tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56773984894289828502024-03-19T01:33:12.904-07:00On Becoming An AuthorJane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-14849474969395683342013-07-27T21:39:00.001-07:002013-07-27T21:39:55.186-07:00Clean Indie Reads: ANN AND HENRY NOVELS<a href="http://cleanindiereads.blogspot.com/2013/07/ann-and-henry-novels.html?spref=bl">Clean Indie Reads: ANN AND HENRY NOVELS</a>: by Jane McBride Romantic Comedy, LDS, Dogs Book 1: A Little Hair of the Dog When 27 year old Mormon Ann Bixby returns to the sma...Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-74934861695336917012013-06-19T19:13:00.000-07:002013-06-20T07:42:53.173-07:00Doggone Blog Hop for charity! June 19-21st<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPAlD5cGyW2SgvAia7Er2z5fMNRLquF6BXy5QYw9uA0SZc9DUxixznybQuqDhqoHx7my0lkIyza9vBl2YebZ2PVQ8vSKU7X08pyR5Bqhi4qaaIqzywBlh0pjVFnP32GPQUWSBuoei5Wpg/s1600/Doggone+Blog+Hop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPAlD5cGyW2SgvAia7Er2z5fMNRLquF6BXy5QYw9uA0SZc9DUxixznybQuqDhqoHx7my0lkIyza9vBl2YebZ2PVQ8vSKU7X08pyR5Bqhi4qaaIqzywBlh0pjVFnP32GPQUWSBuoei5Wpg/s1600/Doggone+Blog+Hop.jpg" /></a></div>
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When I decided to start writing books, I chose to put a special dog into the center of the story. He isn't background, he isn't a secondary character. He is a main character. Of course, he can't actually talk, but that doesn't stop him from having a perspective or from occasionally giving his opinion. I hope you will vote for Johann for TOP DOG by commenting on my blog! Two commenters will win e-book or paperback copies of A Little Hair of the Dog and Reigning Cats and Dogs. My charity is <a href="http://greatdanefriends.com/about/contact-us/" target="_blank">The Great Dane Friends of Ruff Love</a> . They are a Great Dane rescue out of North Carolina and have rescued many, many Great Danes. As I said, My book series features a Great Dane named Henry. First is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0095XN2QW" target="_blank">A Little Hair of the Dog</a> and second, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reigning-Cats-Henry-Novels-ebook/dp/B00A8LMSEM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1353109875&sr=1-1&keywords=Reigning+Cats+and+Dogs" target="_blank">Reigning Cats and Dogs</a>. I am working on book three and book four, which will end the series. </div>
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I wrote a story about a young single woman who finds herself alone after the death of her father. She decides to move back to the small town of her childhood. She unexpectedly finds herself adopting a dog. And not just any dog-a Great Dane. A 180 pound two year old Great Dane named Henry. She has never had a dog.</div>
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The origins of my Great Dane character are easy to trace. When I was a kid, we adopted a Great Dane from a rescue and my sister Jody named him Johann. He was about two when we got him, and he was a big one. He was 6'2" on his hind legs. He was a merle, grey with black spots. He was sweet, he was protective, he was introspective and if you weren't in the family, he could be down right scary. I don't remember a time when he ever scared me, not once. But some of my brother's friends may tell you a different story. He was an easy choice for my canine main character. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXoMzbRPBknH4VV6EpIOTtdshOC_Bwd7VrzjMGcDDZZPWyVsafK3P6Q4xjT3g6IxFZpZTJjT6p5zKKzCKwAAq0be-9i9MTgSwg3PEmCBfuFD0iT-8tk7nEAjMV66yqMFabT8cFDp4_sOY/s1600/129909259565359068.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXoMzbRPBknH4VV6EpIOTtdshOC_Bwd7VrzjMGcDDZZPWyVsafK3P6Q4xjT3g6IxFZpZTJjT6p5zKKzCKwAAq0be-9i9MTgSwg3PEmCBfuFD0iT-8tk7nEAjMV66yqMFabT8cFDp4_sOY/s320/129909259565359068.jpg" width="320" /></a>Johann-sucking his blankie</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8sSQ5blMvCDZZMSaBV8go7i9u7Qj8xv2iZmT1YHh-mP8vihk15P67ryUGZ2npaO46ihd4XuvIJdSRXI98oGlj7WgwGNlrNj4CoNgTBDoiRExcul6nDqHzIGo7_qLZGYGogz7S5ObyJlI/s1600/Johann+collar+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8sSQ5blMvCDZZMSaBV8go7i9u7Qj8xv2iZmT1YHh-mP8vihk15P67ryUGZ2npaO46ihd4XuvIJdSRXI98oGlj7WgwGNlrNj4CoNgTBDoiRExcul6nDqHzIGo7_qLZGYGogz7S5ObyJlI/s320/Johann+collar+small.jpg" width="221" /></a>Johann, the inspiration for Henry in my books!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10FjqhIQzEDVoRzw75QLh3_KT13TQmOewj0KMypOZMuO37iJbjVjnQmBCF1wZaaU89N7-4WsiBUi2RmYK-Jr4xEhdYMqhRFPzlUM8DyEyabq-8FvT9PR7RJyMMrbVt2nbnJ5I3eI5H1s/s1600/Me+and+Abraham.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10FjqhIQzEDVoRzw75QLh3_KT13TQmOewj0KMypOZMuO37iJbjVjnQmBCF1wZaaU89N7-4WsiBUi2RmYK-Jr4xEhdYMqhRFPzlUM8DyEyabq-8FvT9PR7RJyMMrbVt2nbnJ5I3eI5H1s/s320/Me+and+Abraham.jpg" width="274" /></a>The beautiful Abraham and me, 1996. He isn't a character in my books, but Henry is in possession of Abraham's heart and soul. A couple of his stories have made it into my books, with Henry in the starring role. </div>
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One of my favorite Johann stories is one that I didn't get to witness, but I have heard it from my Mom so many times that I feel like I was there. It's a real gem, and there is NO WAY I wouldn't include it in a Henry book. I found a great spot for it in book three. I come from a small town, and back in the seventies, the gas man and the electric meter man were familiar faces. If they came to read the meter, it didn't matter if no one was home and it didn't matter if the meter was in your basement, as ours was. They would come in, read your meter and leave. The gas man came, entered the house unmolested (no one ever locked their doors) and went down cellar. This was a real dirt cellar, with one hanging light bulb and a lot of dark corners. He read the meter and went back up the steps. He opened the cellar door to find, to his dismay, an extremely large dog waiting for him on the other side. A dog who was not going to let him out. That was Johann. He must have been in the bathroom reading the paper when the meter man came in, and realizing he had fallen down on his job as head of security, decided to keep the man right where he was until Mom got home. And so he did.</div>
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When she finally came home from work, she noticed the gas meter truck-running-in the driveway, and in the house, was surprised to see the dog waiting for her by the basement door. The greatest surprise yet was in store, to hear the plaintive human cry from the cellar. "Hello?" She locked the dog up and let the man out. He had been in our spooky dirt cellar for several hours. He had made a few attempts to get past the dog, but decided his life was valuable and stayed where he was. Johann had no intention at all of letting this intruder get away. The moral of the story is, if you go to a house and see a large Beware of Dog sign, it's probably there for a reason. Also, Lock your doors!</div>
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Here are the other authors participating in the Doggone Blog Hop:</div>
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<a href="http://cadragonfly.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Author Cindy A. Christiansen</a></div>
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<a href="http://colettesaucier.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Writings and Ramblings of Collette Saucier</a></div>
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<a href="http://murdersandmysteries.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Lindsay Downs</a></div>
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<a href="http://dcjuris.blogspot.com/?zx=ae567000356db907" target="_blank">D.C. Juris</a></div>
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<a href="http://layla-hunter.blogspot.com/?zx=43418fd5359fb64e" target="_blank">Layla Hunter</a></div>
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<a href="http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Caroline Clemmons</a></div>
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<br />Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-16003891770676619862013-06-11T11:04:00.001-07:002013-06-11T11:04:07.427-07:00Bookit!: Interview with Jane McBride<a href="http://bookitnews.blogspot.com/2013/06/interview-with-jane-mcbride.html?spref=bl">Bookit!: Interview with Jane McBride</a>: Welcome to the Wonderful Jane McBride! Hi Jane, tell us a little bit about you. Well, I live with my husband Don, my two little boys and...Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-82693195569886982152013-05-15T05:08:00.000-07:002013-05-15T05:08:40.696-07:00Book Review: THE DREAM KEEPER<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2WUP-ZSp4qXRyno7p-DV7DE3w_E-szc09yL9Z_pqCgnJJf4VptZE0MHU-XDo7KcFPDiAVa9FoJlcAThqvWA8owyN9yaN16JAuaARmczM45MynmIRrEILiAMpJjLzicgiQkkGbOJPgZQo/s1600/Dreams+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2WUP-ZSp4qXRyno7p-DV7DE3w_E-szc09yL9Z_pqCgnJJf4VptZE0MHU-XDo7KcFPDiAVa9FoJlcAThqvWA8owyN9yaN16JAuaARmczM45MynmIRrEILiAMpJjLzicgiQkkGbOJPgZQo/s1600/Dreams+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2WUP-ZSp4qXRyno7p-DV7DE3w_E-szc09yL9Z_pqCgnJJf4VptZE0MHU-XDo7KcFPDiAVa9FoJlcAThqvWA8owyN9yaN16JAuaARmczM45MynmIRrEILiAMpJjLzicgiQkkGbOJPgZQo/s400/Dreams+Cover.jpg" width="242" /></a><span class="uficommentbody">"Dreams: Dorothy
called it Oz, Alice called it Wonderland, but Nightmares call it HOME.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><span class="uficommentbody"></span> When an evil shifter takes over the gateway to the realm
of Dreams, it falls to 14-year-olds Parker and Kaelyn to stop him. Their only
hope lies with Gladamyr, the Dream Keeper, but can they trust a Nightmare to
save their world?"<br />
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<span class="uficommentbody"><b>MY REVIEW: </b></span><br />
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<span class="uficommentbody">When I was in school, long long ago, there were two distinct classes of
people (and then there were others who somehow managed to skate through
both groups). I don't think the group I belonged to really had a name.
