Thursday, February 8, 2007

Tornado in the Blogosphere!

Welcome to my blog (that word still makes me laugh). This has been a busy past two weeks. I can't help but think of a greeting card I once saw that had a goofy dog standing on a cinnamon bun. He was yelling compliments to the recipient, and on the inside it said, "Don't stop me. I'm on a roll!"

That's how I feel now. Two weeks ago, I attended the Ventura/Santa Barbara SCBWI retreat on cyber-promotion. I came home exhilarated, my head spinning out of control with ideas. Then last week I received "the call." The call that children's writers and illustrators all dream of and anticipate. Donna German, editor at Sylvan Dell phoned me with the news that they wanted to buy my picture book manuscript, THE BLACKBERRY BUSH. My head was nearing tornado status!

Yesterday I received my contract in the mail, and to my surprise, a box of books. No, Sylvan Dell aren't miracle workers; they were my collection of Mother Goose Rhymes from Picture Window Books, which were originally supposed to be out next fall. Now my head was officially in tornado mode! I posted my happy news on my SCBWI listserve because well, that's what we writers do. We share in each other's joys (and sorrows). We are uplifted every time "one of our own" makes a score. We are of such a community spirit that one might expect us to be found wearing orange robes and chanting at LAX. Amongst the congratulations, some of my writer friends and colleagues said, "Now this is something to blog about!" Yes, I listened. So, here I go. Like a tornado into the blogosphere!

I hope along the way, in my "not so daily" posts, I'll have some insightful comments, provoke thought, and heck, if nothing else, give you a laugh or two.