The Bouncy Castle in Space

heza

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Awesome, Dave! I wouldn't call that a failure at all. You've got his attention on a personal level, now. :) Good luck with Sweetopia!
 

Kitty Pryde

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Just finished my first week of full time student teaching. I'm so tired I cannot get off the couch. This morning my professor came to observe me teaching. He walked in at the beginning of "Mustache Day" so all the kids were wearing fake mustaches and getting hyped up, moments before the first of the days two fire drills, and the actual classroom teacher had left the campus. Order was eventually restored. I worked all day without a break, tutored a child with some sort of genetic inability to understand geometry after that, fire drill number two, and nearly had a lockdown to wrap it all up.

I also inherited my fired coworker's before-school shift, and my partner started going to culinary school that starts at 6 am, so I have to be up insanely early now.

I have two mentor types at the school, and though they used to be best friends, they are for unknown reasons now mortal enemies. Both of them have given me a gawdawful amount of work for the weekend and I cannot tell either one because they are so pissy with each other (other than that they are good mentors I swear!). In conclusion, :e2thud:
 

sissybaby

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Just found a new rejection letter in my mailbox, but it was a very lovely rejection letter.

I sent what I know is a quiet PB text to a small publisher a while back. She sent it back with a no, because it is too quiet for their line. But she praised my work and then went on to say because she liked it, she went ahead and plotted it out for spreads and page breaks.

She sent back what she'd done with it, and I was so happy to see that her ideas so closely matched my own, when I planned the layout. So at least that tells me I am learning SOMETHING!

She also invited me to continue sending her my PBs. Even though it isn't the best news, it still made me feel pretty good.
 

Britwriter

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Sissy, that's great news. I know how tough those close calls are though! Do you have other PBs to send her?
 

sissybaby

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Thanks, Britwriter.

I've sent her a couple. One she said she likes but hasn't convinced everyone else yet, but she said she was keeping it in her 'maybe' file. (sigh)

The other she also turned down, but sent a lot of revision notes on.

I don't know if I'll ever convince them to take me on, but she has been wonderful to me and I would be blessed to have her as a publisher. They are small but put out books with gorgeous illustrations. And my granddaughter loves all of their books that I've acquired so far, so I know they know what they're doing. Just very selective because of size - and maybe some other reasons I don't know yet.

At least she has helped me to not totally give up on rhyming PBs. I knew when I went into it that they are a very hard sale. At least, it's working out that way for me.
 

MJWare

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Read this if you need a smile!

Great story. I lost my writing notebook at Walmart too. I spent several hours looking around the store for it.

I didn't get a publisher out of it--but fortunately two days later someone did find it!

Now, I have a big, "If found please return to:" with my e-mail and phone number. Guess maybe I should add something about needing representation =-)
 
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Kitty Pryde

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I'm still alive! Survived an exhausting 2 weeks of student teaching full time, and working in between leading the classroom so that I could get paid a little bit. Was rewarded with a small but wretched case of shingles. Wrapped it all up with a big event the fifth graders put on to raise money for childhood cancer and get people to join the bone marrow donor registry. They (50 kids) raised over $2000 and got 20 adults to join the registry. Woo-hoo! Because of that, and since I'm nearly done, :hooray::hooray::hooray: I'm making a chess pie and I've got enough for everybody. Here's a parting shot of confused tutoring student recruiting donors:

5a2473a9-d477-4eea-8c5b-4d935b1f932d_zps58af8537.jpg
 

Smish

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Welcome back to the Bouncy Castle, Mike! :hi:

Cheers for Kitty and 5th graders! :TheWave:
 

SheilaJG

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What a cute picture, kitty. I'm glad you survived those last busy weeks. Do you have a summer of rest and relaxation ahead?

I want to write something new. I've been editing and revising and re-editing my old story for so long, I feel drained. I need to re-charge. So I'm sitting here waiting for inspiration to strike. I'm right here, inspiration, go ahead and lay one on me.
 

Kitty Pryde

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What a cute picture, kitty. I'm glad you survived those last busy weeks. Do you have a summer of rest and relaxation ahead?

I want to write something new. I've been editing and revising and re-editing my old story for so long, I feel drained. I need to re-charge. So I'm sitting here waiting for inspiration to strike. I'm right here, inspiration, go ahead and lay one on me.

