My books

 Welcome to my blog!  I'm at the time in my life where I have time to write, and I'd love to hear from others in the same place on the journey.  I've had luck this year with magazines (Highlights, High Five, Hello, Jack and Jill, Turtle and AppleSeeds) and on-line (Young Bucks Outdoors and Knowonder) but the very first things I had published were these little easy readers.

Here are my easy readers:

My easy reader books are published by Continental Press.

Here's where you can buy my easy reader books, under Seedling:
www.continentalpress.com

PiBoIdMo

  I'm going to give this a try, coming up with a new picture book idea every day in November, as explaied at www.taralazar.com

Fall Good News

  September--Baseball Buns (rejected by Highlights and  HumptyDumpty magazines) was the story of the day on the Knowonder site for September 27th.  My "How to Build a Deer Blind" story is up on the Young Bucks Outdoors website.

 October--Got an e-mail from the editor at Turtle magazine, and she wants to purchase my craft project, printing with lilacs!  It was rejected by Highlights, but will appear in the Mar/Apr. edition of Turtle.
   Also in October, I sent a query to Storypie Press regarding my Bottled Anger story, and they responded the next day that they wanted to see it.  So I submitted it right away and am waiting to hear.

   I've sent in 45 submissions so far this year, and my goal is 50, so I think I'll make it.  I talked with Colorado Mountain College, and I'm going to offer a one-day workshop on marketing writing for children on February 9, 2013.  The writing has gone well this year!

Another Bear Card!

   After getting word the other day that four of my six poems for Hello were rejected, I wondered if I should have sent in any more.  But I already had, and today I got a bear card for both of them!  I'm so excited to see Hello when it comes out.  Exciting to be part of a brand new magazine!

Sunday Surprise!

   I had sent a proposal five months ago to Appleseeds magazine to do an article on animal legends for their Cleopatra issue.  But, I never heard back and I figured they weren't interested.  Then on Sunday morning (!) September 9th, I get an e-mail from the editor, Susan Buckley, with my assignment!  Do a 150 word piece on the animals that represented the gods and goddesses, and have it in by October 8th!  It would pay $75 and will appear on the back cover of the March 2013 issue.
   I spent hours and hours on it, writing, cutting, rewriting, cutting, but finally got a rough draft that was the right word count.  I sent it to Susan and she liked it!  So I added one more animal and did some more cutting, polished up my reference list and sent it out.  Today I noticed I'm supposed to make copies of any pages from books that I used, so I'll have to go check them all out again and do that, but anyway I'm tickled to add another magazine to my list.  All this happened because I met the head of all the Cobblestone magazines, Lou Waryncia, at the Highlights workshop on magazines at the Barn, so I am more grateful than ever to Christine for the scholarship!

Contracts in the Mail!

   Not one but two contracts in the mail today!  From Highlights, for the rhymes I submitted for Hello magazine for babies.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that they paid almost twice what I've been paid for my rhymes for High Five!  A very nice birthday surprise.
   Still no word on jobs, but a visitor from Jemez Springs made me glad I was free to go have lunch.  Amy from the Village Office is treating herself to a road trip and planning to leave her unhappy situation, and it was great to visit with her.

    I'm turning 61 Saturday, and although I'm unemployed (except for home care a few hours a week)and sharing a bedroom with a load of Jeremy's stuff, I have a lot to be grateful for.  I'm in my own home, which is worth more than I owe on it.  I have my family, my health, my beloved old dog, and I have had more success with my writing this past year than ever before.  I'm living on credit cards, but hopefully I'll be working soon. Like lots of families in this poor economy, we have three generations under one roof, and we are working it out.  We are all healthy, and we are far more fortunate than many struggling families.  My writing will be on the back burner while I look for work, but I will return to it soon.  And on my next birthday, I can claim Social Security!