The other group was The Snobs. They were better looking than the rest of
us (or so they thought), were better at everything (or so they
thought), and were just better overall (or so they thought). They were
the worst bullies, the meanest of the mean. Yet, somehow, they still had
friends. I always thought the opposite should have been true. The group
I belonged to were victims. In The Dream Keeper, they are The Losers.
The Snobs are called The Plastics (think of Barbie dolls). Kaelyn has
just moved into town and was branded a Loser almost instantly. She's
quiet, maybe a bit timid, not stick thin, and not a Plastic. To make
things worse, she's an orphan who lives with her Aunt Zelda, who just
happens to be something of a local celebrity. She's a popular psychic.
School gets almost unbearable for Kaelyn, and then she meets fellow
ninth grader Parker Bennett.<br /><br />I would consider Parker to be one of
the skaters. One of the in betweens. He's pretty nice to everyone, well
liked by most, considered one of the In Crowd by the Plastics, but also
doesn't pick on the Losers. His greatest fear is becoming one of the
Losers and he has learned how to walk the fine line of acceptability. He
literally bumps into Kaelynn at school, and when his friends see him
with her, he feels like he is at the top of the slide down to
Loserville. Things get even more uncomfortable when he goes to sleep and
finds himself in a dream with Kaelynn. Literally. He does convince
himself that it wasn't real, but when she confronts him with knowledge
of the dream the next day and tells him they have to go back to
sleep-together-in order to save their world and the world of Dreams, he
begins to think that the stuff in his favorite video games might be more
real than he thought.<br /><br />The world of Dreams is a real place,
created by mortals and their sleeping thoughts. Favors are the purveyors
of good dreams, Mares, bad dreams. Gladamyr was born a Mare, the Heart
of Mares, in fact, but he hated being evil, was never able to accept
that he was meant to be bad, used to scare children and adults alike.
His mentor Allyon finally convinced him that he could make the choice,
and Gladamyr chooses to be kind rather than evil. He becomes a Dream
Keeper, one who guides mortals through their dream state. Some of them
have nightmares, some of them have dreams, but Gladamyr is determined to
be a comfort to those who have nightmares.<br /><br />Mega-Bad Guy and Head
Mare Fyren has gotten rid of Allyon, taken over the council and is on
the hunt for Gladamyr. He puts a halt to all dream keeper activity and
this is a bad thing for the world of mortals. Mortals require REM sleep,
or dream sleep, and without it, we go insane and would eventually die
(that's true-I heard it on Star Trek). Fyren wants to tip the balance
between Mare and Favor in favor of Mare (had to say it). His reasons for
wanting Gladamyr in particular are unclear, but Gladamyr knows that if
he is to save the mortal world and the world of Dreams, he is going to
need help from mortals. He had accidentally kept the keys of two mortals
after their last dreams, and now he needs to use them. The Dream Keeper
who holds a mortal's key guides that mortal's dreams when they are
asleep. The two keys belong to Kaelyn and Parker, and Gladamyr has no
one else to turn to when Fyren takes over Dreams, tortures Dream Keepers
and holds them hostage, sets the evil Mares loose to wreak havoc, and
will not allow mortals to dream.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgobzFfN264fBzNvLEt2AsWkV8_cNZSEKpznoyqJDwIj7Ped0WTOemo4KBNfEWlteXJRJfCMDKcl-K-WYKsARsD6iRXWgLFuTgM8BV-1f-P-kB6IfF2tBu6i2tWluNAjfvV6eLUvIZiYGo/s1600/tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgobzFfN264fBzNvLEt2AsWkV8_cNZSEKpznoyqJDwIj7Ped0WTOemo4KBNfEWlteXJRJfCMDKcl-K-WYKsARsD6iRXWgLFuTgM8BV-1f-P-kB6IfF2tBu6i2tWluNAjfvV6eLUvIZiYGo/s1600/tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgobzFfN264fBzNvLEt2AsWkV8_cNZSEKpznoyqJDwIj7Ped0WTOemo4KBNfEWlteXJRJfCMDKcl-K-WYKsARsD6iRXWgLFuTgM8BV-1f-P-kB6IfF2tBu6i2tWluNAjfvV6eLUvIZiYGo/s200/tree.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="uficommentbody"><br />Kaelynn and Parker find out that
they are not Losers at all. They are strong and courageous, and even
find special powers of their own to help save the two worlds. They
pledge their help to Gladamyr and his friends Cerulean, Felix, and
Pirate Cap'n Loofin Bootie in Dreams. They enlist the help of some very
special fellow mortals, and Gladamyr is forced to face his evil past in
order to defeat Fyren and restore balance to Dreams.<br /><br />I found the
story to be uniquely imaginative and very creative. It was well written
and the feelings of ninth graders was right on the money. I will be
recommending it to all my middle grade and young adult friends! </span><br />
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<b><span class="uficommentbody">HOW TO FIND THE BOOK</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hardback: </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Keeper-Mikey-Brooks/dp/1939993016"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Keeper-Mikey-Brooks/dp/1939993016</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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Paperback: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1939993032">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1939993032</a></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Kindle: </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Dream-Keeper-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00CPE0PT0"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.amazon.com/The-Dream-Keeper-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00CPE0PT0</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
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Paperback Create Space: <a href="https://www.createspace.com/4260677"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.createspace.com/4260677</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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Goodreads: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17727253-the-dream-keeper">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17727253-the-dream-keeper</a></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">B&N: </span><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1115262781?ean=9781939993014"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1115262781?ean=9781939993014</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw8s-jOU9kAVM5C-ejZ_ZPuVCxTjO4ab0v09vXCMPldmg0EF-2abJovJiegshC0jF0tHuT3U1hFgDoqQWJFQadITXnlk0Obl27TknP7Y4isB87ePcunyzzyPW7m3KWx9EyABb7KKDgQcM/s1600/profile+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw8s-jOU9kAVM5C-ejZ_ZPuVCxTjO4ab0v09vXCMPldmg0EF-2abJovJiegshC0jF0tHuT3U1hFgDoqQWJFQadITXnlk0Obl27TknP7Y4isB87ePcunyzzyPW7m3KWx9EyABb7KKDgQcM/s200/profile+pic.jpg" width="143" /></a><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR: </span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mikey Brooks is a small child
masquerading as adult. On occasion you’ll find him dancing the funky chicken,
singing like a banshee, and pretending to have never grown up. He is the
author/illustrator of several books including </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beans-Dragons-Mikey-Brooks/dp/1481136526"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">BEAN’S
DRAGONS</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, the </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/ABC-Adventures-Magical-Creatures-Volume/dp/1481814486"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">ABC ADVENTURES</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
series, and author of the middle-grade fantasy-adventure novel, </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Keeper-Mikey-Brooks/dp/1939993016"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">THE
DREAM KEEPER</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">. He spends most of his time playing with his daughters and
working as a freelance illustrator. Mikey has a </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BS
degree in Creative Writing from Utah State University. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">He is
also one of the hosts of the </span><a href="http://www.foreverwriters.com/category/podcast/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Authors’
Think Tank Podcast</span></i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">. </span></i></div>
