Once Upon a Time

Just sold my first piece to Once Upon a Time, an "industry" mag for children's writers and illustrators. Every so often my background in business communications kicks in and I feel compelled to write something for adults. This was one of those times. It's a humorous piece on being a children's writer. I *hope* my colleagues get a chuckle out of it! No word yet on a publication date.

For Readers and Writers of Fantasy

Available Feb. 14th from Candlewick

The Wand in the Word : Conversations with Writers of Fantasy
by Leonard S. Marcus (Editor)

Includes interviews with: Lloyd Alexander, Franny Billingsley, Susan Cooper, Nancy Farmer, Brian Jacques, Diana Wynne Jones, Ursula K. Le Guin, Madeleine L’Engle, Garth Nix, Tamora Pierce, Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman, Jane Yolen

I want mine NOW! (Yes, I've pre-ordered. *grin*)

A Favor to Ask

It only takes a minute....

Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/
AGAIN, PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS TO TELL 10 TODAY

Words to Live By

“'What would you do if you could not fail?' – and then the follow up is, Why aren’t you doing that anyway?"

Literary Agent Nadia Cornier, from her blog, agentobscura, recounting the best question she's ever been asked

Get Thee Behind Me, Television!

I often get looks of pity from people when I tell them I rarely watch TV. "What? You're missing out on Lost? American Idol? Monster truck races?"

It's not that I don't like TV. While I'd have to say that two-thirds of what's on these days is silly and not my cup-of-tea, there *are* good programs that I like and enjoy watching. Put a good murder mystery on, or show a great old movie, or do a nature special and I'd love to be there more often.

So why don't I?

Watching television saps the creative energy right out of me. It's as if there's a magnet inside the television. Turn the TV on and the magnet turns on, too. Any bit of inspiration, energy, and creative drive I have for the day is sucked right out of my body and released into the ether, perhaps never to be seen again. It's frightening.

And frightening not only for the implications of what it does to my writing, but for what it must be doing to children who watch *way* too much television these days. Is all their creativity drying up as well?

I wonder what wonderful works of art, literature, and invention we may miss out on in the future because our children's minds have been sucked dry by a rectangular box.

And now that I've run the risk of sounding like a Luddite or an old fogey (or maybe both), I'll just say it's a sad thought, and leave it there.

Pithy Prose

Most of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing.

Alexander Woollcott

WV's Sorrow

I don't even know how to express the sorrow I feel for those poor families of the miners trapped in the West Virginia mine disaster. To hear that your loved ones are safe, and then to find that they perished after all . . . how does one deal with such conflicting emotions in such a short span of time?

We can only offer our prayers and condolences, which I do, in abundance.