February Bits and Bobs

I couldn't decide between the dozen or so ideas all swirling around my head, so instead you'll get a random conglomeration of a few of them. Think of it as a literary junk drawer. :)

1. I realized querying beyond the first ten agents feels exactly like writing past the first three chapters. It's not really any more painful, but it helps to have a good dose of perseverance and some cheerleaders in the wings. Do you veteran writers have any advice for keeping up querying enthusiasm?

2. I wrote a picture book! Yes, exclamation point. You're lucky I only used one, because I find picture books ridiculously hard to write. Picture book authors (the good ones) are my literary heroes. This draft took me months of brainstorming and almost a full month to write. Picture books are not easy; anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something...like probably their not-so-good picture book.

3. I read the most incredible book about homeschooling, and I've found myself recommending it to people who don't even homeschool because it contains such sound spiritual and practical advice for LIFE, not just education. Here's a link: Teaching from Rest, a Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace, by Sarah Mackenzie. If you're a homeschool mother, I'll be blunt and say this is a must-read. The rest of you should maybe just buy it for the homeschool mothers you know and then borrow it.

4. Roald Dahl's The BFG is probably the most fun book to read aloud, simply because of all the delightful made up and mixed up words that trip off the tongue so delightfully. However, if you want to spare yourself laryngitis, maybe don't make all the giants sound like the orcs in the LOTR movies. I probably overdid those voices...

5. Speaking of LOTR, my niece wrote me a letter in Futhork, the dwarvish runes you see on some covers of The Hobbit. I feel that I have succeeded in aunthood. 

6. I'm trying to plan a March field trip with the girls, and I think I'll be brave enough to venture into NYC. Two questions: NYC introverts, if any of you are reading, how do you deal with the sheer amount of people without getting overwhelmed after two hours? And anyone who's visited NYC, what are some great kid-friendly but not kid-focused museums/sites to visit? I have this problem where I love the Met so much that we ALWAYS go there because, let's face it, it never gets old and you could spend a lifetime exploring it. (Lucky Claudia.) But I'd like to branch out...