SCBWI Summer Conference

It’s that time again!  The SCBWI Summer Conference begins today and I am so excited to meet, greet, listen, learn, and enjoy the experience.  The SCBWI is one of the best resources out there for writers and illustrators in the kid’s book world and I cannot stress its importance enough.  I’m so lucky to live in Los Angeles, where I am a local for the summer event.  I know people travel from far and wide and I hope to see some of you there!

It’s my birthday and I’m paying it forward

Hi everyone!  I’ve been completely remiss in updating this here blog lately, but it’s my birthday so no guilt today.  Instead I want to pass along some good karma and cheer up your week.  My fabulous friend and uber-talented writer, Katie, had me be part of a Pay It Forward challenge and now it’s your turn to join.  The basic idea is that the first four people to comment on my blog get a present in the mail in some not-too-distant future.  The only rule is that you then have to post the challenge on your blog/facebook/etc. and send out your own gifts.  The gifts can be anything big or small – Katie gave me the most awesome package of books and body lotion and mailing labels and love love love.  I want to make your life happy, too.  So even if you’re a stranger, post up a comment.  Ready?  Go!

Tap, tap, tap

Holy heck, it’s been busy around these parts!  I set a goal for myself to finish the draft of the YA manuscript I’m working on by the end of February and I’m right on track.  Sadly, the pace of my writing has kept me away from blogging, but I’d say it’s a fair trade-off.

After our monthly SCBWI Schmooze earlier this month, my friend asked me how I’ve kept focused on moving forward with this story when the urge is always there to edit until things are perfect.  The only good answer I had is that it’s different for everyone.  Even for me my writing schedule and methods have changed from book to book.  This is the first book I’ve written with an outline in hand and it’s been incredibly helpful in keeping me on track.  The outline is more of a general guideline as to where things are going, but having this means I don’t get stuck as easily on figuring out what comes next.

After each chapter I write, I print the pages.  Not only is this a way to see progress, the hard copy is also a good back up in case of computer problems.  I read this printout before bed and I make revisions on the hard copy.  Then I read ahead on my outline to where I need to be in the story tomorrow.  This usually leads to brainstorming and hand writing a few sentences before I go to sleep.  I don’t know if this method would work for people who, say, actually go to bed at the same time as their significant others, but hey, it works for me.

You know how people say a sign of love is when that thing or person is the last thing you think about at night and the first thing you think of in the morning?  That’s me and my book.  Sick, I know.  So yeah, I’ve been living, breathing, and dreaming about this story.  I think the harder part for me will come with editing.  That’s the place to kill your (literary) babies.  All the sentences that don’t go and the plot points that don’t work.  We’ll see how it goes.

Happy Holidays – I’m off to New Zealand

Well, it’s finally time for my long overdue honeymoon.  Ian and I are heading to New Zealand to hang out with sheep and penguins and do lots of hiking and photo-taking.  I’m well armed with lots of fantastic books to read and I’ll be doing a little travel writing as we go.  While we’re gone, check out the pets on our webcam here.

I hope you have a fantastic holiday!

Best wishes,

Tanya

After my heart

The local librarian wears gloves to work every single day.  Not, white ‘wow I respect books so much’ gloves but fuzzy black ‘I need a quarter inch of cotton between me and everything I touch’ gloves.  I love her style.  It speaks to the germaphobe in me.

I’m back (and getting published!)

Hi all you faithful readers out there.  Sorry for dropping off the blog radar for the past few weeks.  When did it get to be December?  The days have been filled with serendipitous travels, lots of writing, eating, and honeymoon planning.  I hope you can forgive me.

I’ve crawled out of my cave (aka the library) to tell you one of my poems is getting published in the Northridge Review.  Woot!  The Review will be released early in the spring and they (gasp!) want me to do a reading.  The possibilities for embarrassment when you combine me + public speaking are endless.  And that’s just how I like it!

That’s all for now but I promise I’ll be back with lots more fun soon.  Thanks for stopping by!

Productivity, at what cost?

It’s now gotten to the point that I have to bribe my dog with bones to get him to be quiet for me to write.  He’s supposed to be on a diet, so this makes me a bad pet owner.  He doesn’t seem to mind the extra treats, but still.  The good news is, I’m getting a lot of writing done.  I’m in the stages of sewing my scenes together, since everything is written in chunks, and it seems almost like cheating to get so much done so quickly.  I can turn out a chapter a day now, if I can get in a few good hours of work.  Tonight I’m going to the library though.  Let the dog bark all he wants.

The things kids say

Add to the list of things I never thought I’d hear in a library: a two year old dropping the f-bomb at full volume.  You may think that going to the library every day is boring, but the experience never ceases to amuse me.

Out the door

This just in from the Tanya Productivity Department: I sent out my manuscript for the consultation I won at the SCBWI Summer Conference.  It’s nice to get everything out the door and I’m excited to get some more feedback on my novel.

My blogoversary!

It’s my one year blogoversary today and I’m super excited.  For the last year I’ve posted five days a week, pretty consistently.  The only times I’ve really slacked off on this have been the last few weeks, which have been filled with graduation and weddings, weddings, weddings.  My goal with this blog moving forward is to post when I have something fun to say, but not worry about posting daily.  I’m sort of an all or nothing person when it comes to routines, so hopefully I’ll still post frequently.  My bigger focus at the moment is to get my novel into shape and ship it out the door.  Cross your fingers for increased productivity!