Journal: superhero

Journal: Create a new superhero. Check out this link for ideas.

Happy Halloween!

Zap!Pow!
Bam!Happy Halloween from Spiderman.

Halloween at School

I wasn't able to convince our son to wear his Elmo costume for school, but Miss Emily sure did. Here he is posing sweetly for her. He had a blast that day. The kids wore costumes, and they had a pumpkin hunt and ate candy. I'm not sure if there was a beanbag toss or not, but he sure talked about one a lot! He claimed he didn't participate, though. Hmmm.

Our little Elmo didn't want to leave. His teachers are great.

Here he is showing off his pumpkin to his Papa.
He told us it took him a long time to find his pumpkin. It was "hard" because it was "hidden in leaves."

NaNoWriMo

It's that time of year again.

November 1 marks the beginning of a frenzied month known as National Novel Writing Month--affectionately known as NaNoWriMo.

The "rules" are here.

But those rules aren't mine.

My NaNoWriMo month means a commitment to daily writing on my novel. I will not make myself write 50k words merely to write 50k. (I've heard people admit to writing gibberish merely to achieve the goal. What a waste of time and energy.) I commit to making progress on a novel that I cherish and will give it the attention it deserves, even if other things suffer.

Hopefully, by the end of the month, I'll have my rough draft. Then the real work/fun will begin.

Whatever you write and however you go about it, consider November as a special month.

I've always loved Thanksgiving because it's the one holiday you're allowed to just be thankful. Well, I'm thankful for the month it's in because it's the only one where I give myself permission to write my novel and let dishes sit in the sink and dirty clothes pile up. Surely, I can handle the stench until December or the completion of my novel, whichever happens first.

Journal: What the topic of your NaNoWriMo? If you're not doing it...what would it be if you were?

Plans for the weekend?

If you don't have plans for the weekend, plan a trip to Tahlequah, OK.

Come see me.

I'll be at the Eastern Oklahoma Author Fest with a multitude of other authors from 9-3. You can purchase personalized copies of books--even Glamour.
Books are great Christmas gifts!

Plus, if you are an aspiring author looking for extra training, some of us have volunteered our time to offer free (yes, FREE) writing workshops. Click here for a list of offerings.

My workshop is usually a 1-3 hour workshop that I've shortened to 30 minutes, but it will still be chock full of useful information. Cross my heart.

Journal: the fear within

I'm not afraid of rain.

It's what's in it that scares me--tornadoes, flash flood, cars hydroplaning.

As a child, I was the same way about dark.

The dark was simply an absence of light. But the evil murderers lurking in it were harder to see that way.

Stephen King's It made clowns just as frightening for similar reasons.

Journal: Take something benign and make it contain something fearful.

Pumpkin Fest

Every mom wants that adorable shot of her kid in a pumpkin patch. I didn't get one last year or the year before, so 2010 was the year.
Unfortunately, Max wanted to check out everything except the pumpkins.

Bean bag toss with his "fwenz"...
Ring toss with his dad...Fishing with Ange and Ethan...
Watching the twins transform with face paint...Climbing on bars just to avoid climbing on pumpkins...
So, I chased him around with a camera. Finally, I had to tackle him and hold him to it. No one can tell I'd gone all paparazzi on them, right? Right?My friend Ange brought her niece and nephew to the Pumpkin Festival last weekend sponsored by the youth of the local United Methodist Church. I thought we'd spend half an hour then go back and bake cupcakes, play in the yard, do a craft. In fact, we spent over three hours! $3 per kid?

That's entertainment, folks.

At first, the kiddos weren't certain if they wanted anything to do with this giant jumping tent. Then Garrett assured them it was like jumping on the bed. Well, that sealed the deal. Jumping for at least 40 minutes straight should have tired out the kiddos, but Max didn't even take a nap that day. Too much was available to entertain.The hay maze caused allergies to go berserk, but he loved it. I did, too. He ran and ran in the safety of the walls of hay, pausing only to wipe his nose on his shirt sleeve. (That part I didn't love.)A corn bin occupied the toddlers for a long time. Who would have known? Sure, corn gets wedged into diapers, and we found some at home in the carpet later, but it's so much cleaner than sand. One of the teen volunteers told me they were playing in a manure bin. Ew. The kids didn't care.After we went through everything, we had to do it all again.
Finally, I asked Max to pick out a pumpkin. We went home with five pumpkins and a gourd. Can you guess which one he chose?