Thanks, cynthialord, for proposing the "Where I Live" photo challenge this week! Everyone's photos have been fascinating. Here are my photos for the final day of the challenge.

Texas is famous for its wildflowers, especially our state flowers, bluebonnets, which come out every spring. My husband jokes that Texas parents can be charged with neglect if they don't take photos of their babies in the bluebonnets. We never got a great photo of Blake in the bluebonnets, but this is the best one we got (April 2007, 2 months old):

 

Here is one of my favorite nearby parks, also snapped a year ago April while just a few bluebonnets were still out. My husband likes this one because it shows so much sky. When he moved from Illinois to Texas in high school, he was stunned and even a little unnerved by how much sky he could see in Texas!



My older boys looking out over the water in a cozy section of the park:



It stinks that my kids never want to go to this park, which also includes picnic and play areas, and even a sprinkler park for summer fun, because it's a great place for walking! There's even a small labyrinth at the end of a path through the trees. I took this photo from an elevated walkway along a dam at the far end of the park.



And finally, the places I really live most are sitting on the couch with my laptop (already pictured in one of my new cat photos last week), and in my car, often with my 3 wacky boys in the back! This was taken in February. (Both of my older boys wear glasses, but one or the other always seems to be missing them!)

 

I finally took a few new photos for cynthialord's daily photo challenge, and am throwing in a couple of old ones for comparison.

On the way to a 4th of July festival today, I took this picture of one of the several limestone quarries that is very near where I live. Our yard, like most around here, is all stone once you get a few inches down! When we moved into our house, we were warned that a nearby quarry blasted twice a day, and we'd feel it. Sure enough, every workday at 10 am and 2 pm, our house would shake just slightly when they blasted at the quarry. I haven't noticed it lately, but I don't know if they've stopped blasting or if I've just become immune to it!



We often go to a 4th of July festival at San Gabriel Park in Georgetown, TX. We started going to this one when I was pregnant with child #2 because the park is shadier than our local park that has a festival, and the festival seemed bigger, but I think the others may have gotten better in the meantime, and no amount of shade is enough when it's sooooooo hot outside! The weather services claim it's around 90 today, but I would swear it felt like 100 out there. This festival is one of my main inspirations for the Chew-Off festival in my gum novel.



( Behind the cut, see pics of my sons on the same ride 4 years ago & today. )

Trying to cool off, with the San Gabriel River behind us.



Happy 4th of July, everyone! (Even if you're not in or from the US, I assume you still have a 4th day of July unless you're following a different calendar...!)

I don't have a lot of ideas today for  cynthialord's daily photo challenge, so here's a very random tour of some local sights.

Twenty or thirty minutes from my house, there's a natural underground cavern, Inner Space Cavern in Georgetown, TX. Here's a picture of my oldest son there last year:

 

It has a funky retro sign outside with an eerie blinking light, which you can see from I-35 just north of Austin. They discovered the cavern when they were drilling to build an overpass for the highway in 1963.



And a place you should visit if you come to Austin is one of my favorite places to eat, Flip Happy Crepes. The crepes have been described as better than the crepes in France, but the ambience is a little more...um, Austin. (That's my husband at the order window, not looking very Austiny in his business clothes!)



The next picture is more to show off my baby (last year, much smaller than now) than the place, but note that Flip Happy Crepes was featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and they won the throwdown!



You'll probably see more burnt orange here than anywhere else on earth. This is my middle son riding the Zilker Zephyr miniature train at Zilker Park.



Finally, since everyone loved my floppy squirrel photo so much, I figured I'd share the other my husband took the same day. Another lazy squirrel trying to beat the heat in downtown Austin:

 

Two more workshop participants have blogged about it: Shana Burg and April Lurie.

Meanwhile, I was going to read my middle grade novel again, now that I've let it sit for a week and a half, but I couldn't find the printout! Oops. It's got to be around here somewhere (my son read it), but I didn't feel like reading it on the computer or printing 144 pages again, so I decided to read the printout of my old YA novel instead.  

I only read about 40 pages before I got called away, but I wasn't sure what to think. I definitely read it differently now, especially after the workshop that gave me so many good ideas of what to look for, and even I was asking myself, "Where's the story? When is something going to happen here?" But I didn't skip ahead because I knew not much was going to happen! And yet, I still like the character, even though she's not especially likeable. I still like her voice and the things she says. I still like a whole bunch of it, actually, so I'd hate to write the whole novel off, but I can see that it moves too slow and not enough happens. And yet, several years after I wrote it, I still don't know how I'd rather see it happen. If I go back to my original idea of making it largely a road trip novel, that would get things moving faster, but I don't think there would be a place for the main love interest, which is my favorite part of the book. Gotta think... 

