It’s time for another Short & Sweet!  But first…

I have returned from The Pine Tree State where I still did not see a moose!  I saw signs – “Moose Crossing”, “Watch for moose in roadway” and just plain

but although pretty much everyone else in the northern hemisphere has seen an actual moose, I still haven’t.  Don’t get me wrong… I do not want to meet one in my car at 60 mph!  I just want to see a real one looking serene in his or her natural surroundings 🙂 preferably alongside a cute baby moose 🙂

Anyway, onto business.  The winner of the June pitch pick, whose pitch will go for a read by editor Erin Molta, is none other than the fabulous Lori with her pitch for These Little Piggies!  Congratulations, Lori!  And congratulations and thanks to all who bravely put forth their pitches – you are all winners in my book just for stepping up to the plate!

In other Would You Read It news, the vote for whether or not to keep the system the way it is was TOTALLY evenly split and indecisive!  So now what?  I don’t know.  I’ll have to think on it.  While I think, nothing will change.  If anyone has thoughts or opinions, please share 🙂

Now then, are you ready?  Let the fun begin!!!!!!!!

Today’s Short & Sweet will work best if you don’t peek 🙂  I’m not sure quite how to accomplish that on a blog post, so let’s go on the honor system – no scrolling down yet!

First, pick a number from 1-10.  Got it?  Write it down.

Now pick a number from 1-10 again and write that down.

Now do it again.

And now one last time.

(BTW, it’s okay of you pick the same number more than once.  If you want to make it really random you can roll a pair of dice and just discard any 11s or 12s you roll, or take an ace-10 out of a deck of cards and randomly choose cards.)

Hopefully you now have 4 numbers between 1 and 10 written down (for example, I have 3, 7, 1, and 5)

Now, use your first number to select from this list:

     Character:

  1. A pirate who likes to sing
  2. A little girl who doesn’t want to practice her violin
  3. A zookeeper with a lost animal
  4. A 5 year old girl with a rainbow umbrella
  5. A homeless child
  6. A boy whose father is a Navy SEAL
  7. A monster who is afraid of thunderstorms
  8. A disobedient robot
  9. A sailor who is far from home
  10. A six year old boy who can’t ride his two-wheeler

Use your second number to select from this list:

     Setting:
  1. a museum
  2. a national park
  3. a playground
  4. a big city
  5. a birthday party
  6. the porch of an old farmhouse
  7. an enchanted forest
  8. a fancy restaurant
  9. the moon
  10. Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Shop

Use your third number to select from this list:

     Time:
  1. first day of school
  2. the Fourth of July
  3. during a thunderstorm
  4. in early autumn
  5. sitting down to breakfast
  6. bath time
  7. the first warm day of spring
  8. during church
  9. a winter evening
  10. after a fight

And use your last number to select from this list:

     Situation/Challenge:
  1. something embarrassing has just happened
  2. someone feels like giving up
  3. someone has to keep a secret
  4. an important decision has to be made
  5. someone has lost something
  6. someone has found something
  7. someone’s pride has been injured
  8. something is where it shouldn’t be
  9. someone has been chosen for something
  10. something has made someone mad

You should now have a randomly selected character, setting, time, and situation/challenge – everything you need to prompt a story!

In the comments below, list the 4 you got and write 50-100 words of whatever story they suggest to you!  Don’t agonize!  Don’t over-think!  We’re all among friends.  Just write!  All we’re doing here is priming the pump.  If all you can squeeze out is 50 rusty words, that’s fine!  You wrote 50 words in the middle of your hectic, busy day!  But maybe, just maybe, 25-50 more will trickle out a little less rusty, and maybe after you’ve written your 50-100 here you’ll find you’ve got a gush of clear water rushing forth and a whole  new story will well up and land on your list of accomplishments for today!

