Povember

I am in the middle of an identity crisis.

When I started writing for children and blogging about all of my shining experiences, I was on a break from school. This fall, I have put my student hat back on and MAN, OH, MAN, am I a lost puppy.

The only other time I can compare it to is when I was a server in a semi-busy restaurant. The cups were clanging, voices muffled, Six Pence None the Richer playing faintly, seemingly on repeat in the background. The room would start to spin and I didn't know who the heck wanted what. 

Coffee? Please!

There are people on the patio? Oh yeah! 

I have to take all those dirty dishes off the table? Whoops!

And a lovely customer, screeching,  "IS SHE NEW?!" bringing the entire joint to a stop...(I'm pretty sure even silencing Six Pence None the Richer.)

That confusing, whirlwind of an expereince is EXACTLY what I am reliving now, only this time around I have kids, a muffin top, a messy house, grad courses, and a killer love for children's literature and blogging. The last couple of months, I've felt out of the loop. Due to the demands of schooling,  I have spent less time writing and reading for children than ever and I can't help but wonder, was this just a fluke thing, this whole writing for children business? Is it over? Was I dreamin'?! I mean HOW THE HECK DO PEOPLE DO THIS WITH DAY JOBS?!

And then November hit.

Thank goodness for November.

Actually, I think they should change it to Povember. We must honor the letter "P", because for many of us, it is the symbol of both community and indulgence. Besides being the month of massive amounts of pumpkin pie (double "P" goodness), November is the month of the picture book! While my picture book flame may have been reduced to slight flicker earlier this fall, Povember has really rekindled my writerly motivation, breathing oxygen with the strength of a Galaxy 9000 Leaf Blower DX.

Maybe Target does have it right. Christmas has come early as I far as I am concerned. In my world, Povember is filled with the sweetness of blog posts from children's book industry professionals, TWO FOLD.  First I have the daily posts of Tara Lazar's PiBoIdMo then I click on over to Dianne de las Casa's Picture Book Month extravaganza. (And not always in that order.) The best part is, I get to take advantage of it all over here in my west coast time zone, sneaking peeks the night before. A little treat for me. I really look forward to it. Like a dessert. Just like pumkin pie. I heart Povember.

Here is an awesome video for Picture Book Month done by my amazingly talented and silly, motion graphics designer, friend CARTER HIGGINS!

Pretty inspiring, huh?

And with this I leave you, but not without a wonderfully, wacky quote from the late and great Maurice Sendak on the topic of inspiration:

"I feel it in me like a woman having a baby, all that life churning on inside me. I feel it every day: it moves and stretches, yawns. It's getting ready to get born. It knows exactly what it is."

                                                            THANKS POVEMBER!

   

Picture Book Idea Month

Do you ever feel that as a writer you're missin' somethin'?

Like....support?

Or motivation?

Or ideas?

Well, thankfully children's author Tara Lazar planned for this. November is the month where I will soothe my poor little soul by devouring pie. Oh no, it's not what you think. I will be devouring pumpkin pie after pumpkin pie according to tradition, but the kind of pie to which I am referring is actually: Pi-BoIdMo, also known as Picture Book Idea Month.

That's right folks. By participating in PiBoIdMo, in thirty days, I will be generating THIRTY ideas.

Do they have to be good?

NO!

Do they have to make sense?

HECK NO!

BUT. Some of these measly little ideas could be great spring boards from which other more sensible ideas will bounce, hop, sprout, and grow...hopefully like weeds... pretty ones, maybe even edible, into wonderful and silly stories.

Now, if for some reason I feel doubty and pouty (which I have been known to do), I know that during this great month of "PIE" each day (that's right, EACH DAY) I will have a guest post just waiting to inspire my tushie to carry on, to put the pencil to the paper to... to...  to do just what I love to do: gush over kid lit with writer friends create stories for children.  Some of the best and most creative children's authors and illustrators will be cheering us fellow writers on, sharing stories of triumph and struggle, of feast and famine of writer's block and...unblock? 

And it is less than a month away. Yeesh. I can not wait.