Thank Goodness, It was Fabulous!

The SCBWI Florida 2011 Mid-Year Workshop and Intensives were awesome! I'm pumped!

Friday, yesterday, I attended the Picture Book Intensive. It was led by author Lisa Wheeler and Alexandra Penfold, editor with Paula Wiseman Books at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. They gave lots of great tips for stengthening a manuscript, market tips and advice, and general children's publishing industry information. (I may go into greater detail in a future post.) It was fun and informative.

Today, I attended the Poetry Track. It was led by award-winning poet, writer, and editor Lee Bennett Hopkins, and Kristin Daly Rens, Senior Editor at Balzer & Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins. There were less than a dozen attendees, so it was an intimate, informative, very open time to learn, write, and share ideas. We had a "Poetry Idol" contest and I came in tied for second! Woohoo! (I got a free book of poems by Robert Louis Stevenson!) Both Lee and Kristin were great! I'm looking forward to revising some of my poems using insights I gained today.

I also had two manuscripts critiqued today. I had a picture book critiqued by Alison Jackson, whom I had met at this workshop in 2009. I also had nine poems from a book of poems critiqued by Lee Bennett Hopkins (I knew he was coming, so I sent some poetry and was lucky enough to get him as a critiquer!). I received great feedback on both manuscripts. Some things to add, some things to take out...and each critiquer thought my manuscript was marketable! However, they did both warn me that the market is pretty tough right now.

But I think I can do it. :)

So, lots of writing work for me to do to polish some manuscripts and send them out.

Well, keep writing (and reading)!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

The Guest Interview Forthcoming!

I apologize. This isn't a full post. But I wanted to post about my progress on the interview...

Earlier today I sent off my list of interview questions to the picture book author I keep mentioning. So, in the near future, I hope to have the promised interview up!

I'm hoping it will be next week, but we'll have to see!

Keep writing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

Thank Goodness it's Finished!

So, the website is done and up!  Broms To You, Inc. is ready for business at http://www.bromstoyou.com/.

Now, as I wait for my million$ to roll in (I wish), I can get back to writing.  I have two weekends of craft shows at which I will be selling bromeliads, but I'm looking forward to the SCBWI Florida workshop the weekend after that!

I really want to get more writing projects done and sent out.  I submitted two manuscripts for critique at the workshop and am eager to hear/see that feedback.

Again, I want to remind you to check back for my author interview.  I know I keep promising it, but I'll be getting the questions out next week, hopefully, so I think I should have an interview up soon!

Keep writing (and get it finished)!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

The Going is Fast

Wow!  Two weeks have just flown by since my last post.  I have done some writing-related activities:  received two more rejections, submitted two manuscripts for critique at the SCBWI conference I will be attending next month, started putting together a submission for an editor to whom I have not sent anything in a while.

So, I can't complain.

Also, I've been trying to get my new business website up and running.  I'm _thiiiiiiiiis_ close

to having it done!  I will be out of town this weekend selling bromeliads at a craft show, but I hope to have the website done Monday.  I'll keep you posted!

Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for that PB author interview I mentioned.  I'm getting the questions finalized and I think her schedule has settled down a little with the end of the school year.

Well, keep writing (and reading)!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

The Guy is Fine

I'm OK.  Really.  Sorry for not posting for so long.

I've been busy with the non-writing parts of my life lately.  Had issues at work.  Left my job.  Started a business.  Trying to get that business off the ground (selling bromeliads - www.bromstoyou.com - however, the website isn't quite live yet).  Not much really...  ;)

Anyway, I am OK, but I haven't done a whole lot of writing or writing-related activites lately.  Once I get into a routine, some things should take care of themselves.  So, I should be able to spend more time being a writer.  That being said, I received a few rejections in the last couple months and a few non-responses that I think are rejections.

Well, I am hoping to have an interview up here in a few weeks--an interview with a great picture book author.  She was busy doing school visits, and I have to get my questions to her, but hopefully, I'll be able to post it this month.  I hope you come back for that!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

The Gone is File!

Has it happened to you?  Hard drive crash?  Inadvertent delete?  Laptop stolen?

Fortunately (yeah, right), I've only ever had two of those things happen to me.  It can really mix you up (thus today’s mixed-up title).

Today's blog is more general computer advice, but it applies to writing inasmuch as you don't want to lose all your hard work.

I'm a computer guy by trade, so I know that backups are important.  And yet, I've still had hard drive crashes mess me up.  I have two desktops and a laptop.  I have three external "backup" hard drives.  I have a 4GB thumb drive.  Luckily, I haven't lost any writing projects, but I have lost music and video files that I had for years.  That's what convinced me to shell out the money for an online backup service.  I hope this doesn't sound like a commercial, but even with all of those backup devices, I rarely did the backups myself.  So, to have it automatically done twice a day is a major stress relief.  Plus, we're all busy.  To manually do a backup, even on just our 'super-mega-important' files would take valuable minutes out of every day (or as often as we'd actually do it).

But, if you can't bring yourself to pay for an online backup service, at the very least, backup to another device (thumb drive, external hard drive, CD/DVD Rom) as often as you make major changes.  If your computer dies, you'll be glad you still have your darling poems, short stories, novels, articles, or whatever, and you'll really be saying, "TGIF!"  (Or at least, "Thank Goodness!")

As another word of advice, save, and save often.  I tell people where I work to save every five or ten minutes or after you do a bunch of work (bunch being a very technical term).  If you want to have multiple revisions available to look back upon, use save-as.  But, power fluctuations, hitting the wrong key...many things can happen to your current document.  If you just saved it and something messes it up, close it without saving and open the saved copy.

May your writing be good and your files in good hands.

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

The Good Incidence Fallacy (Yeah...a stretch to get to TGIF, right?) :)

"I've always been in the right place and time. Of course, I steered myself there." - Bob Hope

How often have you, or someone you know, said that a writer "got lucky" or "has all the luck?"

Sure, luck may be involved in life, but hard work, preparation, and persistence play a good part as well.  Most successes, in writing and in many other professions, do not happen 'overnight.'  Basketball players do not decide to play basketball one day and join the NBA the next.  CEOs do not decide to start a business one day and be running a multi-billion dollar company the next.  Writers do not decide to write one day, and have a bestseller the next.  The list goes on.  For every person's success, there is usually a story of hard work, dedication, and perseverance behind it.

So, writers need to prepare to be writers:  Read.  Write.  Read books on writing.  Research your subjects.  Write.  Research publishers and agents.  Research the market.  Write.  Revise.

You're not going to be a success overnight, but if you work hard, prepare, and place yourself where you can succeed, someday you will succeed.

I love Bob Hope, thus the quote above.  I also love Shel Silverstein.  Taken a bit out of context, but still somewhat applicable if you think of magic or good luck as success:  "...all the magic I have known I've had to make myself." — Shel Silverstein (Where the Sidewalk Ends)

Work hard so that success will find you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Will