Our First Sweet Adelines Contest

I'm so stoked--we were in Orlando for regional competition and we have worked so hard on the music, the choreography, even the stage make-up! And it was all worth it to win 2nd place in small chorus division and 5th overall. I hope next year we can be the most improved chorus! Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABH0iET1Pt0  We were the last chorus to compete and come on at the 2:55:30 mark. There's an interview with David and Bonnie at 3:07.

You can't see me in this picture because I'm right behind Dagny (lower left corner) and she's wearing heels! It's been such fun to sing together. She sings tenor with me (we are the cherry on top!). We have two more mother-daughter pairs. And I'm confident this artform will continue...  

After the competition, we were a lot more relaxed and celebrated our accomplishment. We received a lot of constructive criticism and eager to put it into our practices. David knighted us with our two medals. And the young kids in the group were busy taking pictures and making memes.

I am so thankful to God for making it possible for me to sing with Charleston Sound Chorus. What a delight and privilege to sing with such talented women under David's direction. He pushes us to be our best. All glory to God! 

My Short Books for Kids

I have drawers full of short stories and poems and decided that this is the year I will make them available as a collection--only a couple have been previously published in magazines. I'd almost finished finalizing the collection of EZs when the kids returned home for the remainder of the semester due to the pandemic. So I turned into an art director, hiring my daughter to make some original line art for this collection. I love it so much and it was well worth the wait! I thought I'd have all this a month ago but she's been busy with school and it took her some time to get into the groove. You can't rush artists. lol. This is her first published work and I'm so pleased I'm going to hire her again for the chapter book I'm working on too. What a joy it's been to remember our days together when they were little. I thought with so many families homeschooling and hunkered down at home, this would promote the simple joys of childhood and encourage families to create art of their own.

Max and Dagny is a collection of 20 easy-to-read stories, poems, and fun facts for beginning readers. It's available as a paperback (recommended) or e-book with darling little illustrations from my daughter. Free preview here. 

So the Emory contest. We didn't win. But I loved the winning story, its simplicity and focus on helping others. Well written and illustrated. I also liked two of the honor books. How I wish we'd received an honorable mention too, but I know how subjective this business is. I'm so pleased to be able to publish it myself. However, I was not allowed to publish this on Amazon because "Due to the rapidly changing nature of information around the COVID-19 virus, we are referring customers to official sources for health information about the virus. As a result we are not offering your book for sale.  Amazon reserves the right to determine what content we offer according to our content guidelines." I get it. There's always junk science. But our book is a very basic treatment of virology and immunology for young kids. I have appealed but we'll see. It struck me how easy it is for large companies to control what's available. Already this happens in the media. So I'm grateful that I could upload our book to Draft2Digital. It's a distribution service and all my self-published books are on there because it's a lot easier than making separate account for all the different ebook outlets. And they are poised to provide printing services soon. So yay!    

Why in the World? is a nonfiction book about the Coronavirus pandemic for children aged 6-12. It covers basic virology and immunology, brilliantly illustrated by Kris Manning. It's only available as an ebook at this time. 

Despite the setbacks, I'm loving all the creative aspects of self-publishing. The freedom is phenomenal and some day I want to be able to publish the books I love that I've read in manuscript form. Maybe one of my kids can learn accounting and all that business stuff :) I already have an artist on board! I have still much to learn, especially when it comes to formatting ebooks with art, but I'm getting there. And we won't talk about marketing :) I love designing and making covers, formatting the paperback so that the interior is easy to read and pleasing to the eye. It's great learning new things even though I see myself hiring a lot of this out because there are still so many stories I want to tell and not enough time to write them all. I'm so thankful to God for this beautiful writing life.

Barbara Seuling's Manuscript Workshop

My friend and mentor, Barbara Seuling died yesterday. Her obituary is in PW. She was not only a wonderful writer, but also a great teacher. I read and re-read her book on writing for children for many years until I outgrew it. My kids loved her series of Robert books. And Barbara's favorite, the story of Jane Froman was a joy to read. I got another copy for my in-laws and they, too, loved it. I can only imagine how many hundreds, no, thousands of people she has touched with her words. I had the good fortune to spend some time with her at a workshop twelve years ago, which I wrote about below. Requiescat in pace, Barbara. 