Website: <a href="http://www.insidemikeysworld.com/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.insidemikeysworld.com/</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Amazon Author page: </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mikey-Brooks/e/B00B8ICZ4W"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.amazon.com/Mikey-Brooks/e/B00B8ICZ4W</span></a></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Blog: </span><a href="http://writtenbymikey.blogspot.com/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://writtenbymikey.blogspot.com/</span></a></div>
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Podcast: <a href="http://www.foreverwriters.com/category/podcast/">http://www.foreverwriters.com/category/podcast/</a></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Goodreads at: </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17727253-the-dream-keeper">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17727253-the-dream-keeper</a>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook at: </span><a href="http://facebook.com/writtenbymikeybrooks"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://facebook.com/writtenbymikeybrooks</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Twitter as: </span><a href="https://twitter.com/WrittenByMikey"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">@writtenbymikey</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">WattPad: </span><a href="http://wattpad.com/MikeyBrooks"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">http://wattpad.com/MikeyBrooks</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-22872822338353407572013-05-08T09:00:00.000-07:002013-05-08T09:00:27.541-07:00My review from Ingrid Hall!Ever see something cool and think, "Hey, I wanna do that!" Well, I saw author and blogger Ingrid Hall doing interviews and book reviews, I said, "Hey, I wanna do that!" I was really excited to see it today, and it's a pretty good review! Go check out Ingrid's blog and her books!<br />
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<a href="http://www.ingridhall.com/">http://www.ingridhall.com/</a>Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-10802456187941697962013-03-26T17:21:00.002-07:002013-03-26T20:13:39.839-07:00Bad Grammar-Is It Really Bad? Well, I have gone and done it. I have gone and written and published a book that is full of good people who are smart and educated and drive cars and can go on dates and read books and everything, but their grammar-is bad. Not all of them, and not all the time. Some of them do it all of the time, and most of them do it some of the time, but what is really going on? Were they not paying attention in English class when their teachers rapped their knuckles with rulers and drove home the point, "Mother, may I?"<br />
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In the last couple of years that I have been writing, I have been thinking about this issue, I'm sure, a lot more than most people do. Since I decided to write the way people actually speak, I had to start listening. Really listening. I really listen to myself more, and since I was writing about Western New Yorkers (state, not city), I was mostly listening to them while I was living back there a couple of years ago. I live in Utah now, and when we first came here, people would say that they could tell I wasn't from here or that I was from back east. Sometimes speech alone can make us feel like we have landed on another planet. I remember years ago, being in the car in Tennessee when my father was trying to find the house of someone named 'Brown.' He actually stopped and asked someone. "You lookin' fer Bray-own?" the man said, to my father's blank stare. Finally Dad said, "Did you say 'Brown' or 'Bray-own?'" "Bray-own," the man answered. "Bray-own? I'm looking for Brown," my father said. "Yeah, Bray-own," said the man. This conversation might have gone on indefintely if I hadn't gotten out of the car and whispered to my Dad, "He's saying Brown." To this day, I don't remember if we ever found Mr. Brown, but I will never forget that conversation. My father came out of that interaction thinking that the man must be an idiot, and the man probably thought the same thing about him. It was truly a language barrier.<br />
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But people from the south are not the only people with accents. Everyone has an accent. If you speak, you have an accent. And so I move on to the question of grammar. Southerners use the term "y'all" to refer to several people. Where I come from, we don't use y'all-we say "yis," "youse," and "youse guys." It means the same thing. If you don't want to go someplace, you might say, "I am not going." If your friends insist and you still don't want to go, you can make a more powerful statement by saying, "I ain't going!" It might be improper grammar, but it's also more forceful. The guy who says 'ain't' knows he ain't supposed to say ain't, but its use doesn't make him stupid. It's part of the way we speak there, if we choose to. If you go walking through my small town of Medina, New York and just list<i></i>en, you'll hear it. You'll hear ai<i></i>n't, and glorious double negatives like "ain't got no," "don't have no," and the wonderful "don't want no." Do you shower or do you take a shower? Do you use a drawer, or do you, like my Grandma, keep your clothes in a draw? If you accidentally hit your thumb with a hammer, would you let out a string of swear words that would be familiar to most, or would you say, "MINSKYA!" which is heavily in favor in my region of New York <i>(and do you know what it means?).</i><br />
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<i> </i>The other day when I was trying to get the kids off to school, I was amazed to hear myself say, "Git ya stuff!" Yeah, that's me, all educated and everything. I'm my own best example for the where I get the speech used by my characters. When I can't listen to myself, I listen closely to my mother (she lives with us and is readily available), and if I need to hear it in a man's voice, I stop and ask myself, "how would my brother say it?" He still lives there, so he's probably my best example. I had a friend all through elementary school and through high school graduation who was one of the smartest kids in the class, and she never failed to say 'axe' instead of ask. We use 'seen' when we should have said 'saw.' If you have a small stream near your house, you will probably say that you live near the 'crik.' If someone says, "Which ones do you want?" I'll point and say, "Them ones." Or maybe, "Those ones." "I seen them ones down by the crik," I might say. I've been to college and everything. So if I speak that way, as an educated person, what does that say about me? I think it tells you where I'm from. Nothing more.<br />
Some of my book reviewers (who ain't from where I'm from) have said how they liked the story, but that the bad grammar drove them nuts. How the male main character (the best looking man in the county) was 'less attractive' because of his poor grammar. One reviewer even said that 'educated people don't talk that way!' I am thinking that some of these people have not done a lot of careful listening to other people over their lives. Most of us abbreviate words when we speak, or else we would all sound like the Queen of England. Our everyday vocabulary is replete with words like yer, git, ya, among others. I really do talk this way. I use ain't (don't see nothin' wrong with it), I use double negatives. I like the way I talk, I like the way we sound! And I am educated. Yep, sure am.
Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-82823046119756670752013-03-23T20:41:00.001-07:002013-03-23T20:41:47.975-07:00Julie Coulter Bellon: First Page Friday<a href="http://ldswritermom.blogspot.com/2013/03/first-page-friday_22.html?spref=bl">Julie Coulter Bellon: First Page Friday</a>: This week's entry had an interesting opening from Wikipedia. I couldn't wait to see what Ms. Shreditor said about it. Thank you t...Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-55816571034123874752013-01-04T18:03:00.000-08:002013-01-04T18:03:31.182-08:00The ClimbIt was time again to load the dishwasher, and being a tiresome task, it always gets me to stick music in my ears to make it bearable. First up, Miley Cyrus- <i>The Climb.</i> Now, I love the song, but I have always had an issue with it. She says that it doesn't matter what's on the other side of the mountain, what matters is the climb! And I always think, "Nonsense girl! Of course it matters, what's on the other side! Else we wouldn't climb at all!" As I distractedly decided what dishes went where (competition for the top rack is keen), I decided I wasn't being fair. Maybe I hadn't given Miley sufficient time to explain herself. I hit 'back' and listened to it again. And I tried to think about my climb. Maybe I haven't climbed far enough yet to really be an expert-after all, I'm probably only a quarter of the way up the mountain. And, what IS on the other side? I don't even know, really.