Oh, and if you find it’s too hard to include all 4, it’s okay to just use 1, 2, or 3 of the prompts you picked – the exercise is just to get ideas and words flowing 🙂

Here’s my example in case you don’t quite get it:
The numbers I chose were 3, 7, 1, 5, so I get

Character #3 – a zookeeper with a lost animal
Setting #7 – an enchanted forest
Time #1 – the first day of school
and Situation/Challenge #5 – someone has lost something (which accidentally overlaps with the character description so I’m only going with one lost thing!)
Given these prompts, I might write the following 50-100 words:
George took his job as zookeeper of the enchanted forest very seriously.
At the end of each day he checked that the unicorns had plenty of magic meadow grass.
He made sure the griffin’s nest was comfy and the sphinx had his book of riddles.
He tested the mermaids’ pool – it would never do if it was too cold!
He made sure the dragon had plenty of fresh water in case he set his bed (or anything else!) on fire.
Then he double-checked that all the cages were locked, said, “Good night my friends!”, and went home to his supper.
But on the first school day of the year, with Miss Venus’s class field trip due any minute, George arrived to find that the Loch Ness Monster, had gone missing!
“How can this be?” he moaned, wringing his hands.  “I was so careful!  And Nessie’s cage is still locked!”

(OK.  I’m wordy.  And I got caught up 🙂 149 words.)
See how easy?  Ready, set, WRITE! 🙂  I can’t wait to see what you come up with! 🙂

P.S.  For anyone who’s just finding Summer Short & Sweets, full info is on that link or above in the tab 🙂

Welcome To Summer Short And Sweets!!!

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Did everyone have a nice 4th of July?  I hope so!

I’m happy to report that we celebrated with homemade blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream (that’s white and blue, anyway, even if we a little short in the red department) and watching the fireworks above the valley from my parents’ back deck 🙂

And now, at last, it’s finally Friday and time to kick off Summer Short & Sweets!!!

First things first…..

Please help yourself to a beach cookie (or 2 or 5)…

…and some fresh lemonade 🙂

Ah!  Summery 🙂

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for (or at least the moment I’ve all been waiting for :))
duhn duhn duhn…. the big unveiling!!!

TA-DA!

Badge created by the incomparable Loni Edwards

Just look at this creation of beauty which you may all help yourselves to if you so desire!!!  I hope you’re able to read the part that says “Writing For Kittens” 🙂  (I also hope that if you need any art work done for any reason you will contact Loni – she does such great art and is a joy to work with 🙂  Same goes for Heather… but more about that in a few weeks… I am all about the surprises up my sleeve :))

Let’s start with a brief explanation of SS&S because I’m not actually sure I wrote this down yet anywhere 🙂

The object of Summer Short & Sweets is to keep our writing oars in even as we are caught up in the happy, busy, outdoor fun of summer.  We do not want our writing brains to go on luxury vacation because they are SO hard to jump start when school starts.  The Short & Sweets will be little fun exercises we can do together and share to keep those writing sparks flying and to make sure we write a little even while we’re playing whiffle ball, backyard volleyball, and frisbee golf, making sure our toddlers don’t fall in the pool or get swept away by ocean waves or buried by their older siblings in the sandbox, taking our pre-teens to Little League or Lego Tournaments or tap lessons, teaching our 16-year-olds to drive (I personally am sporting a whole new streak of gray hair, and the imaginary brake on the passenger side of the car is getting quite a workout :)), and tending campfires while we watch the summer sun swim down below the western hills and the fireflies come out (and if you’re at my house, watch the marshmallows catch on fire and become charcoal covered goo on a stick :))

Short & Sweets will last for 8 weeks, each Friday from today through Friday August 24.  For every Short & Sweet entry you write into the comments you will receive 1 point.  You may of course write 2 entries, (or even 3 or 5 or 7 if you are feeling inspired!)  At the end of Short & Sweets there will be prizes (which I am still working on) that will be based on the total points for the summer.  The minimum number to qualify for a prize will be 8 points – 1 each week of Short & Sweets.  If you choose to do more, you can rack up points and I’ll make sure you get something good! but you must do at least one each week to qualify.  The more points you have, the better the prizes.  I’m going to try to get you some critiques as well as signed books and other goodies 🙂  Feel free to let me know if there’s something in particular your little hearts desire as a prize.

