Revising in ReviMo

http://megmillerwrites.blogspot.com.au/p/revimo-2015.html

ReviMo

Revising is an important part of polishing any manuscript to readiness and this week we have the annual ReviMO. Yes another challenge with a funny name. Revising for a week in January for picture book writers predominantly, the week is organised and run by Meg Miller. She is a writer and artist and many other wonderful things and you can find out all about her on her blog by clicking the cute picture.

Meg has gathered a veritable treasure trove of blog guests to tell us all about the nitty gritty bits and bobs of revising and has filled the treasure chest with incredibly generous prizes for participants. 

Revising occurs anytime there is a manuscript at the end of its first draft and it might seem odd to gather for a week in January but cheering each other on is an amazing motivator. Networking and encouraging is a wonderful part of the kidlit world and ReviMo is just another example of the kind and generous people who  populate it.

 Writers from all around the world have joined for this intense week of revising and we have a facebook group to gather and support each other in.

If you are a children's writer and think a community and quality blog posts would help you polish your work then come and take a look at ReviMO.

I spent today ripping a manuscript to pieces, slicing it up, cutting out words, discussing it and piecing it back together. I think it might just be a much more marketable idea now but there is more writing to do. I like ReviMo for giving me a dedicated time to set aside everything else and just revise.

Thanks Meg Miller.

Glorious sunny day

Today is beautiful. I am not going to spend much time at the keyboard because I want to go back outside. I haven't felt that keen to be outside in a long time. I have to be careful and wear a hat since the surgeries, in fact I should always wear a hat and would not have needed surgeries if I had been in the habit. Australia did itself a disservice when hats went out of fashion. Primary schools(elementary) have a sun safe hat policy across the country but the moment most of the children reach their teens, hats become anathema. Maybe some celebrity needs to be pro hat and make it part of their beauty routine for it to catch on again.

I spent the morning wandering through two magnificent gardens. It was an open garden fundraiser for the Warrnambool Coast Guard. http://coastguard.com.au/ I was perfectly content to wander the dappled shade and watch the sunlight dance across the water.

 The flowers were in full bloom. The first house has an orchard and a long lawn with a hedge leading down to the jetty, vibrant garden beds around the house and plenty of shady well established trees. This gentleman has also built palaces for his chooks and aviary. The fronts of both are gable roofed cabins with the wired in fly zone behind the cabins. A lovely timber and galvanised iron fence creates a semi circle separating the bird palaces from the lawn. This is a garden worth seeing just for the work that has been put into making it an interesting place to visit. I suspect the grandchildren love it.

 Both properties have the Merri river running behind them and the owners make good use of this with their own little boat sheds and jetties.

A man made dam in one property had remote control miniature boats on display.

 The boat display showed a high level of skill from the boat builders and enthusiasts.

 This is the view from the verandah behind the first house. The garden rolls gently down to the river directly ahead and is quite extensive with the bird palaces and shetland pony paddocks to the left and large shady trees lining the border between properties to the right.

 The second property had a stand of silver birch. I am not a big fan of having non indegenous species in a garden but I must admit I do love silver birch.

 Both garden owners had provided plenty of shaded seating to relax and listen to the abundance of bird life and watch the river lazily rolling by.

I include pictures of ponies for the 'awww' factor that I am sure my daughter darling will say. 

Behind this jetty and just to the left of where I was sitting under a shady tree is a small boat house that is decked out to be very livable. The owner said that he and his wife have often slept in the boat house on very hot nights to take advantage of the cool breeze across the water.  How delightful. These are the kind of gardens I dream of. Plenty of smooth soft lawn, big shady trees and cool bubbling water flowing nearby.

I am so grateful to have the privilege of wandering through these little bits of paradise and for such a good cause.







Writing and art.

Nanowrimo started off well with 19000 words in the first week. Piboidmo had an idea for every day and skadamo was skidding ink and pencil across paper. Week two I had my little grandson so not one word was written as ti is difficult I discovered to juggle a baby, a bottle, a nappy(diaper) and all the rest of the household and type as well. Week two slid by with all sorts of other things going on the highlight of which was attending the  Regional Design Awards night
http://www.regionaldesignawards.com.au/

I attended the evening with my friend Wendy Coyle, a fellow writer who had entered the design awards with her 'app'. She was not a finalist but she entered and that is the biggest step and she had some awesome competition for the awards. The venue was terrific for such an event although i would have preferred a seat to standing for almost two hours. The crowd was made up of trendy designers and would be designers, sponsors, organisers and me.