So, what has my climb showed me? A lot of things, when I really think about it. I have learned how important editing is, even though I haven't had a professional editor. A friend and I just read my books-over and over and over and try to comb out every mistake, every inconsistency in my text (bless you Bonnie Findlay!). I have also seen books that have had either little, no or extremely poor editing, and man, I can tell you, keep that stuff off the bookshelves, please, cyber and otherwise. They are actually painful to read. There is absolutely nothing (in reading) like a fine, polished novel, and I never knew that before.
I have also learned that I'm not going to fool with agents if I can help it-or I should say, that I am not going to kiss their fine little hinnies to get their attention. If I should happen upon one who wants to take me on, that might be different. I think they are just so inundated with requests that they have to be fussy. I hate the infamous 'query letter' process. All it means to me is that a potentially fabulous manuscript is being dismissed out of hand because my one page query letter wasn't worded in a way that pushed that agent's little buttons. When I looked into Amazon's FREE self publishing service, I decided to try it. If it doesn't work out, if you don't like it, you can unpublish and keep trying with mainstream publishers. But, I found out that I d<i></i>o like it. I like the total control I have over everything.
Aside from all this, though, the most important thing I have found out is who I can count on and who I can't. Forgive any misuse of mine of the word 'who' (as opposed to 'whom'). Since I was little kid, I have known the correct usage of 'whom,' but to me it just sounded ridiculous. I have always refused to use the word. Anyway, I digress. I found out who I can count on and who I can't. There are some people, friends and family both, who wouldn't read my book because they don't want to read anything about Mormons. What, are they afraid they might read something that's true that they don't want to think is true? I don't know, and I don't ask them. There is another group, small in number, I hope, who aren't reading it because they have pretty much always been of the opinion that I probably wouldn't make anything of myself, and who am I to think I have the brains to write a book? Those people just aren't bothering to waste their time reading something I wrote (so I can surmise that none of those people are reading this!). There is another group who have found out in the last few months that they don't agree with me politically, and so have not been a support to me. I didn't diss them when I found out that they were liberals, or democrats, or whatever, but I guess they didn't feel the same tolerance. And actually, many liberal democrat friends did NOT do that to me-so, I don't mean you!
All of the above might make me sound bitter, but honestly, I'm not. I have been buoyed up by the oth<i></i>er people-the ones who have been a support. Who have bought the book, or downloaded it. Or, maybe if they couldn't afford it, downloaded it on the free days, like today and tomorrow (and I know how that is-I am right there with you). Or at the very least, for people who have just continued with the positive comments and pats on the back. Once I found out who I couldn't count on, I found I wasn't even hurt and had very litle trouble basically dismissing them. The ones that count are the ones that have stood by me. The facebook likes, the positive comments, the reviews on Amazon, the ones who have told their friends about me and have recommended my books, the ones who have handed out my blasted bookmarks, read my books, and have tirelessly pre-read those books for me, being experimented on like literary guinea pigs. Thank you Bonnie Findlay and April Elzinga!
The first group (we'll call them group S, S for stinky) has actually done me a valuable service. You have to get rid of the dead weight or you'll never make it up the mountain.
So, I am looking at Miley's motto in a more favorable light. The destination still matters to me-maybe making the New York Times bestseller list, or dare I hope (probably not)? Oprah's Book Club. But really, it ain't about what's waitin' on the other side. It's the climb. Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-91232503716020689102012-12-19T07:01:00.000-08:002012-12-19T07:01:14.959-08:00http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/MTcyZGYwYTEwNmZhNDAxODYwZWVmZmIyYTAwZTM5OjQ=/Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-15395272866482024152012-11-29T07:47:00.000-08:002012-11-29T07:47:01.631-08:00I have noticed that the blogs of more experienced authors are often aimed at helping new authors who are learning to navigate through shark infested waters. Some others seem to think that jumping feet first covered with blood into shark infested waters is the best way for a new author to figure out what they're doing.
I decided to avoid the sharks as completely as possible. I didn't get an agent and I didn't have publishers breaking down my door. I started out doing the agent thing, query letters, etc., because I didn't know then that there was another way. I found out there were companies that you could hire to publish your book for you. But I, like many people, didn't have the money for that. Then I saw it. Publish free on Amazon. The downside is that while the process was fairly easy, I had to do everything myself. I designed the cover from a template they provided, and I'm sure that could have been done better by someone with more resources than I had. Yet, the cover, I think, turned out pretty good. The interior looks great. I was surprised, actually, by the quality of the service provided by Amazon. Heavy duty laminated paper for the cover, the pages are of excellent quality paper, and the type set looks wonderful. And now I can say I'm published.
I wish now that I knew more about marketing. Right now I'm still at the point where I'm telling my friends and hoping that they'll tell their friends and that somehow it will all take off. I'm also going to sign up for Extended Distribution, a service offered by Amazon. That makes the book available to retailers and libraries. Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-83598527537248346412012-10-08T20:37:00.001-07:002012-10-08T20:37:43.598-07:00 <style>
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<div id="gr_header"><h1><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16075364-a-little-hair-of-the-dog">Goodreads reviews for A Little Hair of the Dog</a></h1></div>
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16075364-a-little-hair-of-the-dog?utm_medium=api&utm_source=reviews_widget" class="gr_branding" target="_blank">Reviews from Goodreads.com</a>
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Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-13605928109113597512012-09-05T20:15:00.000-07:002012-09-05T20:20:57.480-07:00I'm a published author, officially<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0095XN2QW"></a>Today seems to be an appropriate day for me to write again in my much neglected blog, being the day after my first novel was published! I was so busy writing and re-writing, revising and thinking and also taking care of kids and necessities, that the blog was one of many things that went by the wayside.
It's a strange thing having my book out there. It is a great feeling, but also a scary feeling. I feel like I have just put a whole load of my own kindergartners on the bus for the very first time. I created these people, I love these people. They have been my private intellectual property for over two years and now I have sent them out into the world to sink or swim for themselves. I wonder if any other author has ever felt that way? I'm sure they must have. As I wait for people to actually read the book, I have realized that while I do desire that they will like the book (and maybe like me better for having written it), the thing that I'm really worried over is that I want them to like my characters.
Ann, the skinny, klutzy heroine; Kyle, the big brooding hero who is, underneath it all, and for the right person, a big teddy bear; Bobby, the gentle giant; and Diesel Taylor-there I stop-no spoilers on Diesel. I have another worry nagging away at me too. It's the Mormon thing. Not that I'm ashamed of it-certainly not. I'm proud to be a Latter day Saint. But I have a lot of friends who are not members of the same Church as me. More than I have who ar<i></i>e members, in fact. I don't want anyone to read my book and get the idea that maybe I am looking down on them for the way t<i></i>hey live the<i></i>ir lives. It has become the norm, for instance, in this world for couples of all ages to live together without being married. We just don't do it. We just don't. But if someone else is doing it, it doesn't phase me. We don't believe in sex before or outside of marriage. Again. People don't seem to be doing that anymore. We don't drink, we tend not to swear and it is my experience that we are generally nice to people. But so are other people generally nice to people. I want to say right now that whether or not you are nice to me is the only thing in that vein that I care about regarding other people.
You can be black or white, Democrat or Republican, mixed race, Jewish or Catholic or Lutheran, you can be gay or straight, you can be for gay marriage or against it, you can be married or living together or living in a nudist colony. If you are nice to me, I will be nice to you, and that is the end of it. I know and respect that we are all different. In this story, my main character is a typical Mormon girl. She doesn't look down on anyone, and I don't either (at least I honestly try not to). It is my hope that people will accept the story for just what it is-fun. It's not meant to be a statement for or against anything, except for perhaps an allowance of tolerance for all other people. I'll be the first to admit that in the LDS Church, there are some people who are intolerant of (you fill in the blank). But that is true in an<i></i>y group of people that contains more than two people, and I don't care what that group may be.
