A Girl Can Dream, Can't She?

Ever thought about your dream writers' conference? If money wasn't an issue, I think I'd like to attend the Maui Writer's Conference.

OK, besides the obvious -- location, location, location! -- this is one sweet conference. It's full to the brim with editors from well-respected houses, high-powered agents and famous authors. A networker's paradise, smack dab in the middle of, you guessed it, paradise!

C'mon, a girl can dream can't she?

Follow the Drinking Gourd

A few weeks ago, my kids and I visited the Indianapolis Children's Museum to check out the new LEGO exhibit. In my 9-year-old son's words, "It was awesome!" While there we also experienced another "awesome" thing -- an extremely innovative use of children's literature. The museum's plantetarium featured a show entitled Follow the Drinking Gourd, based on the children's book by Jeanette Winter. In her book, Winter illustrated the words to a folk song that was used to show slaves the way to the Underground Railroad and eventually, to freedom. The slaves would look for the Big Dipper, aka The Drinking Gourd, in the night sky to guide them north to Canada.

After viewing the program, my kids and I were inspired to learn more about the Underground Railroad and the constellations. What a great way to use children's literature to educate and spur a love of learning!

Death by Blogging?

I'm slipping into my old habits again. We're 27 days into the New Year, and this is only my second blog entry of the month. Maybe I'm just not cut out for the whole blogging thing. There's just not enough knowledge in this little pea-brain of mine to impart to the rest of the writing world out there.

And now, I've found a perfect excuse to support my lackadaisical blogging habits -- blogging could lead to death. Seriously. Just check out the following news:

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.
Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.
To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

See? Maybe just blogging occasionally isn't such a bad thing. After all, I like writing, but I wouldn't want to die for it.

Happy New Year 2009!

What will 2009 bring? I'm pondering this question as I sit here munching on Fruit Loops, watching Clifford with my 8-year-old and wondering where 2008 went. Something about Fruit Loops and Clifford makes me feel hopeful and inspired. Maybe it's the 12 grams of sugar. Or maybe it's the fact the Norman Bridwell, author of the Clifford series, is just a regular guy from Kokomo, Indiana. Just "down the road a piece" from where I sit. Here's a bit of Bridwell's story from the Scholastic website:

It was in 1962 while he was working as a freelance filmstrip and slide illustrator and drawing mostly cartoons that Bridwell decided to put together a portfolio of colorful drawings and make the rounds of children's book publishers. Now married, with an infant daughter — Emily — he was hoping to supplement his income with some extra work illustrating books.

Bridwell visited about fifteen publishing houses but there were no assignments to be had, and even worse, seemingly little hope for any in the future. One editor at Harper & Row went so far as to tell Bridwell that his art by itself was just not good enough, and she didn't think anybody would ask him to illustrate a book for them. But amazingly enough, she also made the suggestion that helped bring him the phenomenal success he enjoys today. She advised him to write a story to go along with one of his pictures. She picked out his sketch of a baby girl and a horse-sized bloodhound and casually said, “There might be a story in this,” Bridwell remembers.

He wasted no time in taking her advice, but he did decide to make the bloodhound even bigger and more of an “all-around” dog — much like the dog he had wanted as a little boy, one that he could ride and who would be a fun companion. Bridwell remembers speaking to the editor on a Friday, and “By Monday, I had done this little book about a girl and her dog,” he says.

Now all he needed were names for his characters. “I wanted to call the dog 'Tiny,' but Norma (his wife) said that was boring and suggested 'Clifford' after an imaginary friend from her childhood,” Bridwell says. The little girl's name, however, was easy. Bridwell named her Emily Elizabeth, after his young daughter. He dropped off his drawings and manuscript at Scholastic and tried not to expect anything. Three weeks later the phone rang. Scholastic wanted to publish Clifford the Big Red Dog. At the time, Bridwell couldn't quite believe it. “I said to my wife, 'Now don't count on there being any more. This one is just a fluke. I don't know if there will ever be another one.'” But it was no fluke — so far over 40 Clifford books have been published.

So, take heart, writers, from Bridwell's inspiring story. 2009 may be your year!

Goodbye to 2008...

