Not fond memories of worklife

Friday the 13th.
Teen is on the road.  (not to worry, she arrived safely)
I'm about to get on the road, but since my car is a grandma car (according to my children), I'm not too worried.
But a post on Facebook reminded me of a workplace supervisor whom I would gladly forget.

Every 5 years the place where I worked gives a pin and a gift to that person. Usually they give the person choices.  
I was totally surprised (and embarrassed and appalled) when my boss gave me, in the staff meeting in front of everyone, an alarm clock (suitably engraved with the number of years worked) with a little speech emphasizing that with this I'd have no excuse for not being on time.

(news note - most of my lateness was in her imagination, often caused by her terrible scheduling - schedules she admitted that she created while drinking several six-packs of beer. Or her not observing that I had already arrived, but had run across the street to the deli to get something a half hour before we opened and then lecturing me about lateness when I returned. Plus, her hugely over-scheduling our workplace hours so that we had tons of plus time and then getting angry when we - mostly me -  insisted on using up that plus time While The Library WAs Closed. What was her problem? That is when we are supposed to use it.  She eventually was fired, but not until some staff members had quit and the rest of us were out looking for other jobs.)

The Worst Ways to Begin Your Novel

Friday the 13th.
Mercury in Retrograde.
PLUS, it's a Full Moon.

Any one of these could mean something bad to some people -- but all THREE of them on one day?
Whew!

--One friend lost his whole book draft.  The file is GONE. Gone. Gone. Gone.
--One friend's dog has been condemned to solitary confinement at Doggy Day Care and has to wear a red collar to warn people that he doesn't get along with the other dogs.
-- Many, many parents had to burn up, sitting under the hot sun, to watch their children graduate.  (Okay, maybe that's not a disaster -- but it was very, very hot.)

Well --
Here's one thing that you can do right today.
You can get the beginning of your story right.  Or at least learn to avoid The Worst Ways to Begin Your Novel.  Literary agents give advice at Chuck Sambuchino's blog. Check it out.

Skateboarders and Friday the 13th

We were driving down a curvy hill yesterday -- four lanes wide -- five actually with the turn lane in the middle, when what did we see but a skateboarder (male, natch) moving down the hill in the center turn lane -- TEXTING on his phone. 

All I could think was -- "watch out buddy. There's a curve up ahead and a mass of moving traffic coming up the hill at you." Unfortunately, the curves in the road took us out of sight of what I imagined might have happened behind us.

Ah yes, it WAS Friday the 13th.

Nonfiction Monday

Friday the 13th came on a Monday this month and I didn't find any easy reading nonfiction goodies on our new book shelf at the library.
But you can get your fresh baked Nonfiction Monday blog posts right here at the Books Together blog.

Friday the 13th?

I just noticed that today is Friday, the 13th.

Is this an unlucky day for you?
Or do you turn it around and consider it a lucky day?

Or just another day?
(things to ponder)
-wendieO

Thursday the 13th -- What's been happening?

Friday the 13th came on a Thursday this month -- and nothing unlucky happened.
Well, maybe one -- if you count the fact that I set up the library computers before opening time and was working in my office on a Summer Reading Program report when the branch manager came in and asked why I hadn't set up the computers yet?

What?
I did. I know I did.
So I trotted back out onto the library floor and discovered the reference computers had nothing set up on them. Nothing. Just a message that the 'update' was done. I set them up again and tried to figure out what had happened. Just before we opened, the other librarian and I figured out that we had seen the computer people doing various things around the branch. They must have activated some updates to the computer -- which meant they took all the other programs down to do it. (The catalog, the meeting room schedule, SAM which overlooks the usage of the public computers, and everything.)
Mystery solved.

What else has been happening?
I'm beginning to send queries out to agents, again.

Which is really poor timing because the end of August is when all those school teachers and school librarians begin sending out the writing projects they've worked on all summer. Plus, the National Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) 4 day conference just ended on Monday, which means that the thousand people who attended it are all fired up and will also be sending out things. My stuff will be lost in the flood of slush.

