SCBWI Chapter Meetings, Walking Boots, and The Powers That Be

The only reason I left the house this am instead of pretending to work on creative while counting the hours until I met with my podiatrist for the first time since THE BIG BREAK last Friday is my SCBWI chapter meeting. Boy, am I glad I went.

Seven of us crowded around three tables in the second floor Barnes and Noble cafe.

G reported that she's still waiting for a yeah or nay on her multi-cultural picture book manuscript. (An editor asked for the book months ago, and its even gone to committee, but The Powers That Be have yet to bless it.)

CB talked about making revisions to her picture book manuscript for the same house, and receiving a glowing email from the editor who said she loves the changes. The Powers That Be have not yet spoken. She also reported she finally finished revisions to her novel and sent it off with fingers crossed to the editor who requested it after reading the first chapter.

CA, writer/mom of three young children, expressed surprise at how quickly her year has gone by as a student with the Institute of Children's Literature, and how important the built-in deadlines have been for getting any substantive writing done.

A bubbled about learning a new craft--jewelry making--and added with surprise that the diversion has actually informed her writing, giving her new perspective on revisions.

We all commiserated about the creative mind, and its ADD-like ability to remember the most minute details about a person or place, yet forget where we left the car keys five minutes earlier.

Good meeting. It reminded me of how important it is for me to leave my cave now and again.

Medical Update:
The podiatrist set me free today by sending me home in a walking boot. Thank goodness. I was feeling really confined and ineffective having to rely on crutches and other people. Too many things have piled up. Laundry. Papers. Dishes. Now, I can do a much-needed archaeological dig in the kitchen. And hopefully, work on creative, too. Cheers. :)

Appetite for Writing: Hungry. But before I can get to creative for next week's crit group, I'm on deadline for the next issue of Edge of the Forest. My due date's tomorrow.

Current read: The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint. Told in three alternating, first-person points of view, the urban fantasy tells the story of two high school outcasts and the school's resident ghost who end up on the wrong side of a malicious gang of fairies.