So, please, read, enjoy, laugh, cry, adopt a dog.
I'm having issues posting a link to the book on Amazon. It is called A Little Hair of the Dog, by Jane McBride and is available on Amazon on kindle and in paperback.Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-48943123986169285152012-07-07T12:07:00.002-07:002012-07-07T12:07:54.882-07:00<a href="http://mormon.org/me/96YX/"><img src="http://mormon.org/bc/assets/images/widget/profile-button/temple-im-a-mormon.png" alt="I'm a Mormon."/></a>Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-33056682810236963962012-06-30T08:10:00.002-07:002012-07-02T14:05:22.120-07:00A Movie That Made Me Think About Bullies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here is another one that may seem to have nothing to do with being an author, but the more I think about it, the more I disagree (with myself only, so far). Everything that happens to us influences how we write-whether we write fiction or non-fiction, fantasy or mystery or sci-fi, ultimately we write about our own lives and experiences.
I'm watching a movie I've never seen before. It's called Artificial Intelligence. It's about a futuristic civilization that has robots as part of the community. Mostly, I think they're workers. But they decided to make child robots that could love. The first experimental model went to a couple whose son, Martin, was in a coma and unlikely to recover. When they get their child robot, Mom is unsure, but the kid grows on her. They decide to keep him, which involves completing his programming so that he will bond with them, love them only, forever. I'm not sure what he's supposed to do someday when they die. They are quite delighted with him and begin settling in.
Just then, their own son wakes up from his coma. I'm at that part of the movie right now, and I have no idea which way they're going to go. Right at the moment, I don't like what I'm seeing, and I'll tell you why. David, the robot child, is so much like William that it's difficult for me to watch this movie. He's very curious about everything, but understands little. He mimicks their movements-he doesn't eat, but watches them while they eat and pretends he is eating and drinking too. He is extremely gullible and believes everything he is told. I have just updated to include pictures-one from the movie of Haley Joel Osmont, who played David, and one of our William. They even look just alike, right down to their hair color and the little forehead cowlick that makes the little triangle shaped void in their bangs. The resemblance wasn't lost on me.
Everything changes for David when Demon Child Martin comes home. Martin, having the true nature of a bully, immediately begins zeroing in on David's weaknesses. His curiosity becomes a weakness. His programmed love for his parents becomes a weakness when Martin tricks him into doing things that are wrong, telling him his parents will love him if he does these things. Martin makes David eat, knowing it will harm him. Martin tells David to sneak up on Mommy in the middle of the night and cut off a lock of her hair, then she will love him. Mommy and Daddy wake up and mistakenly believe that David was going to hurt Mommy with the scissors. Martin's equally bullying friends come over and test out the possibilities of David's natural defense systems, by purposely cutting him. As his gullibility does not allow him to see Martin for what he really is, he turns to his brother for protection from the other boys. David and Martin fall into the pool and Martin almost drowns. David gets the blame.
Parents or educators of autistic children won't need to wonder for very long why these things are bothering me. Autistic children are often victimized in the same ways. I mean, <i>the exact same ways</i>. I have heard more than one story of "normal" kids doing things to harm special needs children who were unable to feel pain. Many autistic kids have problems processing pain. They can get hysterical over a hang nail but something that should usually cause severe pain, like a bad cut or a burn might go unnoticed. I heard a story of an autistic boy who was found with hundreds of cigarette burns all over his body because his "friends" were fascinated with his inability to feel pain. Thinking that they were his friends, he let them do it. We're all taught that our real friends will never hurt us, right? He thought they were his friends and so he let them do it.
Bullies often coerce innocent special needs children, even adults, into doing their bidding, doing ridiculous things in public, things that make fools of them, things that will get them into trouble-and of course, afterward, these bullies will know nothing about any of it. I know we aren't really talking about robots here. I'll never know how the movie ended. I decided to quit when, after the pool incident, Mommy takes David out into the woods and leaves him there. The parents couldn't see their "real" son for what he was. The boys had a toy robotic teddy bear that saw what Martin was doing and he tried to help David. Pretty bad when Teddy Ruxpin is smarter and more compassionate than Mom and Dad.
Do parents really not teach their kids how they should treat special needs people? My perspective is unique. My oldest child is special needs. I was teaching the world how to treat him. I wasn't wondering how to raise my normal child. I was wondering how to protect my special one. Then we have a second child, and he is raised from birth, realizing that his brother is different and learning how to deal with him just like we do. So tell me, someone tell me. Why do they do it? Is there some natural urge to seek out and prey upon weakness? To press vulnerability? Does it really make their day to send the weird kid into the girl's bathroom when it's full of girls? Do they go home proud of themselves, patting each other on the back over how cool they are? Someone please, tell me what it is. Do they and their parents really think that my son is any less a person than they are, that he is less loved, less important, less intelligent, less able to contribute to society, that he is less anything that is positive and good? The only thing that he is <i>really</i> less is less cruel, less dispassionate, less hateful and less harmful.
Please teach your kids how to be compassionate with those that are different. After all, are we not all different? We all have vulnerabilities and quirks. If a society makes it acceptable to victimize the citizens that are most vulnerable, then I cannot be a part of society. Since William's diagnosis almost 9 years ago, I have slowly backed away from society. Some of it is because his behavior in public can make him difficult to handle. But I have come to realize that a lot of the reason for my withdrawal is because the behavior of society is difficult to handle. If you see a special needs child behaving strangely in public, please try to remember that you are not at the zoo. Many special needs children look normal but act strangely. If you see a child acting strangely, even behaving abominably, please don't start whispering behind your hands about how you would handle that kid if he were yours. If he were yours, you would understand. It may or may not be a special needs child that you are looking at, but the point is that you don't know.
End of rant.Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-13721199405316561172012-06-29T13:11:00.000-07:002012-06-29T13:11:35.450-07:00KIDS TODAY!Usually I get on here if I have some story that's cute or funny or touching to share. Today I just don't feel that way. I wish I had a way of yelling at the world, and this is the closest I can come. I have a kid who repeats everything he hears, and also repeats actions that he sees, because he doesn't know any better. So think about that when you are out in public and are loudly exercising your right to free speech frequently punctuated with completely unnecessary profanity. Look around you and think about who might be listening. A week or so ago, my 11 year old son asked me, "Mom, what does f**k mean?" After my husband had revived me with our home defibrillator, I had to explain to William, who has the maturity of a five year old, that this is the wo<i></i>rst of all the bad words and that he must never say it again. I have tried every which way to explain WHY I don't want him using profanity, and after every session, I can see that he absolutely <i>does not understand</i>.
I used to hear disabled young adults and even disabled kids using bad language all the time, and I was <i>so haughty</i>! "Well! They must hear it at home! How else could they pick it up?" Now I k<b></b>now! We do NOT use it, at all. In fact, if you come into my home and use that kind of language, I will send you out the front door on the business end of a cannon. I try to moniter what they hear online and on TV. It may be naive, but I want them to be innocent for as long as possible. Desensitize them to it now, and they will find it as acceptable as many people do. And when we do hear it, they ask me, "Mom, was that a bad word? Is it wrong to say that word?" So at least we do talk about it. And now when they hear a bad word off the TV or something, they both look a little worried and sad and seem concerned for the person who said the bad word, especially William.
Almost everyday after school, I take both boys to either the playground at William's school, or the one at Sean's school. Since the weather is nicer, we frequently have older kids from the nearby Jr High and High School who come and seem to be there for no other reason than to just hang around and be offensive. A couple of weeks ago I had to chase off 2 boys, one of whom was exposing himself and both were using lewd and offensive language. All while surrounded by kids Sean's age (6). Today on William's school playground, were 2 girls and a boy, Jr. High age, who were fooling around. The 2 girls were trying to get the boy's pants off. 10 feet from me. I ran them off pretty quick too. In both instances, these kids looked at me like I was an alien from another planet. Now I know I don't really look that bad, so I could only assume that their experience with adult discipline is limited. None of them mouthed off at me, I have to give them that. But I think it was only bercause they were shocked that someone had said something to them.
