Teeny Tiny

Seven years ago, Mom almost passed me up at the pet rescue event where I was waiting. She said, “She’s too tiny.”

Her old dog, Smoki, was a German Shepherd mix,

and before Smoki there was Sandy, a Golden Retriever mix.

She didn’t know what to do with such a teeny tiny dog like me. When I finally willed her to choose me, she thought I’d need a set of doggie stairs to get on the bed. That was before she saw that I could fly. I’m small, but mighty.

Since then, Mom has faced down my teeny tiny feet,

my teeny tiny belly,

and my teeny tiny brain.

Mom will be facing down another teeny tiny dilemma, soon. She’s invited to read to a couple of classes at a local school for Dr. Seuss‘s birthday – Read Across America Day.

I can’t read, but I’ll celebrate my own way.

The dilemma is that the children she’ll be reading to are teeny tiny pre-k kids. They’re small, but mighty.

Mom’s print book, Keep Your Ear on the Ball is way over their heads – more for 2nd-4th graders.

Her e-book, What If I Don’t? is slightly over their heads – more for kindergarten-2nd graders.

So she headed off to the bookstore. She sat in the cafe and read and read and read.

When her chai latte was finished, she went back to the shelves and read some more.

She’s very happy with her choices: Duck, Duck, Dinosaur for the teeniest of the teeny tiny kids

and My Dog’s a Chicken for the less teeny of the teeny tiny kids.

She giggled when she read them and said, “These are short and sweet.” and “This will be super fun.” and “Why are you hiding under the bed?”

Lovely

My new kitty-friend, Samantha from the blog Musings of PuppyDoc sent me a lovely award called the Lovely Blog Award. I love being lovely, so thanks, PuppyDoc and Samantha! I think your blog is lovely, too!

Now I need to follow the directions of the award. Following directions can be tough, sometimes.

Puppies!!

1-Thank the person who nominated you and link their blog in the post. DONE

2-Copy the rules and add the blog award badge as an image. DONE

3-Share 7 facts about yourself to your fellow bloggers. DONE

4-Nominate 15 people. (Of course I won’t do this, but feel free to nominate yourself. You know you’re lovely…)

Seven facts about me:

9. I lick the floor a lot, searching for something delicious. Delicious things include: crumbs, dropped scraps, errant kibbles, small pieces of paper, dirt or debris from outside, and lint.

452. I love clothes. I wear a dress to visit old soldiers at the veteran’s home

and young readers at the library when I do my therapy work.

I get excited when Mom dresses me because I know the fun is about to begin.

7. I’m pretty sure my toy box is trying to kill me. I will not use it, even though I love to play. Every morning, Mom helps me by picking out some stuffed toys for me.

Seven facts about Mom:

6. Mom writes for an hour a day. She stops when her timer goes off, no matter what. She thinks if she keeps writing till she runs out of ideas, she won’t know what to write the next day.

98. School visits are Mom’s favorite part of being an author. When she reads her books and talks about writing, she feels like a teacher again. She plays games and answers questions. Some of her favorite questions are: “How long does it take to write a story?” and “Where do you get your ideas?” and “My cousin Tommy has a pet hamster.” – which isn’t a question, but it makes her laugh.

 

7. Mom and I are not good at math. Counting and figuring gives us a headache. Mom likes words, but hates numbers. I like barking, but hate numbers.

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!

How It Starts

Starting is always an exciting adventure.

Here I am starting to head into the veteran’s home to do my therapy work.

This is as close as I’m getting to that guy. …Pretty sure he’s trying to kill me.

And starting off for a road trip to the park.

Trees get started from these. Mom says the word, “Don’t eat the acorns!”

Fall colors are finally starting in my neighborhood.

And at the park…

Mom started a new story last week. She is working on it with her online writing class – Making Picture Book Magic.

She had to think up a bunch of different ways the story could start, and then pick the one she liked best.

Probably should keep trying…

She had to do a few more things before she started writing, but then she started. She wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. Then she said, “I have written over 500 words and I’m nowhere near finished.” and “I feel like I’m drowning.” and “Why would you steal blueberries? You don’t even LIKE blueberries!”

Who? Me?

