This Guy Is Funded

So, I have not kept up with my blog as I would have liked.  Yes, I've been busy, but that's no excuse.  Yes, I recently started a new job (and I wasn't even really looking--funny, I looked for a year and a half, then when I stop, the job finds me!), and I had to prep for and go to two interviews, but that is no excuse either.

I'm a slacker.  There.  Now you know.  (Perhaps this blog should have been titled:  This Guy Is a Fritterer ??)

Oh, I work well with deadlines and can do a job well, but for things that don't have to get done...well, they might slide a little.

That is why I have some writing projects that have stalled.  I need to get back to them.  (I need to take my own advice from my last blog.)  I have plenty of projects that are completed (with minor revisions still to come, I'm sure), but I have more that could be finished.  Of course, if I actually sold some of my completed projects, that would give me more motivation to finish incomplete projects and less need to tweak those 'completed' projects.

Anyway, it feels good to be working full-time again.  It feels good to be writing another blog.  Another reason I haven't blogged consistently is that I'm a perfectionist.  If I don't think I can do it well, I might just let it slide another week (and another, and another...).  Maybe I should be less perfect and more prolific?

Well, keep checking back and see which I am.

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

The Ground is Final

OK.  I believe in an afterlife.  I am a Christian, and everything I do is guided by my relationship with Jesus Christ (on good days...).  So, in that sense, the ground is not final.

But in another sense, it is.  You do not get to continue to do things in this world once you die.  People you knew do not get to experience you anymore.  You're done here.  Finito.

We lost another dog today.  We lost Rudy, a boxer, back in June.  His companion for the last 11 or 12 years, Gracie, another boxer, was put down today.  She was not the dog that she had been.  In her day, if anything with four legs came onto the nursery property, it had a slim chance of surviving.  She was a great guard dog.  But in the last couple of years, she moved much slower and even had to suffer our two cats rubbing up on her--not the same dog she had been.  She had a tumor on her head that the vet said would worsen her ability to get around and make life more painful, and surgery at her age (15+) would be highly suspect.

What does all this have to do with writing?  I'm glad you, er, asked!

When you're gone, you can't write anymore.  You can't send out that story to that magazine or publisher.  You can't read that book or go to that writing conference you always wanted to attend.

A new Shel Silverstein book is being released in about two weeks.  (Woohoo!)  His family went through his writings and found some more poems and drawings to have published.  That kind of thing is not going to happen for most of us.  (My wife likes most of my writing, but I'm not expecting this kind of treatment when I'm gone.)

So, make time to write NOW.  Do the things that you want NOW.  Don't put them off.

This applies to your entire life as well.  Want to go on that vacation?  Go.  Need to right that relationship with a friend/family member?  Do it.  None of us knows when our time will come.

So keep writing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will



Rudy

Gracie

P.S. - I've been lax with my blog all summer.  More on that next time...

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