I bring this up only because I hope people will read it and think about what they say and do, and also because I hope they will all talk to their kids, know what they are doing after school and who they are doing it with, and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! How would you feel if you found out your son was exposing himself on a school playground in front of 10 elementary school children? Or if your daughter was giggling over a boy on the ground getting into his pants? What would you do? If adults were caught doing what these kids were doing, they would be arrested and become registered sex offenders. Your thirteen year old doesn't need a boyfriend or a girlfriend. They're physically old enough, but mentally they aren't old enough to make mature decisions. They're STUPID!! They need you!Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-29907391757029900772012-06-28T21:20:00.000-07:002012-06-29T11:25:26.381-07:00Great DanesI have decided that when my book is finally published, I'm going to donate a portion of the proceeds to a Great Dane rescue organization. One of my main characters is a Great Dane, after all. When I was 9 or 10 years old, my Aunt had a friend who was involved with a Great Dane rescue. My Aunt had already adopted 2 Great Danes and when this woman contacted her about one more, my Aunt called my Mom. My older sister wanted that dog. And so we got him. He was about 2 years old and had been found wandering the streets, terrified. He was wearing a choke collar that was so tight it had become embedded in his neck and had to be removed surgically. He wore forever a scar that was in the shape of a chain, the ghost of a noose.
My sister Jody thought carefully about the name for him. She searched through some history book or other and found some ancient German character by the name of Johann Heindrich Von Daniker, and that was his new moniker. A big dog like that, after all, needed a big name. Below is a picture of a scupture entitled Ariadne On the Panther, by Johann Heinrich Von Danneker.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I wish I had a picture to post of our Johann. He was a Merle, black and grey. And he was a big one. When they stood him on his two hind legs, they measured him at 6'2". He was the sweetest, gentlest thing this side of heaven. I had a dog too, a little female dachshund, also a rescue dog (that is another story). Her name was Jaime and she may have been small, but she was full of vinegar. For whatever reason, Johann quickly took over the job as her protector-and her employee. Maybe he figured she was such a nasty little thing, she might just need him someday. There was a time when you could get big bones free at the grocery store and we used to give him a cow's thigh bone whenever we could get it. Once when she wasn't even full grown, she took that bone away from him and it took her about an hour to drag it from where he had it to the living room, where she wanted it. He followed slowly and mournfully after her, wondering whether he would ever get it back. That's just how he was. He wished she wouldn't take his stuff, but he wouldn't stop her, either.
He didn't bother the cats that I remember, but Jaime was the only other dog he ever liked. We had a couple of male barn dogs outside and had to make sure he never got near them. Once two big dogs start fighting, it's very hard to get them apart. But we made it. He was the big protector of and loyal family member to all of us.
We had him for several years. There are certain problems that tend to beset Great Danes and he was no exception. Danes of his type are prone to all kinds of difficulties, one of them being serious joint problems. The size of their large bodies is too much for their joints to handle after a time. I believe he started with having difficulty just walking. His legs could give out suddenly and he would lose his balance and sometimes he fell. Trips to the vet got him shots that would get him through until the next time. I don't know now what they gave him-it might have been steroids. If anyone knows different, please comment! When he got towards the end, he was more and more disabled. He often couldn't even get up, and when he did, being able to walk without falling was hit and miss. Every few months my parents would take him to the vet with the intention of putting him to sleep. They'd get there, get him the shot, and bring him back home. And he'd be better again for a little while, until next time. Then one time in November of 1983, they came back without him.
I'm not really sure what it was that made me decide to make the dog in my story a Great Dane. Maybe one of the sweetest personalities I have ever known was whispering in my ear, prompting me, making me remember. He was not a demanding dog and a whispered suggestion would have suited him just fine. Someday I would like to have a Great Dane, but right now we just don't have the yard. I also have a little autistic son who has a phobia of dogs. He is used to my two little terriers but they are not allowed to touch him. I don't think he could live with such a large dog. So I thought, if I can't adopt and help one dog, maybe I can help many instead.Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-27071265026110428972012-04-10T09:30:00.004-07:002012-04-10T09:43:55.530-07:00The TimelineRecently I saw on a friend's facebook page some information about a local author. I thought, "Ah, that's interesting," and I clicked to head to that author's facebook page. Now, I'm not sure if there might actually be something wrong with me, but when I hit someone's facebook "timeline" I am immediately lost. I do think the timeline looks kind of cool, but even when I go to my <em>own</em> timline, I usually can't find whatever I'm looking for.<br />It reminds me of that scene in "A Bug's Life" when the line of ants runs into a leaf and can't go forward because they don't know how to go around it. Panic sets in and an older, more experienced ant steps in and walks them through it. Trouble with the timeline is, it's new to all of us. There is no experienced older ant that I can turn to for help.<br />Sooo, I didn't get far on that author's page. To me, it was a crazy quilt jumble of disconnected information. I can't help it, I have to have things set up in black and white, clear cut. Someday when I may have a book published, I want people to go to whatever page I might create, and I really hope it will make sense to them. Social networking is really a great thing-I think it's fabulous! I can't wait until I have a book to advertise-but I promise-you come to my page, you won't feel like you have just walked into Harry Potter's maze.Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-89164245729079998902012-03-23T16:26:00.003-07:002012-03-23T22:41:10.486-07:00This post has nothing whatever to do with being an author. Just with being a human being. I get sinus infections which give me sinus headaches which more often than not turn into rampaging migraine headaches. I have been having this issue lately, more serious than usual, and today finally got myself to the doc. She decided to save herself some trouble and gave me a prescription for antibiotics with 6 refills. I do, after all, know better than she does when I have a sinus infection. I actually felt a little better today, after a killer week. When the headache decides to go off on it's own for a while (I wonder what it does?) I talk about it in hushed whispers, afraid it will hear me and come rushing back with a vengeance. It's crazy, but I think of it as a live, malevolent thing that <em>haunts</em> me. I don't say, "I have another headache." I say, "The headache is back." Because I know-I KNOW it's the same one,coming back, over and over. I was just thinking today, I should give it a name. And the moment I had that thought, the headache answered me. "We are called Legion," it said. I looked around for a herd of swine, but no, I couldn't do that. I wouldn't wish this thing on anyone, even though their time of pain would be short, since they would run, in their madness, off the nearest cliff. <br />A few years ago, I had the sinus surgery, which everyone raved about. I was told I would have no more problems once it was done. Weeeell, you ever see those old sci fi movies from the fifties? You know the ones, where some idiotic greedy miners just dig TOO deep and accidentally unleash some hundred thousand year old behemoth that has been trapped and biding it's time while feeding on man-made radiation? That's what that surgery did for me. I have wondered ever since, "What have I done?" Before that, The Headache was just a thing that bugged me sometimes but wasn't angry with me about anything. It thought he and I were in the same boat. Then I tried to anhiliate and drive it out of it's nice little home. I made an enemy out of it. I have tried to tell it many times, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Doesn't work.<br />And so, I live in hope that the antibiotics, and the super powerful pain pills and the nasal spray will weaken it and drive it back into it's hole, somewhere in the center of my head. We'll see.