I'm also expanding my stories about Lance, the Golden Retriever. It's either going to be a three book picture book set -- or a short novel, covering three different time periods beginning in the summertime and culminating in the snowy wintertime. We-shall-see. I'm hoping to have it ready to go by next Spring, in time to take it to the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults' novel workshop.

I'm trying to arrange time off from work. (we have very little money for substitutes this year.) Time off to take the 9-year old down to the Smithsonian. And time off for me to write. Three days in a row (without a child around) would be lovely.

Added a few minutes later:
Click your way over to Nathan Bransford's blog and read the entry for Thursday the 13th of August. He has collected a long list of literary terms which he is calling a Book Publishing Glossary. It's everything you need to know when talking to people in the publishing world.
-wendieO

Today is Friday the 13th

Oh my.
Friday the 13 has always been an up and down day for me. Not that I believe it's an unlucky number, but...

Lucky =
I have 13 books published.

Unlucky =
When I arrived at work today, I found myself the only librarian there. The other librarian scheduled to work had sick children.

Lucky =
We keep a list of people who are willing to substitute/ to fill in when we have vacations or sickness.

Unlucky =
I called every one on the list and every one of them had a reason they could not come in and work today.

Lucky =
One of the substitutes reconsidered. Even though she lives almost a hour away, she said she could make it to my library by 1:00. Fine! Wonderful! I could manage to wait for my lunch break until then.
(She also was a great help while the Summer Reading Program Assistant and I rushed around doing the final touches getting ready for the training of the teen volunteers on Saturday and the beginning of Summer Reading on Monday.)

But the most LUCKY thing of all?
A bit of background information. Another blog, called Buried in the Slush Pile, is written by an editor of a small press in Texas. A week ago she held a contest -- send her a pitch for a book. The winning pitches would be invited to submit to her publishing company.

She said she'd notify us by e-mail on Thursday. I checked my mail on Thursday, but nothing. Checked her blog and discovered she had to put off notifying us until Friday. This morning I checked my e-mail and just about jumped out of my computer chair. Not only had I been asked to submit my manuscript -- but she said:
"You are my grand prize winner."

!!! I ran down the hall, rapped on the bathroom door and shouted the news to my husband. (who promptly cut himself shaving.) Just a little bit excited (and flattered by her comments in the e-mail) was I.

So, Friday the 13th was again, an up and down day.
-wendieO

Sunday the Thirteenth

Friday the 13th came on a Sunday this month.
And with it came a drastic change of temperature.

This past week, each day got warmer and warmer -- almost reaching 80 degrees on Friday. Still nice, in the 70s on Saturday. So why then would a cold front come through and crash the daily high to 52 degrees on Sunday? brrrrr.

It's not fair.
It's not fair to tease us with the hint of warm weather and then....

For years I've been a weather junkie -- always trying to predict tomorrow's weather; always checking the weather at the place I'm planning to travel to. Always reminding my kids to dress for Today's weather; not for the weather they remembered from yesterday.

I even wrote a picture book story about this very thing -- called Yesterday's Weather -- where a child constantly charges outside and discovers s/he is not prepared for today's weather because they dressed for yesterday's weather. poor kid. I made the story circle around the child's attempt to play a team game with friends, but is always stymied by the weather. (However, a soccer mom informed me that that wouldn't fly -- teams play in ALL weathers. hmmmm. Perhaps that's why the story never sold.)

You know, I finally did sell the story -- when I transformed it into a nonfiction book about Groundhog Day. (The animal who predicts the weather.)

Maybe someday I'll hit upon another way to revise Yesterday's Weather (the original story) that will make it salable.

-wendieO (the weather nut)

Friday the 13th

Well, something straaaage did happen on Friday the 13th.

I posted an article on my blog about writing -- and it did not show on my BLOG. It only showed if you clicked on the Archive for July, but when I looked at my blog directly from my bookmarks -- the last entry was July 6. weird.

This is a test. Will putting this message up (on July 14 -- Bastille Day -- force the July 13 message to show? or will both of them hide in the archives? hmmmm?

-w

Ah, now both messages (this one and the last one, show up. weird.