It's been an interesting month. Trying to get back into a writing routine. It's awkward and exciting to meet new characters and learn about the places they live, the things they do. I've been trying, and failing, to keep the agent search alive during the slow summer months. I did not know that the publishing industry hid themselves away for the summer. Especially because this is the time when the toy industry is cranking. A time in which I'm faced with new challenges at work. Creating a kind of toy I've never made before, witnessing the children interact with it in ways I never thought they would. All of this, made all the more exhausting by the severe heat in the northeast.
So, I thought I would share a few random summer discoveries...
1. $20 can get you a lobster, corn, potato salad or cole-slaw, and a whoopie pie in Red Hook, Brooklyn. And the lobster is brought in from Maine daily.
2. Writing in 1st person/present tense is fun. I love the urgency. It is insistent. It says: what is now is now. It is less of a sigh...well, this happened once.
3. Still...1st person/present tense allows you to say, well, this happened once, this is happening now, this is what I wish would happen. It allows a lot of freedom and I'm intrigued...
4. There is never, ever one opinion...about anything.
5. It is possible to show a child a toy and have them:
a. Shield their eyes
b. Cry
6. Three and four year olds take things very literally.
7. Five and six year olds take things less literally.
8. When you begin to think too hard, too long, too deeply about the things you create, remember this: silly bandz are a national phenomenom.
9. Some books are meant to be read quickly.
10. Sometimes...no matter how wide you open the windows, how high you turn on the air conditioning, which direction you face the fan, which doors you close or leave open, which parts of the stove you don't use...sometimes...the heat does not want to go away.
What things are you discovering this summer?
So, I thought I would share a few random summer discoveries...
1. $20 can get you a lobster, corn, potato salad or cole-slaw, and a whoopie pie in Red Hook, Brooklyn. And the lobster is brought in from Maine daily.
2. Writing in 1st person/present tense is fun. I love the urgency. It is insistent. It says: what is now is now. It is less of a sigh...well, this happened once.
3. Still...1st person/present tense allows you to say, well, this happened once, this is happening now, this is what I wish would happen. It allows a lot of freedom and I'm intrigued...
4. There is never, ever one opinion...about anything.
5. It is possible to show a child a toy and have them:
a. Shield their eyes
b. Cry
6. Three and four year olds take things very literally.
7. Five and six year olds take things less literally.
8. When you begin to think too hard, too long, too deeply about the things you create, remember this: silly bandz are a national phenomenom.
9. Some books are meant to be read quickly.
10. Sometimes...no matter how wide you open the windows, how high you turn on the air conditioning, which direction you face the fan, which doors you close or leave open, which parts of the stove you don't use...sometimes...the heat does not want to go away.
What things are you discovering this summer?
One of my favorite posts of yours. Right there w/you on four and eight. I'm discovering that I'd rather sit beneath an oak tree, look up at my kids in it, and give the writing a rest. Time for me to quit stressing and enjoy the last bits of summer.
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