Feeling Dumb

Okay, in my last post I said I hadn't heard of any of the award-winning books! Where did that come from? I majorly take that back. I had heard/read all of the Printz books, but not the Newbery's, although I knew some of the authors. Whew, feel better. You were probably wondering who is this author who knows NOTHING about what's going on in the publishing world? But I do read a lot of terrific authors who have never won any *big* award.

It's Saturday, hubby is out running errands, I've already done a load of laundry, vacuumed/mopped the kitchen, exercised and given attention to all 5 cats. Now I get to do some more rewriting on The Healing Spell. It was critiqued this past week by my good friend, Cindy-Rae, who grew up on a bayou in the south and gave me some wonderful advice about various minor tidbits in the story. Things that are going to help raise it another notch. At least that's the plan.

Goal: Tuesday I email editor who gave me the suggestion to change the 3rd person POV to 1st person POV and ask if I can resubmit. The viewpoint change has made a huge difference and it's taken me all month, but I'm closing in.

Feeling optimistic.

Award Time!

On Monday, the annual awards in children's and young adult literature were announced. You may know them best as the Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, etc.

There's a live feed from the convention hall so viewers can actually watch the announcements from anywhere in the country which is pretty cool. I did that last year. Lots of cheering and clapping and it was pretty exciting to see the books and the authors. Unfortunately this year I was at the dentist with my son so missed it.

Immediately I placed reservations for the Newbery and Printz award winners at my local library online. Love how easy that is to do, and I can't wait to read these new books. The weird thing is, I hadn't heard of any of them. Makes me feel out of the loop.

ALA Award Winners Here

(There's a link to click on the home page for the literary awards and it gives a full listing. Also, very cute picture of Orlando Bloom on his READ poster.)

Happy Reading and Congratulations to all the winners!

Boots to die for!

If you think Parisians or Americans wear chic boots, think again. Bulgarian boots are fab, fab, fab! Every girl over there wears them and they're tres adorable, with buckles and laces and different colors and styles. The shoe stores are tiny, you can hardly turn around in them, but when my son wanted to take home a pair of their sneakers (also very cute and not like what we have here) I decided to take the plunge even though purchasing boots wasn't in my budget - although the $$$ exchange from American to Bulgaria levas definitely works in our favor so my boots were only about $30 US dollars. I mean, how could I resist that?

My Bulgarian boots are one of my favorite souvenirs and all my girlfriends PLUS the high school girls at church think they're fantastic. Sooooo cute! I gotta get a picture posted here. I will. Soon. Promise.

Happy New Year 2007!

Some of you may be wondering if I got lost in Bulgaria - or fell off the planet. I did neither, but it's been such a whirlwind since we returned from Bulgaria that I haven't blogged a single word. Throw in visiting family, trip recovery, surgery for broken leg for youngest son, writing projects, Thanksgiving, Christmas, college apps, and here it is January.

Bulgaria was totally wonderful, emotional, inspiring, beautiful and fabulous. I could see immediately why my son loved it so much and why he didn't want to come home. We're all homesick now for that extraordinary little country and already planning our next trip. Hopefully pics will be up on my web site in the next few weeks if you want a peek. We also took side trips to Istanbul and England on the way home.

Favorite stops: castles, Stonehenge, small villages, dinners with my son's friends, he as Translator Extraordinaire, although we completely enjoyed being able to say our little bit of Bulgarian and delighting them, too!

Are you making your New Year goals? That's what I'm sitting down to do this week. I need to ponder where I'm at in my writing career, personally and professionally, decide where I'd like to be by the end of the year, and what projects I want to begin - or finish as the case may be with three novels needing some rewrites.

Mostly I want to continue to become a better writer. I'm constantly amazed at the wonderful writers that I discover with all the great books coming out every month. Sometimes the imps of jealousy get me to feeling like I haven't even *touched* that caliber of writing yet - and I desperately want to. But I'm working toward it and trying to remember that I have a voice, my own voice, one that nobody else has. And that's gotta count for something. Along with working hard and not giving up. That's the important thing. Never give up - and try to keep the joy every day.

Now I'm going to go eat some homemade, fresh out of the oven, zucchini bread. I do make a mean loaf.