The First Box Has Landed!

The first box has arrived in Kiribati!

I was so excited to get these pictures this last weekend! That is my dad holding the box, and those are the books that came in it. I hope to receive more pictures soon as these books go in the library (it was the weekend, so they had to wait for Monday to take them in), and I promise to share them when I do.

Two more boxes are now on their way, and hopefully those empty shelves will look a whole lot less empty in the very near future.

And because I like transparency (and lists and figures), here is what went down:

• 158 books were donated [Approximately. I should have counted more exactly, but this number is pretty close]
• $535.00 was donated.
• 3 packages were mailed
• Total spent on mailings: $585

Package #1:

Included 54 books

Weighed 38 pounds

Cost $166 to send

Package #2:

Included 59 books

Weighed 42 pounds

Cost $207 to send

Package #3:

Included 45 books

Weighed 43 pounds

Cost $211 to send

[Weird that the one with the least number of books was the heaviest!]

Thank you! This is you. You made this happen. You have all made a difference in many children’s lives. And your involvement will continue to make a difference for years to come. I hope you feel that joy that I’m feeling right now. I hope it carries you through your day and leaves a goofy smile on your face like it has mine.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

A Girl With a Dream

Once upon a time there was a girl. And this girl had a dream.

The dream was so big, it leaked from her thoughts and colored everything in her life. It made her food tastier when she drew closer to it, but drained all the flavor when she stumbled in her efforts. It made the sun shine brighter on the best of days, but hid it away in gloomy clouds on the worst. It drew people to her when she  succeeded in even the smallest of ways, but made her a hermit when she failed.

She began to wonder if this dream was really what she wanted.

But it had become such a part of her life, she couldn’t let go. She didn’t want to let go.

And then it happened.

She reached her dream! And everything was sunshine and roses.

Until it wasn’t.

Because reaching her dream was not an ending. It was simply a new beginning.

And she embraced it.

The End. (Or rather . . . The Beginning)

~~~~~

P.S. Today starts the first Goodreads giveaway for THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE OF THE PB&J SOCIETY. It runs through January 19th and is open internationally. Go forth and enter! And may your lucky socks be dirty enough, and your clovers all have four leafs.

My Year in Review

Happy New Year!

With all the Christmas rush, I have been absentee the last couple of weeks, but I didn’t want to miss again. Because this is the time of year where I hold myself accountable for the goals I set at the beginning of last year. And if I don’t hold myself accountable, who will?

So here we go. My goals from last year and my assessment:

1. Write 5 days a week.
I started out well with this, then wow. A big fail on this goal. BUT, if you consider all the non-book-writing things I wrote, perhaps I didn’t do so terribly. That said, I hope to do better this coming year. But I realize that for me, this type of goal will always be a fail, because I hate being tied down. I do much better when I assign myself a project to accomplish, as you’ll see in the next goal . . .

2. Finish revising my 2 WIPS (Works in Progress).
WOOT! TOTAL WIN! Granted, I now have more revising to do on WIP #2, BUT I finished 2 other rounds of revisions on it (2 other MAJOR rounds of revision), and this next round won’t be so terrible. WIP #1 is now on submission. *curls up in fetal position*

3. Finish a first draft of a new book.
Okay. Total fail. I just started yesterday. But in my defense, I didn’t expect the majorness of the revisions for WIP #2. Plus I wrote a bonus story for PB&J SOCIETY (hoping you will all love it!), and a bunch of other PB&J-related things. The next book just didn’t happen. However, it is STARTED, so finishing the first draft at the very least is this year’s goal.

4. Write at least two picture books.
Sigh. Nope. I did take a PB class, but I was so busy, I mostly skimmed through it. Turns out that when you have a book contract (which I didn’t have when I made these goals), you suddenly become much busier. While I would like to do this again, I realize debut year will be full of too many other things.

5. Attend at least one writing conference.
And Hooray!! Another accomplished goal! I will definitely be keeping this goal. I am attending LDStorymakers again as an attendee (my husband will be presenting!), and I will be presenting at the MD/DE/WV SCBWI conference in April. So check and check! It really is good to plan a goal that you have already facilitated the accomplishment of.

And there you have it. Not a great showing, to be sure. However, life sometimes mixes things up for you. It is somewhat surreal to realize that last year at this time, I had no idea what was in store for me. I had no idea I was on the verge of signing my first book contract . . . which changed the course of my whole year.

So while I didn’t accomplish all the specific goals I set for myself, I DID accomplish some pretty major things. And I am a firm believer in being flexible. Yes, I could have killed myself to accomplish every one of these goals above, but I feel pretty proud of all I accomplished this past year.

Now it’s your turn. Please tell me what you accomplished this past year so I can celebrate with you! 🙂

My blog is moving!

For the past few months, the amazing Tessa Elwood (author and graphic designer extraordinaire) has been working on my website, and while much of it is still a work in progress, my blog is officially moving over as of today. Hurray!

I hope you'll come visit me there! My blog is HERE. And my website is HERE.