It was at: The Artery, 224 Timor Street, Warrnambool
When: 7pm Friday 21 November 2014
I was able to meet the guest speakers  who were

Kane Hibberd (aka Kanye Lens)

With over a decade of experience working within the music industry in various roles, Kane Hibberd is well educated in music. He created "The Art Of Capture" which has quickly gained the attention of the international music community. In 2010 he was recognised as one of the leading rock photographers in the world by British music magazine NME. Hibberd was announced as the second place-getter in the rock bible’s first annual Music Photography Awards.
With his focus set on producing captivating, inventive and emotive images as well as capturing those one-off rock’n’roll moments, Hibberd regularly shoots commissioned work for music publications such as Rolling Stone, Metal Hammer, Blunt, Rocksound, Alternative Press, and The music – his work has often graced the covers of many of these publications. His busy schedule has led Hibberd to work with a diverse array of top international and Australian artists such as, Cut Copy, The Living End, Paramore, Hilltop Hoods, Birds Of Tokyo, The Temper Trap, Gotye, 360 and Them Crooked Vultures. His services are in demand around the country with clients that include EMI/ Universal Music, Warner Music, Eleven, Mushroom Group, UNFD, Sony, Street Press Australia, Next Media and Future Media.
Hibberd is the official tour photographer for Soundwave Festival, Harvest Festival, Stagemothers Aussie BBQ SXSW, Pyramid Rock Festival and the Melbourne leg of Laneway Festival.
2013 saw Kane independently publish his first book under his alter ego, Kanye Lens. A nickname given to him on tour many moons ago. Kanye Lens Vs Soundwave Volume 1 is a 454 page hard cover coffee table style photography book presenting an in depth look at his work with Australia’s Soundwave Music Festival.
2013 also saw Kane speak at the annual AgIdeas conference, Big Sound Music & Design as well as being selected as a finalist in the Moran contemporary photographic price.
To view an online portfolio:
www.theartofcapture.com
www.kanyelens.com

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Mark Haynes

Mark worked at various ad agencies and studios before establishing Haynes Design in 1989. Mark is passionate about community, education and generating social change by sharing his 30 years of skills and knowledge gained through the design process, problem solving, innovation and design thinking.
Mark is the co founder and chair of Cultivator Inc, a community focused non-profit organisation established 2010. Cultivator is a dynamic annual event that brings together inspirational guest speakers from varied backgrounds both nationally and internationally, encouraging design thinking and problem solving to create better communities. www.cultivator.net.au
In 2012 Mark assisted the establishment of the first regional branch of the Australian Graphic Design Association. As the chair he provides leadership and governance to the local design industry.

 Then the awards were presented.  Finger food circulated and glasses clinked quietly. Someone had the good sense to turn down the ambient music so we could actually hear the speakers and I found a nice wide window ledge to lean against. it was too high for me to actually sit on but it did provide a nice ledge for me to sit my glass of juice and rest my back.  I was fascinated by the various designs for the different categories and I recommend you take a look at the website. There are some very clever people in the world and I am always on the lookout for ideas for my own art. Ohh and there was a particular finger food which involved Yorkshire pudding, slivers of roast beef, caramelised onion relish and hollandaise sauce. It was scrumdiddlyumtious and I have purchased some dripping to make the Yorkshire puddings. Louis is you read this we need a cook off.

So art I have done over the past non writing time has mostly been for the 52 week challenge. We had the theme New York and since the only things I know about New York come from movies, TV and magazines I managed to make a montage of images that capture what I don't know.

New York comes across as busy, brash, egocentric, aggressive, loud, crowded and interesting. I would like to visit it at least once in my life. I have had several young friends visit and fall in love with the place so it certainly must have something going for it.

A young friend and her mother decided to make a memory quilt for her son's first birthday. She asked all the guests to create a calico panel with wishes and thoughts for her son to be made up into a quilt.
(here are a few links on how to melt crayons to use in various projects but there are hundreds... http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/17374/wax-crayon-art   http://www.instructables.com/id/Melted-Crayon-Art/   http://crafts.creativebug.com/use-color-crayons-fabric-1536.html  )  and here are the images my family made.

friendship begins in amazing places and this is the square from one small boy to another.

 something cute and circus from 'da  nerdy boyz'

Pop culture references which my daughter darling filled her calico square with.

I love making art for specific people especially birthday cards.

I am also doing sketches every day for SkaDaMo so my folders are filling up with art. I love doing any little tutorial I can fit into my day so I am learning a lot of things from generous artists around the world who youtube their skills and my thanks go out to them but now for words and words and more words.


Next week I intend making my 50k word count which will require huge word counts daily so I managed to get ahead with my art. The theme for next week is Fox. Life is always busy and it pays to get ahead and be organised so I will just go clean the bathroom... kidding.

Happy birthday to my favourite twin girls. Paula and Adele. I enjoyed myself at both of your parties and I am so happy to be part of celebrating your coming of age.

and congratulations Dana and Joel, may your future together be filled with love and joy and plenty of adventures.


A special thought came through one of the many speeches I have heard this week. Celebrate the small successes. Take time to be in the moment and simply enjoy each one before moving on. I need to do that.


May you have a wonder filled time until next we meet. <3 Love and hugs.

N for nano nano particles and Novels

Nano
Nice
Naughty
Nugget
Nuance

There are so many nectareal N words that roll across the tongue however I am going to leave it up to others to discover and share them because today I did some art. it is week 16 and the theme is Book Cover.

 

This was my first attempts at using scratch paper. I didn't think about the direction of the book or the orientation of the text and while I like the rainbow effect I was not happy with the overall piece. Thank fully I have more scratch paper to work with and I will see what else I can come up with.

