Lens + sunscreen = magic?

Took these pictures at the Callahan State Park today. Muggles (like my husband) think the pictures are ruined. Me, I like them this way :-)



Even the ones in the open sunlight look cool ...

Girls with character

There was a such a touching story in the new Sports Illustrated I just had to share ... life trumps art ... for who could dream up a 5' 2" batter who hit the first home run of her life (in her last at bat) only to bust her knee rounding first base, or two girls on the opposing team who put competitiveness aside to do the right thing ...

End of season

So they didn't win all games, or even most games, but it was a great season! Last game today. Off to pack the cooler for the party!






(The glitter text is not my idea. I have a 9 year old girl. Nuff said.)

School's out

School's done. No more kid free mornings. And thank goodness because I need serious distraction. I just sent off two fulls in the past two days and I'm SO nervous. Maybe I should have waited. Revised more. But my good friend Kiki Hamilton read it and said -- send it now! And I did. Now there's nothing to do but wait, and wait, and wait ... with my fingers crossed.

Musings on the last day of school

I spent the morning printing out the (requested) full manuscript of my YA novel and mailing it out to an agent. Feels surreal. Last August I was so excited to send the full of my mid-grade novel to an editor that I took pictures !!

Not anywhere close to that excited this time ... but I hope she likes it. As well as the other agent, who is the reason I probably got the draft done in the first place, and the first one I sent the the full. Fingers crossed. After all those months with my nose to the grindstone I could do with some good news (and a vacation)!

There are 2 hours left before school's out. Off to waste the last few moments of freedom to walk the dog.

Last day of school

Tomorrow is the last day of school for my kids. Last day of elementary school for my older one. Where does the dang time go?

First look

OK, a writer friend just got back to me on the 1st draft. She loves it and I'm so relieved. I have it out to two other friends. I'll stop chewing my fingernails once I hear back from all three.

Jo March's first acceptance

Someone posted this excerpt in the trench on the blue boards. Gives me hope just to read it. Now that my revisions are going well, it's getting close to my least favorite part of the process; queries & submissions. Nice to remember other writers (real or fictional) have all been down this path.

(from LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott)
Her story was as full of desperation and despair as her limited acquaintance with those uncomfortable emotions enabled her to make it, and having located it in Lisbon, she wound up with an earthquake, as a striking and appropriate denouement. The manuscript was privately dispatched, accompanied by a note, modestly saying that if the tale didn't get the prize, which the writer hardly dared expect, she would be very glad to receive any sum it might be considered worth.

Six weeks is a long time to wait, and a still longer time for a girl to keep a secret, but Jo did both, and was just beginning to give up all hope of ever seeing her manuscript again, when a letter arrived which almost took her breath away, for on opening it, a check for a hundred dollars fell into her lap. For a minute she stared at it as if it had been a snake, then she read her letter and began to cry. If the amiable gentleman who wrote that kindly note could have known what intense happiness he was giving a fellow creature, I think he would devote his leisure hours, if he has any, to that amusement, for Jo valued the letter more than the money, because it was encouraging, and after years of effort it was so pleasant to find that she had learned to do something, though it was only to write a sensation story.

A prouder young woman was seldom seen than she, when, having composed herself, she electrified the family by appearing before them with the letter in one hand, the check in the other, announcing that she had won the prize. Of course there was a great jubilee . . . .

Picture of Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House from Flickr Creative Commons by Boston Public Library

What I've been doing apart from drafting ...

Driving kids to games ... and practice ... and more games ... etc.

O happy day ...

Why the double rainbow?

Because the first draft of LEELA'S STAR is finally done. A month late, but nevertheless, done. Tomorrow I will print it out, read it from the start, and begin to revise.

But today I will bask myself in the glow of its doneness.

Picture from flickr creative commons by jermudgeon.