The other advantage of Short & Sweets?  We will all inspire each other’s creativity.  Once you’ve put your challenge response in the comments, scroll through everyone else’s and see what they came up with.  Maybe your own entry won’t spark a story idea for you, but maybe someone else’s will!  (And don’t worry – everything will be vague enough that there’s no way 2 people will ever write the same story off the same prompt.  It just doesn’t work that way :))

Now then.  Are you ready for some Short & Sweet fun???

Here’s today’s challenge.  We’ll start nice and easy 🙂

In the comment section below, list the first five nouns, the first five adjectives, and the first five verbs that come to mind when you think about either the beach, the town pool, or the local ice cream shop.  (And when I say the first five, I just mean don’t spend forever on it – you can tweak the words that come to mind into more descriptive ones if you like – run into chase for example – but this whole exercise shouldn’t take more than about 2 or 3 minutes.)  Then pick one each of your nouns, adjectives and verbs and write a sentence that could start a story!

Here’s an example for the beach:
Nouns: shells, waves, sun, seagulls, kite
Adjectives: windy, salty, bright, wet, sandy
Verbs: dig, chase, squeal, laugh, splash
Howard was digging down through the wet sand when his shovel hit something hard that glinted in the sun.

See how easy?  Now you try!

And as an example of where you might go with this, if anyone wants to take Howard and run with him while you’re lifeguarding at the edge of the pool later or chauffeuring the littles around town, the obvious thing for his shovel to hit would be a pirate’s treasure chest, but what if it was something else?  An old English car that had somehow crossed the ocean and wound up on Howard’s beach… A genie’s lamp… A silver medallion with a huge emerald in the center and words in a mysterious language around the edge…  A dinosaur scale… that was still attached to the dinosaur!…  A giant’s gold-capped tooth…! 🙂

I hope you will think this is Short, Sweet, and fun!  I’m really looking forward to seeing what people come up with!  And if anyone ends up getting a story idea out of this, please tell us!  Any 12x12ers, this might be a great place to start thinking for your July manuscript 🙂

Have fun, have a great weekend, and please tune in Monday for Q&A with the fabulous editor, Erin Molta!

Would You Read It Wednesday – The 47th Pitch And Then Some!

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Hola, my friends! and Happy Fourth of July!!!

Thank you all for your patience while I was on vacation!  I missed you all dreadfully!

There is nothing like a week away from your desk to make you realize just how fast you can get utterly and completely behind, but being swamped upon return was totally worth 7 days of sun and sand, wind and waves, frisbee and family dinners and flashlight tag and feeding ducklings off the dock, Madagascar III on the only rainy afternoon and marshmallows roasted over a very sketchy-looking grill 🙂  Sometimes I’m really not sure there’s anywhere on earth as beautiful as Nantucket…

… but then I get home, and it’s so beautiful here too 🙂

… and I have two little friends who are very glad we’re back 🙂  Woof 🙂

And I am glad to see you all again!

Before we get to our pitch today, I want to remind anyone who hasn’t had a chance yet to please take a minute and check out the self-publishing mini-series.  Suzanne McGovern, Vivian Kirkfield, Patrick Milne, and Rita Borg generously shared a wealth of hard-won wisdom about their experiences self-publishing, and even more generously donated books for giveaways which you can still qualify for by commenting before Thursday July 5 at 11:59 PM EDT!

