I revised my entire young adult manuscript based on comments and ideas from the retreat. For the moment, I've set that aside to 'stew' a little before I make one final set of revisions.
I went to two SCBWI conferences – in Austin and Houston – and learned more tips for writing and revising.
And, of course, I've started a new book. A middle grade story that's been fun to develop. I haven't written much of it yet – only about four chapters – but I think it'll be fun when it's finished.
But my short-term focus has had to change from both the young adult novel and the middle grade one. The Houston SCBWI conference included a presentation by Jenne Abramowitz from Scholastic. She discussed chapter books, and I got the idea to re-work an earlier piece I had written as a chapter book. So, that's my concentration right now. I have a three-month window in which to re-work the book and submit it. We'll see how that goes.
And in the middle of those three months, I'm going on vacation, so I have to work double fast. Not to mention all the work I have to do for my job. It's going to be crazy!
Here's hoping.
And I created my own website.