Anyway, I'm stuck about what to do next: revise the midgrade, revise the old YA, or finish the new YA. I may have to do a little of each to see what grabs me. I signed up today for an upcoming Day with an Editor, and presuming I get a slot, I think I'll send the opening of my midgrade, though I'm not sure.

I skipped posting for cynthialord 's photo challenge yesterday because I was already posting two blog entries, one long and picture-heavy. But I figured that was okay when I've been posting more than one pic a day anyway.

Here's my toddler looking out our front window, one of his favorite activities since we've gotten bird feeders. A silly squirrel is hanging upside down on the long bird feeder. You may notice that my neighbor's house across the street has a flag pole in the yard.



We also get tons of birds. Here's a cardinal I thought was especially pretty.



Here's a view from the outside:



And much further outside, here's my husband taking our baby on a stroller ride down our street, in a northern suburb of Austin. I love how wide the streets are in our neighborhood. Our house is behind the tallest tree on the left. Too bad we don't have shade in our backyard!



But in keeping with the earlier squirrel theme, I have to share this photo, one of two funny squirrel pictures my husband took with his camera phone in downtown Austin. It gets so hot in Austin, the squirrels just have to plop their bellies down on the sidewalk trying to cool off!

 

I still haven't come down from the high of the Awesome Austin Writers' Workshop this past weekend (see my entry about that), or recovered completely from my whole insane past week, which also included finishing a novel draft, getting my first-ever cat, getting major car repairs, and doing a whirlwind job of interviewing people and writing my monthly freelance column when the deadline got pushed up. 

Yesterday, I never got out of my pajamas! I didn't sleep all day, but didn't leave the house, either (though my kitty cat went to the vet with my husband). Today, I'm slowly trying to get back to Earth. My house looks like a few clutter bombs exploded, so there's that to take care of, plus my older kids decided to share a room and we need to rearrange stuff in a few rooms because of it. But I also need to determine what's next on the writing front.

On the reading front, I can finally start reading The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, which I bought a few weeks ago and haven't had a moment to read. I also want to run out and get the new books of some of my fellow workshop participants, especially A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg and How NOT to Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler. 

As for writing, I have this newly drafted midgrade novel I need to figure out what to do with. With luck I can get it critiqued and get back to that later. Then I'm only 20,000 words into the novel manuscript I had critiqued at the workshop, and people there were after me to finish it (yikes, pressure!). I also have my old YA, which desperately needs a revision. My original idea was to work on the old YA next, to get a better handle on the YA form with something that's more complete, then come back to the new one and apply what I learned. But after the workshop, the characters from my new one are calling out to have their stories told!

Oh yeah, and a few photos from the workshop that I haven't already seen on other blogs...these are courtesy of Cynthia Leitich Smith. Also note liz_scanlon and jenniferziegler have now blogged about this, too. 

 
L to R: Liz Garton Scanlon, me, April Lurie (in the back row), Erin Edwards, Philip Yates 

 
(I'm in the red again. That's Chris Barton in the center, Carmen Oliver with her back to the camera, and Julie Lake in the very back. Jennifer Ziegler is barely visible on the right.) 

 
L to R: me, Jane Peddicord, Chris Barton (in back), Debbie Gonzales (in back), Greg Leitich Smith 

 
L to R: Brian Anderson (in back), me, Philip Yates, April Lurie (behind Philip), Varian Johnson, Varsha Bajaj, Lindsey Lane

My friends Jeff and Merri from high school days were interviewed by The Today Show about the high price of milk, and it showed up on today's show. The clip is here, and Jeff and Merri show up at about 1:15 into the video time. I was able to fast-forward it, though that might be because I'd already played it once. Merri pointed out they cut her diatribe about industrial agriculture and going organic, etc., but at least the whole interview didn't end up on the cutting room floor.

Too bad I have two little milk junkies in my house!

I spent three intense but wonderful days this past weekend at the "Awesome Austin Writers' Workshop" hosted by Cynthia Leitich Smith and Greg Leitich Smith, mostly at their home with the exception of a party at Helen Hemphill's fabulous downtown Austin loft. This involved 25 to 30 writers, in-depth critiques, and excellent food and conversation. I haven't managed to process the whole experience yet, but it definitely lived up to the "Awesome" in its name!

But it wasn't just awesome; for me, I think it even bordered on life-changing. If I look at myself at the protagonist of my own life and try to figure out what I want, what my underlying character goals and motivation are...I think I got some of those things this weekend. While I didn't achieve my external goal of getting a book published, I experienced payoff in some of the areas that make me want to be a writer in the first place. I felt that I was heard. I felt that I was validated. I felt that I was taken seriously. I learned a lot. And the creative charge was amazing!