Now then, grab your Something Chocolate and get ready for Would You Read It! 🙂

Today’s pitch comes to us from Carrie.  She says, I worked in educational software publishing for about 10 years, and wrote content (mostly nonfiction) for children as part of my job. It was wonderful and creative but left me little time or energy for my own writing. Like many parents, my real writing journey began when my son was born and I started reading to him. I started trying to write what I was reading to him, mostly picture books and poetry in magazines like Babybug. I committed myself to practicing as much as I could, took some classes, read some books, and started to submit some of my work to magazines. Four years later, my poems have appeared (or are forthcoming) in Babybug, Ladybug, and High Five magazines. I feel lucky to have found some fabulous critique groups and supportive communities like the 12×12 group that are helping me grow as a writer in so many ways.  Please pop over and visit her website 🙂

Working Title: Friendly Sam, The Ice Cream Man
Age/Genre:  Picture Book (ages 4-8)
The Pitch:  Sam loves dishing out ice cream to his favorite customers at the park each afternoon. But when a rival ice cream truck shows up on ‘his’ corner, Sam must find a way to out-sing, out-scoop, and out-serve the competition to keep his customers — and himself — happy.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?
If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Carrie improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However, I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)
Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on the Would You Read It tab in the bar above.  There are openings in August, so you have time to polish 🙂 for a chance for it to be read by editor Erin Molta!
Carrie is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!
And I am looking forward to Friday, the inaugural day of Summer Short & Sweets!!!  Are we going to have fun or what?!  I am SO tempted to show you the gorgeous SS&S badge that the awesomely talented Loni Edwards has made for us… SO TEMPTED!  But I will restrain myself (and by restrain myself I mean will someone please tie my hands behind my back!)
So tune in Friday – same bat time, same bat channel!!! 🙂

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Mowing and The May Pitch Winner and The May PPBF Winner

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We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for an important service announcement from our sponsor:

For anyone who might not have read Monday’s post, this is our second to last week of Perfect Picture Books before summer.  PPBF will go on hiatus from (and including) June 22 – August 31.  After June 15, the next PPBF date will be Friday September 7.  I apologize to anyone whose style this cramps, but I just can’t be sure of being able to keep up over the summer.  The updating is very time consuming and there have been glitches lately which means work has to be redone, and I am going to be crazy busy for the next 12 weeks.  Plus, a lot of you are going to be busy and traveling and etc. too.  So we can all take a break for the summer – read and gather up lots of great picture books for the fall.  In the meantime, there will be fun and games going on around here on Fridays to keep you from missing PPBF too much – Summer Short & Sweets! – quick writing fun served with fresh lemonade and cookies 🙂

We now return you to the program already in progress 🙂

Apparently all I can think about this week is baby deer 🙂

So in about 14 seconds you’ll understand why I chose this week’s Perfect Picture Book 🙂

Mowing
Written By:  Jessie Haas
Illustrated By:  Jos. A. Smith
Greenwillow Books, 1994, Fiction
Suitable For: ages 4-8

Themes/Topics: farms, grandparents, generations, modernization, respect for wildlife, vehicles

Opening:  “Early in the morning Gramp and Nora go to the field to mow.  They hear the cry of the bobolink, the swish of the tall grass, the thud of the horses’ hooves.
At the edge of the field Gramp lowers the cutter bar.
“Hop off, Nora,” he says.  “You’ll be safer on the ground.”  Gramp speaks softly to the horses.  “Giddap!”  They walk, and the mowing machine begins to clatter.”

Brief Synopsis:  Just as morning is peeking over the horizon, Gramp and Nora head out to mow the hay.  Gramp drives an old-fashioned sickle bar mower with Nora in his lap holding the reins.  When they reach the field, it’s Nora’s job to hop down and keep an eye out for any little animal that might be injured by the horses or the cutter blades.  What does she see?  (I’m betting you can guess one thing she sees! :))  When the mowing is done, two tall islands of grass still stand.  Gramp says some would call that a bad job of mowing, but he and Nora know better.  They know they have taken care to leave the animals safe and protected.

Links To Resources: Fawn Coloring Page 1, Fawn Coloring Page 2, Fawn Facts, National Geographic Groundhog Facts, National Geographic Killdeer Facts.  Talk about the difference in the way hay is mowed today.  Talk about other situations where you might want to be respectful of wildlife.

