THE RIGHT #WRITING UTENSIL MAKES THE #DIFFERENCE

Have you ever been so excited about something that you just bought and couldn’t wait to start using it.

Well for me it’s all about shoes and pens. Yes, that’s right, PENS. As in writing utensils. It all started about a year ago at Linganore Winery in Frederick Maryland. I came across this woman named Sandra and she was selling pens. But they weren’t your run of the mill, average BIC pen. They were custom pens. Not like a feather and quill but with beads, spacers and charms. I fell in LOVE. She made me my first pen, the gold/silver number. Ever since then that pen ONLY goes with me to my book events. Well this past week, I saw her again. She was at Creatures, Crimes and Creativity and she had her pens. I was like a kid at Christmas! She saw me and remembered me since we share something in common and she said,

“How is your pen holding up”

I told her that I only use it for signing books at my events and she said

“Why?”

I said, “Because I don’t want anyone else to take my pen” besides, I really don’t want to leave it at work.”

She said, “well you need another pen”. 

which one would you choose?

Ahhhhhh! (cue the heavenly music)

Yes, I do! I need another pen.

So she asked me my favorite football and team and I said, Dallas and then she pointed out this blue/white/silver number and again (cue heavenly music)

I was in LOVE all over again. My hands were sweaty, my mouth went dry and my heart raced. Oh god! I must be having a heart attack. But no, I was having a ‘moment’.

For there in the small cradle, with a glowing light over top of it, was MY pen. My glorious pen! The pen I have been waiting for all of my life. The pen of my dreams….screech!

Ok, I know you must think I’m crazy or neurotic but I’m not. I’m just a sucker for a great pen!

I picked it up and fell in love all over again. Now my baby rests in the cute little pen holder on my brand new desk at work and everyone so jealous. I get to pick it up every day; hold it, feel it’s weight in my hands and watch as the ink flows perfectly from the point. When I finish with it, I wipe it down and set it down gently. (Ok, THAT could sound a little crazy)

But I’m in PEN HEAVEN!

Does this make me write better? I think so. At first I just scrawled out my name, now I take precious moments to make sure that the B and the  S and the W are perfectly created and that when I’m done, I twist the barrel and let the point slide back into its protective shell.

Yes, the right writing utensil makes for perfecting writing.

Flip Flopped

On September 8th, I met this beautiful spirit named Jade Newman. First her earrings and necklace blew me away and secondly she spoke so eloquently that I knew she was a truly remarkable woman. She teaches yoga and it shows through her calmness. She had some great questions about the writing process and the dreaded editing process, that "has taken her more than a year to do because she always finds something wrong." She came up to me at the end of the presentation and we spoke about what she should do next. Instantly I knew I needed her to be a guest on my blog. Please welcome Jade Newman and her funny take on her journey into The Land of Flip Flops.
I am one of them.

You know, the mom roaming around Target weekday mornings in yoga pants and flip-flops; well after the workout is over. You see, I teach yoga. My yoga pants and toe liberating shoes are part of my work costume but even I realize that I’m trampling all over the sacred relationship between woman and shoe. I once took great pride in giving my 5’3 inch body a 4-inch boost in height. I wore black dressy stilettos traveling on the metro and turned my nose up at the sensible women in dress suits with sneakers. I used to drop it like it was hot to Biggie and Jay Z in the club wearing sexy leopard print pumps. Blisters were temporary, but the compliments I’d get about my shoe game were forever. Admitting the new, not so stylish, shoe attitude I’ve adopted is embarrassing but I have decided to be proactive and do something to get my feet back in the game.

            Most shoe lovers I talk to cannot imagine such a shameful decline into the shoe abyss. I had to give a lot of thought to how this happened to me. How could a woman go from owning a pair of shoes to go with every outfit to a woman who bounces between pairs of black, tan and magenta colored flip flops?

It’s as painful for me to write as it is for you to read.

I could blame my lazy shoe choice on the knee surgery I had back in 2010, but after I recovered, stylish platform shoes lined my closet. I can’t blame it on being a mom. I rocked heels at my baby shower eight months in. It all started when I realized that my feet are tools that need to be protected. I forced myself to believe my feet are just things I need to keep me mobile. I foolishly chose to ignore the beauty in my feet and focus solely on their function. That day is dead and I know now that I can do both.

            The first step to revamping my shoe style was to start appreciating the fly shoe swag of others. Not for biting purposes but for the inspiration and assurance that it is okay to flaunt your feet. I observed the confidence women with sassy shoes exuded as they strut down the street. They walk with their shoulders back and chests held high. Their posture is valiant and pronounced. It’s as if they’ve practiced yoga for years. Then I frequented every shoe store in a 20 mile radius. Wild Pair became an addiction. The ladies at DSW in Fair Lakes know my name. I researched the right shoe for my comfort level and struck up that love affair once again. I practice yoga at least 7 hours a week, but nothing makes me stand taller than a pair of sexy shoes. I flip flopped but this time it’s for the best.

