Inna Minute

Make a New Friend

I should be researching agents and publishers today, BUT is this little guy cute or what? If you have a little time he can be yours for the folding and if mice aren't your thing than you can make a schnauzer or a hippopotamus or (if you're super procrastinating like I am) a very realistic blue whale. You'll find them all for free here at Canon Creative Park.

PS. The more complicated models need a parent's supervision, but add two cups of cocoa to the equation and you've got yourself some family fun.
PPS. Thank you, Shelley Noble at Paper Forest for the link.

Driving Ms. Nikki

First, here's a monkey from the British Museum of Natural History. More about him (or her) in a second, but I want you to keep this image in mind when I say that I am usually more monkey than saint in that I like to play and leave the responsible stuff to others.

Last February my friend Nikki had a stroke. A medical emergency like that is tragic, but it is doubly tragic when the victim is a young thirty-something with years of work and dreams and love ahead. Piles of friends came out to help Ms. Nikki. They packed up her apartment. They visited her in rehab (with pie) and last week they helped her move to a new apartment. Lots of people turned out to do anything and everything, because frankly, Nikki inspires friendship.

She certainly inspires it in me which is why I am her designated driver every morning at 7:30 as she resumes her teaching duties south of the city. Nikki is getting stronger every day, in fact she is the miracle girl of recovery, but she's not quite ready to drive and so there I am at her door every morning.

So, back the monkey, who is part of a whole series of stone arches of simians in the main hall. The way I see it? I may be more monkey than saint, but I'm not alone in the jungle. I'm lucky in that I've learned to share the bananas, but more than that, I'm grateful that Nikki is there to share them with me.

A Fit Reward for a Job Half Done

This may look to you like a pound of butter with some plums floating in it, but to me it's a just reward for finishing the final draft of Minutopolis, my middle grade novel. I crossed the finish line after three years and five drafts and a great group of first readers and so…the Tortoise wins the race, or at least the first heat.

This week I find a proofreader (thanks to Becca for recommendations) and then I go to market. We'll see how I do and in the meantime I will start the first draft on a second novel in the same location.

I could do a long summation post here about what I've learned and how working as a writer has changed me, but I dunno…I think that would sound pompous. I will say that in three years I've become a better writer (remember I was a designer) and a better reader. I know a bit more about perseverance and a lot more about character and I understand that a book is so much more than its cover (which I certainly never understood as a designer).

While I am enjoying my reward of a small slice of Plum Crumble (yes, Ms. Yarn, with marzipan) I am also thankful for a large slice of humble pie. One manuscript down and many (I hope) to go.

Also…

I had promised to post some more shots from the London trip. I'll do that this week. I was blown away by the fantastic animal sculptures everywhere we went. Here's two details from inside the British Museum of Natural History. Both were insets at the base of pillars on the staircase landing.