Why I Like This Book:  This is the kind of sweet, quiet book that I absolutely love.  My kids loved it too, and we read it over and over and over.  The language is gentle, the story is simple with that nostalgic feel of hearkening back to a different time, and the message of caring for all the creatures who share our world is lovely.  On top of that, the art is just beautiful, particularly the way the artist captured the changing light, from dawn through late afternoon, and the different perspectives he uses.  It’s a wonderful book for nap time, bedtime, or anytime kids need to unwind.

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

Before we all head off for the weekend, I have a couple other things to say (because I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t, right? :))

First, I know none of you were able to sleep last night, wondering who the winner of the coveted May Pitch Contest would be.

And I’m going to tell you just as soon as I finish singing 99 Bottles of Pop On The Wall (because this is a kid-friendly blog where we would never think of drinking anything stronger than soda pop :))

“OOOHHHH…….!!!!!  99 bottles of pop on the wall, 99 bottles of pop.  You take one down and pass it around, 98 bottles of pop on the wall.  98 bottles of pop on the wall, 98 bottles of pop….”

Everyone!  Join in!  Can you hear me on all seven continents???

OK, OK, enough of that.  Would you guys quit fooling around?  We have important business here.  I’m trying to tell you, if you would stop caterwauling, that the winner of the May Pitch Pick is………

ELIZABETH!!! with her pitch for MAGNIFICENT!!!

WOO-HOO!  Well done!  I must tell you, it was an exceptionally tight race!  So congratulations to Elizabeth, and to everyone who bravely entered and hopefully learned a lot so they can now feel more confident about their pitches.

And NOW, just when you thought the prize giving was over for the day, it’s NOT!

As you know, I like to thank all the wonderful participants in PPBF for their hard work each month by randomly selecting a blogger to receive a prize!  The winner for May is Laura R at I’ve Got A Book For That!!!  Please email me, Laura, and let me know which you would like for your prize: *rummaging in my bag of goodies…* let’s see… your choice of Red Knit Cap Girl, Chicks Run Wild, a signed copy of Can’t Sleep Without Sheep, or a $15 Amazon Gift Card.

PPBF bloggers, please add your post specific link to the list below, and everyone have a great weekend!

Oh Susanna – How Much Drama In A MS? And Time For Summer Fun!

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Holy swiss cheese, Batman!  You would not believe this weekend!

I could spin the whole story out, but that would be too long to post 🙂  Suffice to say, my brother fell off his bike in a race and shattered his femur, and Jemma is SERIOUSLY in the doghouse – she has taken BAD DOG to an unprecedented level!

My brother, thankfully, should be okay after some recovery time.  He’s very fit and a very mind-over-matter type of guy.  He’ll probably be back at work in 3 days 🙂  Jem will be forgiven eventually because she didn’t do permanent damage – though not for lack of trying.  You won’t believe it after Friday’s Perfect Picture Book, but she actually caught a fawn.  I’ve had dogs my whole adult life and that’s never happened before.  I’ve never seen anything so little! – I thought it was a cat! – I didn’t know fawns started out so incredibly small!   I made her drop it.  You probably heard me shrieking at her in California, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Europe!  And she didn’t hurt it – just scared it – she’s not that much bigger.  But really.  I was completely traumatized by the whole experience and if you think Jemma is going anywhere off a leash for a Very Long Time you are sorely mistaken!

So here I am, rattled and scattered, trying to write a coherent post.  If I don’t pull it off, you’ll know why! 🙂

Onward!

Today’s Oh Susanna question relates back somewhat to this post (please scroll down past Cori) where I showed the before and after versions of Freight Train Trip.  I mentioned that the editor had commented that the original version wasn’t dramatic enough, and Stacy wondered whether there was any kind of test for drama in a manuscript.

That is an interesting question.

First of all, how much drama is necessary in a manuscript is subjective.  Some editors, (and some readers) like more, and some like less.  In this day and age it seems that the general rule of thumb is that more is better, and yet there are still, sometimes, beautiful, quieter books published too.

How much drama is also dictated by age.  If you’re writing board books, there may be enough drama in searching for baby’s belly button.  For a YA novel the fate of the world as we know it might be at stake.

