Turning Thirty in Turkey

I was given the gift of the travel bug at the ripe young age of eight. It dug deep into my heels and hasn’t wained since. When my fiance asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I replied, “Go to Istanbul to buy a Turkish rug on my thirtieth.” So we went and it was glorious.

We spent four days exploring the city. Istanbul is a history capsule for the crossroads of the east and the west.  We saw jewels the size of fists from Iranian dynasties and the Habsburg Monarchy, Viking graffiti inscribed in stones of a church last used as mosque in 1935, and a Harem that housed over 800 wives of a Sultan at a time.

To be sure, between sipping on mountains of Turkish tea, I was jotting down young adult novel ideas while trying to burn on my brain the smells of the gardens surrounding the mosques during the call to prayer. All the while, I was asking how my picture book character would handle a trip to Istanbul as a sloppy elephant. Apparently, I’ve also caught the writer’s bug pretty badly.

Having never been to a predominately Muslim country I left feeling exhausted with the amount I learned. I believe this (or possibly my allergies) has contributed to my sudden drought in creativity.  We are headed to Las Vegas on Wednesday for a six week stay. I’m hoping my time spent in a US library studying picture books will inspire story archs that are a bit less… cheese ball.  

The last revision process of my newest manuscript really took it out of me. Here is hoping that reading the greats and studying pacing a bit more (took Jodell Sadler’s pacing webinar, highly recommend) will spark more creative stories. 

On that note, I’ll leave you with some photos. Maybe they will inspire you! Looking forward to posting from the US. I can’t wait to get into a US library and start studying! 

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Write, Revise, Water, Rinse, & Repeat.

The month of April, in retrospect, has been filled with a couple of activities on repeat. Write, Revise, Critique Group, Repeat.  My newest MS has been well received by two out of the three critique groups.  This most recent MS has been a huge eye opener. I can see the leaps and bounds I’ve made in my writing, my understanding of storytelling, and my over all confidence in creating a great MS. The starting draft was less bumpy, we’ll see how the middle drafts go. :) I’ve been playing this video on repeat to keep me motivated. 

I’m looking forward to my first Monday of the month critique group. The make-up of this group is two author/illustrators and “I can only draw a stick figure” me.  The two talented author/illustrators in my group were able to shed light on my older MS in a way I hadn’t expected. It was refreshing. Plus we use Google+ Hangout, this way I can see their pretty faces. We use Google+ Hangout in my other critique group as well. I am thrilled technologies like this exist. Google+ Hangout makes it a little bit more possible for me to be a little less of an isolated writer.  This has greatly benefited the development of my craft. 

March and April also shuttled in the next stage of my new writing career. I began to more seriously prepare for submission to agents.  Thanks to the supportive 12X12 community forum, I was able to have a query letter critiqued. I went through three major revisions of one letter with a significant amount of critiquing from the forum group. This was a fantastic way to get a handle on how exactly to compose a letter of this particular nature. I can safely say the letter began as an untamed monkey and I may have it trained enough to stop throwing banana peels at my head- not necessarily stopping it from throwing peels at me in general.  

With my first polished MS in hand and a query letter crafted, I submitted to an agent who was taking submissions from the 12X12 group. I’ve spent a fair amount of time researching agents and was thrilled to see they were on the 12X12 list. Given it was a short window of two weeks, I opted to go ahead and submit. I’ve not heard back as of yet but I’ve already learned a ton by simply submitting.

I understand agents are overworked and have huge slush piles to get through, I made it a priority to ensure I was avoiding novice mistakes. That said, I’m a novice so I might not have even seen the mistake! But I’ve got to start somewhere, my apologies in advance if I stumble and my mistake finds its way in your slush pile.  The ether of the publishing world is often hazy. I’ve been following The Query Shark for awhile now, can not stress enough how awesome this blog has been in helping navigate the ether. 