After Mom was finished drowning and finished cleaning up the berries that I chewed and spit out, she started her story all over again. So, that’s how it starts. …and starts again…

 

 

Work in Progress

Around my neighborhood, there are a few works in progress. This vine is definitely a work in progress – trying to grow something. Mom says, “Maybe pumpkins.” I hope not. *shiver* Either way, the flowers are there, but it looks like it needs another year (or ten) before anything will pop out to scare the daylights out of me.

This pile of …. I don’t know what – is another work in progress. Sometimes it seems like road salt, but sometimes, it looks like mulch. I guess it’ll make up its mind eventually.

When Mom was a teacher, she used to stamp her kids’ first drafts with a rubber stamp that read, “Under Construction.”

The kids thought it was fun. Plus that stamp told them to work on revising and proofreading their stories for a little while longer so they would be ready to hang on the bulletin board.

This month, Mom is studying in Susanna Hill’s Making Picture Book Magic class.

Her new story is a work in progress and is under construction in a big way. Every morning, Susanna teaches Mom what to do next in order to have a finished story by the end of the month. Mom does each step and then posts it to their Facebook page so her classmates can see it and talk about it with her. She thinks it’s fun to have a work in progress that moves closer to completion every day.

Something else is a work in progress at our house. A whole box of orange snowball cakes.

Mom is trying hard to eat them all herself. I offered to help, but she said, “No thanks.” and “Dogs can’t eat chocolate.”

and “Your behavior is DEFINITELY under construction.”

 

Countdown Wednesday

It’s back to school time around here. For 52 years of her life, Mom went back to school in September – sometimes as a student and sometimes as a teacher. Today we’re counting down about back to school.

My Back to School Countdown

3. Sleep – A good night’s sleep will make a better learner.

So does a good morning’s sleep and a good afternoon’s sleep

and a good floor sleep and a good street sleep.

I must be the best learner in the world!

2. Friends – When school starts I get to see lots of friends at the library. I am well-behaved and don’t knock over any chairs or bump any tables. I don’t lick the books or the kids’ shoes while they’re reading to me. …Actually I do all of those things, but just a little bit.

1. School Visits – Once in while, one of Mom’s teacher friends tells her to bring me to school to play with the kids for a while. That is my dream come true.

Mom’s Back to School Countdown

3. School Visits – Mom loves visiting kids at school to show her PowerPoint, talk about being an author, and read her books to them. She says it’s the best part of being an author. Bar none.

2. Friends – Now that she’s not a teacher anymore, Mom and a few of her retired teacher friends go out to breakfast on the first day of school and enjoy drinking lots of coffee and talking instead of working.

1. Fear – Mom had a raging case of school phobia when she was in kindergarten. She cried and begged her mother every single day to let her stay home – not for the first few days, but EVERY SINGLE DAY from the first day of school in September till the last day of school in June. That might explain why she writes about being afraid so often. She has a million stories about fear in her computer. It’s apparently her favorite topic.

Luckily, I am much more courageous than she was….

Uh-oh! Pumpkin demons… Help me.

 

GAH! It’s the deadly balloon of doom. *gulp*

 

Five Word Friday

Looking over her stories, Mom is noticing she has three different kinds – some that aren’t ready yet, some that are old and worn out, and some that are just about right. Today’s five words are about growing and changing. It’s good for characters, good for stories, good for authors, good for butterflies, …and good for me.

1. Unripe – New stories need time to ripen up.

Ugh! Green and underdone.

Whenever Mom finishes a story she tucks it away and doesn’t look at it or think about it for a few weeks. It sits in the computer until it gets ripe.

2. Learning – When Mom first adopted me, I apparently did not know how to conduct myself. She had to teach me A LOT of things. Plus she took me to obedience school so she could learn how to make me learn. Wait. What?

3. Overripe – Some of Mom’s stories have been around for years and years. And YEARS. She has revised them and revised them and edited them and overhauled them and submitted them and revamped them. She’s done everything but run them over with her car.

She hasn’t totally ruled that out because they’re going nowhere.

I think this one has been run over by a car…

4. Waiting – Writers do a LOT of waiting. So do I. I wait for Mom to share her breakfast,

Did somebody say pancake?

wait for her to come home, wait for her to go walking with me, wait for her to take me in the car, and wait for my dinner.