Just Part of the Family

Today I've turned my blog over to Sandy Humphrey. She makes us feel what it is like to have our characters as part of the family.

I’ve been working on a young adult novel that takes place at a summer camp for girls with emotional problems in northern Minnesota, and I find it more than a little disconcerting that some of my characters have recently moved in with me.

This morning I found the camp director, Mrs. A, at my breakfast table shoveling sugar into her herbal tea, and last night I found her rummaging through my fridge, looking for avocados for her guacamole dip.

           

And it’s not just Mrs. A who has moved in. Leslie (my Protagonist) and some of her camper friends are also showing up unexpectedly. I found Trisha (a young black girl who longs to have her own garden amidst the chaos of the inner city) wandering around my backyard last week. She wasn’t being a nuisance or anything. She was just out there smelling the flowers.

Then there’s anorexic Jennifer. She hasn’t actually moved in yet, but I see her in some of the young girls I mentor at our church. They talk about their control issues at home and how food is the only thing in their lives that they feel they have any control over. Jennifer doesn’t say anything at these meetings, she just nods in agreement.

And, of course, there’s Rachel, “the cutter.” There were so many Rachels at the state mental hospital who insisted that they had to cut “to feel better.” They shared with me how they could deal more easily with their physical pain than with their psychological pain, and how the physical pain gave them a temporary respite from their psychological pain.

I’ve even run into Cynthia Winston, the villain of the piece, right in my own bathroom—-usurping the bathroom mirror while she apples her makeup. Actually, Cynthia has pretty much taken over all my mirrors. She’s always there, preening and giving me her little Mona Lisa half-smile.

Although I have never invited any of my characters to move into my home and take over so much of my life, I find I’m becoming used to having them around. And I might even miss them if they were to move out.

I think what I’ve concluded from all this is that to make our characters real to our readers—-characters whom they really care about-—we must care about them first. They must be so real to us that we see them everywhere we go and in everything we do, and sometimes we may even find them in the most unexpected places!

Sandra McLeod Humphrey is a retired clinical psychologist, a character education consultant, and an award-winning author of eight middle-grade and young adult books.  She's also the recipient of the National Character Education Center's Award for Exemplary Leadership in Ethics Education (2000) and the 2005 Helen Keating Ott Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children's Literature.

You can learn more about her books by visiting her Web site  at www.kidscandoit.com and her blog at www.kidscandoit.com/blog/

Finding a Publisher is Like Finding a New Pair of Jeans

This month starts my guest blogging and today I welcome Mariam L. Thomas.

So there I was, walking into the clothing store with high hopes as I headed toward the jeans department of a major retail store.  As I reached the department, it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn't exactly sure which type of jeans I was looking for.  There were so many different types to choose from.  Did I want a pair that sat below the waist, bootcut jeans, flare jeans or low-riders that are also bootcut?  I almost wanted to turn around and go back home.

So it goes for many aspiring authors.  There are so many publishers out there in the big world of all things literary, they simply aren't sure where or how to start the process.  How did I resolve my jeans dilemma?  I did some research.  True story.  Right there, in the department store.  I read the various tags found on different pairs of jeans, until I found a description for a pair that sounded like me.  Then I tried each of them on, until I was able to walk out of the store with a pair of jeans that felt as if they were meant for me — after I've lost a few pounds, of course.

Going back to the journey for aspiring authors and their quest to find the perfect publisher; I would tell you to do one very important thing — RESEARCH.  It's a waste of your time to blindly send out query letters to every single publisher out there.  Understand what genre your book falls into, and then research publishing companies who publish that genre.  Once you've found your list, look to see who the editor is that handles that genre.  This is important.  You want to be sure that you address your query letter to the right editor.

Now, before you send out that query letter, I need you to do something else quite important.  More research — on writing a "winning" query letter.  I want you to try out a few that you find, the same way you would try on jeans.  How?  Find samples of two or three that fit your writing style and your book.  Many well-known authors have published their winning query letters.  I have always believed that you don't always have to re-invent the wheel.  Its okay to use what is out there if it has proven to work.

Here is a website I used:  http://www.charlottedillon.com/query.html

Now I know it's tempting to want to send your entire manuscript with your query letter.  Fight the urge.  Please.  Keep in mind that most publishing companies only request the first three chapters of your work.

Here is the last thing you want to do before you submit your query letter and the first three chapters of your manuscript to that publishing company that is going to fit your book like a pair of perfectly-fitting jeans:  Have everything edited.  Not by your cousin, friend or mother (unless they're professional editors in their secular lives).  Remember, just like you want your jeans to "make a flattering and modest impression," so goes your query letter.

About the Author:

Marian L. Thomas is the best-selling author of two award-winning titles, Color Me Jazzmyne and My Father's Colors.  Her newest title, Strings of Color, released on April 1, 2012.  You can find more information about publishing and getting published on her blog: http://www.thewritersinkspot.blogspot.com