First off, I'd like to thank the lovely Rachel from Writing On The Wall for bestowing upon me not one, but TWO awesome awards which I have never received before:
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| The Sunshine Award - so pretty :) |
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| The Dream Launcher Award - so inspiring! |
Of course there are a few questions that go along with the awards...
1. Favorite Color? Blue
2. Favorite Animal? A tie between horses and dogs
3. Favorite Number? 9
4. Favorite (non-alcoholic) drink? I pretty much only drink water or seltzer... well, not counting coffee :) But if we're talking favorite, maybe iced tea (definitely sweetened) or orange peach mango juice!
5. Face Book or Twitter? Face Book! I haven't even tried Twitter - I find it very intimidating for some reason.
6. My Passion? Writing and my family (not necessarily in that order :))
7. Getting or Giving Presents? Definitely giving!
8. Favorite Pattern? Hmm... I don't really do patterns... maybe something very simple and floral?
9. Favorite Day of the Week? I don't know why, but I think maybe Tuesday. How random is that? :)
10. Favorite Flower? Carnations - I love the smell!
And of course I'm supposed to pass these awards along... and I can NEVER choose who to pass them to because you are all so wonderful... so as usual I will sidestep by saying that if you like these awards and you follow my blog, you may have them because you're all awesome :) Consider them given :)
Moving right along, item 2 on today's jam-packed agenda is Phyllis's World Tour!
Yes, you heard me right. There are those who have called her PHYLLIS THE INCREDIBLE INTERNATIONAL ROCK STAR (though I'm not naming any names :))
As we speak, 2 copies of April Fool, Phyllis are winging their way out - one to Florida, the other to California - to begin whirlwind tours of the USA. Each person who receives the book will read it (sometimes to their kids or classrooms), blog about it, sign it, and pass it on to the next person. In addition to the two copies making the rounds, lovely supporters in Canada, France, Italy and possibly even New Zealand will also be blogging about our April jester. One special copy is going to Texas to begin a tour of US schools, and another special copy is going to Georgia to make the rounds of 2 fabulous literacy programs! How much awesomeness can one month hold???
I will be adding a special tab up top on my blog so you can all follow Phyllis's adventures with ease, and virtually visit all the fantastic places she's going! There will be blog links and, I'm really hoping, photos!!! I'd also really like to have a map involved, but that is most probably beyond my technological skill, and my number one tech advisor has abandoned me to go to college... so we'll just have to see about that :)
And now, when you're already so excited by receiving awards and hearing about Phyllis's World Tour, I present you with today's Would You Read It from the awesome Renee who can spout incredible poetry even whilst laid up sick in bed!
Renee is a full-time editor/writer for All About Learning Press for whom she co-authors early readers and blogs on grammar as her alter ego, the Chipmunk of Doom. A wife and mom to twin toddler boys, she lives in Italy where she runs around the countryside filming silly poetry videos for her blog No Water River. This is her first foray out of her poetic comfort zone and into the psychedelic world of prose PBs. Be gentle with her.
And here's her pitch:
Working Title: Doris And The Scaredy Cats
Age/Genre: Fiction PB ages 4+
The Pitch: Intrigued by the herd of petrified cats that show up at her door with their little suitcases, Doris is determined to un-petrify her furry new housemates -- despite her family's pleas to send them away before she ends up a scaredy cat, too. Doris will either calm the cats' jitters or make her family's fear come true -- or neither.
So what do you think? Would You Read It? YES, MAYBE or NO?
If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest. If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Renee improve her pitch. Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome. (However, I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful. I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)
Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks! For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on the Would You Read It tab in the bar above. Go ahead and send your pitch for a chance for it to be read by editor Erin Molta!
Renee is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!
If you haven't had a chance to vote on the February Pitch Pick, there's still almost a day to go. Click HERE and vote.
And that's it. I'm finally done. And you probably all noticed that I way made up for last week's succinctness :)
P.S. One last thing I just realized, for any of you who were interested in Monday's Oh Susanna question about leaving room for the illustrator. Serendipitously, Janice Hardy blogged about this very topic yesterday and you can see her terrific post HERE.
P.S. One last thing I just realized, for any of you who were interested in Monday's Oh Susanna question about leaving room for the illustrator. Serendipitously, Janice Hardy blogged about this very topic yesterday and you can see her terrific post HERE.
