Yesterday afternoon, I finished the draft of the picture book I was talking about in yesterday's post about the revision process and how long it takes. I was completely happy about it, and celebrated with a drink at dinner and everything ( Read more... )

Hello, pretties! *waves madly at people in the internet*

I am still enjoying my revision camp, although I have to confess that (a) "enjoying" is sometimes not the right word ("frustrated by" is often more apt) and (b) things are not progressing speedily.

What picture book revision involvesWhat I picked out to work on this week: five picture book ( Read more... )

1. Over at Guys Lit Wire I have a post about a poetry collection entitled Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting by Kevin Powers. It's an awesome collection, and I've excerpted two poems as part of that post. You should read them, if you have time.

2. I'm on retreat this week. It's a solo sort of thing, and not a fabulous week spent with ( Read more... )

Someone has taken up a sifter and sprinkled just enough powder over the neighborhood to add some white, but not enough to blot out what's underneath. It is quite cold for here (in the 20s), but I see from my Weatherbug app that it is -1 in Amherst, Massachusetts, where Maggie goes to school. My sweetheart joked that Maggie (now home for break) must ( Read more... )

Monday marks the start of a new week (work week, school week, week in general under the calendars used by most of the world). I know that Mondays can come with a "back to the grind" sort of feeling to them, but they also mark a new beginning.

That's what I'm thinking about today as I head off for the revision cave with the gnomes.


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The gnomes have been keeping me pretty busy in the cave of revision, but as I was looking about during a rest break, I found a small scrap of paper containing one of the Rubáiyát by Omar Khayyám: Number 51, translated in the mid-1800s by Edward Fitzgerald.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ ( Read more... )

Here's how things went yesterday:

I worked on an unfinished poem for the Jane project about her writing the ending of the novel now known as Persuasion. I made decent progress, but hit a stopping point because I didn't have my copy of Persuasion at hand.

No problem, thought I. I will head off to the cave of revision with the gnomes.Fortified by ( Read more... )

I'll try to poke my head out, but if you don't see me for a while, you'll know where I am.


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Jane and I have been trying to ignore it, but the pattering of little feet (and their grunts and swearing when they bang into things in the back storeroom) have been getting louder.

Looks like it may be time to pull out the second gnome chapterbook manuscript and give it a going-through. Evidently, the gnomes have "rested" enough.


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There I was, diligently working (and working and working) on completing my double sestina summarizing the plot of Pride & Prejudice for the Jane project (2 stanzas plus the final envoi to go, thanks), when I heard it. A susurrus (a word I learned from reading The Wee Free Men - thanks, Terry Pratchett!) A murmuring sort of hum, coming from ( Read more... )