The path less traveled...but widely recommended.

Hey, guess what?! I wrote a story.

Yeah, you and thirty thousand other folks.

So, the journey continues. A story has been written. Characters were created and developed. I have an ant named Andy, a green frog who points the way, a very helpful red fish named Claire, and three bumbling bees who use their nice words and expect nothing less from our little ant.  The message sang as songs do. It was a melodious tune of greetings, nice words, and an adventure. The ending was happy. I beamed at my first masterpiece. It was around this time that I thought about wanting to see if I could get this published.

My plan:

• step 1: write a story.
• step 2: send to publisher.
• step 3: story published.

Please commence with the laughter. I was as naive as my little ant character. The world was a far crueler place.  The work would be hard and the road would be rough. I was now faced with the truth and shocked by the amount of work there was still to do. I stood on an unsteady bridge over dark waters. Crossing it could be dangerous or an exciting adventure. What lay on the other side unknown to me. All of this work could be in vain. Is this worth the risk of rejection? Was my story good enough? I still ventured. Each foot flatly placed on one unsteady step after the other. I ventured forward with my manuscript in hand. I needed to decide a route of which to pursue. Do I skip the agent process and try to submit to a publisher, research and submit to agents, or self publish? I haven't even begun to research the digital world of e books.  After a lot of research, months and years of  research, I can proudly say that I have an idea of how this complex process works and the steps I must take.

• Step 1: Write something. DONE. I can check that part off of my list.
• Step 2: Edit to PERFECTION. Not kidding on this, people. The editing process should take several readings and revisions.
• Step 3: Query writing. What is a query letter? It is a document you create to sell yourself to the agent or publisher. There is a format to follow. Word choice is also important. There are several books on this subject. I have read 4 and some online reviews written by agents about the dos and don'ts of query writing. It resembles a resume of sorts. Another quirk to this quest.
• Step 4: Edit your work. Have someone edit for you. I would like to recommend this man to you. His name is Gerald Zepeda. His website http://www.editgenesis.com/about-me.html Although his company is Edit Genesis, I like to think of him as Edit Genius. A copy editor can be an aspiring children's book author's best friend in achieving the dream of a published book. His work has solidified my writing voice and confidence in my writing skills. Gerald Zepeda is a  super hero complete with boots and cape flying in to save my manuscript from the agent's recycle bin. 



a query letter example.
they vary in format and
content depending on genre.

• Step 5: repeat steps 2-4 over and over and over and over....remember, PERFECTION!

Let's stop there for now. Take a moment soak it in. Bathe in it and check out Gerald's website. When I feel that I have lost my way, I step back and review the work I have done.
I have a mission and a purpose to my story which helps motivate me through these thick and mysterious waters of becoming a children's book author. 

Establishing manners in our youth will allow them to be successful in a multitude of interactions throughout their lifetime. Emily stated it best, "Manner is personality—the outward manifestation of one’s innate character and attitude toward life."

continuing onward and upward...or westward...

My husband and I spent the beginnings of our marriage moving. Once we were married and our first child had been born, we moved to the East Coast and settled into Cambridge, Mass.  My husband finished his masters and accepted a job in California. Oh joy, more moving. It was around this time of transition that this little ant began to pick up his journey. In my mind, he was an ant. He was a lost ant and needed to find his way home. Andy and I had something in common. We would share in a journey together. I purchased a journal to begin writing this story. I know that most of us use a computer, but I am more of a pencil and paper type gal. This journal was plain, dull, uninspiring, and lacked color. I wrote the first sentence. It felt like I had something there.  The verse became not one, but two. What started off as sentences began to transform into rhyme. His adventure began. Our adventure began.   My little ant had a journey with a place to go. His adventure had just begun. Here, he would learn proper introductions. He would be welcoming and friendly. My little ant had better manners than most adults.  What a courteous little guy.

My plain little journal

Back to my struggles in rhyme and meter. The words of my story did not only need to rhyme, but the meter needed to work. The counting....ugh. This would be an ongoing editing process for years to follow.
I thought back to my college composition classes. As much as I hated those classes and the hours of work involved, I loved them. There was a creativity hidden within me. I found myself able to relate to authors of whom I had not made a connection with previously. The writing style that offered the most impact was titled, "stream of consciousness".  Just write. I wrote. I read it aloud, edited, and wrote some more. I composed rhyming sections and wrote them down. So much writing. So much editing. More writing and more erasing. The black and grey streaks from erasing went left to right, up and down.  There were some sections where the paper had worn to transparency due to the amount of erasing that took place.  I filed this action under "creative process".  My story became bits of wonderful lines and several lines worthy of a train wreck.
My journal book remained in my diaper bag as I began the weary travel westward. As a mom, the diaper bag doubles as a purse.  This ordinary writing journal went where my family went. As we transitioned to a remote, small town in the mountains, this journal held a creative concept with a plan. This little ant's journey was my concept. The theme that needed to be incorporated was introductory etiquette and "using your nice words". That was the plan.  I would create a story that would hold the interest of my child. It would be an instrument in cultivating etiquette for the preschool genre.  Emily Post would be proud.