The clock has run out. I'm three days short of my 12 Days of Christmas Blogging Challenge, and the days in 2008 are, well, gone. Although I may not have won the challenge, I did accomplish my goal, which was to get myself blogging more this month. Why I picked the month of December is beyond me! What a crazy time to start blogging more consistently!
What really did me in was celebrating my wedding anniversary on the 28th and 29th. Who wants to blog when you're away with your husband on an overnight trip, shopping, seeing movies, and eating delicious food at great restaurants? I couldn't very well pull out my laptop and say, "Excuse me, honey, but I just have to write a blog entry in middle of our romantic getaway." Well, I could have, but it might not have stayed a romantic getaway for very long. So, if there's one lesson I've learned through all this, it's that blogging about life is not more important than life (and the people with which you share that life). And that lesson, my friends, is worth more than all the blog entries I could ever write.

May this New Year be filled with many blessings and many more exciting chapters in this book we call life.

Too Much Blogging?

I'm now eight entries into the 12 Days of Christmas Blogging Challenge. With only four days left (after today) in 2008, I'm right on the edge. If I don't blog every day from here on out, I lose my own challenge! Stay tuned to see if I can pull it off....

Top 10 New Year's Resolutions for Writers

This time of year my thoughts always turn to what I did (or didn't) accomplish in the last year, and how, with a fresh start ahead, I can be more productive in the New Year. While I was pondering my New Year's writing resolutions, I found this great article that sums it up perfectly! If I only get to #1, I'll be doing great! May this New Year hold many opportunities for the writer in you.

Top 10 New Year's Resolutions For Writers
By Joanna Penn

1. Write more. Find the time to invest in your writing. There is a myth of creativity that you need the perfect time and space to create perfect words. But you write about real life, so find time in your real life to write. "Write at the edges of the day" - Toni Morrison, author of "Beloved"

2. Finish the project. One finished book is worth more than 20 just started ones. Make an effort to finish the project this year, whether it is a book, an article, a story for the kids. Complete the project and then sit back and be proud of what you have accomplished.

3. Create an online presence as an author. You have to have a presence on the internet now so that people can find you and your work. You can have a static one page website, or a daily blog, or an author page on Amazon, or a Squidoo lens. The list is endless, but you need something. Learn how you can do this and get it done.

4. Take a course and improve your writing. Kaizen is continuous improvement and this is as important in your writing as it is in the rest of your life. Learning the craft never stops, so take time out to improve your writing skills. Take a course, read a book, or get a mentor.

5. Get out of your comfort zone and try a different form of writing. Have you been cruising along in your genre for too long? If you are a fiction writer, try writing a "How To" article. If you write technical non-fiction, try poetry or dialogue. Do something that scares you in a literary sense. You never know what you'll find!

6. Use your book to create multiple streams of income. A print book is not the way to become a millionaire. Take the time this year to create other streams of income from your book. Record it as an audio and sell it as mp3 files for the iPod. Create a PDF and sell it as an ebook online. Submit it to Kindle and sell as an ebook on Oprah's favourite ebook reader. Break it down into chunks and sell it as an eclass, or as a workbook. Create a spin off book and upsell people so they buy 2 products. Present it as a course and record it on video so you can sell it as a DVD.

7. Connect with other authors and find your community. Web 2.0 is all about social networking and there are multiple sites where you can find people to network with, as well as market to. Try the biggest sites like Facebook and mySpace first, and then branch out into GoodReads, Authors Den, LibraryThing and Squidoo. There are also lots of smaller networking sites at ning.com.

8. Learn about Publishing 2.0 new technologies and expand your education about writing. If you don't read blogs about writing and you don't use RSS, you need to educate yourself. The internet is packed with information that can help you develop your skills and sell more books, but you need to stay up to speed. Learn how to use Google Reader and start subscribing to interesting blogs.

9. Market your books and yourself as an author. Web 2.0 sites and an internet presence is one way to get started, but you need a continued effort to market your books and yourself as an author. Make a marketing plan early on and stick to it. Include goals such as: Submit an article a month to EzineArticles, Post comments on the top blog in my genre with linkbacks to my website, Spend 1 hour per week surfing blogs and the internet for information about my genre.

10. Enjoy the journey, not just the end result. Remember that writing never stops, neither does marketing nor sales. Don't get carried away with being focussed on making X amount of sales. Remember to look out the window, go for a walk, hug your partner and read trashy fiction for fun in the hammock on a Sunday afternoon. The journey is why we do it, not the end result.

Joanna Penn is Director of The Creative Penn - Writing, self-publishing, print-on-demand, internet sales and marketing...for your book.

Get your FREE e-workbook on becoming an author from:
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joanna_Penn
http://EzineArticles.com/?Top-10-New-Years-Resolutions-For-Writers&id=1811755