7 more days of work, the weekend off, then i start working at day camp. at the end of summer i have two days and a weekend off before work at school starts. :p
 

Smish

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Nooooooo! Don't fall asleep, sissy! The Bouncy Castle is not a good place for a nap. :D
 

sissybaby

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No naps today!

Last night one of our team players hit a foul ball that smacked right in the middle of my van's windshield. If that isn't bad enough, I'm on the phone with the insurance man (of course my deductible is more than a new windshield) and my horse comes trotting up the driveway! She's been out running along the highway with the semis and the other 70 mph traffic.

Managed to get her back in, but she isn't talking about how she got out or where all she went.
 

Kitty Pryde

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sissy, that was a pretty exciting afternoon! glad your house came out of its adventure ok.

i am beyond ready for the weekend (even though i have to write a massive essay). whew!
 

Kitty Pryde

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Hallooo! Anybody survive the onset of summer?

I started at my summer job (day camp counselor). It is seriously chilled out work, encouraging little kids to do fun stuff at camp and eat their snacks. Also I don't have to wake up early!

Worst bouncy castle ever: http://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/worst-bouncy-house-ever
 

scarecrow

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I was telling my shy dd the other day that she needed to occasionally get her nose out of her book, smile at people and let them know what a wonderful person she is. As the words left my mouth we both knew what a hypocrite I was. So in order not to be that mom, I thought I would stop lurking, put my book down and smile at all of you.
:):D:D:D:D:D:)

Kitty glad to see you have time to relax with the campers. You are such a busy person.

My dd had a party at a jumpy place a few years back that had a similar dinosaur. You went in through the mouth and it had inflatable organs on the inside like a heart and lungs. Then everyone one got their picture taken coming out the backside. The preschoolers loved it.
 

jvc

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It's been very quiet around here in the Kidlit forum this month. What's everyone up to? Anyone just fancy a quick bounce?
 
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heza

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:Jump:

I don't have a lot to report. I'm pretty snowed under this week with Life. But I am looking forward to Camp NaNo in July. I just haven't decided what I'm going to write for it (or even in general, I suppose).

I was having trouble with my MG WIP about necromancers, so much so that I put it down for a while. The SO convinced me to give myself a working break by writing and self publishing a quick, cute YA fantasy romance. And then as soon as I decided to do that, I started getting inspired by MG again! So I need to make decisions.
 

DanielaTorre

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(HI HEZ!!! At least you're not suffering 90+ degree weather like me. It's so flipping hot outside that I'm tempted to waltz around naked. Hope you are well, and again, thanks for your help, I think my ms has greatly improved thanks to your feedback. :D )

I haven't much to report, only that I've finally made a breakthrough in a section of my MG fantasy that I was having trouble with. It's a huge improvement, but it needs some work. I'm very, very close to releasing it for second beta rounds, hopefully early next month. I'm really behind on schedule from wanting to have released it for second beta by May, but life happens. YAY EITHER WAY!

So yeah. News on that. I'm also about 5K in to my new MG Adventure Fantasy (which I keep getting sidetracked with). It's in first person POV, which is a little more difficult for me to write, but it needs to be told this way. This one is going slower than anticipated, but I keep getting sucked back to my last one about magicians.

P.S. For those interested, Miss Snark's First Victim is doing her "Baker's Dozen" contest in which you submit a 60 word log-line together with a the first 250 of your ms for super awesome prizes including requests from prominent agents. So if anyone is interested, YA and MG submissions begin Nov 5 - 7. Actual Auction is Dec. 4. Earliest info here: http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-2013-bakers-dozen-earliest-info-ever.html . I hope to be able to have my ms polished by then. I've never submitted anything anywhere before. :( So scared.

Good luck everyone.
 

heza

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(HI HEZ!!! At least you're not suffering 90+ degree weather like me.

Heh. I don't know about that. I am in Houston, after all. I don't actually know what it's like outside because I refuse to go out there, but people tell me it's ghastly. And my electric company has accused me (in bill form) of running my AC nonstop to stay alive.

I'm so glad your revision on Magician's Gambit is coming along nicely. Good luck on finishing up that section!

I would so love to enter The Baker's Dozen. It's actually on my life list--just once. I don't think I'll have anything even remotely polished by November though. I hope you do get to enter. It'd be fun to see you there!