Steven E. Wedel's Blog, page 43

End of School Year

The end of school this year was unique. Not only was it the end of my time with some great seniors where I teach, but this time, my own oldest child graduated from a different school. How is that possible? I remember the day Alex was born and how I was shaking so badly I could barely hold the video camera steady enough to film Kim holding him. I remember how, when I took him to a preparatory summer class when he was four years old, the teacher had to hold him back because he was so upset I wa...

The Big News

I’m finally at liberty to announce a project that has been hinted at for well over a year. Carrie Jones (read her blog, too: carriejones  ) and I have sold a collaborative young adult novel called Ghost Sickness to Bloomsbury. Those of you who already follow Carrie know that Bloomsbury is the publisher of her New York Times best-selling pixie stories, Need and Captivate, and will publish the third in her series late this year or early 2011.

Ghost Sickness is a project our editor seems v...

Sorting things out

If you've e-mailed me recently and didn't get a response, it's probably because e-mail was a little difficult to handle following my last computer crash. If you still need a response from me, please resend.

I'm getting computer issues back in order, but have gone with Outlook instead of re-installing Thunderbird, and tonight I've found that Outlook is bouncing some of my e-mails with this message: "553 Sorry, that domain isn't in my list of allowed rcpthosts." Yeah, gotta love it.

It seems my h...

Off to Conestoga

I'm about to head to Tulsa for Conestoga. As soon as the oldest boy child (who's now taller than me) gets out of the bathroom so I can brush my teeth. It's a one-day event for me. If you're around and hadn't planned to come, you really should. It's one of my favorites. My workshop on using your senses in writing is this afternoon. I'm a little nervous about it. I've never done this presentation for anyone who actually cared to see it.

The stench of an Axe cologne bath is oozing from the bathro...

Rock and roll dreams come true

I'm about to head to Tulsa for Conestoga. As soon as the oldest boy child (who's now taller than me) gets out of the bathroom so I can brush my teeth. It's a one-day event for me. If you're around and hadn't planned to come, you really should. It's one of my favorites. My workshop on using your senses in writing is this afternoon. I'm a little nervous about it. I've never done this presentation for anyone who actually cared to see it.

So ... I have big, big, BIG news. I probably shouldn't spil...

Life is like a box of chocolates

Yes, it is. Some of those chocolates are filled with crap, too. We'll be having my youngest son's eighth birthday party real soon. I can't believe my little guy is really eight years old ... or all the life that's happened since the day he came into the world. I was sure making a lot more money at the time! Anyway, as we wait for grandparents to arrive, I'm in a text message conversation with a former student who just got out of county jail because her large male roommate pressed domestic abu...

I hate prom!

I have not written a single word of fiction since spring break ended. No time. Too much stuff to grade for school. And ... prom. What a nightmare this thing has become! In a year in which the school budget is being cut by 25 percent, we're committed to about $4,000 on prom, and so far we've sold less than 15 tickets. The prom is eight days away. We're hampered by the lack of an intercom system, so kids don't realize we're selling tickets during lunch. Some don't even know the date of prom! An...

Failure!

The Spring Break Writing Pact with Gayleen has ended. I did NOT meet my ambitious goal of 75 pages in four days. In fact, I did just under 30 pages. Go ahead, click Gayleen's link and read all about how she exceeded her goal. (grumble, grumble, grumble)  In all seriousness, I'm really proud of Gayleen for reaching her goal. The book she's revising, and the one she recently finished, are both excellent stories and it's just a matter of time before she's picked up by an agent and major publishe...

The Pact, day 2

It was a slow start to the writing day. I sat at the computer for hours, but couldn't concentrate as the kids played and whined and questioned. Plus there was the distraction of staring at a bottle of pills, knowing that if I took the first one I was admitting to my age. Last year it was bifocals. Now it's blood pressure medicine. Aging sucks. After reading the side effects over and over, and comparing those to how crappy I've been feeling, and contemplating dying of a stroke before I'm ready...

The game is afoot!

I met with Gayleen Rabakukk today and we sealed or Spring Break Pact. I dropped off about 40 pages of Nadia's Children with her, and set a goal of writing another 75 pages before Friday. That's a pretty ambitious goal. I wanted to make it big so I'd buckle down and get to work, but I'm wondering if I bit off too much. Bottom line, I should be on page 225 when we meet again on Friday. I'm now on 155, after putting in about an hour tonight. Yeah, that means tonight I only produced five pages in...