Carol Baldwin's Blog, page 64

Revision and Seeing the Big Picture- Part II and a Giveaway!

In last week's blog, Rebecca Petruck shared how she created an overall plan for revising her soon to be released book, Steering Toward Normal. In this second post, she discusses what to do when the thinking is done. Rosi Hollenbeck, one of my newer but very faithful blog followers, won last week's critique from Rebecca. Don't despair--Rebecca is offering it again!








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Revision and Seeing the Big Picture- Part I and a Giveaway!

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Chicken Boy and a Giveaway!

I would like to think that I would have enjoyed Frances O'Roark Dowell's book, Chicken Boy, even if it wasn't set in North Carolina. 



But it sure helped to be able to picture the rural farm areas around the triangle region of North Carolina that are slowly being gobbled up by suburban development. Fifteen years ago I visited a goat farm in Durham that no longer exists. 

But I digress.

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What I've Learned from Writing Contests

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So, What's Next?

Last week I completed the second major draft of Half-Truths and sent it off to my writing coach, Rebecca Petruck. 

Ta dah!

I didn't quite realize the significance of this accomplishment (that has taken almost two years) until my writing friends congratulated me and I read several posts on the YA Muse blog about how momentous it is to press "Send." 

But I felt empty. What was next?

Rebecca

Multi-Racial Read #17: Dear Senator- Part VIII

In the last blog of this series, Essie Mae Washington reveals what happened when she finally divulged her secrets. 




In the late 60's Thurmond surprised Essie Mae by calling to say he was coming to Los Angeles and wanted to see her children. She was thrilled, but first had to break the news that their white grandfather- the staunch Republican "King of the South"--wanted to meet them. 

Her

Multi-Racial Read #16: Dear Senator Part VII

In 1953 Essie Mae Washington-Williams moved to California to start a new life with her husband and son.  She flew home regularly to receive cash gifts from her father that were delivered by a relative; she also kept close tabs on her father's political activity.
In 1956 nineteen southern senators declared war on the Brown vs. Board of Education decision and called for a return of "separate but

Multi-Racial Read #15: Dear Senator Part VI

In this sixth part of this series of excerpts from Essie Mae Washington Williams' autobiography, Dear Senator: A Memoir of the Daughter of Strom Thurmond, I bring you some of her segregated world. 

During their first meeting after the birth of Essie Mae's son she recollected,

"...he kept it cool and formal. The most he would do was urge me to go back to school. 'You need that education, Essie

Multi-Racial Read #14: Dear Senator Part V

This is the fifth in a series of excerpts from Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond.  



Strom Thurmond secretly visited his daughter throughout her college years. Soon after Thurmond lost his bid for the presidency in 1948 and Essie Mae's mother died, Essie Mae confronted him on some of his pervasive beliefs about blacks. Her boldness was fueled by anger over the miserable

Multi-Racial Read #13: Dear Senator- Part IV

When Strom Thurmond assumed the gubernatorial office in January 1947, Essie Mae was one of a select group of students from South Carolina State University who attended. As she looked at the family who surround him she thought,

I wanted to be up there on the podium with them. This was my family, but I didn't know them and they didn't know me. In time, in time, I prayed to myself. If my father