I love the summer, well, I love it more in Alaska, but I love the gardening, the building projects, the flowers, all the outdoor activities. (But it's still hot.)

However, I love the fall as well. The weather is great, outdoor projects are nearly completed AND

School starts!

Yup, I love that part. I'm not teaching these days, not enough time. But I pop in for substitute teaching, and I get to do author visits. This year I'm taking the advice of trusted friends and great children's book authors and do a bit more planning. Hopefully I will be able to schedule at least three visits.

Besides school visits there are more opportunities to do readings and signings at different stores. Last year was fun and I learned a bunch about the process. This year will only be better. My first big reading and book signing will be held at McWha Bookstore in Belton, Texas. The event surrounding this little signing is Belton's Market days. Better than First Monday (anyone in Texas knows about Canton's massive flea market), this event takes up almost all of downtown Belton - all four streets.

Check out their awesome website: http://mcwhabook.wix.com/mcwha
and 'like' McWha's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/McWha-Book-Store/
After all, not every bookstore features and promotes local authors!

Another great event in the fall is the marvelous Texas Word Wrangler, Book Festival, held in the Giddings Public Library in Giddings, Texas. This year we'll be there on September 12. I have two new books to share, and of course a table full of goodies and prizes. I don't think I'll host an art contest for a while, but I may come up with something else by that time.

See the list of this year's authors at: http://www.texaswordwrangler.com/

I can't wait to see you there

        Go big or go home doesn’t work anymore. The rage these days is
tiny - as in tiny house. People are down-sizing for about a hundred different
reasons, to include: lower utility cost, mobility, smaller carbon footprint,
releasing their grip on material things and getting back to the basics. The list
goes on and on, and for every person who chooses this lifestyle, the reasons are
different.

      But – yea, there’s that nasty qualifier – the other side of the
shiny new coin – 

      Living in a tiny house means taking advantage of every inch,
high and low. I’ve gone tiny a couple of times, once even when I had three
demanding teenagers still at home. I can truthfully say that letting go of the
luxury of a large space and too many toys is more difficult than having teeth
pulled.

 I learned something else about living in a tiny house; Kids need
their own spaces and their own décor even more than mom needs a working kitchen
and dad needs his TV.

 How does this translate to writing for young adults? Exactly the
same. Kids have specific needs when it comes to their reading material. Short
chapters, punch, color, style, and make every word count. Teen aged girls want
to melt at the touch of that first kiss. Boys want their hearts to pound and
sweat roll down their faces as that final battle is won – or lost. Young readers
want to soar as the wizard takes flight and they want to shed tears when the dog
dies. 

And the writer’s responsibility is to get those kids to that
point without boring them to the point of tossing that book on the bed and
picking up their X-box. 

Word economy is the same as space economy. In a tiny house the
designer must dig deep and use every imaginable idea, even inventing new
techniques to provide a satisfying and functional living experience. Of course
you can use the space under the stairs for storage, but who ever thought about
actually putting drawers under each stair tread? Use every inch – use every
  word.


1.   Find the words that make up the ‘airspace’ in your story: that, then, there, and all
  those had/have been, and was. Trust me there’s more than you think, and once
  you start excavating them out and replacing them with stronger more vibrant
  verbs and descriptors, the story will take on a new life. Oh, how I wish for a
  great verb dictionary, but I sure do depend on my thesaurus.


2.    Weed out the passive. Use words that pack a punch. Just like a murphy bed with a
  bench seat or a small fold-out table under it creates two rooms in one, write
  lines that move and add tension all at the same time. That full paragraph
  describing the escape from a horrible monster will pump up the action when
  condensed into one or two great lines. It does take practice, about like doing
  push-ups when you’re over fifty.


3.     Mirrors make a small space appear larger the same way showing and dialogue brings a
  reader closer to the action than telling and narration does. For example: She
  cried when he drove away. Or, Tears trailed streaks of mascara down her cheeks
  to her trembling chin and the lump growing in her throat choked back her words,
“I’ll miss you.” Okay, that was, in fact, more words, but also more emotion.


4.     Add voice the way you add color and accessories to your living space. Eggshell
  colored bare walls are as boring as having every character speak the same way.
  Sure your grammar checker may go a little nutty, but your characters will float
  off the pages and into your reader’s hearts if they don’t all speak perfect
  English (or Spanish). Keep in mind, of course, that less is often better, and
  too much is just clutter.


