Author website unveiled!

Well, I haven't gotten much done since we added a dog to the household, but I did put the finishing touches on my author web site, a place where you can find bats and blue jays and flower flies, oh my.

Are you ready? Drum roll please... my NEW AUTHOR WEB PAGE, designed by my wonderful writer friend (and awesome web designer) Astrid Paramita.  

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Please go, then come back and tell me what you think! (If there are issues with readability, they're fixable, and I'd like to know about 'em.)

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

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New arrival

This week is one of change. We've been thinking about getting a dog for a while now, but the local Humane Society has very few and those that come in are usually gone the next day. So when my husband pulled up their web site and found this guy, we knew we had to act fast.

Meet Koda (who, incidentally, looks a bit like Yoda). He's adjusting to life in our family with terrific speed, and we're just so glad to have him. Somehow, it feels like a home, now that he's here.

Do you have pets? What's your favorite thing about them?

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Vote for the Net

I couldn't figure out how to make my blog black and still recover it afterwards, so consider this black. I am against censorship and broadly-written laws that would enable censorship. That does NOT mean I am in favor of internet piracy or copyright infringement, but SOPA and PIPA are not the answer to those problems.


PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.


Let politicians know that they'll feel heat from the voters if they stand against a free Internet and freedom of expression (click on the image below).

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12x12 in '12

I love watching my friends' successes. I get caught up in the excitement. Every now and again there might be a twinge of envy, but honestly, I'm just so thrilled for them. They've worked hard to be where they are and their successes are hard won.

Such is the case with one of my wonderful critique partners, Julie Hedlund. Julie's been working hard to build her blog (very successfully, I might add), and she just launched the 12x12 in '12 challenge to write 12 picture books in 12 months. She's got well over 200 participants. to kick it all off, Katie Davis just released her first 2012 Brain Burps About Books podcast featuring... Julie.

Click that last link and listen up, folks (even if you don't write PBs). There's a lot of great information here! Congratulations Julie!

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Zen moments

I just had to share this incredible time-lapse photography. Take three minutes out of your day to watch the beauty of nature. With thanks to Stephen Messer, who first passed this along.


The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

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What's in a name?

Happy New Year!

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Bruce Coville wrote about resolutions versus goals on Facebook yesterday, and it really hit home.

He said he sets new year's goals, rather than making resolutions. Why? Goals provide you something to work toward. They keep you moving forward. Resolutions? Not so much. With resolutions, you either keep them or you don't. Very few people keep their resolutions, certainly not throughout the entire year. Bruce argues that by making resolutions, you are setting yourself up to fail.

Perhaps it's all semantics, but I like the idea of setting achievable goals. Writing them down and checking my progress as the year progresses. It seems like a more realistic approach to self-improvement (which is, after all, the purpose of resolutions, is it not?).

My goals?

• Revise Thunderstruck to get it just right and query, query, query. 
• Write up that picture book that's been rattling around in my head for the past 18 months.
• Get my articles into at least three new magazines.

There are others, but they're pretty lofty, so I think I'll keep them for myself.

What are your goals for 2012?

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