Happy Christmas!!

Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas!

Here is a peek at the amazing booksinging event at Barnes and Noble on December 2nd. (Here is the bragging part.......I was the bestseller at BN for about a week....outselling Stephenie Meyer! .......Yeah, I know, like that's ever going to happen again......)

Christmas vacation means many things to many people. To me, it means moments to reflect and think and write and celebrate and create......and sleep.

.....not a creature was stirring.......

hrh

A New Book!

Welcome, Good Knight!!

The fifth Good Knight book was released on Thursday. It's strange because everytime I had to repeat the date to one of my classes, I just smiled.

November 13th had finally arrived.

And, there is going to be an amazing event at Barnes and Noble on Tuesday, December 2 (in Oceanside) celebrating the release of this, the most recent adventure of the knight and his dragons. 4-9 p.m. and a portion of all books sold goes to benefit Jefferson Elementary school. Come by (or come buy,) if you can (hehehe).

I absolutey love the artwork in this one (actually, I love the art work in all of the books.....) there are some adorable winter scenes....especially the little dragon snowman. Jennifer is just amazing with her little details. If you are reading this, Jennifer, I LOVE it! You are awesome.

So, with a new book out, it is easy to get caught up in the excitment.....and not write the stuff I need to be writing.......but I am trying to be a good queen and get the work done on my various projects. The Page-A-Day book is coming along, and it is fun to write, but I will dedicate a whole blog to that later. I am revising about three picture book manuscripts....none of them will consent to allowing me to complete them...stubborn beasts.

But I am in the drafting mood today........ready to explore something new.........hmmm

hrh

On Tour

So, as promised, I wanted to relate a bit about the past weekend. This is me at Barnes and Noble (I am holding my puppet, Baby Dragon, in my hand, trying to talk him out of another tantrum.......he's rather spirited!) There was a lovely crowd for the bookfair which benefitted Casita school in Vista.
The next day, I drove up tp Costa Mesa to appear at the Orange County Children's Book Fair. I was at the JacketFlap.com booth with several other cool authors. Lots of kids came by to look at books and meet authors. It was great to see so many kids excited about BOOKS! I had some amaziing discussions with kids about their favorite books...........it was ultra-cool when one of them would recognize my book as something they had read before or checked out at the library.

Awesome!

I got to sit next the author of The Recess Queen, Alexis O'Neill. Recess Queen and Story Queen! We were the "Royal" end of the booth. (We restrained ourselves from making everyone bow down to us.......barely.)

Celeb sighting....I saw the back of Jamie Lee Curtis' head. Yep. Almost took a picture with my camera phone, but that's kind of stalkerish...besides, it was just the back of her head.....lots of backs of heads look like hers.

October

It should not be surprising that there is no entry for the entire month of September. I always forget how busy it is, being the first month of school and all. The house looks like a secret volcano of laundry erupted and of course, the dishwasher broke. Add to that the fact that I have been at work, hopefully sprinkling seeds of inspiration, for long hours every day, and it is surprising that there is even time to sleep!

But the pace slows down each year as we enter into October...yeah, um, right. Actually this is a very busy weekend for me!

Today (10-4) I am doing a book signing at Barnes and Noble at 11:00 a.m. and tomorrow I will be at the Orange County Book Fair all day (appearing as both author and storyteller!) I have missing rhinestones to replace on my shoes and a small tear to repair on my storycape, so there is little time for blogging today. However, never fear. I will report back on these two events next week. (That is when October is really starting......the calendars are just wrong.....)

Being Brave

Recently, two people I know (one a professional colleague, one a relative) allowed me to read some of their writing....actually, believe it or not, theyasked me to read their manuscripts. I was so jazzed. Why, you ask? Aren't you a writer? you ask. Isn't that what you do?

Well, I am going to admit something here. I am the biggest chicken when it comes to sharing new stuff. When I finally do work up my nerve, I usually hem and haw around until I have sufficiently embarrassed myself and if I don't share then, I look utterly foolish. Sooo, it was a nice lesson for me, to have these aspiring authors so bravely share their work with me.
(Because, folks, sharing writing is HARD sometimes, especially if you really care about what you wrote. What if someone doesn't like it??)

But these two writers, man, what courage! Throwing caution to the wind and being brave.

Courage. Wow.