5.    Don’t be afraid to try something new. Same old-same old won’t turn heads. While it’s
  advisable to read and attempt to emulate the greats like Anna Sewell and Mary
  Shelly, whose books, after centuries are still on the shelves, you must attempt
  to build a better mouse-trap. If horror is your cup of tea, try, if you dare,
  to read the original version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. (I only got 20% into it
  on my Kindle before I had nightmares for a month!) Read them, learn from them,
  but for heaven’s sake, try something new. They did, and so did J.K.Rowling.


So, how do you downsize and compact your writing, and when was
the last time you tried to re-invent the wheel?

Finally
I’m invited to join a blog tour – and I go off on vacation! I can tell you, Alaska is well worth the trip, but then I lived there for fifteen years. Now, I’m back in Texas.


Suzanne Purvis invited me to join the World Blog Tour. She is an author and artist and has published several books.

Stop by her blog: http://www.suzannepurvis.blogspot.com/ or her lovely website: http://www.suzannepurvis.com/ .


Who am I? Easier to say who I am not. Eclectic is a pretty good
description, but I’ve been called ‘jack of all trades….’ And you know the rest
of that one. I’ve been an airplane pilot student, a bike rider (Harley
Davidson, of course), a dog musher, and a traveler driving the highways and
byways of the USA. However, I’m a horse woman, a science and reading teacher, a
wife, a mother of three, and Gramma to seven. I built my own house – twice. And,
I’ve been writing stories since childhood. Now I weave that childhood into
fanciful stories of girls and ponies. To date, I’ve self-published three chapter
books with a dozen more on the table. I’m the impatient sort, so after only a
year of queries – I do it myself. Oh, yea, did I mention that I’m hard
headed?


The four questions of the tour:


What am I working on?


Scrambling like mad with revisions on another volume of The
  Black Pony Adventures, middle grade chapter books. This one is called Legend of
  the Superstition Gold. The story sprouted in my head on my first ride into the
  mountains and has been rattling around in there for forty years. I’m also
  putting the final touches on a book of short stories inspired by the art of
  children who entered my contest. They’ll both be on the shelf in September
  2014, whether I get any sleep or not!


I have a romance on the back burner, centered around horses, of
course. I even belted out a 65K mid-grade adventure for NaNoWriMo. That burned
out a couple of brain cells, but I’ll get up the nerve to revise it one of these
days.


How does my work differ from others of its genre?


Horses. Horses with a voice. Maybe that’s not so different from
others, but with my own experiences thrown in, and using the language and terms
I truly love, maybe my words will stand out.


Why do I write what I do?


Because not writing is not an option. Brain clicks – fingers
  twitch – heartbeat races – and if I don’t find a pencil and paper quick I may
  hyperventilate. So much of my work has been confined to a classroom, but a few
  articles have popped up in magazines. The novels flowing from my pen now are
  simply the reflections of a girl who suddenly found herself in a creaky old
  body.


I don’t expect to get rich, or even make a living – but it’s fun
to dream. I write for the joy of watching a child’s imagination grow in the
  pages of a book.


How does my writing process work?


Did I mention eclectic? Does that translate to crazy and mixed
up? Sometimes I word-barf, free-write without stopping to make changes or even
to correct grammar. If I don’t like the way a scene is running, I skip a line or
two and write it again, just as it plays out in my mind like a movie. Sometimes
I start with an idea, draft an outline, create scenes and characters, then join
them together in a rich setting and rushing adventure. Both systems take me back
to the drawing board many, many times, with more gray hair each trip.


I also attend conferences, workshops, and online classes to hone
the craft. And I listen to my critique partners and editors.



I’m grateful for the opportunity to join the blog tour. Thank
you, Suzanne.


However, I’m so very new in the real world of writing
  professionals that I don’t know too many bloggers and I wasn’t able to locate
  three hearty souls to follow the path. But I sincerely hope that my generous
  readers will trace the wanderings of this particular tour and treat themselves
  to truly amazing talent.


Let not the trail grow cold at the end of my path, but press
  onward – to the stars and beyond.