Groove to the Beat

As I write this, I'm listening to Brendan play a steady, groovin' beat on his drums upstairs. He had his first drum exam last week, and thinks he passed.

In England, they keep track of how accomplished you are by the grade you've acheived. Brendan has been taking drum lessons for a little over a year and has hopefully passed Grade 1 with the Rock School. His tutor just recieved the best teacher in England award for 2006. Brendan loves drum lessons, and even though his grade won't mean anything when we move back to America, I think it's good for him to be in a few high-stress situations. He doesn't get much at school. They don't have grades per se. They are placed on a scale of achievement in Maths, English, and Science. And they take a national standards tests every year, but the results only really count in years 2 and 6. So this year will be a big year for him, if we're still here in May.

Children move to secondary school in year 7 (6th grade). They don't have middle schools anymore. It's a big deal here, because you have to apply for a position in the schools of your choice. We went to three secondary school open evenings in October to see what they were like. I was most impressed with Northampton School for Boys. It's like university for children. But there's stiff competition for getting in. I had to fill out a questionaire on why our son would benefit form single-sex education, why this school was a good fit for him, etc... and jump through all the hoops to get things in by certain deadlines. They specialize in Music, Technology and Sport, and their facility it top-notch. I wouldn't mind staying another year if Brendan got accepted, just to give him a chance to see what school could be like. His friend Tom was accepted last year, and it took a long while for him to learn to organize and balance the extra homework and extra-curricular activities.

Brendan also has one of the lead roles in the Christmas play this year. He is a wise man named Roll. He and Ben and a girl from his year 6 class take the lead parts. He's SO excited. He's already learned his lines off by heart and he sings the songs in the shower and everywhere else. I have to make sure the video camera is charged and working for this one.

Bill's calling. I'll talk about him next time.

Beginning

While we traveled around the US, I got into a good habit of journaling at least every few days. It was a nice way to preserve our experience and keep people informed of where we were and what we were doing. I have all of those journals still in Word. I hope someday that they might become the basis for a book or a series of articles. I even continued into the first few months of moving to England, but I've let that fall by the wayside. My excuse was that I began a correspondence writing course, but one of the basic rules of writing is that you should write every day, and I did for a while, but life gets in the way, and it's easy not to.

So this is my renewed effort, made so easy by Google. I hope to share what is going on with our lives, generate ideas for stories, and make sense of the ins and outs of the publishing world.

Let me get you up to speed. I have had two articles published. One, called Road Scholars in Highways magazine (the official publication of the Good Sam Club) back in September 2006. And a small craft article on making a rustic angel ornament that should be coming out in the January issue of Crafts n' Things. I got through the non-fiction part of the writing course, and got bored with it, because I got the hang of how to submit work to publishers. Now, I write things that might really stand a chance, instead of assignments. It might turn out to be a mistake. There's probably much more to learn, but I'm raring to get going.

Last year I wrote a middle grade novel for a unpublished writer's fiction contest, called Dillon and Blue's Adventures in the Winter Coat Section. It didn't win the contest, but it gave me the push to put my work out there. I've revised it several times since, identified about twenty potential publishing houses, and am in the process of sending query letters and receiving rejection letters. I've only gotten about four letters back, so there's still hope.

This year, I dusted off a picture book manuscript that I wrote back in 2004, called A Pumpkin Named Jack, and shared it with the kids at Collingtree School during book week. They used the script as a catalyst to illustrate a page, design a cover jacket, do science experiments on gourds, and produce Powerpoint presentations. It re-energized me to see their enthusiasm. There is a picture book contest that I am getting this script ready for. It must be submitted by the end of February. Unfortunately, like all publishing companies, they want to chose the illustrator that they think will bring the book to life. So I may have to settle on author only for this venture. The winner of this contest, whose book gets published, is selected by votes. So stay tuned for instructions on how to cast yours, hopefully for mine.

Lastly, and I was so excited about this, Lark Books had expressed an interest in doing a craft book based on crafting while traveling. They responded to my query letter and asked me to send a proposal, consisting of a table of contents, an introduction, sample crafts and instructions. Unfotunately, I recently got the rejection letter that it was too broad. So I have the choice of refocusing the proposal and resubmitting it, or sending it to other publishers. Perhaps I'll do both. I don't want to let that one get away just yet.

At the writer's conference that I attended, the publishers all said that they always need crafts and seasonal stories, so I think I stand a good chance. Placement in the right hands at the right time is everything.