Inspirational Quote of the Week

The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Mark Twain

There’s been plenty of lightning and thunder the past few weeks around here.

It’s been bright and loud and unexpected and wild and relentless. I am not afraid of the lightning and thunder at all. Mom says I am afraid of so many things, I don’t have room in my brain to be afraid of storms. Actually, I kind of like these crazy storms, because they make Mom stay home with me.

I also kind of like lightning bugs.

Whenever Mom takes me out at night, I see those blinky things flying all over the place. She won’t let me chase them, though. She says, “Don’t pull me!” and “Heel!!” and “That’s enough craziness for one day. It’s time for bed.” I haven’t caught a lightning bug yet. But when I do, I’m pretty sure it’ll taste like lemon candy.

Mom is not nuts about storms or bugs, but she is nuts about words. They are her favorite things in the world (besides me).

She writes words and counts words and reads the words out loud to herself. Then she deletes them and changes them and takes some out and puts some new ones in. She is ALWAYS looking for the right word.

Mom says adverbs are poison. I am not allowed to eat poison. I tried it once and it wasn’t fun.

Mom uses SmartEdit to find the poison adverbs and get rid of them and then she searches in the  Thesaurus to replace them with a perfect verb that does the same job only better. “Walked quickly, looked carefully, and laughed loudly” are OUT. “Raced, inspected, and roared” are IN.

Maybe tonight, “Heel” will be OUT and “Gulp. Slurp. Yum- Lemon” will be IN.

Inspirational Quote of the Week

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
~Albert Einstein~

 I use my imagination a lot. Mostly I imagine things that are trying to kill me and then I try to hide from them. Mom drags me near them to show me that they’re not dangerous. That makes me shiver. Sometimes, she picks me up and carries me, but sometimes she is just not in the mood, so we cross the street and decide to fight that battle another time.

I use my imagination to pretend things too. I pretend the street is my bed.

I pretend Mom is going to take me with her in the car.

And I pretend she won’t notice if I walk on the glass table as if it’s the floor.

Mom uses her imagination a lot, too. She tells the students she visits that they should always start with a tiny, little seed of an idea and make it grow by mind-writing. That’s because even though an idea is a good beginning, the best parts of the stories she writes come from her imagination.

Imagination comes easy for both of us, but knowledge is TOUGH. Mom has some knowledge, but not the kind that has to do with math. I have a tiny brain, so there isn’t a lot of room for knowledge in there. In spite of this, Mom insists on teaching me new things all the time. She says, “Find it!” and “Fetch it!” and “Drop it!” and “Touch it!” and “Leave it!” and “26+18?? GAH! Where’s the calculator?”

Lately, Mom is teaching me to find things by sniffing. Here I am trying to sniff out a bacon treat. I know it’s somewhere – In the boxes. Or near them. Or under the rug. Or behind the toy. Or…. GAH! Where’s the calculator?

School Visit

I want to say for the record that going to school was as much fun as I predicted it would be. Wait! No! It was TEN times more fun! When Mom and I arrived, everybody was working in groups to invent their own original math games. We were impressed. These kids sure do love to learn!

The first place I discovered was the shelf with the lunchboxes. Mom said, “We are NOT staying for lunch.” and “Don’t even think about it.”

Then I saw a poster that looked a lot like me. but I noticed it said the word, “Listen Up” which clearly has nothing to do with my life.

The whole time I was there, I was kissed and held and cuddled and touched and hugged and carried and petted like crazy.

The kids showed Mom and me the picture books they wrote and illustrated. Now Mom is worried because they are definitely steep competition for her.

They even gave Mom and me a thank you card with lots of words inside and cupcake stickers on it. Perfect.

After all that fun and love, I was exhausted, so I rested in the car and then took a quick street nap when we got home.

Mom has another school visit on Thursday. I wonder what I should wear…

Sharing

Mom went to a school visit last week to share her book with some 5th graders.

