A Little Good News and a Contest

These are difficult, trying, emotional days. Most of the time it seems I'm right of the edge of tears.

I don't know about you, but a little good news has helped me. So I thought I'd pass it on.

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Maybe you've heard? A turn for the better has taken place for the lives of a few precious children thanks to a bust by European police of a huge Internet pedophilia ring. You can read the story here. This means a lot to me as I worked for 23 years with abused, neglected and emotionally disturbed children. My thanks goes out to those who smashed up the ring and my prayers go out to the children who have been rescued. May they find peace.

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Here in the Hill Country of Texas, Spring is slipping into place.

Our lawn is making its annual comeback.

Redbuds and pear trees are in bloom.

Wisteria vines are draping their long large purple clusters over ancient arbors.
There it was, ah, a sulphur butterfly.

And the mockingbirds are singing again.

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If you've read my blog for a while, you know I hate plastic. Impossible to live without (as it shows up everywhere made into everything) impossible to live with (we are drowning in it, turning our planet and oceans into a plastic waste dump) I moan and groan and bitch and do everything I can to reduce, reuse and recycle.

This is NOT an advertisement.

BUT... if you're into buying sodas...

Pepsi has now come up with a non-plastic plastic bottle. That's right, next year they will begin test marketing a vegetable based biodegradable bottle. I'm so excited I could pee my pants! Read all about it here.

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HEADS UP!

I am now very close to the 200 follower mark. What a pleasant surprise! Thanks to ALL of you. When I reach that auspicious number I will of course have a CONTEST which, of course, will be interesting and I hope unique. There will be a PRIZE.

Got any good news you'd like to share?

Good News!

I am honored, humbled, and ELATED to announce that my story, "Why Dogs Beg," has won first place in the Children’s Writer Fantasy/Folktale Contest! The story has been published in the March issue of the Institute of Children's Literature's newsletter, Children's Writer.

I got the news on January 5th in a phone call from Deborah Vetter, ICL instructor and editor for the Cricket Group, but had to wait to make the annoucement. The news has been burning a hole in my britches.

But now I can shout it from the roof-tops!

"Why Dogs Beg," is a retold Jamaican Anansi story. For those of you who may not be familiar with Anansi, he is a spider, a trickster character who traveled across the Atlantic from Africa with the slaves and made his home in the Caribbean. His stories are fluid, changing from island to island and from storyteller to storyteller. Growing up in the Virgin Islands I heard Anansi stories and have always enjoyed them.

An interesting note is that in the United States, the Anansi stories evolved into the Uncle Remus stories of Brer Rabbit and company.

Still doing the happy dance....!

Good News!

Although I have not yet received my contributor's copy, I have gotten a check. So it is official.
My article, "Bee: A Busy Word," will be in the May/June issue of Fun For Kidz. It has been three years from acceptance to finally being published.

The issue's theme will be about bees. I used to be a bee-keeper so I did work up a couple of articles about bees. But then I thought, "Everyone is going to be sending in articles about bees. Why not do something a bit different?" So I did research on how we use the word bee in everyday conversation, like: being busy as a bee, having a bee in your bonnet, sewing and spelling bees etc. And I told a little history about how we came to use each of those terms. It was fun.

I am honored to be a contributor to this trio of children's magazines which includes Hopscotch and Boy's Quest.

I'm a WINNER!

The Bookshelf Muse had a contest for their faithful followers. As I are one, I entered. The contest consisted of sending them a one to two sentence blurb about your novel or your current WIP. Three blurbs would be chosen. The prize? A critique of the first chapter or first 3000 words of the novel, which ever came first. I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

I've struggled with a blurb/hook for my young adult novel for some time. If this one hooked Angela and Becca then maybe I'm finally getting on the right track.

Thanks ladies!

Here's what I sent them.

A PLACE CALLED HOPE'S WELL

When Maya's mother, and only family, is brutally murdered Maya is thrown into the foster care system. Not only must she deal with the small things, like having a room mate and a new school, but she must deal with her grief and the discovery that the murderer is living in her new back yard.

You can read the blurbs of the other two winners and the reasons why Angela and Becca chose us at THE BOOKSHELF MUSE. That's The Book Shelf Muse, where you can find wonderful thesauruses (thesauri?) and great advise.

Good News!

My article, Buttons in History, is now up at Stories for Children.

Enjoy!