Kirby Larson's Blog, page 96

Wordy Wednesday

My favorite word of all time? Mom.

My favorite daughter to hear it from? Quinn Lois Larson Wyatt.

Sunlaking it With Merlin

Wedding day, September 18, 2006

ALA 2007


Happy Birthday, Buglet!

Winston's First ER visit

My mother taught me never to say I hated anyone but I do hate the person who thoughtlessly threw his/her clear glass beer bottle into the weeds in the grassy area next to the Birch Bay Square grocery store where we stopped yesterday afternoon. I'd gone into the store to buy pectin to make raspberry jam while Neil and Tyler stretched their legs. Unfortunately, neither of them saw the jagged, broken bottle in the grass.

Five hours at the emergency vet for a deep laceration that nicked an artery....

You go, Kelly Light!

You have got to head over to Kelly Light's amazing blog to see how one illustrator used her brain and her brush (and her friends!) to come up with an amazing way to help raise money for the oil spill clean-up.

Ten in 2010

I know we don't have it as hot as the east coast does, but it is a little too caliente here in the Evergreen State for this girl. Whew.

And what could be cooler than thinking about water, in any shape or form? So that's this month's Ten in 2010 theme.

Sprinkler

The perfect summer day is spent
running barefoot through rainbows!

Your turn!

Wordy Wednesday

After spending a few days, unplugged, I'm back. Only to discover that some cyber-imp removed/deleted/absconded with ALL of the blogs I get updates on!

The words I thought upon discovering this sad state of affairs are not printable.

Which got me to wondering -- how do you handle using "naughty" words in your writing?

When we were growing up, my mother did not allow us to say "shut up." So she taught us a wonderful substitute: "tick-a-lock"-- which I used in an early chapter book, Second Grade...

Dear Abby. . .I mean, Dear Kirby

Okay, I've had a request from my blog readership (no, it wasn't my mom) to start an occasional column called, Dear Kirby, where people could ask questions about the writing life, marketing, the craft, etc.

Would ANYONE beside the requester read such a column????

If so, what are your questions? I may have to call in the troops to help answer them as what I know would fit on a strawberry seed.

It's in your hands, dear readers.

Wordy Wednesday

A few years ago -- six to be precise-- my slumping career got a loverly boost when I re-connected with Delacorte editor, Michelle Poploff, at the Whidbey Island Writers Conference. In the dark ages, Michelle had published the paperback editions of two of my chapterbooks and we'd kept in touch over the years. When she suggested we go to dinner together, of course I said yes. Over dinner, she asked what I was working on. Nothing she'd be interested in, I told her. Just a historical novel about ...

Louis Sachar on Getting Stuck

Great interview (courtesy of Author Magazine) with Louis Sachar -- author of Holes and his newest book, The Card Turner -- in which he says one of the smartest things I've ever heard about writer's block.

Talk about your Firecrackers

This is long but watch it all the way through if you need a pick me up today! (not sure why two images appear; pretend one of them isn't there!)





(Thanks to my cute friend, Marla, for sending this along!)

Copy edits

I've been working on the copyedits of The Friendship Doll and, while I appreciate the sharp eyes of CE -- who picked up that I changed one character's name from Mrs. Trenton to Mrs. Trent midway through, something my editor and I COMPLETELY missed -- I also found myself feeling very low after two days of work.

Could it have something to do with 176 manuscript pages that look like this?

I look at all that purple and think, what do I know about writing? Mr. Random House made a big mistake in sign...