As my previous post indicated I’m on another total revision. I’m nearly finished with the new first draft, but I’ve been putting off writing the last lines. I love this part so much. The creating and arranging. It makes me nervous, fulfilled, anxious, and really happy. I’m afraid to sit down and it all be over. This rewrite more than ever, I’m afraid of finishing it up because I can’t hold onto this feeling forever. I know that now, I’m actually telling the story that might just make it in the world.
YES, your twenties really are terrible. But it gets better!
And Daniel Handler (AKA Lemony Snicket) and Kate DiCamillo know your pain. Here’s what they had to say about being twentysomething.
DH: So then who were you when you were 25? 20?
KD: Ah, yes. Well. I was someone who wanted to be a writer, but who wasn’t writing. I was someone buying books on writing. I was someone telling people that I was writer. But I was not writing. I was working at Disney World, Circus World, campgrounds, greenhouses. That is who I was. Who were you then?
DH: At 25 I saw myself as a profound failure. I was working half-time answering phones and writing a novel I couldn’t sell. The thing that got me through was another dream, that in retrospect the time in my life would look free and bohemian rather than pathetic, and that has in fact turned out to be the case.
Don’t forget to return your library books in Texas. This year an Austin man was arrested for failing to return a GED study guide that was three years overdue. Fines and arrest warrants are the new way to break even in towns with shrinking budgets. Other states, such as Iowa, Vermont, and Maine, are joining in.
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust presents an exhibition of pictures taken by three of the world’s most celebrated wildlife photographers â Joachim Schmeisser, Michael Nichols and Robert Carr-Hartley
Lately, I’ve been agonizing about the progress of my MS. I worry that it has lost a bit of its punch. It seems to have less Kool-Aid and more Crystal Lite.
That said, if the children’s book authors and illustrators in the community were not so up for sharing their journeys or advice all of this would be cray difficult. I know, without the blogs, podcasts, tumblrs, tweets, ect, I wouldn’t have the stomach to find the homemade punch my MS will ultimately conjure up from the kitchen.
“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.” ~ Nelson Mandela, who sadly died today aged 95 (story here).