From the web archives: The Workshop

I have never had a "writing vacation" until I won a full scholarship to attend Barbara Seuling's Manuscript Workshop.  When she called with the good news, I was preparing dosas for my children.  We were all so excited I had to turn the stove off before I burned the house down.  The workshop was a gift to last a lifetime. My mother-in-law came to stay with the children and care for them while I was away so that Michael could continue to go to work. 

For four days, I was in the company of writers.  Good writers.  Each story pulled me.  I wanted more.  And it made me think about how we come up with stories -- a scenario, a character, even a piece of dialogue can snowball into a story.  It was a pleasure to read our stories and give and receive constructive criticism. 

I cannot say exactly what I learned because there were no formal lessons per se.  Everything I learned was specific to improving a particular story, but these are some of the points that were driven home:
 

1.  Tell yourself the story.  How does it unfold?  Why do story people (or animals) do the things they do?  Know the motivation.  Even in a deceptively simple picture book, we must know why the character does what he does.
 

2.  We read excerpts from several novels.  Every scene in the novel must move the story forward.  Otherwise it has no business being there.  It is not sufficient to have a scene just to give back-story or description.
 

3.  Read, read, read widely to study structure and style.  Especially read in the genre that you're trying to write.  Know what is being published today.  Read the classics, too.
 

The students: Carolyn, Sheryll, Doris, Lee, Becky, Syrl and Vijaya.  We did writing exercises and critiqued from 9-12 in the mornings and from 7:30-9 at night.  We socialized during mealtimes and it was wonderful to have delicious food come to our table while we spoke of our families and writing life.  We became friends.  I enjoyed having all of our activities under one roof at the Landgrove Inn.
 

The afternoons were free.  Most of us worked on our manuscripts.  We took breaks for a walk in the woods or a swim in the pool.  There was a lot to process (I'm still digesting what I've learned and trying to apply it to my novel).
 

Guest speaker Melissa Stewart spoke about her love of science and bringing it to life for children.  Tips from her:
1.  Make your writing lively. 
2.  Go for the heart of the story. 
3.  Do your homework and then interview experts for information not readily available.
 

Barbara runs this workshop in an environment that is conducive to writing.  We are guided from the discussions about our craft.  I truly believe that to become a better writer, we must honestly assess our work alone and with others and work with writers who can teach.  Barbara is one of the best.  She has a generous soul.  And she's funny and astute, too.  It's no wonder that out of seven students, over half have attended these workshops several times.  What joy to learn from Barbara and her students.  I know I'll be back ...
 

From the left: Barbara, Vijaya, Melissa, Becky, Doris, Sheryll, Syrl, Lee & Carolyn.

 

Cover Girl

My son took the shot. My daughter chose it amongst the hundreds of pictures we have for the Daniel Island Pets in Action Contest. Here's what the editors had to say. "This photo is beautifully framed and captures the sun, the beach, and the dog in just the right perspective. This earned our top honorable mention vote and was the unanimous choice for the cover." The judges also said, "Although there is not a lot of action in this photo, all the judges agreed that Sunny was guarding the beach and ready to jump into action ... awesome photo!"

My daughter chose three other photos, two of which were published. Here they are:

 

Below is the action shot my son took, given the theme of the contest. It made it in the paper too. But I was surprised to see the cover shot and the winning entries (only one was an action shot, but the others were stills very well composed). My son was so proud of the judges comments. He has been very gracious letting my daughter have the credit for the cover photo, but I did want to give credit where credit is due. He is the photographer for all these pictures, and is mighty pleased that all our pets got in the newspaper.

 

And so, I must ask. Have you ever had to relinquish recognition? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you ever pray to be freed from the desire to have worldly validation?