They were a wonderful audience and asked lots of fun questions. They are also writers and are working on writing their very own pictures books! Mom wasn’t too surprised by this because their teacher used to be one of Mom’s students, way back when Mom was a teacher. She was a smart little girl and lots of fun. Now she is a smart 5th grade teacher and still lots of fun. Here she is when she was little – she’s the one in the pink dress standing right next to Mom.

In fact – when that 5th grade teacher was in Mom’s class, she brought a praying mantis egg case to school for show and tell and it opened up and released tons of praying mantis babies all over Mom’s classroom! And THAT’S what Mom wrote about in Humpty Dumpty Magazine this month in her story called Show and Tell Surprise.

She shared that story with the 5th graders and gave them a copy of the magazine to keep in their classroom.

Mom loves sharing. Sometimes she shares with me. We share the big chair in the living room,

we share the bed,

she shares her coffee,

and her car.

And if I beg hard enough, sometimes she shares her food with me.

On Monday, Mom will share ME with the 5th graders! Yes, it’s true. They invited me to come along for the ride when Mom goes back to visit them and deliver some books. Road trip!

Five Word Friday

Today’s five words are about important parts.

1. Eyes. When my eye opens, it can look out for danger and treats and toys ….and mischief. When a story opens, it determines whether a reader will continue reading or say, “Whatever…” and go on to something else.

2. Nose. My nose is always on the move – twitching and sniffing and nudging all day. It tells me where my friends are, and helps me find crumbs on the floor, treats in Mom’s pocket, and goose poop. Yum. A story has to keep moving, too. Every single word has to make something happen otherwise, it’s gotta go.

3. Nails. Nails are a problem for me. It’s not just the two-tone colors of them, but also the fact that they keep growing. A story needs to have a problem, and the problem has to keep growing, too. The characters have to spend the whole story trying to make it better, but the problem has to get worse….just like my nails.

4. Ear. My ears stay alert, in case I hear any of my favorite words: dinner, treat, car, out, park, go-get-it, wanna-go, bacon, and kisses. Words in a story need to be playful and sound smooth. They need to tell the story, but show more than tell.

5. Tail. My tail has a mind of its own. It smacks Mom in the face, wags when I see friends, and hides underneath me when I’m afraid. The tail end of a story needs to wrap up what happened, and make the readers feel good.

All those parts (and about ten million more – including a lot of heart) need to fit together just right to make a perfect story. Or a perfect dog.

Park Day

I am celebrating Park Day with some blog friends named Finn and Gizmo. Mom takes me to the park a lot. I am very happy there. Yes, this is my happy face….

One of my favorite parks is in Nutley, NJ.

It has BABY SWINGS!

When I am on the swing, I think, “I can stay here forever.” and “I hope some of my friends see me over here.” and “I wish we had a swing at the house.” and “I wonder if I’ll ever be big enough for the grown-up swing…”

The park is a great spot for dogs, and also for writers. Ideas are all over the place. When Mom looks at the swing, she thinks, “What if….” there were an alien on the swing, or a bully or a fish or a clown. And “What if…” the swing were magic, or broken or a spaceship or a nest. And “What if the swing…” tossed a kid up into a tree, or started talking or had a fight with the slide or started growing. And “What if…” someone got stuck in the swing, or was afraid of it or wanted to build one or figured out a new way to use it.

I think Mom wants to stay there forever, too! But we can’t. We have other things to do….

Unexpected

Picture books and poems work better if they have something unexpected in them. Besides originality, an opening that captures the reader, complex characters, conflict, cause and effect, solution, setting, wordplay, rising stakes, humor, a satisfying ending, and a dog….

… (OK. I made that last one up.), a story needs a surprise. It could be a dragon who likes to cook, crayons that make magic drawings, baby birds hatching inside a motorcycle helmet,

 Photos courtesy of Gemma – http://firstandfabulous.wordpress.com

a super hero baby, or a dog who paints like an artist….. Unexpected surprises. They help make stories and poems more FUN.

I found an unexpected surprise outside by the laundry room stairs, yesterday.

A hairbrush. Why?

Wait! What??

Why is there a hairbrush in the grass outside? Were neighbors fixing their hair before doing laundry? Was a student walking to school doing her hair because she was late? Is the groomer from Petco hiding behind a tree waiting to brush my fur?

What will happen to the hairbrush? Will spiders move in between the bristles and build webs? Will grasshoppers walk through and think they’re in a forest? Will a baseball fly over the garages and land on top of it? Will the lawn guys mow it?

If it’s still there tomorrow, I am going to taste it. I hope the super doesn’t come by and put it in the garbage when he cleans up…. That would be NO FUN.

Countdown Wednesday

Spring has finally sprung around here, so Mom took me to the park. Today, we will count down what we learned there.

What I Learned at the Park

3. Cigars are delicious. At the baseball field, I found a cigar butt. It was all crushed and stepped on, but I liked it anyway. Mom said the word, “Don’t you dare eat that.” She says that a lot. I sat and guarded the cigar for a little while, and I managed to lick it once or twice when she wasn’t looking.

2.  Bats smell good.  There was a dead bat behind one of the benches. I sniffed him and wanted to sit with him (taste him), but Mom said the word, “Get away! Get away! Get away!” She says that a lot, too.

1. Flowers are pretty. We saw some little flowers that looked like stars. They were pretty, but they got even prettier when Mom added me to the picture.

 

What Mom Learned at the Park

3. Pick and choose.  The dead bat, crushed cigar, and yellow flowers reminded Mom of her idea list on her phone. Some of the ideas are dried up and petrified, some stink, and some look like stars. She tries to always pick an idea that seems like a star.

2. Sit with the stars. When Mom starts a new story, with a star idea, she mind-writes with it for a while. She needs to add lots of good stuff to the idea till it becomes a story. She added ME to the star flowers at the park, but she doesn’t add me to all of her stories. I wish she would….

1. Get away. After a story is finished, Mom has to get away from it for a while. She doesn’t think about it or look at it or work on it for a week or two.  After she’s away long enough, she can see the story more clearly – what’s good, what needs work, and what stinks.

If I stay away from the park for a week or two, maybe I can go back and see what stinks.  Yay! I can’t wait!

 

ABC

One of Mom’s newest manuscripts is an alphabet book named The Naughty Dog ABC Book. 

It is NOT about me.

It’s about dogs that are naughty.

Not me!

Lots of publishers don’t like ABC books. Mom looked around and saw that Charlesbridge, The Creative Company, and Capstone still kind of like them, though. So when The Naughty Dog ABC Book is ready, that’s where she’ll send it.

These three lines are not in the book, but I think they should be.  They are about me.

A is for Action – which is the opposite of this!

…And this.

B is for Ballerina – wearing the tutu makes me want to twirl! (with a couple of Cheerios to keep my core strength up…)

C is for Cupcake – that’s me!

Inspirational Quote of the Week

It’s not always about looking forward to what’s ahead of you. Sometimes it’s all about looking back at the things that define you.
~Amina Tabasum~

Mom likes looking ahead – to the next idea, the next manuscript, the next book, the next poem. But sometimes, she HAS to look back. It’s her worst part of writing. She gets ideas all the time, mind writes, writes on the computer, and takes her characters from the beginning to the end – not always in that order.

Then it’s time to revise. *gulp* She is forced to look back at the story she liked (loved) a lot and start deciding what she hates about it. There are even some rules to follow. Like the rule of three, building conflict, and making the ending special by solving a problem, bringing a twist, or circling back. Nobody likes rules. Ugh. Even though looking back is difficult, it has to be done because it makes stories better. So she looks back at every single story she writes, and fixes and fiddles and cuts and corrects and tightens and turns things upside down. Mission accomplished.

Mom looked back in her rear view mirror while we were driving to the Veteran’s Home on Saturday. This is what she saw.

It’s because of this!

I was heading to work to get petted, eat treats, cuddle, give kisses, and make people smile.

Mission accomplished…