The Bouncy Castle in Space

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the sympathy.

At least she didn't write, "Will you get this loser off my case?" or something like that. Ha ha.

I'm sorry, too, Sheila. You'll get there, when the timing and agent are both right.

Sorry about the rejection. At least you know it was just a matter of "not loving it," thought those are in some ways harder and in some ways easier to take (you didn't do anything wrong, but there's nothing to fix either

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Ohhh yeah. Those royally suck. Then you're left to wonder if there's some insidious little background issue that you can't see that's ruining your chances... or... ya know... something like that.

So I have my coffee, my cinnamon roll, and am about to get a fire going in the fireplace right next to my desk. Honestly, sometimes I forget to be thankful for the little things in my life.

i'm soooo sorry, Sheila. what a bummer. this is such a crazy roller coaster we're on - i started querying on October 1st and had two requests the first day. then two months of nothing (or rejections), then two requests in the last week again. you've had a dip - but who knows what's around the corner next!

Spider Magazine wants my science article!

I love SPIDER (and all the bug mags)! Congrats, Ruth.

Yay Ruth!

My daughter got into one of her early application colleges! She was one little bundle of stress, so I'm very happy for her.

Happy bouncy bouncy Friday everyone!

Congrats to your daughter, Sheila -- and to you, for rasing such a bright young woman!

Yay for Ruth and Sheila's daughter!

Success is sweet.

Super Ditto on MsJudy's comment. Congratulations to all with great news.

Yay! Congrats ladies! I'm bouncing because I survived the field trip to the California Mission with the fourth graders. My student, who was so horrid on the last field trip that the principal didn't want to let her go on this one...was good! On the bus we read "Little Bear", "Little Bear's Father Comes Home", "Nate the Great", AND "Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth". And then we had a discussion about whether JBJ made good choices or not (answer: not).

And now I have a root beer cocktail in my hand, huzzah! *bounes erratically away*

My first graders have suddenly decided that yes, they can write, after all, and we have launched our Writer's workshop.

And...oh, my. Turns out I have the future Neil Gaiman/Stephen King/Tim Burtons of the 6-year-old set!

Almost every story is along these lines:

***

A wolf ate a kangaroo and ran into the nite. He found a lake and drank wotr. He hrd a bunny and it jumpt to the wolf. The wolf scratcht the bune and ran ucrost the lake.

Two slow funny little kittens *teacher's note: adjectives! yay!* wr fighting and wun got hrt and won was bleeding and the owner got mad.

A puppy had a sword. The dragon fought the puppy and the puppy killed the dragon. The puppy won the princess. The puppy turned into a prince and they lived happily ever after.

The vampire bit a man. The man turned into a vampire. The mom got scared. She died.

The skinny minny wolves *yay! more adjectives!* ate a squirrel. The squirrel was bleeding. The wolves liked it. The end.

***

I was reading them out loud to my mom--Check these out! Aren't they fabulous?--and she shook her head. "Only you would appreciate those..."

I suppose it's true...not every first grade teacher would be so proud of all the blood.

LOL! These are great. And your kids are lucky, because you can see the fabulousness and encourage them, instead of censoring them.

those ARE great! i have the clearest memory of my first grade teacher giving us that big drawing paper that has like two lines at the bottom and telling us to "Write a story." and i told her indignantly that two lines were not nearly enough to write a story and demanded a sheet of fully lined paper. i also still remember the name (Mrs. Danielson) of a third grade SUBSTITUTE teacher who enthusiastically praised a poem i'd written.

Good for you, Joy. One of the hard things about elementary school is that one person is responsible for everything. There are great workshops to help us non-scientifical teachers learn how to teach science. Ditto for math. But the "teach your students creative writing" books and workshops are, for the most part, crap. So not many kids ever get taught "How to write a story" by someone who actually knows how to write a story.

*sigh*

I'm sorry about that Sheila. I just got a rejection back but it was nice. Never got one of these before but it was from Karen Grencik. Now she might do this with every writer but it was still nice. This was what she sent:


Thanks so much for sending the first pages of BILLY “THE KID” SPENGLER AND THE SEARCH FOR THE GOLDEN CROWN. Billy is a likeable, sympathetic character, and the premise is indeed fresh and interesting. Unfortunately, though, [my name retracted for obvious reasons], I'm afraid I did not love the story the way I would need to in order to offer representation, so I must pass. I'm so sorry.