In addition, how you achieve drama is specific to the story.  In some manuscripts there is dramatic tension brought on by the situation, as in Freight Train where the two trains are approaching each other on the same track and there’s going to be trouble if the switchman doesn’t look up from his newspaper.  In other manuscripts, the drama comes from the emotional stakes for the main character, as in Not Yet, Rose where Rose isn’t sure if she wants a brother, a sister, or no baby at all because, although she doesn’t quite know how, she senses that her whole world is about to change.

I wish I could say that there was some kind of simple test for drama, but if there is, I don’t know it 🙂  The closest I can come might be this:  something has to happen – something real, something important, preferably something that a young reader can relate to either on an excitement/adventure/adrenaline level as in the Freight Train example, or on an emotional “I know exactly how that feels!” level.  I guess even better if you can manage both 🙂  This actually comes down more to your story problem or conflict.  If you’ve got a good one, you’ll have drama.

I hope some of the very talented writers in our readership will chime in with their knowledge and advice on this subject!

Now, on to those announcements I mentioned Friday.  I know you’ve been squirming in your seats with anticipation 🙂

Here’s the deal.

I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I still have mixed feelings, and if enough of you express extreme unhappiness I’ll try to rethink it, but I think I’m going to put Perfect Picture Books on hiatus from June 22 – August 31.  I know summer is a time when lots of people have more time to read, but I’m hoping everyone can make use of the 700+ Picture Books that are already posted, and read and prepare a whole new bunch for the fall.

I have an EXTREMELY busy summer coming up (can you say college visiting? :)) and Perfect Picture Books is a huge time commitment.  I already know there will be a lot of Fridays when I won’t be at my computer.  And I seriously can’t bear the idea of coming back from somewhere and having 60 books to add to the list while simultaneously trying to vacuum up the dog hair that has collected in my absence 🙂  Taking a break will hopefully give me time to catch up with the ones that still have to go up (I had a glitch last week where a lot that were uploaded didn’t save/disappeared and I have to redo them all) and also hopefully give me and the lovely Darshana time to streamline it a bit so it’s easier to search and easier to update in the future.  You may feel free to share you thoughts… I can take it 🙂

However, I certainly don’t want to leave us with nothing!  So I have another hair-brained scheme in mind (and you know what happened last time… Phyllis went all over the world :))

Are you ready?

Instead of PPBFs, for the 8 weeks from July 5 – August 24 we will have Summer Short & Sweets!!!  (Badge forthcoming from Loni after finals are over! :))

Summer Short & Sweets will post each Friday (in place of PPBF) with a fun writing prompt/challenge that you can do in 5 minutes or less.  You will post your response here.  Other people’s responses may inspire you and jumpstart your creativity!  For each Short & Sweet prompt that you do, you will receive a point.  Your points will add up, and at the end, there will be prizes available depending on how many points you’ve accumulated!  We will culminate our summer of fun with a Summer or Back To School Writing Contest on August 31, and you may well be able to use some of the ideas you’ve generated during the series.  For those of you in 12×12, Summer Shorts may help you stay on track! 🙂

I think it will be a fun way to keep the creativity flowing as we chase our kids around playgrounds, keep them out of poison ivy, slather them with sunscreen, take them camping, keep them out of trouble in the pool or ocean, tour the US on college visits, or go to work… whatever we happen to be doing 🙂  I really really hope you guys will think it’s fun too!  (You’d probably better let me know in the comments in case I’m barking up the wrong tree!)  But the fun part is, we’ll all be doing it together, and everything will be VERY SHORT – seriously, 5 minutes.  Maybe less if you think faster than I do.  Which would not be hard at this point.  Since I have yet to attain my usual level of perkiness this morning after not enough sleep.  How many times did I use the word “fun” in the last 2 paragraphs?

I think it’s time for more coffee!

Happy Monday Everyone 🙂  And please chime in with your thoughts about drama, PPBF, and Summer Shorts! 🙂