Nana's Teaching Moment

I had the family over for dinner the other day and GS2, who is 10, said the word, "Crap." Since I am a rhetorician, I wanted him to understand that in some cases, he would not want to say that word. We had the following dialogue at the table:

Nana (me): Just so you know, that word is not right for some situations.
GS2: Why not?
Nana: Some people think it's vulgar and they'd think you were vulgar, too.
S1: What Nana means is that you shouldn't use the word in polite company.
GS1: I don't think he even knows any polite company.
GS2: I know Nana.

Good news from Junior Library Guild

Just got news that my book has been picked as a Junior Library Guild sort-of book of the month for July. My editor says I should be very excited. The Junior Library Guild has been around since the 1920s and chooses what they consider the best books of the year and then sells them to school libraries and municipal libraries all over the USA. Some other authors I know say that my publisher will then need to increase the number of books printed to accommodate the increased number of sales, which is way cool. In accordance with my editor's instructions, I am excited.

Writing Tips

So, D4 emailed me and asked how to get short stories published. Here is what I told her, more or less.

Go to your local library and sit down with the latest Writer's Market. (You could look up Writer's Market on-line, but I think they require a membership subscription. There are other on-line lists of publications as well, but make sure the information is accurate before following it.) Look up the type of publication or magazine you want to publish in. Copy the information. Look at copies of the publication in the library and read some of the short stories in them to see if they fit with your writing style and if you want to be affiliated with that publication. Go home and look up your chosen publications' web sites to verify submission policies and editors' names. Write a short submission cover letter for your story and then follow the submission instructions for each publication to the letter. Write some more stories.

Writing Tips

My daughter, D3, wrote a terrific novel. She let me read the first draft and I couldn't put it down. Of course, there are problems. With a first draft there always are. But D3 did the right thing in asking people to read the manuscript and make comments. Sharing your work is the best thing you can do for your writing other than writing a lot, if you recognize that your readers will have different opinions and that some will be more skilled than others. However, if you are going for a particular age group or gender audience, it's always good to have people in that group read your manuscript, if you can. If you don't have someone you can ask to read your work, you can join one of the many on-line writers groups.

Here is the other photo

This one is from my porch to the north.

Just wanted to show how beautiful it is today.

Here are a couple of photographs from my front porch today, January 27, 2009. We have such gorgeous mountains that I pity people who don't live here.

A Blogger mentions my book

I googled my book and found that a blogger (Chasing Ray, actually Colleen Mondor, who is a reviewer for Booklist, Bookslut, Eclectica Magazine and the Voices of New Orleans.), checked out the Houghton Mifflin catalog on January 16 and chose my book as one of the books she is looking forward to. She says,

The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival: Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low, illus by Jen Corace. Okay, the tagline "a mysterious and lively romp through Edwardian England in 1903" caught my eye as well as the charmingly retro cover but this description - this description is one of the best I've seen ever: "You would think Petronella’s sixteenth birthday would be cause for celebration. After all, fashionable friends are arriving at her country estate near London, teas are being served, and her coming out party promises to be a resplendent affair. Everything is falling nicely into place, until, suddenly—it isn’t. For Petronella discovers that her guardian, Uncle Augustus T. Percival, has developed a most unVictorian compulsion: He must eat bugs. Worse still, because he is her guardian, Uncle Augustus is to attend her soiree and his current state will most definitely be an embarrassment.
During the festivities, when Petronella would much rather be sharing pleasantries with handsome Lord James Sinclair (swoon), important guests are disappearing, kidnapping notes are appearing, many of the clues are insects, and Uncle Augustus is surreptitiously devouring evidence. It’s more than one sixteen-year-old girl should have to deal with. But, truth be told, there is far more yet to come . . ."

That is not a description that can be resisted, no way, no how.


So you can see why I'm excited.