Please stop HERE at Rachelle Gardner’s agent blog to read my guest post.
Thanks!
March 31, 2009
March 30, 2009
Hey, Stellllllaaaaaaaa…….
Hey Stella….. Really
New Orleans’ own Tennessee Williams Festival..the annual Stanley and Stella Shouting Contest where Contestants vie to rival Stanley Kowalski’s shout for
A Streetcar Named Desire…
March 26, 2009
Birth of a book cover. Mine.
One day you wake up and find your dream in your email box.
If I am this breathless by seeing the picture of my book cover, I’m going to need an oxygen tank when I hold the book in my hands. Every time I see it, I’m reminded of how blessed I am to have come this far in my journey. Our God truly is an awesome God.
It also helps to be surrounded by a great team, like my editor Barbara Scott at Abingdon Press, and the Anderson Design Group whose vision captured the heart of my book. And Rachelle Gardner, my agent, who blazed the trail.
The release date for Walking on Broken Glass isn’t until March of 2010, but don’t wait until then to check out Abingdon’s fiction. Click HERE to view more amazing covers, titles, and authors.
March 25, 2009
A life-changing video. Really. Yes. Really.
more about “Creme That Egg!“, posted with vodpod
With deep appreciation to Colleen Lindsay…proving that, once again, Twitter is a valuable source of information.
March 24, 2009
Why I teach
Student email to me after finishing To Kill a Mockingbird:
“omg omg omg this book is amazing. on the last page of chapter 29 when scout was describing the man i almost cried when i figured out what was going on. thanks for getting us to read this book”
March 23, 2009
Five years from then is now
Once upon a time, I taught a senior elective, semester Advanced Composition class. Pre-Hurricane Katrina, I taught the class for over seven years. Even students who clawed their way through my Advanced Placement classes where they secretly made voodoo dolls that not-so-oddly resembled me, signed on. They’d heard from their senior friends that I was human. And they trusted them.
One of the sacred rituals of the class was opening with journaling [free writing] time in response to something I’d read to them, or a word, or ideas they’d bring to class. Somehow, one of the journal traditions that evolved was predicting where everyone would be in five years. As seniors, they were optimistic they’d be graduating from or dangerously close to graduating from college by then. So, we’d pass around journals around and share our thoughts.
Tonight, I unearthed my journal from the fall semester of 2004, and I found the entries from that class.
In no particular order, here are some of t
hem:
1. I have no idea. Still teaching?
2. You will win the lottery and buy a mansion in the Hamptons, have a life filled with lavish parties, cool cars, and tons of former students at your beck call as your indentured servants (from all the years of torturing you).
3. You will be in Hawaii–tanning, soaking the sun and laughing at the poor ladies who are still teaching wild kids.
4. Dead. No, I’m just joking. {a note from me–fortunately, for them, these were all anonymous. . .} Still teaching or in the Bahamas.
5. You will discover your knack for Broadway performing and become a star! Then you will give all of us free, year-round passes to all of your Broadway shows.
6. You will be a retired teacher who becomes a nice old librarian who enjoys skydiving.
7. You will be an amazing aerobics instructor, you will have grown five WHOLE INCHES, and you will live on a golf course because you’ll be so darn wealthy.
8. End up hospitalized after being diagnosed with hemophilia opiatrasimplia {me again…more than likely, this is not in Webster’s},which means loss of blood, from grading AP papers. You will forever be feared by incoming freshmen who will build shrines to ward off bad grades.But, seeing that this will fail, they will just switch out of your class.
9. I think you could become a famous writer and leave Fontainebleau behind. Then all the students who never got to have you will mourn their loss.
10. Making AP students cry, and Advanced Comp students cheer. You’ll win the lottery and write that novel you never got around to.
11. You’re going to decide that teaching annoying kids isn’t for you, and you’ll become a famous writer. After your 100th best seller, Hollywood will make a movie of one of your most touching novels, and Orlando Bloom will play the lead.
12. You’ll write a long, good book and live in Hawaii. You will donate all of your jewelry to me.
Kids really do say the darndest, sometimes rightest, things.
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March 22, 2009
Textbook woes
A funny, yet not-so-much-so, video: Joe’s Non-Notebook.
Posted at Chris Lehman’s blog, Practical Theory. Thanks, as always, to Angela Maiers for the alert.
March 21, 2009
March 20, 2009
If you write children’s books, this Cheerios Contest is for you!
Cheerios® is searching for the next great children’s book author.
It could be you!
Just enter your original children’s book story by July 15, 2009.
WHAT IS THE CONTEST?
The Cheerios New Author Contest encourages aspiring authors to write and submit an original story for a book for children ages 3 to 8.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR TO WIN. A PURCHASE DOES NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.
What can I win?
Grand Prize
One (1) Grand Prize of $5000 cash will be awarded. In addition to the cash prize, the Grand Prize winning story submission will be offered to a reputable Children’s Book Publishing company for possible future publication. Publication not guaranteed. The $5000 will be awarded as a check made payable to the Grand Prize winner. Approximate value of the Grand Prize is $5000. Publishing terms and contract, if applicable, will be handled independently by a reputable Children’s Book Publishing company.
First Prizes
Two (2) First Prizes of $1000 each will be awarded. The $1000 First Prizes will be awarded as checks made payable to each of the two (2) First Prize winners. Approximate value of each First Prize is $1000.
The stories of all Prize winners will appear on www.SpoonfulsofStories.com.
All contest prizes are not substitutable or transferable, except at the sole discretion of General Mills. One prize per person. All taxes and other expenses, if any, are the sole responsibility of the winners. This contest is void where prohibited or otherwise regulated. All federal, state and local laws apply.
Who can enter?
You are eligible if you are 18 years of age or older as of March 16, 2009, and are a legal United States resident residing in one of the 50 United States or District of Columbia during the competition. Entries originating from any other jurisdiction are not eligible for entry. This contest is governed exclusively by the laws of the United States.??You are not eligible to enter and will be disqualified if:
- You are a professional writer, such as a novelist, magazine, blogger or newspaper writer who writes books or articles for pay.
- You have authored a work of fiction that has been published or is about to be published in exchange for payment.
- You are a volunteer of the First Book Advisory Board or an employee of General Mills, Archway Marketing Services, First Book or any of their respective parents, subsidiaries and affiliated companies, or a member of the immediate family (parent, children, siblings, spouse, regardless of where they live) or same household of such employees (whether related or not).
Meet Lori Degman. Her story, 1 Zany Zoo, won the Grand Prize in the 2008 Cheerios® Spoonfuls of Stories New Author Contest. She won $5,000 from Cheerios®, and will have her book published by Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing.
You can see her book come to life on www.spoonfulsofstories.com.
March 19, 2009
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