Common Core Standards

Monday, August 23, 2010

Summer Time and Bitten By the BOOK BUG!


It's been a long time since last I wrote---my blog that is. However, I have been writing. Stories, snippets, words, phrases. And drawing many characters and character sketches. It's summer time and I have bitten by the BOOK BUG!

It all started...when I went to Hartwick Pines State Park for a solo camp. Me a tent and pens, paper and books. I read and wrote for two days. From the moment I started my engine to the time I tore down camp and hit the road for home, I was writing, formulating and concocting stories. It was a great time---not to mention the sweat lodge heat. I wrote and fed ground squirrels, my only camp-anions! I had no idea what this trip would bring, but it brought it on. The happily dreaded Book Bug. And I haven't stopped yet!

I am bringing out old stories and polishing them to make them new. I am writing new stories and polishing them for publishing. Old books will get a new face. And new faces keep popping up. Writing and illustration is my focus now. As summer swings into a silent pre-fall, I am excited with new work and new experiences and new faces.

October 8-10, I am attending the Society of Children Writers and Illustrators Fall Conference in August, MI. This is a mouthful to say the least, so I merely refer to the group as SCBWI (pronounced-"skib-weeee"). I am excited to participate in workshops and critique groups and to be immersed in a weekend of creative writing and drawing. The theme this year is "magic". I am decorating my "magic wand" for the conference as well as turning my "Magic" portfolio into a magical tome---much like a magical Book of Shadows.

With this renewed, refound writing quest, I have attended NON-SCBWI events, such as an Official Shutta Crum Schmooze in Ann Arbor and met writer and illustrator kindred spirits.

This past Sunday Artisan Market, I met folks who wished to attend the SCBWI conference and talked writing talk and who we knew. This is all very exciting, walking this new, old path. Pop in a Canadian WILD vacation and it will be fun to see what happens in the month ahead.

I will be hitting the book trail again by taking my new, old book, "Lissy-Lost!" to Ann Arbor's BookFest and PerryFest in September. The adventure, begins...again!