A New Adventure

I am so thrilled to have been accepted in to the Master Wildlife Conservationist program through the CT DEEP. The department is working to develop a volunteer corps to provide education and outreach for groups including libraries, schools, and the general public. In March I will start my 40 hours of training. Then I will give back with 40 hours of volunteer work. So many of my writing ideas focus on the wonders of nature, hoping to inspire a lifelong passion in children. I am eager to learn more....

Procrastination

I have promised myself that I will write every day. Today I need to go to the library to research..but it's about 10 degrees out so I will wait until later. I have to revise a story line and add some meat to it..but I only have some very vague ideas about where I want to go with it. I have to put some finishing touches on a couple of magazine articles so I can send them off..but the cover letters, envelopes, SASE's are my least favorite thing to do. So..I am writing here instead and dreaming about warm summer places. This barn was one of my favorite spots. It was a short walk from the entrance to the Santanoni Preserve in Newcomb, NY. It was like walking back in time. This farm provided some of the food for the family that stayed in the Great Camp several miles down the road. It is a lesson in self-reliance...as well as a bit of an American "Downton Abbey". I would have loved to know what the dynamics were like between the staff in the cabins that overlook this barn and the family in the lodge.

Inspiration...

I received Stephen King's book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft for Christmas and I am enjoying the read. I have found some of it so entertaining and instructive, that I have read bits out loud to anyone around. My daughter pointed out that it seemed a bit like a nerdy writer's fest. I thought I'd best keep quiet and save all the quotes for my blog. So here they are...

On passive tense voice- "It is weak, it's circuitous, and it's frequently tortuous, as well."

On the use of abverbs- "the road to hell is paved in adverbs"
-----"while to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine."

On vocabulary- "use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful."

I needed to be reminded of these points...and now I will never forget....

For more about Stephen King, check out his web-site www.stephenking.com and I am sure the book On Writing came from www.amazon.com

Dreams of a white Christmas come true...

There's nothing like a little snow to make the season bright! One of my favorite times of the year are these days between Christmas and New Year's,  hunkered down in a cozy house. I am just starting to think of some New Year's resolutions/writing goals. Updating this blog more often will have to be one of them...But first we need to go walk in the snow!

Hooray I did it. For PiBoIdMo I came up with 31 ideas. While they are all acorns now...and the squirrels should rightfully haul off a few and bury them, I look forward to working on finding the mighty oak in the bunch. It was a great month with loads of inspirational messages from PB authors. Free give-aways too. I highly recommend it.

PiBoIdMo

Well, I needed some inspiration and along came this...PiBoIdMo. A friend passed on the link to Tara Lazar's blog where the month of November is Picture Book Idea Month. The goal is to come up with a different picture book idea for each day of the month. What a clever idea and a daunting task...I'll keep you up-dated as the month rolls along. Check out Tara's blog www.taralazar.com for more inspiration and the learn more about Ward Jenkins, who did the cute logos.

Brain Freeze-It Isn't All About Ice Cream

Here I sit, looking for some way to procrastinate and avoid revising...again. The computer has been freezing, the house is freezing and my brain is freezing, but it's May, so things should be thawing soon!