Stuff Crows Do

I drove home one afternoon and there were some crows in the street in front of our house. We don't see crows around here all that often and it was a little peculiar. They just seemed to be taking a stroll.

This Crow (meaning me) is preparing for an assembly at an arts academy in Syracuse. There's a lot that goes into planning an assembly, like organizing pictures and animations in a PowerPoint presentation, arranging and packing up my rhythm instruments (I have nearly 100), getting my technical gadets ready, etc. Today I was able to puchase a remote control which will advance my PowerPoint slides in the presentation. This has been a problem in the past, when the schools had PowerPoint projectors and I had the laptop, but there was not a remote which would function with it. So I had to position myself next to my laptop and click, which isn't a terrible thing but not the ideal situation. Hopefully everything will run smoothly. I'm very excited to be presenting with illustrator Will Terry, who is extremely talented.

I was also asked to participate in a Young Writers Conference for Elementary School Aged kids in the Nebo school district in March. I've got some little nephews in that district so hopefully I'll get to see them. I've got two all-day assemblies in Ogden in March as well.

I had a lot of communication with my editor from Putnam last week. I was able to see the mechanicals for "Middle Child Blues." Mechanicals is a term for the illustrations layed out with the text in place, which once upon a blue moon was done in a mechanical, taped-up fashion. Now everything is computerized and digital, but the term "mechanical" stuck around. Or so I'm told.

Anyway, it was an absolute joy seeing the text with the pictures. I am thrilled to the core. But there were some little wording changes I needed to make. This has happened so far in all of my books. Even when the text is supposedly finished, there has always been an illustration that didn't exactly jibe with the text. Obviously it's much more involved for the illustrator to repaint an entire picture than it is for me to adjust the text. Still, it takes some time with word tinkering. Once I'm able to figure out a way to adjust the text while still keeping the flow of the rhythm, the book starts to really click.

I also worked with my editor on the "flap" wording, and we discussed a picture and text for the back of the book.

I'm waiting for word on another manuscript I've written, and am doing the "fingers crossed" thing that maybe there's a chance for another sale. We'll see...

My husband is packing his bags. He leaves early this morning to fly to Washington D.C., where he'll be doing security for the Presidential Inaguration. He was given the special assignment to fly out and be on the POTUS protection team. POTUS... The President of the United States.