Out and About in Texas

If you ever wanted to get to know the business end of a zebra (or giraffe or gazelle), head on over to Glen Rose, Texas to Fossil Rim Wildlife Preserve. This is a park that is along the lines of the Lion Country Safari of my youth. Lion Country did not survive because the owners overlooked the fact that people will always roll their windows down, even when you tell them not to, and zebras and giraffes are much less likely than the king of the jungle to tear your arm from its socket.
On this date: In 1962, the Rolling Stones first appeared at the Marquee Club in London.

Deep In The Heart...

As it turns out, the grandparents have upgraded to wireless internet. Who knew?

I was away from my laptop and email for an entire 24 hours yesterday and the craving I got long about 9pm showed me what kind of an addiction that it has become. I thought about staying off of it for the entire week...but then decided that was crazy. We have a few camping trips coming up and I know for a fact that our tent is not set up for wireless and then I will be forced to go cold turkey.

Anyhoo, this is where we were today:


Not a bad place to be on a Texas afternoon. Hope ya'll are having a good week so far.

On this date: In 1925, the Scopes Monkey Trial begins.

Lea-aving On a Jet Plane...

Yes, the kids and I are winging our way to the Lone Star State to visit Grammy. There is really no other reason to go to Texas in July, and we only get to see her twice a year so we're off. I'm taking my current MS with me as everyone in the house goes to bed really early and with a two-hour time difference I should have a lot of quality alone time at night.

I've been thinking a lot about branding lately. No, get your minds out of the gutter - I mean branding as in a writer writing one particular type of book and becoming known for that one particular thing. So far, I'm not an adherent to this theory as I've got a picture book coming out, along with other PB in the works, one upper mid-grade that is just getting out into the world, a YA in progress as well as a proposal for a picture book biography. That is about as far from branding as you can get.

I met Megan McDonald (of Judy Moody fame) at a conference a year or so ago. She has written things all over the map from PBs to non fiction, and I just read that she's doing an American Girl gig. I did mention this concern about being all over the place in terms of writing and she didn't seem to feel that it is a liability - and for her it hasn't been.

It would be nice to have somebody say: Hmmm...I feel like reading _____. I wonder what Cynjay has come up with lately. I should go to the bookstore and find out. The trouble is, I have so many interests for so many age levels that right now it would feel more like pigeonholing than branding. I'll worry about it more after I've finished the YA. And then the MG series I've been tossing around. Oh, and the other picture book I want to touch up...

Not sure how much blogging I'll get done for the next week - we'll have to see what the tech situation is at Grams. Yee-haw!

On this date: In 1958, Kevin Bacon is born.

Quote of the Day

Overheard, 5:02 pm, Kitchen: "Check it out! The cats are having a meeting!"
- 8 YO neighbor kid as the cats sat in a circle waiting to be fed.

On this date: In 1957, Paul McCartney met John Lennon at a church picnic.

My Very Own Rewards Club

I'm spent. Wrecked. Fried. Totally exhausted. We all stayed up late last night to do the fireworky thing (as you must do once the kids get old enough to figure out what is what), then got up earlyish and spent the entire day at the waterslide park. It was about 105 degrees here today - which is pretty unusual for us - so the best place to be was sitting on the banks of the wave pool and waiting for it to be switched on. The thing about the super tall waterslides is that you have to climb something like a million stairs to get to them...so I felt that all that work deserved a cheeseburger and fries at In and Out Burger (those of you who don't have In and Out...those of us who do are observing a moment of silence) AND a sweet cream and Reeses ice cream from Coldstone (ditto on the ice cream) on the way home.

Although I really feel drawn to my MS tonight, it's just not going to happen. It's after 9pm, so I feel justified in crawling into bed with a book. Yawn.

Happy 4th (and 5th).

On this date: In 1946 the bikini is introduced.

Writing While Cleaning

It's kind of funny that when you're not writing at all you're still so writing. I'm not sure where the process of writing begins, but it is definitely not when you put your fingers to the keyboard. I find myself looking at people and deciding if my character would wear those shoes or if she would put her hair that way. Traits that you think you can randomly apply to a character either stick or don't and you only begin to know your character when you can say with conviction that she would under no circumstances get that pierced.

You know that it is starting to come together when you feel like she is always somewhere just behind you, and you can roll things around in your head and they either drop off or stick and become embedded in who she is. There is a cool bit in Stranger Than Fiction where the character walks into the author's house and she knows immediately who he is because he is exactly like she imagined. We're working up to that, but really it's more than how they look - it's how they are at the core of their (fictional) being, and that is an evolutionary process.

On this date: In 1971 Jim Morrison died.

A Modest Proposal

I've decided to push for year-round school. Don't get me wrong , I love summer. Nothing makes me happier than long hot days, and I hate the cold so much that living anyplace that it snows is strictly out of the question. What I can't stand are the kids who are demanding to be entertained largely due to my screen-ban between the hours of 9am and 5pm. The bickering and baiting that results from said children is enough to drive anyone crazy.

The days of needing the kids home in summer to tend the crops and water the cows are long gone. There is no earthly reason why there should be no school for 78 days in June, July and August. Their brains turn to mush, they pick on each other incessantly and they are getting on my very last nerve. Don't even get me started on the costs for day-camp or babysitting if you should actually happen to hold a job that won't allow you to take an entire three months off.

I propose that year-round school be instituted on a Federal level. Every June, we would get three weeks off. This is ample time for vacations, camp, and grandparent visiting, yet not quite enough time to drive each other insane. We would then get another three weeks off in or around October and again in February or March. The timing for these vacations would vary by district so that the entire free world wasn't trying to go skiing or to Hawaii at the exact same time. This would also result in less absences during the school year as fewer people would get the Tahoe-flu in March if there were a longer scheduled vacation that was staggered from everyone else's (achoo).

Anyone with me? I've run into a few naysayers who actually looked me straight in the eye and said that they cherished every moment of togetherness and wouldn't give up their summers for anything. I noticed that these individuals also had unusually large pupils and a barely detectable tic in the right eyelid.

I love summer. I would just love it more if the kids were in school part of the time.

On this date: In 1937, Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific.