Countdown Wednesday

Today, Mom and I are counting down about Different Things.

Mom’s Different Things

3. School Visit – Mom took her Powerpoint to a different school in a different town and talked to a different class of 4th graders about writing, being an author, and her book.

2. Ideas – Every November for the past few years, Mom has participated in PiBoIdMo with her writing cyberfriends. They each try to make a list of 30 story ideas in 30 days. This time, PiBoIdMo will have a different name, a different logo, and will take place in a different month. January! Almost time to kick it into high gear.

1. 2017 – In a few days, it’ll be a whole different year. Different resolutions will be made, old resolutions will be reviewed, and new and different hopes and dreams along with unfulfilled old hopes and dreams will wake up and get a fresh start.

My Different Things

3. 2017 – I have big plans for the new year. In 2017, I will take naps, play with my toys, eat lots of treats, and do therapy work with my grown-up friends at the Veteran’s Home and my little friends at the public library. Wait. What? That’s no different than 2016…

2. School Visit – I put on my begging face, but Mom wouldn’t take me to school with her.

So, I waited at home while she was at her school visit. I slept in my chair, looked out the window,

ate the treats that came out of my spy camera,

Treats stuck inside! GAH!

and tried to be a good girl. Wait. What? That’s no different than every other day…

1. Ideas – Mom won’t be the only one generating ideas this January. I have a few different ideas that I plan to execute soon:

67. Eat my pawboots once and for all.

Aarrgh! I can’t feel my feet!

48. Dig under the snow to see if there are any French fries under there.

My feet are too cold to dig right now…

9. Flat-out refuse to go inside when I want to play in the snow.

No.

27. Nap in odd places.

10. And ban antlers from my wardrobe. Forever.

Not cool…

Countdown Wednesday

Today, Mom and I are counting down about Thanksgiving. No surprise there, I guess – seeing as how it’s Thanksgiving week….

My countdown

3. Leftovers – I never get to eat turkey leftovers. Mom eats dinner at a fancy restaurant and apparently forgets I exist while she’s there… except when she spies on me through my Petzi Treat Cam on her phone. It gives me treats while she’s gone, but no turkey.

Drumstick, please….

2. Special Foods – Holiday time is filled with special foods. Like turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and… acorns. My friend Marg says her donkeys Joe and Smoke eat acorns all the time. I am not allowed. Apparently I am only a “donkey” when I get afraid and can’t move.

1. Gratitude – There is so much gratitude in my heart, I would need 5 kabillion blog posts to express it all. I am grateful for our family, humanfriends, dogfriends, cyberfriends, treats, toys…

…therapywork, naps, cuddles, kisses, and car rides.

And that’s just for starters…

Mom’s countdown

3. Leftovers – When Mom’s list of thirty PiBoIdMo ideas is finished, some will make amazing stories, some will become poems, and some will be stale, dried up leftovers. It happens. Sometimes when Mom takes my picture, she has a few leftovers that don’t exactly make the cut.

Who turned off the lights?

2. Gratitude – There is so much gratitude in Mom’s heart, she would need 6 kabillion blog posts to express it all. She is grateful for our family, humanfriends, dogfriends, cyberfriends, treats, toys…

…therapywork, naps, cuddles, kisses, car rides and ME!

And that’s just for starters…

1. Butterball – ‘Nuff said.

Inspirational Quote of the Week

 

Um… No. Not EVERY leaf is a flower. Some are crunchy, brown, dead things that need to be raked up or blown away with noisy machines that I’m pretty sure are trying to kill me.

Some of them, though ARE flowers! They’re blindingly colorful and drift softly down from the trees and glitter and glow right in the middle of all the ugly ones.

Autumn leaves are kind of like ideas. Mom is collecting ideas this month and writing them into her phone.

Some are already crunchy, brown, and dead. Some have mold….

…or holes in them.

Some are all wet.

These will most likely not go any farther than the list.

But every now and then, there are some beautiful, colorful ones floating down and sparkling in the sunshine. Mom needs to jump on those before they get away.

Got ’em!

 

 

Finishing and Starting

Mom will be finishing her Picture Book Magic class this week. Next week, she’s starting PiBoIdMo!

Sheesh! She’s barely finishing one thing and she’s starting another!

I like finishing my dinner…

and then starting to beg for other people’s dinner.

And finishing a car ride…

and starting a street nap before Mom drags me into the house.

In the month of November, people like Mom in the PiBoIdMo challenge have to think of a new idea for a new picture book every day of the month. That’s 30 new ideas in 30 days.

I haven’t had 30 ideas since I was born! Mostly my ideas are all the same. Eat treats,

take a nap,

steal food,

take a walk.

Well, I’m finished with my latest car trip and ready to start Read to a Pet Night at the library . Let’s do this!

Change of Scenery

Sometimes a doggie needs a change of scenery. New chair,

new bed,

new place.

Yeah. That happened. While there were painters at my house trying to kill me, Mom and I got out of the way and stayed at a hotel. It was a whole new place to be. It’s scary, but if you tuck in your tail and slick back your ears, you can get through it and even settle in, lie down, and rest up after a while.

A change of scenery is good for getting ideas.

Since Mom is up to her eyeballs in PiBoIdMo, she needs ideas to keep trickling into her head so they can be typed into the list on her phone. A change of scenery is the perfect way to make that happen. Sometimes it’s as simple as a walk in the park.

Sometimes it’s a ride in the car.

Or shopping. Or the gym. Or a visit to the *gulp* vet

or *yay* Petco.

Or a short-stay at a pet-friendly hotel.

As far as ideas go, change is good. And it can’t hurt to have a special idea-getting-coffee-mug …with a picture of an idea-getting-dog that looks suspiciously like ME!

Wait. What?

We’re In!

On November 1 PiBoIdMo started around here.

(BTW – If you click the link, you’ll see a dog that looks a little like me. Thanks, Tara – I think PiBoIdMo is all about me! It is…. Isn’t it?)

Mom has been in it since 2012. It makes her list of story ideas grow by leaps and bounds, so she joined up again this year. She keeps the list in her phone so she doesn’t lose it. And so nobody accidentally eats it.

Accidents happen…

Every single day this month, she will write down a new idea for a book she might want to write.  One of her PiBoIdMo ideas from 2012 became Mom’s first ebook this year!

Authors need a lot of ideas, just like doggies need a lot of toys.

I have no shortage of ideas in my tiny brain, either, FYI. Here are 12 of my favorites…

1. Snuggle on a rainy day.

6. Eat the sprinkles first.

41. Wear velvet at Christmas time.

9. Check the garbage can for pizza crust.

and 12. SMILE!

Difficult

Going to the vet is difficult. Once we’re in, Mom won’t let me leave, no matter how terrified I look…

or how hard I stare out the door.

Hiding under the high metal table doesn’t help.

So it’s shots, blood stealing, poking, squeezing, feeling, listening, looking, and checking. Whew! Of course there are some cuddles and kisses and treats along the way, too.

For Mom, finishing a story is difficult. Not the actual finishing – once she imagines and writes herself to that point, the ending just happens. But then it gets tough because it’s time to get a new idea to start a new story.

Mom starts to wonder if she’ll ever get another idea as long as she lives. What if nothing starts cooking in her head? Ever. GAH! Thank goodness she has her idea list in her phone. After she worries for a little while, she does some poking, squeezing, feeling, listening, looking, and checking. Whew! Of course there are some cuddles and kisses and treats along the way, too.

Eventually, she picks a few things from the list, mish-moshes them together, mind-writes for a while, and she’s back on her way imagining and writing her way towards the next ending!

Wait! What? Does this mean I have to go back to the vet AGAIN?

Frenzy

Sometimes, when I play with my monkey in a barrel, it puts me into a frenzy. There’s just too much going on! Too much to do. Too many possibilities. Bite the barrel? Tear off the lid? Growl at the talking? Rip the monkey’s face off? Chew his arm till he stops laughing? Shake the whole thing till I’m dizzy? I don’t know what to do first.

Since NewYears, Mom has also been in a frenzy. She’s not biting, tearing, growling, ripping, chewing, or shaking, like me. But she does have a lot going on, a lot to do, and a lot of possibilities. She may have bitten off more than she can chew. I’ve done that occasionally, too…. (And by “occasionally” I mean every day.)

Gah! Why is my mouth so tiny?!

Mom has entered a ton of challenges, and made a bunch of goals for herself this year. She will read 200 picture books in the Goodreads Challenge again,

she joined 12×12 for 2014, which means she needs to write a new first draft in the next few weeks,

she’ll get 30 new ideas when PiBoIdMo starts,

and she will write 30 poems this year.

In between all those jobs (and a bunch of others – if you can believe such a thing), Mom decided to enter the Highlights Annual Fiction Contest this month, AND take Susanna Hill’s Making Contest Magic class this week.

So Mom is learning, mind-writing, registering, paypal-ing, reading, commenting, revising, studying, listing, rhyming, critiquing, and ….do you see what’s missing here??

Snow pea?? Blech! I may have bitten off more than I can chew again.

Rocky, over at my friend Bacon’s blog told me that January 6 was National CuddleUp Day. So I made sure Mom took some time out to celebrate. Actually, I will make sure we celebrate that thing EVERY day!!

Finished

Dinner is finished. I can tell by my empty dish.

The Nutcracker Ballet is finished. I can tell by the SugarPlum Fairy dancing…

…and Clara waking up.

You mean we can’t play King of the Hill??

The snow is finished. I can tell by this little pile of black mush which is called Get-Away-From-It-It’s-Filthy.

Mom is finished with her Goodreads Reading Challenge. She read 200 books this year, just like she planned.

She is finished with PiBoIdMo, too. She made a list of 30+ ideas, just like she planned.

Now, 2013 is about finished, but Mom isn’t ready. She has one more thing to finish. It’s her second year of The12x12 Challenge. That means she planned to write 12 picture book manuscripts in 12 months. But she’s only got eleven-and-a-half stories finished. She needs to buckle down and get to the end of her 12th story before the end of the year.

Mom says, “It doesn’t count if it’s inside my head.” and “This is a tough time of year to catch up.” and “Dinner is finished. Get over it. You will eat again tomorrow.”

Combinations

There are lots and lots of breeds of dogs.

Nobody is really sure what combination I am. Part Jack Russell for sure, and maybe some Beagle or Dachshund or Dalmation or ….Monkey or Bobcat.

Whatever the mix, I’ve turned out to be perfectly me. Not perfectly perfect, but with a bunch of good parts put together (and a little naughty streak for good luck).

Is that…? Is he…? Am I…?

I’m an original.

Wait. What?

Mom keeps idea lists in her phone. One of the lists is called PiBoIdMo2012. It has 32 ideas.

One is called PiBoIdMo2013. It has 35 ideas.

And one is called Story Ideas. It has 42 ideas. Some of the ideas are already used up, so Mom marked them with a star. She says, “An author needs lots of ideas.” and “My phone is always nearby, in case I think of anything.” and “Do you have the hiccups?”

Hic….

When Mom starts a new story, she doesn’t always pick one of the ideas from her phone. Sometimes, she picks two ideas or even three and puts them together to make a combination. It’s not perfectly perfect, but it’s perfectly her. Idea mixing makes stories have some surprises and some unexpected events and unique characters in odd places doing unusual things.

And yes, sometimes I have the hiccups.