Lesson 18 of the RhyPiBoMo asked us to look at  various types of metre and feet in revision plus rhyme that is not perfect and our homework is to write a piece of poetry in iambic pentameter. So here goes.

A day at the beach.

Today we went down to the sandy beach

Buckets and towels and hats on our heads

Flip flopping things on our feet stopping heat

Burning our tootsies and making us leap

Finding a good place, weave through the crowd

Dumping our stuff and yelling out loud

Running right down to the incoming wave

Squealing and jumping we try to be brave

Bigger ones splashing and leaping about

Little ones tiptoeing in and then out

Building a castle up to the sky

Pouring in water it gurgles away

Wondering why all the little things wiggle

Picking up small crabs making us giggle

Wandering curious in the tide pools

Watching the tiny fish dart by in schools

Eating our sandwiches gritty with sand

Having an ice-cream treat just like we planned

Leaving just as the sun hits the water

Yawning round stinging little red noses

Dragging our legs up the stairs to the car

Rinsing sand under the shower roses

Luckily home is not very far as

All of the kids fall asleep.

 

 So my novel and my nano tally are concurrent events. I am writing my novel and blogging its progress and counting the tally in CampNaNoWriMo. My work count to date is 18523 which is well on the way to my 30K tally for April. 

I also wrote a Cat story and  Horror story for two anthologies and had two of my Faerie stories accepted by the anthology I submitted them to. All very exciting. I also won a mug in the weekly round up on the blogging challenge. I love all these little prizes but more than that I appreciate the exposure that it gives my name each time I win some small writing competition or prize. It doesn't pay the rent yet but it will all build into a solid foundation of knowledge and people to base my new career on. 

Besides which I love the small flash fiction and  short stories that keep me sharp. I have to record my latest story for AntipodeanSF too. I didn't record y last four stories with them but will definitely do so this time. On my to do list for tomorrow. 

I attended a webinar today which gave me an extra boost toward making my little welcome video and I read some more rhyming picture books and completed reading another teen steampunk book which when I find out if the young author is an Australian, I will review for my next AWW review. 

That about wraps up my day so I am off to do some writing and editing since it is day two of petite ReviMo.  Edit Edit Edit. Oh and I submitted a story to my rhyming picture book critique group; chewing my nails on that one.

Thursday 27th February

Author: Margaret Wild

Illustrator: Julie Vivas

Publisher: Omnibus books

Year of publications: 2008

Hard cover

Readership.

Young readers of all ages

Characters: A puffin chick and its parents

Overview

The story of a puffin chick from hatching to being ready to leave the burrow for the great wide world. Margaret Wild does it again to bring us yet another of her brilliantly crafted stories and when paired with Julie Vivas’ art it is pure magic.

 

illustrations : Pastel and water colour pencil on textured paper. Julie Vivas is a most wonderful artist and she once again brings life to the characters she portrays in her art.  In this book she brings the puffins to life. They are beautiful and so delightful. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The little puffin must grow and gain strength before he can leave the nest and brave the big wide world.  The parents keep him safe yet encourage him to grow in strength and courage until he is ready.

The dialogue between the three puffins allows the reader into the burrow and experience the love in the words of the characters. The little natural conflicts of a young one pushing the boundaries and the parents holding them firm until they are ready to be stretched are beautifully portrayed.

One evening Puffling asked Big stripy Beak and Long black Feather "when can I leave the burrow?"

"When you are tall enough and strong enough and brave enough you'll leave the burrow all by yourself." said Big stripy Feather.

Puffling continues to ask and continues to grow with his loving protective parents helping him.   

Sheer delight and a marvelous way to learn a little about puffins. 

 

Now on to trees and the 52 week challenge and in the wee small hours of the night I could not sleep and managed to produce a water colour with some fine liner touches and a dab of 8B pencil.

It is called

Welcoming the newest Dryad.

Dryad's of course are female oak spirits since the origin of the word is to do with oaks but for the purpose of my art I have used the word to denote all tree spirits of this kind regardless of the tree.

 

February has almost run its course and I wrote my achievements for the month on the sliding doors. I have managed to come up with 26 ideas for Picture Book Month and may find another two before tomorrow. I participated in Petite ReviMo days, Mini WOW, the 52 week challenge and 12x12. I was also working slowly through the Picture Book Dummy challenge but it is too much on twitter and I have not yet embraced twitter. I have completed my YA novel, found a critique group, begun art for two other writers, started the study group for the teens, had surgery and been a parent. I also signed on to carpe verba to keep to a 500 word tally per month, submitted several pieces of flash ficiton online, took up a stikk commitment and joined an anthology club. I started learning Spanish and now know how to ask for a cup of tea with milk and think I can budget for two conferences later in the year. I put up shade cloth and have been exercising daily. It has been a very full and very wonderful month and I feel fantastic to be writing and creating art every day.

I am going to write myself a vision statement, mission statement and write out strategic goals and put them up on my wall to see every day. I have also filled out my charts for March ready for chapter book challenge and a number of other things coming up.