Springtime in the Shining Mountains

   The Shining Mountains is the Ute name for the Rockies.  All month I've been working on my picture book about Chipeta, a Ute woman I admire and almost feel I've come to know.
   I love to soak in the hot springs here just as she did, and I drive every weekend to Montrose, where she lived for years and where she's buried.  We both love babies and we both adopted sons, although I was also able to have children and she was not.
    Chipeta did gorgeous beadwork, and gave much of her work away to friends.  This is a detail of a piece that is displayed in the Historical Museum here in Glenwood Springs:

 

I hope to get a better photo when we can get the big heavy cabinet away from the wall so I won't be photographing it through the glass!

     Chipeta lived during a time of incredible change in the West, and she adapted with a cheerful heart and a generous spirit.  I'm taking my manuscript to an SCBWI non-fiction workshop in Boulder next weekend, an my roomie will be Nancy Bo Flood! 

  Vivian Kirkfield https://viviankirkfield.com/2016/03/04/ppbf-brave-girl-plus-50-precious-words-contest/ has a contest on her blog!  This lovely, helpful writer is asking for stories of no more than 50 words, in honor of Dr. Seuss. He was challenged to use no more than 50 different words and he came up with Green Eggs and Ham.  This contest calls for 50 words in total.  Here's my entry, 50 words:

 

 

The Lonely Egg

by Deborah Holt Williams

 

Jackrabbit found the egg under the cactus.

"It looks so lonely!" he thought.

"I'll protect it."

Along came a rattlesnake!

"Stay away!"

The snake came closer.

"Leave this egg alone!"

The snake came closer.

Then--crack! Out came a baby...

rattlesnake!

"Thanksss for keeping my baby sssafe!"

said mama snake.



Susannah's Valentine contest

   A cranky character in a story no more than 214 words...quite a challenge! Thanks, Susannah Leonard Hill!  Here's mine:

The Heart-Shaped Cake (208 words)

By Deborah Holt Williams

      Charlie slammed the cupboard shut.  “I can’t believe we don’t have one!” he grumped.  “Have what?” asked his mother.  “A heart-shaped pan!” retorted Charlie.  “We’re all supposed to bring heart-shaped treats to class, and I signed up to bake a cake.”  He cracked the eggs and beat the batter so hard he nearly broke the bowl.

      Charlie’s mom checked the cupboard.  “We have a round pan and a square pan,” she said.  “Maybe you can do something with those.”

     Charlie stared at the pans, then he moved them around on the counter, then he shouted “YES!”  He filled them with batter and popped them in the oven.  When they came out, he cut the round cake in half.  “OK, two half circles!  Now…”  He turned the square cake so that it looked more like a diamond.  He put one half-circle cake on one top edge of the diamond and one on the other top edge.  When frosting covered the cake, it was a perfect heart!

      “Sorry I was cranky, Mom,” said Charlie.  “Now that you’ve calmed down,” said Mom, “I have a Valentine poem for you.  Your face got all red, but then you got smart.  A circle and square, and you made a heart!”

Slogging on....

  I was so excited to win one of Tara Lazar's grand prizes, a chance to present 5 of my PiBoIdMo to an actual agent!  I did, and, well....she didn't really find any of them too exciting.  But she did pick the best of the lot, so I'll work on it.  Of course I'd been daydreaming that she would love them all and beg to represent me...one of the downsides of having a good imagination is that I imagine great success scenarios!
   But, I will not give up. I'm taking a writing class with wonderful author and dear person Nancy Bo Flood, so maybe that will improve my skills and my luck!  Onward, ever onward!

Hurray for PiBoIdMo! And Tara Lazar!

  I made it, with 31 ideas.  Now to turn those ideas into stories, and rewrite them, and revise them again and again, and submit, after the holidays.  Giving myself a break from submitting this month.  Best wishes to all!

Boy do I need PiBoIdMo!

   Three months since I've blogged.  Three months of rejections!  All the favored pitches came to naught.  Still, I entered another pitch contest and now I'm waiting to hear on two more faves.
    BUT--the bright spot on the horizon is that it's almost time for PiBoIdMo!  A whole month of ideas and support!  I was attended the regional SCBWI schmooze last weekend, and got lots of positive feedback on a story that came from a PiBoIdMo idea from last year, so I'm very ready to be inspired again.
    And actually I had a great moment in September when I visited my kids and grandkids in Seattle.  I walked into my son's house, and heard "Look what came today!" and it was the High Five for my granddaughter, with a poem by me in it!

Twitter Jitters

   BAM!  It seems to happen so fast, unlike every other aspect of this wacky writing/revising/submitting business.  You describe your story in under 140 characters, send it out on Twitter, and that very day, sometimes within the hour, your idea is touched by an agent's fairy wand!  Favorited! Sprinkled with Twitter glitter!
   BAM!  You speedily submit your story to the interested agent, and then...sometimes a conversation begins, and hopes are raised.  Sometimes, there is absolutely. no. word.  I've had both situations happen this summer, and I still remain hopeful.  Somehow the waiting seems harder when the initial contact was faster than a melting mocha milkshake. 
    I've reduced my submissions to a trickle and have been sending poems to magazines while I wait.  And I try to work on my fitness and health--finished my first 5K this summer!  (OK, I came in 310th, but I made it!)

 

   I remember thinking the finish line would never come into view, but it did, and I'm sure I'll eventually hear back from my pitch pickers, too.  How do you handle the post-pitch-favorite blues?