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sissybaby

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Ha! I can't imagine the feeling of having a cat pull on my nostril. One of mine will sometimes lick my eyelids, and it definitely gets the attention.

I love cats as much as the next person, but my pillow is for my personal use, and he's going to have to find another sleeping spot.
 

starbeam

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You guys make me smile with the cats. I have three, and two of them are definitely my alarm clock in the morning. The third is just a nightly distraction from sleep. She loves jumping on me in the middle of the night or playing with anything noise making I have lying around.

Btw, would it be alright Smish, if I mentioned there's a poetry contest going on in the AW poetry section? I entered and the deadline is apparently coming up on like the twelfth or something. If anyone's interested check it out. I'm sure some kidlit poetry would be most welcome! :)
 

Smish

Reads more than she writes.
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Btw, would it be alright Smish, if I mentioned there's a poetry contest going on in the AW poetry section? I entered and the deadline is apparently coming up on like the twelfth or something. If anyone's interested check it out. I'm sure some kidlit poetry would be most welcome! :)

Of course it's all right! Good luck. :Thumbs:

ETA: And, I'll point out, that SuperMod poetinahat donated a copy of Absolute Poetry (a collection of poems by the talented poets of AW) as a prize for our kidlit contest in August, so I would encourage the kidlit gang to return the support by voting in the contest, even if you do not enter.
 

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue
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Leading 4th grade reading group this week was an exercise in answering Awkward Questions. The stronger readers are reading Al Capone Does My Shirts which is a great book but wow.

One kid spilled the beans about the mystery of why the sister acts so strangely (autism). I was talking about how they didn't have special ed teachers and extra help and good understanding of learning disabilities back then, and they were talking about kids they had known with autism, and I mentioned that there were kids at our school right now who have autism and they all immediately wanted to know who. I had to give a really long explanation of why I wasn't going to tell them.

Kid: Is his voice going high because he's having puberty?
Me: Yes.
Kid 2: What's puberty?
Me: Uhh...changing from a boy to a man.
Kid 3: DON'T ASK! OH GOD! YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!!

Kid: Why do they say they can't let the inmates see a woman in revealing clothing, because they haven't seen a woman in 15 years? What does that mean? Why can't the inmates wash women's underwear?
Me: *hides under the table, blushing*
Kid 2: I think it's because they might misbehave if they saw a woman.
Me: I think you are right. MOVING ON.

I really love these discussions, awkward as they might be. I often think about "inappropriate" or touchy subjects in MG and how we work them in to our writing, and how kids think about them.
 

DavidBrett

Alas, poor Yorick, he fed me 'nanas
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Those are hilarious, Kitty. Reminds me of this one from around xmas...

Adult (doing a Fun Quiz): What's the capital of Italy?
Kid: HITLER!!

We probably shouldn't have laughed, but he shouted it so quickly, and with such conviction that we all just fell about wailing!
 

Sage

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Cheering you all on!
Hi, folks. I got all focused on YA, and I was feeling like I never come by anymore :(
 

Sage

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Cheering you all on!
I love cats as much as the next person, but my pillow is for my personal use, and he's going to have to find another sleeping spot.
I'm fine with the cats using my pillows when I'm not in bed, but if I'm there, they better not be getting on my pillow. One of them likes to run across it in the morning to try to wake me up.
 

write4kids

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Hi all, I'm Jon from Children's Book insider. Just finally got done with our site redesign and I thought it might be nice to interact with human beings again. :)

For one thing, it's nice to write something that doesn't include HTML tags!

I'll try my best to hang around and contribute what I can....
 

toldyouso

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Thanks Smish and Starbeam :)
Boy am I glad I poked my head into these forums again, because I am now working on something I think is really cool based on the last monthly prompt I did. Yay!
 
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Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue
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Hi everybody! Nice to see lots of friendly faces about :D Hope everyone survived Monday.
 

Morrell

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:rant: Blah. Not bouncing.

Heard from another editor--one I had high hopes for: "The concept and voice are really charming, but it skews a little too young for my taste."

Grr.
 

MsJudy

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Ruth is skewy! poor Ruth....

I had a lovely Monday. Starting to assess my kiddos for upcoming report cards, and the results are making me smile. Measurable progress from everyone, and really surprising leaps from a few. One little first grader almost got held back to repeat kinder, didn't meet a single benchmark back in October--and met them all this time around! When she sat down to read to me, she gave me a big smile and said, This is fun!

*sigh*

It really is the greatest job in the world.
 

sissybaby

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Looks like there's a lot going on right now. Good news, sucky work, kids with growing self-esteem! Sounds like life to me, as the song goes.

Well, I got some GREAT news, sort of. It was great just to actually hear back from a publisher - but for it to be so positive, was awesome.

I had sent a picture book to a small publishing house after a couple of agents expressed lots of interest in it but wouldn't take me on as a client - no platform, etc., etc.

I figured I'd never hear back, but this morning received an interesting email. She actually likes the story very much, but had several questions - some about me, like how to pronouce my last name, which stumps many people, and a couple about the ms.

I so, so, so hope I didn't terrify her with my answers and that she'll keep it on the maybe list like she hinted at.

Okay, I'm finished bouncing for the moment, but I can't control it for too long. Just had to share.

Hope everyone has a lovely Valentine's Day, although I personally don't participate except to eat a piece of chocolate.
 

heza

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That's awesome news, Sissy! Congratulations on the interest. *crosses fingers*
 

Sage

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Oh, yay, sissy! I hope it works out. What a great Valentine's gift--getting some editor love!

I once got like 5 rejections on a Valentine's Day. Not such a lovefest, lol