Some YA Books Dontated! Yippy!

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of meeting fellow writer Joanne Levy at a local coffee shop. We had meet through twitter and have been corresponding ever since.

When I sent out a tweet about the book drive my work was doing for Habitat for Humanity, Joanne was one of the first people to pipe up. She wanted to donate some books. Fantastic! When we met we talked for a bit and I expected her to hand me a book or two. I was shocked when she hoisted up onto the table a bag FULL of YA books. Ten in all. Yes, TEN.

After picking my jaw up off the floor, we went through the books - some even signed. I cannot believe how generous people can be for people they have never met.

Below is a photo and a list of the books Joanne has donated.

• Radiance by Alyson Noel (x2)
• Trance by Linda Gerber (x2 - 1 which is signed)
• Wake by Lisa McMann (x2 - both signed)
• Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood by Eileen Cook
• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (signed by Margaret Stohl)
• Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (signed)
• What Would Emma Do? by Eileen Cook
  

Joanne, thank you so much for the wonderful books. You're so generous. They look like fabulous books and I think I am going to have to go buy some of them for myself. I'm sure the families going into these HFH new homes will love them.

Interested in donating a book to the book drive? Please email me at auntieflamingo@gmail.com or visit me on twitter @auntieflamingo for more information.

Your help is needed. We need books for children of all ages.

NaPiBoWriWee Day 2

Good Morning

It's day 2 of NaPiBoWriWee. Some how I finished my first picture book manuscript last night. Not sure how I squeezed it in. I probably stayed up later than I should have. I'm feeling sluggish this morning. I guess staying up late and getting up at 5 AM to tend to a sick baby 3 days in a row will do that to ya. Here I am Sunday morning, no makeup, drinking my first cup of coffee to try to get myself going. Can you tell what's on my mind?


(Be nice, I'm half asleep here)

While drinking my coffee Jim Hill and I had a little twitter conversation about being distracted today by children's shows on TV. There are some great shows and we both admitted we liked watching them. Sometimes I find some great story ideas from them. (Without copying them. You don't want to do that!) Here is a great writing exercise: Watch the beginning of a children's show and then write the ending using the characters from the show. I often watch the ending of the show afterwards and compare the endings. This helps me get my creative juices flowing for writing my picture book ideas. (Just so I'm clear: I am not suggesting you steal ideas from TV to write your books. Come up with your own ideas.)

So today I am unsure which story I will tackle next. I have one rhyming idea which I might work on that little by little throughout the week, one story idea that doesn't have an ending and several more I have to go lookup because I'm too tired to remember. :) I'm looking forward to writing today and now that I have had my coffee I feel ready to go.

How are you doing today? Did you need your coffee? How do you get your creative juices flowing? Let me know what you're thinking or send a comment just to say Hi.