<em></em>Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-25318437133150079482012-03-19T12:55:00.004-07:002012-03-19T21:49:40.137-07:00<div>Well, I'm giving my manuscript at least one more go through (I cannot <em>stand</em> spelling or other errors), and then at the end of this week I am sending the whole thing off to the publisher of my choice, Deseret Book. One of the nice things about them is that they do not require a query letter. You can just send them the whole thing, and when they get to it, they'll go over it and either accept or reject you. I did write a fine cover letter, if I do say so myself. </div><div>Another thing that will be good with them, if I can get through the door, is that they will be good for vetting me. Deseret Book is an LDS Church publisher. My manuscript does contain characters who are LDS and non-LDS, and if I need any help dealing with those differences, I know they can do that and keep me pointed in the right direction. I also know them to be a company of integrity who won't do me over in any way. If Deseret Book itself is not especially interested in me, they might just send me on through to one of their other companies, like Shadow Mountain or Bookcraft. Or, they might say, "sorry, not interested at this time." If they do that, I have decided to do the free publishing with Amazon. I don't think I can trust mainstream publishers with this one, just because of the LDS angle. I don't want it in non-Church hands, at least not until I have more confidence in my own ability to keep control of things. </div><div>It will take them 3 months, probably to get back to me. I'll let ya know what happens. </div>Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-2796426671124348692012-03-14T21:18:00.006-07:002012-03-18T11:07:44.182-07:00<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizpoaUECOa2H6mUg95mWJ5l6FrW-E78Bni5RDiw4-eJ4XHSHk35THVW9T1jGI7HWPQ7XeIwzEsdFMEgixXSLzGg4K0crBM62xMSaihAP2bifgK-n_UxXdxnlEbrqWKZ52Yvbsd2az58U0/s1600/Canal+bridge+distance.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 320px; height: 213px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719974054438587602" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizpoaUECOa2H6mUg95mWJ5l6FrW-E78Bni5RDiw4-eJ4XHSHk35THVW9T1jGI7HWPQ7XeIwzEsdFMEgixXSLzGg4K0crBM62xMSaihAP2bifgK-n_UxXdxnlEbrqWKZ52Yvbsd2az58U0/s320/Canal+bridge+distance.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxDETgavW0Ed3tuMi2iergA4UA59i5RGiFGxBBwlV7fPP2WAv8SdgaHUoTbnGeOHX6kjrRh9ec8ywenTRND8Lp0RvX2MkC0cqRPtyo_Qc41iYFkLeGWZFxwpP_JY5tN5fP-e1SN2edkaY/s1600/from+Michael+Bukiewicz.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 320px; height: 240px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719973565178435842" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxDETgavW0Ed3tuMi2iergA4UA59i5RGiFGxBBwlV7fPP2WAv8SdgaHUoTbnGeOHX6kjrRh9ec8ywenTRND8Lp0RvX2MkC0cqRPtyo_Qc41iYFkLeGWZFxwpP_JY5tN5fP-e1SN2edkaY/s320/from+Michael+Bukiewicz.png" /></a>These pictures are of the Erie canal as seen from the small village of Medina in Western New York. I thank Mike Bukiewicz and Peggy Silkowski for these gorgeous shots. Now, I ask you-who could live in a place like this and <em>not </em>be inspired in some way? Recently while living in Medina again, the town where I grew up, I got some inspiration of my own. I wanted to write a book, and I wanted it set here. Now it's written and I'm trying to decide what to do next. I become more convinced every day that self publishing is not an option to be ashamed of. I have talked to successful self published authors who say they would not change a thing, will continue to self publish, even though they now have offers from mainstream publishers. It's still up in the air for me. I'm trying to be patient, but at other times, I think, "Why wait?" There are, however, a lot of pitfalls that a professional editor and publisher will get you over. Self publishing, you're a bit more on your own. </div><div>I'm LDS. That means "I'm a Mormon". Especially with Mitt Romney's recent bid for President, there have been a lot of questions floating around out there about those peculiar Mormons. Along with that have been an awful lot of people who just don't like Mormons and who think they know things that they actually <em>don't</em> know. I want people to know that it's okay to ask those questions. We want to answer them! And I decided that I wanted to write a story that would appeal to <em>many</em> different people-not just Mormons, or non-Mormons, or dog lovers, or people from Western New York. I wanted to reach out to all of those people, as well as anyone else who might just want to jump on and go for a ride. I'm going to try and create a brief synopsis of my book, and maybe some of you will tell me what you think. Would you read this?</div><div>Ann Bixby was born and raised as an only child in a small village on the banks of the Erie Canal. When she was 15 years old, the unthinkable happened. Her mother died. Having been raised a devout Mormon, she knew that she and her father would see her mother again-because they know that families are meant to be together forever. After a year of unspeakable loneliness, however, her father decides that living in that town without his beloved wife was more than he could bear. He takes his teen aged daughter and goes to live in Eastern Oregon, where he had a sister. </div><div>And so they moved to an even smaller town than the one they left. Ann thought it was at least "a thousand miles from anywhere". After she had graduated high school, she thought briefly of going off to college, but quickly dismissed the idea of leaving her lonely father even more alone. They lived there for more than ten years. </div><div>Grief struck again. Walter Bixby had joined his wife on the other side. Their daughter, now 27 and alone, had to make a decision. Would she stay, or would she go? And if she went, where?</div><div>(And that, folks, is just <em>background</em>!!) The actual book begins at this point.<br /></div><div>Well, you guessed it-she moves, <em>back</em> <em>home</em>. Her best friend, who was more like a sister growing up, is Kell Harris. Kell and her family still live back in Charlestown, NY (the name I chose for my fictional Medina-I named it after my ancestor, Charles Hecox). The Harris family are a mixed race, African American-Caucasion family and are also LDS. They are like a second set of parents to the tall, quirky, unpretentious Ann. During the process of looking for a place to live, Ann comes across a fellow orphan. She knows immediately that taking him in is the right thing to do. His name is Henry. He is two years old. He weighs 200 pounds. He is a Great Dane. She has never had a dog. She has never had so much as a hamster in her life. But doing the right thing comes naturally to her and she knows that he needs her. </div><div>A dog that big needs a lot of walking, and she spends much of her time doing just that. Thanks to these walks, she meets people she never would have met, people that become as dear and dearer than anyone she has ever had in her life. Representing those that become dear are Mr. and Mrs. Tom Tipple. Tom is a Person of Short Stature who amuses himself by walking about town dressed as an elf during the Christmas season, and who dresses as a large garden gnome during the spring and summer months. Ann mistakes him for an actual statue and almost has heart failure when he speaks to her. For more about the Tipples, read the book.</div><div>Ann buys a house, and one day while out walking, she meets, unbeknownst to her, the town hermit. He doesn't look like a hermit to her. To her, he looks like a male cover model. That's how he looks to everyone else, too, but he isn't aware of it and wouldn't care anyway. His name is Kyle Mendez and he has had enough of people. He is corrosive, off-putting, large and intimidating. He tells her, "I stay away from people. I don't know what they think. I don't care what they think. I don't ask them what they think and they don't tell me what they think." Ann is the first person in a long time who will look him straight in the eye and tell him exactly what she thinks. He knew the first time he saw her, she was different. She didn't know he was a hermit and she wasn't about to let him be one. She begins slowly drawing him out and he can't help but go with her. The story of his past peels back like the layers of an onion, and brings as many tears. Slowly she shows him how to forgive, how to love, and how to live again. She also introduces him to something he never would have predicted would interest him-the Mormon Church. </div><div>She gives him the gift of something he had long forgotten-<em>joy</em>.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>So---would you read it?? Or could you barely get through these few paragraphs?</div></div>Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-82128868146339535892012-03-06T09:46:00.003-08:002012-03-06T12:20:47.039-08:00It's Been A WhileI have noticed in some of the other blogs that I follow that many people are proficient bloggers. I'm not. Sometimes I just can't think of anything to say. But today, I have this to say. Book one is, in my humble opinion, finished and ready to be edited. Book two is also finished, but in that case, when I say finished, I only mean that I need to go back, start at the beginning and rewrite. Rewrite and rewrite. I actually have started to do that. But sometimes I get the feeling that I need to leave it alone. These ficitional people have almost completely taken over my brain. They are like squatters and I am helpless to move them. It's a good thing I like them a lot or I would go totally insane. <br /> I have gone over both books, but especially book one, with a fine toothed comb, looking for spelling errors, punctuation errors, inconsistencies, etc. I have found and fixed many, but if I go through it again, I know I'll find more. A professional editor will, I assume, go through it again and slash ruthlessly with his or her little red pen. I'll tell you why I brought that up. I am currently reading a book that was written by a new friend. It's published, and everything. I love the story, story is great. Characters are likable, leading man is fall-in-lovable, girl is beautiful but sufficiently self-effacing to make us like her too, their friends are all cool and the bad guys are the kind you love to hate. Here's my trouble. An editor's name is listed at the beginning of this book, and so I know that there was an editor. But he did an awful job. <br /> Every page is a study in punctuation and spelling errors. "Hit the breaks!" (paraphrasing) is one glaring error that I can't quite get over. What good is an editor who doesn't spot it when your spell check has substituted there for they're or their? Commas run rampant, put, in the middles, of sentences and places where, commas don't belong, get the message? I can forgive an error here and there. I have read my own over and over and as I said, always find at least one new one that I missed before. <br /> Now my quandry is, what do I do about it? Should I point this stuff out to my friend? Book is already out there, I don't know that there is any point in telling her, and if she is anything like me, she has read it 1000 times herself and should have already noticed some of these things. It makes me wonder more about the publisher than about her as an author. But if my book were to hit the shelves with mistakes that would draw lethal glares from English teachers everywhere, I would go live under a rock for the next 20 or 30 years. Or at least I would think about it. <br /> So, what do I do?Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-55536206889205064872011-12-25T20:31:00.000-08:002011-12-25T20:52:32.737-08:00It's All Greek to MeMan, what a confusing world I seem to have stepped into. Agents, loglines, genres, publishers, queries, shredded queries (cries :'( ), and the list goes on. Here's my current crisis. I can't figure out for certain what genre my book belongs in. That sounds so lame to me. I started out wanting to write a mystery. But it just didn't turn out that way. It's funny in lots of places, and is meant to be. But not frequently funny enough to called a comedy. Maybe a romantic comedy. Chick lit. Hate that term. <br />A tall klutzy girl who can't seem to stay out of trouble moves back to her small hometown, adopts a 200 pound dog, bags (with apparently little effort) the most gorgeous man in town, finds a dead body (faints and nearly falls in the Erie canal), and accidentally becomes embroiled with the town's little band of drug dealers who think she knows all about them (she's clueless). What do you call that? I wish I knew. When I submitted my query to Query Shark for, uh, critiquing (read "paper shredder, suitable for recycling), realized too late that I had claimed the genre "fiction novel". Ok, redundant. An unintelligent term, for which I have no excuse. Not even gonna try. Maybe I'll try a little. All I can say is I went over the thing so much the words were all running together. And there were a whole ot of other terrible things, too. The only comfort I have is that almost every query on that website were similarly shredded. In fact, the administrator tells you right out that you usually won't get posted unless you are really terrible. The more terrible your query, the quicker it's likely to be posted. I am pretty sure I set some kind of a new record. Less than two days. The administrator gives you strict instructions, not to work on that query again for a week. So I am trying to leave it alone. I did sheepishly correct the really stupid grammatical error I made right at the beginning, wherein I failed to state whether a really important character is a boy or a girl. Heh. <br />I do have a friend who is a best selling YA author, and she helped me, and she didn't notice those particular things. She said she thought it was ready to go. And so it went. Oh well. Live and learn! And above all, keep going! <br />I want to say that I admire the bloggers who blog so much, and so much of their efforts are aimed at helping other people find agents and get published. I need to find more of you! Cause, boy I sure do need help...Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5677398489428982850.post-12187746416511329472011-12-17T23:12:00.000-08:002011-12-17T23:59:43.998-08:00I Can Dream, Can't I?I have always wanted to be an author, always always. I wrote my first book somewhere around the third grade. One of the things that got me through academically at school was that a few of the teachers realized I could write. Other stuff, eh. You know how it is. Some people are born multi-talented; you know, those people who were born beautiful, can sing, can play sports like a pro, were prodigies on the piano since the age of three, are out front and center during the entire dance recital, and of course are at the top of their class in every subject. Well, okay, so that isn't me. I can't carry a tune in a bucket, I trip over dust bunnies, never bothered about dance lessons (see previous dust bunnies comment), and most of my teachers probably thought I was a 25 watt bulb in a hundred watt box. Then I graduated from high school.
<br /> Graduating and pulling yourself out of the muck does something for you. A whole new beginning. You can go on to new things and leave everyone's preconceptions about you behind. When I entered college with a campus full of strangers, I realized, here was my chance to change. I was dumb at school because I was convinced I was dumb. But I'm not really dumb. I did okay in college in most subjects-but the ones I aced were English and the writing classes.
<br /> So fast forward about 20 years or so. I played around with writing but never did anything serious. I read the author bios on the back jackets of books and they all seem to say things like "was a newspaper columnist" or "a screenwriter" or "an advertising executive". I have only seen a few that said something like "is a housewife with three kids and a dog..." But the thing that amazes me about this is that the housewife with three kids and a dog writes just as good a book as the columnist or the ad exec. That stuff keeps me going.
<br /> And recently, in the the last two years, I really decided. I am going to do it. I just didn't know what to write about. Lots of people have told me that with my two very interesting autistic children, I definitely have the fuel. It's true. And probably someday I will write about that, when I'm ready. But this time, I wanted to write something that was light and funny. Something that would take me a year to write and you a day to read. I found out quick that there is no inspiration in staring at an empty screen. The inspiration is all out there, out of this seat, out of the house even, hard as it is to get out sometimes. And I know I'm right about that, because the idea for the whole book came to me suddenly when I was out walking my dog. The sight of one lawn ornament later and I was off and running. I went home and started.
<br /> And now it's written. And it took me about a year. Maybe a bit more, since I was not able to work on it continuously. If I got writer's block, I didn't let it bother me. I just lived life and waited. Sometimes I get the most fantastic ideas listening to a song, or by having some ordinary every day experience. Just a month or two ago I got the most fantastic incredible idea when I saw a transvestite in our public library.
<br /> Here's the thing that worries me. Writing the book was easy. Too easy. It almost wrote itself. Sometimes I sat and typed without conscious thought. Sometimes I would get to the end of a scene or a chapter and wonder how I got there. Yeah, that part was easy. Now, the publishing. I need help with this. There are an awful lot of yokels online who say they can help you. What they really want is your money. I'm not against self-publishing. I'm seriously looking into it. I think it can be a great thing. I also think it's dangerous in a way. What if you're honestly not any good? There should be some kind of filter to keep the rabble from getting through (and that includes me. If my book is no good, I want someone who can say, this really stinks, can you change it?). But with self publishing, they take your book and you pay them and they publish it for you. And if you want, you can pay more and they will help you with editing and marketing, etc. I just think you (I really mean me) can get taken in here if you really don't know what you're doing.
<br /> And then there are the agent queries. Gone are the days when you pulled your manuscriot out of your Royal typewriter, removed the carbon paper and stick the whole thing into some envelope to be mailed to some publisher in the hopes of getting someone interested. Now most publishers will not accept manuscripts submitted in this way. You have to have an agent to get you into that particular door. So now, instead of getting the attention of a publisher, you have to get the attention of an agent. There's a million-bajillion of 'em out there.
<br /> If you have the money and an unlimited amount of time off and someone to watch your kids, you can travel all over to writer's conferences where they teach you how to deal with this system and where you might even be lucky enough to get the attention of an agent. Weeeell, I don't meet any of those requirements. So I have to search online. Which I have been doing. I have fallen under the curse of the query letter. You have to pack a synopsis of your life's work into one paragraph or so, along with an extremely short bio of yourself, with maybe the first few chapters or a certain number of pages of your book stuck on the end of your email. If your margins are wrong, if your spacing is wrong, if you haven't typed the proper thing into the subject line, or any other of a large number of pit falls, you will probably be deleted with no consideration whatsoever. They don't waste their time on someone who can't properly write these query letters. Personally, I think they are probably missing out on a lot of great authors that way, but I can't change the world.
<br /> So that's the part of the process I have reached. Sifting through a million-bajillion agents and trying to find the ones who might be interested in me and my little book. And that is my dream. To get my book out there, the first of many-I have the whole series planned out for at least four more books. Number two is almost finished. If I ever get published, I hope you'll buy it!
<br />Jane Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15503008712277275035noreply@blogger.com6