Speaking of the 12X12 community, sometime in the middle of May I’ll be featured on the Tuesday’s Blog. I wrote a little blog post a month or so ago. I’ll post a link as soon as its up! Pretty excited.  I also turn 30 in the middle of May, it all seems to be rounding out perfectly. Especially, given on April 30th we celebrated the Czech tradition of burning a fake witch over a HUGE bond fire to rid the air of winter. Spring is here and summer is near! 

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Writing Nook and Library :)

Hello from Praha! Thought I would share my writing space photo, now that it is completely done. Since we live in a Czech speaking country, my personal book collection here is *almost all digital and can be seen here. :) 

Happy Writing!! 

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#NY14SCBWI

Well it has been nearly a month since the SCBWI New York Conference. I can say I went, I saw, and I left knowing exactly what I’m meant to do forevermore.  There was every fiber of me that was nervous about not only reading my MS during roundtables, but also, attending the event.  

There was a huge amount that I learned and there is no question that it wasn’t one of the best decisions I made for my new career.  Not enough can be said about the friendships and connections made. I’ve always been a bit of an odd duck, but there I was among folks that I instantly bonded with. Going to the NY14 SCBWI conference made me feel a lot more prepared, a lot less isolated, and more inspired than I imagined. 

My favorite key note was without question Jack Gantos.  As a youngly I was swept away by Rotten Ralph. It was a surreal moment to then be inspired again as an adult and a writer by Mr. Gantos. His writing had a profound influence on me at a particular moment in my childhood, a time when I needed humor the most. Flash forward 21 years and there I was sitting in the audience and at a crossroads with my picture book MS. Mr Gantos, words were helping me as a writer to create a better character, plot, and over all picture book.   It was FANTASTIC! 

Here is hoping I can swing the LA Conference in August! 

After a quick trip in New York and Boston (to see my Mother, Step-Father and Brother and try on my wedding dress). I jetted to Miami to meet my dear friend Kate for a four day musical festival cruise!  As evidenced by this photo we Lived Loud! 

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Prep for #NY14SCBWI & 12 X 12!

Excuse all the jargon in the header but it makes me feel more in the know. 

It has been one busy couple of weeks (has it been more than a week, I’m not sure). I’m in full prep for the SCBWI 2014 NYC Conference. After a complete revision of the only MS I’ve been working on for the roundtable intensive, I’ve found myself in a holding pattern.

I received a great critique of the latest version from Jackie Wellington (A critique partner found through WriteCon, who has read every version of my story. I owe her so many thanks for her critiques, encouragements, and friendship ). Now I’m just waiting to hear from the ever inspiring Esther Hershenhorn and the fantastic service RateYourStory.org. I’m nervous but feeling confident in this new revision. Hopefully they also think its up to snuff for the roundtable.

Don’t worry, I don’t scare away from further revisions but I’m hoping I won’t be doing to much of that over the next 13 days. 

During this brief two-day self induced revision freeze, I’ve been researching editors and agents in prep of the conference.  Studying how to pitch (which I’m freaking out about). 

I finished up my new fancy website www.erinapeed.com (can’t wait to someday add a section titled published books). 

All I had left to do was create my biz cards, which I enjoyed doing today. WEEEEE!!!!! 

In a rush of caffeine in the basement of a Starbucks, I went ahead and joined the 12 X 12: 12 Picture Books in 12 Months.  Considering how new I am to this entire thing, I joined as a Margaret Wise BRONZE member.   The idea is that in a 12 month period you produce a picture book a month. This doesn’t mean a polished picture book but a MS.  I’m looking forward to connecting with everyone who has opted to participate this year. More than anything, I’m looking forward to the challenge.  Why go half way, I guess???? 

P.S. Any of the 12 X 12 going to the  NYC SCBWI conference in a couple of weeks? I wish there were some sticker to wear so I could meet folks in person. Is there and I just don’t know about it? 

...

