Little Cottage in the Northwoods

I mentioned in my end of January post that I was working on two projects: a picture book and a short mystery story for kids. I’m proud to say I finished the picture book and sent it out. But I can’t say the same for the mystery. I typed up the cover letter and addressed [...]

Rebus: A story where pictures represent nouns.
When I read the quote, “Rebuses look like they’d be easy because they’re short. But they can be some of the toughest writing you’ve ever tackled,” in Marianne Mitchell’s article, The Nuts and Bolts of Rebus Writing, I didn’t believe one word of it. Of course, that was before [...]

In July I sent out 5 manuscripts. 3 picture books, a short story, and after much searching found a publisher I felt my middle grade novel was suited for. I also wrote my first “Status Inquiry.” Normally writing and asking about the status of a manuscript is frowned upon by publishers, however, according to the [...]

On April 20th it snowed in the Northwoods, by the night, most of the snow had melted off the ground and the trees. This morning I woke up to a beautiful and inspiring snowy wonderland scene outside my bedroom. Fresh powder replacing yesterday’s melted snow. Right now, there’s a blanket of white that covers the [...]

Well it’s the end of the month and I’m proud to say that I wrote a poem and a chapter for my middle grade novel. I also wrote a short story, but discovered that as usual I was over the word count specified by the publication I planned to submit to. Shortening a story isn’t [...]