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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

It's been too long

I seemed to have fallen off the bike and it's been easier to stay off then get back on. Everyday I see this blog and think I need to....then move on. It's time I let you know what's going on. There is so much, I hope I don't miss anything important.

I have been reading Bigfoot books this past month and collecting information for a character in an upcoming children's book. Haven't found a title, but I do have a short outline. I'm thinking this will be a middle grade, short novel.

So many stories going on in my head, my book of titles is getting full. I really need to write instead of coming up with ideas.

Speaking of writing, here are a few articles I've written for familyshare.com since my last update:

This article contains some great safety items to keep in your car. Since Thom, my husband, is a mechanic we've always traveled with our car full of safety items. Many times these have been used and I've been thankful for their presence.
I'm sure this is why our marriage has lasted this long. When one looks past the here and now and takes on an eternal perspective, life becomes less tangled when you remove the stupid stuff.
I love to garden, but I find as I'm getting older it's harder to bend that low. I found raised garden beds to be the answer.
These ideas and many more have saved the day in our household when we couldn't go outside. Some were even great homeschooling projects/aids.

Four more are in the writing-editing process.

I've submitted a couple of articles to our local newspaper and have not had them successfully published. Will continue doing so when I find something locally interesting. If they had time to give me feedback, I might know where I'm going wrong. I do read their articles and try to emulate them, but I must not be doing well enough. They are interested in another 'stringer' so I know it's not because they don't want articles.

I received back Assignment 7. It still needs a lot of work. Will have to do that later in the year. Working on Assignment 8. I'm writing about the Everglades. My instructor felt there is so much out there that I need to find a unique story. I think I found it. Will let you know as it progresses.

We were on vacation last week. We went to Inverness, Florida with the Florida Land Rover Club. We took lots of pictures. Can't wait to see them on the computer. I bought a Canon Rebel for my husband at Christmas from a pawn shop and it didn't come with the disk. I tried to download the drivers at the Canon site, but it didn't work. Ours is an older one and uses CF for its storage. We seem to go through readers as the pins bend so easily. I'm waiting for another reader to get here. I bought one that states "no-bend pins." Hopefully this is true. I know there's an eBook in the pictures we took. Or, at least I hope there is.

I found another site, GrammarBase, to help me with my articles. The only thing I don't like is its constant request to dumb down my articles. I understand people want to read at the 4th - 7th grade level, but I feel they should be raising the bar, not dropping it, by reading at a higher level. Anyway, I'll do as recommended as I want my articles to sell. However, I may not be so lenient with my books. Not sure yet as I know I'm nichy already.

Don't forget these sites when writing articles and even novels if you want to prevent plagarism, check grammar and readability:

 Having more fun than one ought to reading, writing, submitting, researching and getting published.

2 comments:

Lucy R said...

Nice to have an update Dennise. The critique group is still going, but not quite as vibrantly as it was a while back.

My kids enjoy Bigfoot stuff BTW. Good luck with your writing!

Www.kidsmathteacher.com

Author Dennise Sleeper said...

Lucy, glad to hear from you. Glad to hear the critique group is still going. I've not done much in the way of writing for children, but this story is pushing me to be written. A new one for me since I've only written PB and I want this to be MG. Glad to have hooked up with you on FB and congratulations on your books. Have a good day. Happy writing.