1 down... (at least) 11 to go

So PiBoIdMo 2011 was a barrel of laughs and now it's time to roll up the sleeves and get stuck into more serious fun and possibly even <gasp> some revisions.

Thanks to Julie Hedlund for extending the picture booking writing challenge... 12 manuscripts in 12 months.

More about 12x12 in 2012 here.

I'm happy to report that month 1 has been a resounding success.  One new manuscript, built on a PiBoIdMo idea, has been drafted, reviewed, gone through critique group, tweaked a little more and securely backed up in triplicate.  Wish me luck for the other 11 months... might even run off now to get a head start on the February manuscript.

Too many email accounts?

Think you've got too many IM and twitter accounts, email and snail mailboxes?

Spare a thought for dogs. They have a pee-mail inbox at every tree, shrub, lamp post, bin, etc. etc. in a 5 block radius (plus a few stowed away at holiday destinations) and they just have to check each and every one, each and every time they go past. Not negotiable.



Checking pee-mail



Okay, so pee-mail doesn't really exist, but it makes us humans feel better to anthropomorphise their behaviour (just as we do in so many picture books) just so that we can understand it ourselves. 

If you're interested in a more scientific theory of why dogs pee on trees, I found one here:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/my-puppy-my-self/201001/why-do-dogs-mark-their-territory

Happy Christmukah

During the week, my family attended the Chanukiah lighting ceremony at our local shopping centre. This was on level 2. Directly below on level 1, Santa was posing for photos with the kiddies.

Of course, there was only one eventuality for a Jewish family in a commercial Christian society... we attended the Chanukah ceremony and gave in to our daughter's demands to say hi to Santa on the way out. 'Tis the season.

Happy Christmukah everyone.

Always be prepared

Scratching my head for this week's blog post idea, I feel deeply satisfied with my own foresight to note down a couple of bullet points on my phone last month (in the middle of PiBoIdMo).

<--- This is Carmen Miranda

Carmen is best remembered for her signature fruit hat.

Carmen was always prepared in case she was ever held to a promise of eating her hat.

Props to Carmen and props to everyone that manages to be prepared.

I don't always follow my own advice, but I'm glad that I made an exception this time around.  Phew!

What if INVISIBLE was actually...

In a recent picture book writing course, the instructor wanted us to explore how changing a characteristic of the protagonist can open up all sorts of different possibilities for the manuscript.  It could be a change of gender, personality, species, etc.  We were encouraged to take a published work and rewrite a few spreads based on the characteristic we chose.

Here's how I went with my attempt based on Possum Magic by Mem Fox.

Original text:

But the best magic of all was the magic that made Hush INVISIBLE.

What adventures Hush had!  Because she couldn’t be seen she could be squashed by koalas.

Because she couldn’t be seen she could slide down kangaroos.

Because she couldn’t be seen she was safe from snakes, which is why Grandma Poss had made her invisible in the first place.

But one day, quite unexpectedly, Hush said, “Grandma, I want to know what I look like. Please could you make me visible again?”

“Of course I can,” said Grandma Poss, and she began to look through her magic books.

Modified text:

But the best magic of all was the magic that made Hush INVINCIBLE.

What adventures Hush had!  Because she couldn’t be beat she could squash sumo wrestling koalas.

Because she couldn’t be beat she could outleap kangaroos.

Because she couldn’t be beat she was a demon at Snakes & Ladders, which is why Grandma Poss had made her invincible in the first place.

But one day, quite unexpectedly, Hush said, “Grandma, I want to know what it feels like to have my friends win once in a while.  Please could you make me vincible again?”

“Of course I can,” said Grandma Poss, and she began to look through her magic books.


Have a go at this exercise yourself and leave a comment or link to your own example.

Scruffy McPaw's Chasing Tale

 

Scruffy. Scruffy McPaw. You get back here right this minute you little rascal!

Oh, I’m terribly sorry about my dog.

Scruffy, get down! And keep your paws to yourself, you clown.

Listen, he really seems to like you a lot.

Maybe you can help keep an eye on him for a few minutes while I read you my book?

More...

PiBoIdMo 2011 - What a month!

PiBoIdMo 2011 Winner

The stats

·         30 days

·         3 recording devices

·         140+ ideas recorded (including several potential series)

·         Undeterminable number of ideas MIA

·         30 writing prompts shared with the world

The lows

·         Within the space of a few days, finding that not one, but two of my ideas had already been published (with almost identical titles to those I had jotted down)

·         Thinking about what to do with all the ideas… how to record and organise them… how to prioritise them

·         Anxiety that I may have had ideas and forgotten them before having a chance to write them down (hold on a sec… did I or did I not have a brilliant idea floating around in my brain as I was drifting off to sleep? Was I just dreaming that I had an idea?  I DID have an idea!  I know I did.  It’s okay.  It’ll come back to me once I’ve had my coffee.  Hello… idea… where did you go?  FFS, GET BACK IN MY BRAIN RIGHT THIS MINUTE!)

·         Shock and dismay upon review of my list of ideas, that they would not all fit into my existing definition of Picture Books with Chutzpah

The highs

·         Realising that if a couple of my ideas had already been published, I might just be on the right track (possibly, maybe, perhaps)

·         Looking forward to Jodie’s 12x12 in 2012 challenge to help prioritise the ideas and start turning them into manuscripts

·         Getting over the ‘lost ideas’ anxiety by acknowledging that there is more than enough gold in what I do have recorded

·         Toying with ideas to expand my definition of Picture Books with Chutzpah in order to fit in the other gold nuggets in my list

·         Picking up some great tips for generating ideas and writing picture books in general

·         Meeting and exceeding Penny’s challenge of 11 ideas on the 11/11/11

·         Coming up with a non-fiction idea on the 2^nd last day

Ready to do it all again next year…