Tag Archives: SCBWI

The Gift of a New Year

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I got another visit from my javelina friends. I was taking out recycling when I smelled something nasty and skunky. Then I looked outside the fence and there they were! Yes, they smell. They also seem to use their sense of smell to figure out where I was and don’t seem to see that well. Their snouts are very active!

Now back to my topic: The New Year is a Gift

With January slowly slipping away, I’m making a conscious effort to make the most of it. Each new year does feel like a gift. There’s a chance to be better, make changes to be healthier and focus on new goals.

How am I doing that? First, by re-reading Julia Cameron’s book “Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance.”

From Amazon’s description:

The third book in Julia Cameron’s groundbreaking trilogy on creative self-renewal, now for the first time in paperback. In this inspiring twelve-week program, the third in Julia Cameron’s beloved body of work on the creative process, Cameron offers guidance on weathering the periods in an artist’s life when inspiration has run dry. This book provides wisdom and tools for tackling some of the greatest challenges that artists face.

The second thing I did this weekend was renew my membership to SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators) and downloaded “The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children.”

The guide covers all aspects of the publishing process, including finding an agent, writing a query letter, writing a book proposal, understanding contracts, and more.

I also watched a video of marketing trends in children’s literature which was on SCBWI’s resource page. I have several children’s manuscripts that I’d love to get published. I’m going to give it another try!

One of them is a story about growing up with my mom with her quirky and eccentric ways. I wrote it at least 20 years ago and got an offer from a small publisher. At the time, I was on contract with the Los Angeles Times Kids’ Reading Room to write children’s stories and was published in children’s magazines like Ladybug. I thought the publisher’s contract was too small! Of course, I never got another offer and quickly learned getting published is not that easy.

The other manuscript won first place in a Writer’s Digest competition as well as my local SCBWI chapter. It was also picked up by the most adorable website in the UK called S’mories where young British kids were recorded reading stories. The website was taken down for some unknown reason. Perhaps the parents no longer wanted their children broadcast in public all around the world.

I’m going to start with those two projects and will work on new projects, too.

Momma with two babies.

A video of Javelina with babies eating birdseed.

Do you feel like a New Year is a gift?

What plans or goals do you have for 2026?

The Colors of My Feelings

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With my son at Woods Cove in Laguna Beach 10 years ago.

When my son was in kindergarten, he had a friend who wasn’t that nice to him. In my opinion, the other five-year-old boy was too competitive with my son.

One night as I was tucking my son into bed, he said the “friend” had hurt his feelings.

“I think he only feels in black and white,” my son explained. “I have more feelings than in a big crayon box.”

My muse had spoken! I quickly wrote down what he had said. Next, I wrote a children’s story called “The Colors of My Feelings.” I was and am a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). I submitted the story to my So Cal chapter for a writing contest and it won first place. I also entered it in a Writer’s Digest national competition and it won for Children’s Fiction. Even after winning two awards, I submitted it to dozens of publishers only to have it turned down. That was close to 25 years ago.

I’m thinking about revising it and going through the SCBWI market research report for publishers. I’m starting with small ones. But compared to 25 years ago, there are not many options to submit unsolicited manuscripts. Something I did learn was most publishers who will read queries or accept manuscripts, want them by snail mail. For a while they preferred email. Can you imagine how inundated they were with emails?

They have returned back to paper and a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want your story back and a response. That’s how it was in the good old days.

Here’s my story. I may clean it up and try to find a home for it again.

The Colors of My Feelings

I have a friend who doesn’t act like a friend. We used to be best friends. But now he always wants to be the leader. I said it was my turn, but he called me a name. He hurt my feelings. I think his feelings are only in black and white. I have feelings in many colors — more than you can find in a crayon box.

When I’m feeling smart, I feel bright blue. I’m bluer than the bluest sky.

When I feel shy I turn yellow inside. It’s a soft secret yellow like the petals in the center of a dandelion.

My happy feelings are the brightest shade of white. I have bright white feelings when it’s my birthday. Happy birthday to ME!

When I fall down and skin my knee, I turn black and blue on the outside and inside, too.

When I see a special girl with long brown hair and big brown eyes, I feel all purple inside.

When my friend cuts in the lunch line to stand next to her, I get a little green.

When he trips me while I’m carrying my spaghetti lunch, I turn red, I see red, the whole world is red, red, RED.

When everyone laughs, I turn carnation pink. I hate being pink.

Sometimes I wish I only felt in black and white.

But the girl with the long brown hair has feelings, too. She comes over and asks if I’m okay. I look into her eyes and I see a soft, deep brown. I really like brown. I ask her if she wants to be my friend. She smiles and with gold sparkles in her eyes she whispers, “Yes.”

School’s out. We race to the playground to see who gets to the swings. I get there first. The girl with the long brown hair gets the swing next to me. I pump and swing higher and higher in orange.

When I get home, it’s time for homework. I look in my backpack. I left my worksheet at school. I feel gray and pink colors swirling around me like they are going down a drain.

I feel magenta when I tell Mother.

She makes me feel better, like the color of a juicy fresh peach, as she drives me to school to get my homework. I promise not to forget it again.

It’s bedtime and Mother and Father have turned out the lights. It’s scary in my room alone. All I see is black. I close my eyes and it’s still black.

I wake up in the morning. All my colors are rested and refreshed, ready to shimmer and shine. Mother and Father give me a hug. Together we look out the window at the gray clouds and see a rainbow bending across the sky.

Many of my blog friends are published authors

I greatly admire them and enjoy reading their books. Congratulations on being published. I’m going to continue to try. Although I started writing fiction when my kids were young, I’ve had years when I had no time to write. There were things that got in the way called life, work, raising a family, moving and even homeschooling for three years. But I have time now, so I plan to take advantage of it.

What ideas for stories or blog posts have your children sparked for you?