Touched by a Fairy Wand?

    Well, that's how I picture it anyway.  One of my PiBoIdMo ideas practically wrote itself into a picture book this month, and I made an illustrated dummy--and it fit!  It's called Tough Toast.  My critique group loved it, but it got a 7 from Rate Your Story.  Bleah! 
     But I'm still really liking this story, so when I read about a pitch event on Twitter, I decided to enter with my tweet "A bagel and a square piece of bread discuss their differences in 132 words in Tough Toast."  And within an hour, I got a notification that it had been "favorited" (here's where I picture the fairy wand) by a lovely agent.  I sent her the manuscript and told her I had also made a dummy.  She wrote back and said to please send that, too   And then I had to go to work before I could get it together--ah, this pesky making-a-living thing--but I drew a smaller version and scanned and sent it when I got home.
     I haven't heard from her since, but I know she's at BEA this week and very busy, so I'll just hope to hear from her soon.  Even if nothing comes of it, it feels very good to have had my tweet chosen, favorited, and touched by a fairy wand.

Treated LIke Royalty!

   Last year, the royalties for my 5 little easy readers with Continental Press totaled $70, for all four quarters. 
    Then on May 4th, the mail brought 1.) a rejection and 2.) a first quarter royalty check for $220!  I have no idea why, but each of the five books sold a LOT of copies between January and March. 
    Rejections are soooo much easier to take when they arrive the same day as a royalty check!  I bought myself a ticket to see my grandkids in Seattle.
    Gotta love the educational market!  These books began appearing in the catalog about 15 years ago.  I've submitted a new story for the John &Lucy series, but so far, no response.  Wonder what the next royalty check will be?

Finally...attended a regional SCBWI workshop!

   It was so good to meet local authors at the Rocky Mountain SCBWI spring workshop!  Got a very encouraging crit from author Wendi Silvano, and also had her sign a book for my grandson Dylan.

Wendi feels my Cowboy Shorty story is ready to hit the trail, and she looks forward to seeing it published!  Me, too!!