Today I was fortunate. Today was a great day. Today Esther Hershenhorn Skyped with me for two hours. 6 weeks ago I made a wise choice and contacted Esther. She spent time with my manuscript. I mean really spent time with it. She brought my manuscript to life in a way that I needed to see. Today Esther showed me what potential in a manuscript feels like, sounds like, and how it is shaped.  

Today I spun my chair around after Skype and felt like a writer for the first time. I felt my dream happening. 

Thank you Esther! 

P.S. I found a statue of an elephant in Paris that faces East… Perfect. 

Third Book Blunders

I’m drafting my third PB and it is…. stalled. In my first PB the same character was bubbly and covered in food stains. In the one I’m currently drafting he is grumbly. Just plain grumbly. It is making me grumbly.   

Lets do this.

I spent the last couple of days having my pervious piece critiqued and feeling rather down and out about my first attempt. Last night, I realized I needed to let my original approach or attempt go. I have a feeling that this will be a valuable lesson going forward. I was to attached to things that weren’t working and to bummed that I didn’t get it right the first time. This expectation is of course ridiculous and not appropriate. Moving forward looks a lot more charming then it did two days ago. I’m going to destroy my text book reading today! BOOM! 

Struggling writer... sorta

Working my way through the textbook “Writing Picture Books” by Ann Whitford Paul. It has been incredibly helpful but the further I get the more annoyed I am with my previous story! I was going chapter by chapter through the book and applying the tasks/lessons to the story I had written but now I think I’ll just scratch that approach. Instead I think it may be better to read through the book and then write a new story before revisiting my first. Confused yet? Thrilling I know.

Everyday I am more amazed at the techniques that go into writing children’s books. Learning these and seeing that these are what makes the difference between a good and a GREAT book has been inspiring, humbling, and daunting. Anyone like to recommend how to over come the hill of feeling defeated before you’ve even started? YIKES! 

A bit annoyed that I do not have access to a library in the United States, I need to read some more of the classics! Hopefully I can find an english speaking library here with a decent collection… the pains of living abroad.  Can anyone recommend their favorite classic picture book? 

Drafting... not like an architect

I’ve been reading through one of my textbooks as I go about redrafting my first story about Jerome, the traveling elephant. I’ve posted it on a couple of forums and I’ve been lucky enough to find someone who is willing to critique my work. I’ve also sent a couple of drafts around to the unsuspecting friend and family members. I am lucky enough to family members (siblings) who are under the age of 13… I am looking forward to their response the most. On to the next draft… working the words so that the story sounds more poetic. Wasn’t expecting this process to be so consuming. I LOVE IT. 

Day Uno

Today I’ve decided to really start the ball rolling on my first book. Daunting. I’m not sure if its the jet lag (I just flew in from Chicago to Prague yesterday) or the cold medicine I’m taking but I’m terrified. With that I’m turning, like the trained student/monkey I am, to text books to ease my nerves before taking the biggest test I’ve ever sat. Heres to day one. 

Book Shopping

My natural place to start in this entire project was to begin researching classes I could take online. However, I was struck by the shocking price tag that went along with it. I am really interested in the UCLA Writer’s Program Extension and the London School of Journalism course. Any recommendations? I’m going to start with a couple of the books off the syllabus and go from there.

One of the three I’ve already mentioned. The other two are on their way to the hotel in Chicago where we travel to on Friday. The most recommended one was “Writing Picture Books: A Hands-On Guide from Story Creation to Publication” By Ann Whitford Paul. I can’t wait to get my hands on it!  

Did I mention the theme of the book will be a travel picture book for children? PUMPED! 

Inspiration! I take great comfort in the idea that Mr. Sasek was from Prague. 

A great creator of children’s travel books 

Books about how to write books.

The Writer’s Guide to Crafting Stories for Children (Write for kids library) 

Here is one book I’ve discovered that should help with this process. Any recommendations out there, don’t be shy. Currently, I’m writing to thin internet space air but one never knows.