5. Just Right – Like the porridge, the chairs, and the beds in Goldilocks and the Three Bears, some of Mom’s stories are just right. They’re not too old and not too new. They’re not too long and not too short. They’re not too blah and not too way out there.

Perfect! May I eat it??

Countdown Wednesday

She finally did it! Mom brought me with her to a school visit. Well… It wasn’t actually a school visit where she had to talk to kids about being an author. She already talked to these kids a few weeks ago. On Monday, we were just picking something up and dropping something off for the kids.

We are counting down about our awesome school visit.

What Mom loved…

3. The teacher used to be Mom’s student a long time ago. Now she is a super-teacher.

That’s her. She’s the first one on the left in the pink jumper –  right next to Young-Mom.

2. The kids made a cute card for us to take home.

1. I was a good girl.

What I loved…

3. Everyone fussed and fussed over me.

2. Through the window, I spotted a playground with swings and slides.

1. Lots of kids gave me treats.

Over here, kids! Mom brought my treat pouch!

27B. I wore my sailor dress.

67. I ALMOST got to play in the playground. Then I got afraid. So Mom said the word, “Forget it.”

*gulp*

52. I relaxed in the back seat all the way home.

6. I didn’t take a street nap, but Mom let me rest for a few minutes in the parking lot.

I’m worn out from all that love. Plus my belly is full of treats.

21W. School visits are the BEST!

Going and Staying

Mom has been going out a lot lately. And I have been staying home a lot.

….bye…

Last week, she visited her old school for Career Day.

She talked to thirty 2nd graders about being an author. They liked when she said she went to work in her pajamas.

They laughed when she said she wishes she could tear up each rejection letter, jump up and down on it, run to her room, and slam the door. They said, “Eeeewwww” when she told them ideas are everywhere, and if they see a dead squirrel squished in the street, they can write a story about it.

Wait. What?

A bunch of the kids said they like to write stories and may want to be authors when they grow up.

This week, Mom visited a 5th grade class in a different school to talk about being an author.

Again? SERIOUSLY??

She told them about the pajamas and the rejections and the squished-squirrel stories.

 

Mom also told them how their teacher used to be her student and how she brought a praying mantis egg case to class and how it HATCHED in their classroom and how hundreds of mantis babies overran the library corner and how Mom had nightmares for weeks.

Mom wrote a story about the classroom egg case and it was published in Humpty Dumpty Magazine. I guess that’s worth a few nightmares.

I did not go to either one of the school visits, but I did have a few nightmares of my own.

They are named the LawnGuys, the Mailman, the FedExDude, and OutsideCats. I had some good dreams, too…

Inspirational Quote of the Week

There is no dishonor in losing the race. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose.

~Garth Stein~

Writers cannot be afraid to lose. Rejection is part of the game plan. Rejections happen so that a writer’s work can improve. Rejections are also the path to finding the right home for a piece of writing. Rejection = wrong home. Acceptance = right home. (That goes for shelter dogs too! Just sayin’.)

My first day at my forever home.

Mom is not afraid. I mean, yes – she’s afraid of bugs. And spiders. And the dark. And germs. And Chinese restaurants (long story). And earthworms (don’t ask). But when it comes to being an author, NOTHING scares her.

Last week, she did a different kind of author visit. She was a guest at Disability Awareness Day. She talked to over 200 kids – a group at a time – at her table.

They also touched the pages of Mom’s book in Braille, typed their names into the iPad to see how they look in Braille, solved puzzles, tested their sense of touch with the objects in Mom’s Touch Box , and walked with their eyes closed using the cane to feel their way around.

Type your name at BrailleBug.

Mom signed books for a bunch of kids, teachers, and parents.

It was a LOT of fun. Plus a LOT of talking, so Mom needed some tea with honey and a few gingersnaps when she got home. And yes – she shared a gingersnap with me!

Last month, Mom tried to take me hiking. Talk about a losing proposition. The trail we tried was icy, muddy, overgrown, and STEEP. But did that scare us away? ….Yes!

…But not for long. Today we tried again – on a different trail.

It was sunny, well-marked, flat, clear, and wide. We didn’t win any races, but we are in the game. And not afraid to lose.

GAH! Hitchhiker butterfly – also in the game….