But I'm grateful for the look, and I wish you all the best in finding the perfect champion for your work.

Good morning everyone!

Sorry to hear about your rejection, playground king. Those are never fun. I recently got two of them myself, though in form letters, not personal. Oh well.

So happy to hear the news from Sheila and Ruth! A huge congrats you two!

Kitty and MsJudy, your kids are so lucky. Wish I had teachers that made learning so fun when I was growing up. Especially when it came to writing!

Btw, I've finally started a twitter account. I even joined in on the #writersroad chat last night. What fun! I really should have joined the twitterverse sooner!

Good morning!

So, I'm browsing amazon for ideas for presents for the kids in my life, and I stumbled across this thing called "Rory's Story Cubes." It's a pocket-sized "story generator" that can be played like a game. There are nine cubes with different pictures and you roll them, and then think up a story containing all those elements.

Of course, I think it's fantastic, but I'm not sure the kids will dig it. Has anyone tried these? Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003EIK136/?tag=absowrit-20

That's neat, Sheila. I like that it has pictures, not words, which leaves it a little more open to interpretation. When I'm doing classroom playwriting residencies, I do a game called Four Categories which is a little bit similar - we throw a whole bunch of ideas up on the board under four different categories (non-geographical location, relationships, conflicts, objects), and then through a highly secret magical formula (I basically choose the most interesting/contrasting ones), I choose one from each category. Then, in groups, the kids have 15 minutes to create a play incorporating all the elements. one of the most fun things about this is seeing how four or five different groups of kids use the same elements but always come up with totally different plays.

Anyway, same concept on a group level. It's always a big hit, from about 4th - 12th grade.

too tired to bounce...

The over-achiever in me got carried away this year. I always bake treats to thank my parent volunteers. Well, this year I have a dozen really great volunteers, so...

I've been baking non-stop for 2 weeks. Double batches of 6 kinds of cookies (plus extras for my own kids to munch on). And that was only enough for the parents, nothing for the office staff/aides/custodians/etc. So then I baked 20 mini-loaves of lemon bread...

Still have to label them all, tie on the ribbons, pack them in the bags, carry them to school, find everybody...

Plus I had to empty out the freezer to make room for everything, so now there's nothing left to eat in the house. And the relatives are coming in a week! So I'm not done yet...

Ha! I just plopped onto the couch and propped my feet on the coffee table. I'm taking a break from baking.

I have too many people on my list, too. Glad I'm not the only one!

Also? I'm feeling a little sick. I can't bake without eating.

Oh, wow, did I almost mess up this morning!

My son (just eleven) still does the Santa thing. I don't know if he believes or if he just goes along to appease his mother. But he makes a wish list each year. This year he chose to make it on my laptop, which worked out great for me. I say that because he got his own for his birthday (used) and he could have chosen to type it on his.

He waited rather late to make it - in case he wanted to add more - and stuck it on the fridge. I have a new stainless steel fridge because mine pooped out after 25 years and we had to buy a new one just recently. I won't let them put anything on the front for fear of scratches, but the sides are a different material, so all the school papers, calendars, photos, lunch menus, etc. cover the side.

I noticed his Christmas letter was down low, and thought that was the only available spot. So while he was at school the other day, I went into his document and had Dexter (one of Santa's elves) write back to him using different colored ink and different fonts. Then during the night the new letter replaced the old.

Only mom, in her lack of detail, stuck the new letter at her eye level on the front - I wanted to make sure he noticed it, ya know?

He found it this morning, and read through it, laughing at Dexter's weird sense of humor and looking for clues that he might get something on his list. We talked about it, and how interesting it was and how lucky he was to know the elf's name.

Then he got quiet for several minutes. After a while he said, "I'm surprised about that letter." I asked him why, and he said, "Well, I didn't know the elves would be able to reach that high."

Ooops! Of course, I quickly reminded him of the movie Elf, and told him that he might have even used the step stool over in the corner.

I'm going to have to work harder at this if I want to keep convincing him to play along with my games.

That is too funny! Good save about the elf with high reach pretty soon he'll be dusting for elf prints and collecting dna samples from Santa's milk glass. Stay on your toes!