Magic

I took my girls to Disneyland yesterday. There's something so inspiring about being in a place that was created for the sole purpose of encouraging people to believe in magic....or rather helping people remember that magic does exist.

I always feel like writing when I get home from Disneyland. There is such a celebration of imagination within its walls. That is my goal as I work with young writers this Fall....to find more ways to celebrate imagination. Just like the guy in the cool shoes and awesome hair above said,
"Imagination is more important that knowledge."

hrh

Yep

Okay, so it is Surfer Chicks...as in more than one. And that's all I am going to say about that right now. It's in the drawer for a couple of weeks to await the fresh eye of revision.

On another subject, I am constantly amazed by kids' writing. My daughter Cali has taken up spontaneously writing stories when she is bored. (That is the thing I really loooooooove about summer, the chance to get bored. I think that every good writer was bored as a kid, at least some of the time. When the world isn't creating excitement for you, then it's your turn to create excitement for the world.)

Anyway, Cali's writing has been a source of amusement for me in the past few weeks. It started with a few paragraphs about an "elephant with social problems". Seriously, I am not making this up. The elephant has a therapist! (Too much TV?.........this is the question I am asking myself.) Then she went on to write about a fairy that got placed with foster parents during a fairy war and she doesn't really know she's a fairy......good stuff, here.

What I like about reading Cali's stories is how fearless she is. She tackles interesting situations and already has her own narrative voice.

That's the lesson for today, kids: Write what interests YOU. That's the best way to tap into your unique voice.

Sooooo........

Okay, I couldn't resist. I was sitting around, having a little fun in my writing book, when the thought occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, there was more than one Surfer Chick....maybe Surfer Chicks. Soooooo....I wrote one more draft, with three surfing chickens this time. (Man, I hope I can let this idea go soon. I have other stuff I need to be working on. But when the muse speaks, or rather the chicken peeps, the smart author listens.) For example, my first draft of Good Knight simply had my armor-clad hero walking around a castle bidding the royal subjects to have a Good Night.....and that was about it for plot. Thank God for the second and third drafts!!

It might sound a little freaky-weird, but a story kind of tells you when it's done. If I find myself writing about the same thing over and over and over, well, it's just telling me that it's not done yet.

(goes back to writing book, listening for peeps....)

HRH

Surfer Chick(en) draft complete...kind of

So, I finished a draft that I like...I think. It needs to go in the hopper and simmer a bit so that I can read it in a few weeks and see if I still like it. Actually, I have 3 different drafts of Surfer Chick. I am not certain which is the best one. I should probably get some feedback soon. But I need a little distance from it.

Thank you, little chicken in the picture below, for inspiring the third version. You rock!....er, peck.

The rest of the post....

This! Ta-da! Okay, okay, I am still getting used to this blog and I haven't quite perfected my editing skills....how does one move a picture around.....???? Oh well, I shall have one of my royal servants figure that out for me.

Uh-oh. Just looked at the date....it's July 30th one more day to finish....yikes

Darn, I meant to put the surfer picture lower.....I have to figure out what I did. Oh well, the goal is to take the surfer and mix it with

Welcome to the Story Castle

This is it, kids. This is where all of the magic happens.....err, well actually, most of the magic happens in my notebook (which sports a multi-colored floral motif currently, but will be shifting to black and white checkerboard before the summer is over.) However, I will strive to be a good queen and keep my loyal subjects informed. I have about 5, that's right, 5 projects that I am working on right now. You know what that means, don't you? When you try to go 5 different directions at one time, you don't really get anywhere! Aaaaauuuggh!

Organization is always difficult....for me anyway. Maybe it's the fact that I get distracted easily, I don't know. But I find that if I give myself permission to pursue several projects simultaneously, I get a lot of work done. Of course, don't ask me how many things I finish!!! That's what I am striving to do, finish more of what I start.

So, right now I am trying to finish a draft of a book about a surfing chicken called, (wait for it) Surfer Chick!! Get it? A chicken who surfs!! Ha ha! (Okay, get used to the fact that most of what I write is for the sole purpose of amusing myself.) I actually wrote a story with the same title a while ago, but it kind of stunk. But I can't seem to let go of the title....so....the project for July is to take this

About me

This is my blog, Shelley Moore Thomas, also known as The StoryQueen. I am the author of several very cool children's picture books.....at least I think they are very cool! Wait a minute...I have to go and check this blog thing out and see how the words look...I've never done this before!