One week left before Halloween.

What’s scary to me this week is how much work I’ve got coming up in November.

A lot of it has to do with actually finishing things I started at the beginning of the year. With a little over 60 days left, that doesn’t leave much wiggle room.

I’ve decided not to do National Novel Writing Month again this year. The very idea of any book 50,000 words long makes me shiver. Trying to write that many words in a holiday month is tatamount to insane. So, no new novel for me.

However, I have not let myself off scott free for November. There is another challenge called Picture Book Idea Month, where participants come up with 30 picture book ideas in the 30 days of November. I’ve done this challenge the last two years and “won.” In addition to being a participant this year, I will also be a guest blogger. My post will be online on November 14. In it, I will talk about the picture book challenge and give away a finish signed, original painting created just for the event.

And, as an off shoot to this, several of my writer friends and I are working toward having November designated as a worldwide celebration of picture book and literacy. The web site is almost live. I will send out more detailed information as soon as it’s available.

There are several other personal book related projects in the works, and I opened an Etsy shop last month. I sell Hardened Leather Masks, Amigurumi Plushies and an assortment of beaded items. I’ll be adding quilts of my own designs soon.

Have a wonderful week.

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My washer has gone on the fritz. Just got off the phone with the repair man. The soonest they can get out here is tomorrow afternoon. Sometime between noon and 4. *sigh* What else can go south?

The SCBWI-MO Confluence was wonderful on Saturday. The college moved us into a new building with much bigger rooms which was nice. We had plenty of space to spread out. The only complaint I could make was that we had to eat our lunch in the lounge area instead of sitting comfortably at dining tables. However, the food was spectacular.

I got confused on the schedule and the one class I really, really wanted to attend, I missed. It was on marketing to schools and libraries, which is something I would very much like to get better at. The other sessions I attended were well taught and informative, but I get very little new out of either of the breakout sessions I attended.

The day was not a total loss, I connected with the visiting illustrator, Floyd Cooper, and he has graciously agreed to be the January interviewee. He is so funny. He kept repeating how he can’t really draw. Several of the more experienced illustrators in the room gave him grief for that. People aspire to not be able to draw as well as he can’t. LOL.

His technique is one of subtraction. He covers illustration board with a thin layer of 0il paint and lets it dry to the touch, then he takes a kneaded eraser and puts in the highlights in forms of shapes. He created a Native American face in front of us as he gave his keynote address. Truly amazing.

There was an agent and an editor there as well. The house the editor is from isn’t interested in the kind of projects I currently have on my plate, but the agent sounds perfect. I approached her after her address and asked her about author/illustrator submissions. She is interested in completed manuscripts with one or two pieces of finished art to show style. I will definitely whip my current PB into shape to submit to her.

It was nice seeing old friends again and everybody was very pleased to see how well I was doing. The last time anyone form this group saw me, I had only just gotten out of the hospital a few weeks before.

I topped the 10,000 word count mark in NaNoWriMo last night. I am only a few thousand words behind but if I have another few days like the one I had yesterday, I should be caught up by the end of the week. 15,000 is the word count suggested for today. I am just too busy with other projects to type out a total of 5,000 words in one day.

PiBoIdMo is moving along as well. My ideas are becoming more strange, but the practice of thinking about new book plots everyday is good for me.

I still have a bunch of phone calls to make and then I can settle in for a good afternoon’s drawing session. With luck, I’ll catch up on the back log of work I have there as well. I think the issue is I have so many projects with similar deadlines, I am having trouble prioritizing. Probably have to do as the Nike slogan says and just do it. Stop spinning my wheels moving from fire to fire, so to speak.

Ta!

Halloween seemed to race by this year. It was a lazy day spent with my favorite person, my dear husband. We puttered around the house for most of the day. I made French toast for brunch and he took me out to the local diner for lunch. He had a craving for chili. I’ve never eaten theirs but it does smell of yum.

About 5 in the evening he remembered we needed to do something about our phones. The contract period is over and it’s time to renew and upgrade. So off to the phone store we went. He got the newest basic model with no extras, while I decided to splurge a little bit and got a phone with GPS navigation on it. It was bundled along with web browsing, so now I have that, too. We also removed Son-the-younger’s phone from our account as he went off and got a new service. He’s out of college, gainfully employed and engaged to be married. All-in-all, even with my whizz-bang phone, we’ll save some $ in our monthly billing over our last contract.

NaNoWriMo started at midnight on November 1st. Or maybe it started at 11pm or 1am, I’m not sure since we move the clocks back today. In any case, it is now in full throttle and people all over the world will be trying to complete a first draft of a 50,000 word novel by November 30th. In a way, that novel is why I am up at this before dawn hour on a Sunday morning. My novel, which I have yet to start, was invading my dreams. And since the opening scene is rather dark and intense, I was giving myself nightmares reliving it over and over again in my sleep.

PiBoIdMo also started today. Slightly different challenge, but I accepted that one as well. PiBoIdMo stands for Picture Book Idea Month. The basic premise is to come up with one picture book idea a day for the entire month of November. The reasoning behind this is picture book writers need to be prolific and have a number of books waiting in the wings. I find generating ideas to be harder than taking one I already have and writing about it, so it will be a super challenge for me to make the 30 ideas.

Aside from writing a novel and coming up with 30 picture book ideas, I also will be working on the art for my upcoming book ‘Smoky and the Feast of Mabon.’ Written by the talented Catherynne M. Valente, it’s another Magical Child story. I am very excited to be working on the text from this award winning author.

Of course, now that I have more planned than I can possible accomplish and remain sane, the edits I am waiting on from my agent for the non-fiction book she is repping will probably show up and need to be done in November as well. Plus, somewhere in there I will have to draw the next two coloring pages for the ABC Lesser Know Goddesses series. That would be the letters ‘S’ and ‘T.’ Least I’ll be too busy to get into any trouble.