On Birds and Writing...

Today the kids found that the cat had tried to get at a bird. Well, he is always doing this as is natural for cats. They found this hurt bird - and got out a box, tried to dig up worms to feed it, and generally were really loud and chaotic about it all. But they were honestly trying to help it. It unfortunately died, and Chase cried. I love it when my sword-swinging boy gets emotional about these types of things. It reminds me that he is still sensitive about smaller creatures. In any case, they did all whip out the bird books and found that it was a baby mocking bird.

They have been excited that some chickadees have found the bluebird houses that they built and put up. The one near my garden doesn't seem to be getting much action - but I think it may be too close to the road.

We had a beautiful day and spent most of it at the playground with the home school group. There were lots of kids today. I got really sunburned which takes the zing right out of you.

Yesterday Brianna and I spent some time at the coffee shop at the library going over a book about publishing children's books. We really have been learning a lot about the whole business and it seems a little daunting. She had a poem published in a magazine and a book review published in our local paper. So now she wants to submit her stories to a book publisher. She has been working really hard with grammar and spelling and rewriting. There's a part of me that doesn't want her to be disappointed, but on the other hand I admire her pluck. She doesn't have that "someday" idea that most of us grow up with. That "someday" she will be a writer. She just assumes she is. I on the other hand am still a bit chicken. ;-) I worry about rejection and wind up sticking to things that I know I am good at - and I am not too invested in. You can learn a lot from your kids. I sometimes think how fortunate I am to be home schooling and spending so much time with their creative spirits. They don't look at anything as being impossible. They are just so determined.... I wonder sometimes if I would have wound up that way if I had done things differently. I always wrote in high school. My friends and I would write stories back and forth about boys we liked and such. I saved a lot of this stuff and have read it a time or two - thinking it was really stupid. But at the time, it was a great outlet. It never seemed to be something that was real. It wasn't schoolwork - wasn't guaranteed to get me into college. It was just how I got through the school day. Brianna notes how Dave Pilkey wrote his Captain Underpants in school while he was supposed to be paying attention. We love that Christopher Paolini wrote his books as a home school teenager. It is nice to note that J.K Rowling wrote the beginnings of Harry Potter while trying to work as a secretary and being totally distracted. Can you imagine her family must have thought she would never be able to hold a job, etc. So I guess the moral of the story is that there is hope for me. A year ago I would never have written even a blog for fear that strangers would read it and think it was awful. So this in itself is a step. It forces me to write at least something - and something that is not school related and academic. I sometimes think that graduate level writing is far easier than creative fiction.
So perhaps, my daughter will have written a child's reader - that is fun and has a purpose other than teaching phonics.... and I will have a book signing someday at Borders....