Fridaydream: an extra hour

'Tis the season where, no matter your religious affiliations or lack thereof, you find yourself wishing for extra time. More daylight. More quiet time to power through that one project that needs your full attention. More time to deal with all the holiday-related errands. A little more sleep.

What would you do with an extra hour?

It's also NaNo check in day-- and the end of the marathon. How'd you do?

Plot bank.

I'm running around today (and posting very late!) but this looks handy:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/plot-bank-for-writers_b61681

Has anyone ever made use of this kind of thing? What's your experience been? A good jump-start to creativity?

Where do you get your ideas?

Updated list of my sales.

All,

This won't be of interest to everyone, but because we are in the midst of a major overhaul of the main agency website, my list of sales has not been updated there in some time, with the result that a lot of my clients' deals don't appear anywhere on the site at all.

As a substitute, here's a list of my deals. Because this is primarily a placeholder post, I've closed comments for this post. Thanks!




Allison Ann Aller
ALLIE ALLER’S CRAZY QUILTING (C&T)

Michael Alvear
NOT TONIGHT DEAR, I FEEL FAT (Sourcebooks, 2013)

Jessica Brockmole
LETTERS FROM SKYE (Ballantine Books, 2013)

Benj Clews and Michael Onesi
FOUR WORD FILM REVIEWS (Adams Media Corporation)

Erin Rooney Doland
UNCLUTTER YOUR LIFE IN ONE WEEK (Gallery Books/S&S)

Delphine Dryden
THE THEORY OF ATTRACTION (Carina Press/Harlequin)
THE THEORY OF ATTRACTION 2 (Carina Press, 2013)
THE THEORY OF ATTRACTION 3 (Carina Press, 2013)
GOSSAMER WING (Berkley Books, 2013)
GOSSAMER WING 2 (Berkley Books, 2013)
GOSSAMER WING 3 (Berkley Books, 2013)

Elizabeth O. Dulemba
SOAP, SOAP, SOAP! (¡JABON, JABON!) (author and illustrator) (Raven Tree Publishers)
THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS IN GEORGIA (illustrator) (Sterling Children’s Books)
READY TO PLAY and READY TO TRY AGAIN (illustrator) (Free Spirit Publishing)

Shoshanna Evers
ENSLAVED (Pocket Star/S&S, 2013)
ENAMORED (Pocket Star, 2013)
ENTWINED (Pocket Star, 2013)
THE PULSE (Pocket Star, 2013)
THE PULSE 2 (Pocket Star, 2013)
THE PULSE 3 (Pocket Star, 2013)
THE TYCOON’S CONVENIENT BRIDE…AND BABY (Entangled Publishing, 2013)

Alison Ashley Formento
THIS TREE COUNTS! (author) (Albert Whitman & Co.)
THIS TREE, ONE, TWO, THREE! (author) (Albert Whitman & Co.)
THESE BEES COUNT! (author) (Albert Whitman & Co.)
THESE SEAS COUNT! (author) (Albert Whitman & Co., 2013)

Jason Good
APPROXIMATELY THREE MINUTES INSIDE THE MIND OF MY TWO-YEAR-OLD (author) (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2013)
UNTITLED PICTURE BOOK (author) (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2014)

Tim Gordon and Casey Rand
PEOPLE WHO DESERVE IT (Perigee/Penguin)

Gail Langer Karwoski
THANK YOU, TREES! (with Marilyn E. Gootman, authors) (Kar-Ben Publishing, 2013)

Jennifer Kloester
GEORGETTE HEYER: BIOGRAPHY OF A BESTSELLER (Heinemann UK; Sourcebooks, 2013)
THE CINDERELLA MOMENT (Penguin Group Australia, 2013)

Catherine LaRoche
MASTER OF LOVE (Pocket Star/S&S, 2013)
KNIGHT OF LOVE (Pocket Star/S&S, 2013)

Laurie Perry
HOME IS WHERE THE WINE IS (HCI)

Kathreen Ricketson
WHIP-UP’S MINI QUILTS (Chronicle Books)
LITTLE BITS QUILTING BEE (Chronicle Books)
KIDS’ CRAFTERNOON PAPERCRAFT (Hardie Grant)
KIDS’ CRAFTERNOON FELTING (Hardie Grant)
KIDS’ CRAFTERNOON BEADING (Hardie Grant)
KIDS’ CRAFTERNOON SEWING (Hardie Grant)
MODERN ART QUILTS (C&T Publishing, 2013)
FAMILY ROAD TRIP (Roost Books/Shambhala, 2013)

Scott Rigby, Ph.D. and Richard Ryan, Ph.D.
GLUED TO GAMES (Praeger)

Pamela Schoenewaldt
WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS (HarperCollins)
SWIMMING IN THE MOON (William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2013)

Vicky Alvear Shecter
CLEOPATRA’S MOON (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books)
UNTITLED YA ON POMPEII (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books, 2014)
ANUBIS’S GUIDE TO THE DEAD (Boyds Mills Press, 2013)

Martha Sielman
ART QUILTS PORTFOLIO: THE NATURAL WORLD (Lark Books)
ART QUILTS PORTFOLIO: PORTRAITS AND PEOPLE (Lark Books, 2012)

Dan Wilbur
HOW NOT TO READ (Perigee/Penguin)

NaNoWriMo GUEST POST: one step at a time.

All, I'm pleased to share another guest post from my client Jessica Brockmole, who is a NaNoWriMo veteran and one of the best "NaNo cheerleaders" I know. Her debut novel LETTERS FROM SKYE will be published by Ballantine Books in summer 2013. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jabrockmole. 

One November, I decided to take advantage of the discipline I was already imposing on myself for NaNoWriMo. I decided to take up running. 

Now, even though I’ve never done anything more strenuous than a brisk walk (I’ve never been what you’d consider an athlete), I had high hopes for my new venture. It sounded perfect! I had it all worked out: I would head out after dinner every night and get in an invigorating run, while clearing my mind and planning for the night’s writing. I plotted a mile course through my neighborhood, charged up my iPod, and, November 1st, I set off on my route.

I made it about an eighth of the way along the route before I collapsed, gasping. 

I walked the rest of the way home, cursing and vowing that I’d never go running again.

But I was out again the next night. This time, I cut myself a little slack. I probably wouldn’t get all the way around; I knew that now. Maybe I just wasn’t a runner. But surely I could go at least as far as I had the night before. And you know what? I did. Once I got to that point, I said to myself that surely I could go just a little bit further, to that lamppost. And, amazingly, I made it that far. To that crooked tree? There. To that house with the weird mailbox? I did it. To that…wait, wasn’t that my house? By setting little goals, I had made it the whole mile without even realizing it.

As you’re trying to get those last words, set small goals for yourself. Don’t think about the looming final word count you’re hoping to get. Just try to get another 500. Got that? Why not try to make it an even 1000? Well, since you’re already in the groove, just get another couple of pages down. Heck, since you’re this far, you might as well finish the scene. And, without even realizing it, you’re that much closer to your goal. 

Little steps. Little steps add up to a whole mile in the end.

Whether you've already crossed that finish line, whether you're still sprinting towards it, or whether you switched from a run to a very vigorous walk days ago, we’re all in this race together. Go, go, go!

Monday morning thought.

" I can always tell when you’re reading somewhere in the house, my mother used to say. There’s a special silence, a reading silence. "

--Francis Spufford, The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading 

(via Eat Sleep Read)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers; the rest of you, hope you're having a pleasant Thursday.

I'll see you back here on Monday. Get lots of writing done!

NaNoWriMo: because only an animated gif will do sometimes

You guys will like this.

Title to Come