In my teen years, I was very involved with theatre. I loved the process of acting, bringing new worlds and characters to life (similar to what I still do in writing), but much of what I loved about theatre--the thing that kept me hanging around even when I didn't get a part--was the energy and atmosphere of being surrounded by creative people, bouncing their creativity off of one another, expanding their horizons together, and challenging each other to do excellent work. I have felt a taste of that creative energy again at writing conferences and writing retreats, and even to an extent in my last job as a technical writer, surrounded by other writers, most of whom had their own creative aspirations outside the job. But in my job, we had interesting people focusing on largely boring work. We could spice it up with creative approaches, but I still couldn't get too excited about hardware driver code. At this weekend's workshop, we had interesting people focusing on interesting work, really delving into it and inspiring one another to grow and see things in new ways. This meeting of minds and ideas in the framework of a vibrant and supportive writing community was far more intoxicating than the wine served at the party portion.

At the end of the weekend, Jane Peddicord described Cynthia and Greg as being like fairy godparents for the Austin children's writing scene, and indeed the experience they helped create for us was magical! But I'm hoping that, unlike Cinderella's pumpkin/stagecoach magic, the magic from this won't wear off anytime soon. I feel that I ended the weekend in a different--and better--place than I started it in. It has motivated me to dive back into my own writing with new perspective, and I'm hoping the friendships I made there will continue.

Some of the other participants have also blogged about this: see entries by Greg Leitich Smith, PJ Hoover, and Jo Whittemore. I also found myself in the photos on Greg & PJ's blogs!

Today I have a few more Austin-centric photos for cynthialord's photo challenge.

Here are my kids (before I had 3!) in September 2005, in downtown Austin. This section of the Colorado River was then called Town Lake, but is now called Lady Bird Lake, after the late Lady Bird Johnson. It is surrounded by a 10.1-mile hike and bike trail. If you look carefully, you may notice people canoeing under the bridge.



Near Congress Avenue Bridge downtown, people gather nightly in the spring and summer to watch the world's largest urban bat colony emerge from under the bridge. Here my kids are again as people began to gather, waiting for the bats to come out.



Bats!



They are hard to see, but the small black blurs across the photo below are some of the 1.5 million or so bats that live under the bridge.



Another Austin landmark is the University of Texas tower. The top is lit in different ways to commemorate different events or achievements. When UT wins a national athletic championship, the tower is fully lit in orange, with building lights turned on strategically to form a big #1. We took this photo from our car in January 2006, when UT won the Rose Bowl, making them the national college football champions.



(I got my undergraduate degree from UT and my husband got 2 graduate degrees there, so we both feel a swell of school pride to see this!)

cynthialord has challenged people to post a photo a day of the area where they live. I'm fairly sure I can't do the Austin area justice, but figured I'd share what I could.

I'm going to start with 3 of the most Austiny photos I currently have on my computer, which also have a children's book tie-in because they're photos we took for a Flat Stanley project my oldest son participated in for his former Florida classmates in January 2007.

My older two boys in front of the Texas Capitol (with Flat Stanley, of course):



The start of the Hill Country, from Hwy. 360 in Austin--if you look closely you can see the city skyline in the distance:

"

Heading north on Hwy. 360, with the landmark "360 Bridge" suspension bridge straight ahead--this is one of my favorite roads to drive on because of the views:



Now I hope I didn't just blow all my contributions for the week on this entry!

We got a cat! 

Having lived most of my life petless, and never having had a cat (we had house rabbits for 10 years, so I tend to sympathize with the prey animals), I'm not sure yet how I feel about this, but I like the kitten so far. Her name is Pepper and she's a rescued stray. She's cute, friendly, and affectionate. My baby's a little overzealous with her, but certainly seems to love having her around--except when he and Pepper fight over my lap!







Now this is how it's likely to be when I try to get on the computer--with one or more creatures vying to get between me and the laptop!



And now I have 4,000 things to do (well, maybe 40, anyway) to get ready for a writing workshop tomorrow!

I am pleased to announce I finally have a draft of my midgrade novel, Purple Panic, completed, a whopping 5 years, 7 months, and 12 days after starting it! (Scroll down to my November 10, 2002 blog entry to see when I wrote about starting it!). The current manuscript is 38,488 words long, a far cry from the short chapter book I thought it might be when I started it. I won't be sure what I think of it until it has time to sit for a while, but it's at least to a point where I can let my 9-year-old finish reading it! And now I have to print out all 144 pages.

Meanwhile, I desperately need to get a freelance article done but haven't managed to talk to my interview subject yet, and I'm trying to read and form coherent thoughts on nearly 300 pages of manuscripts for a workshop in a few days. Not to mention dealing with a crazy toddler and a two stir-crazy boys who are home for the summer! They start Magic Camp in two weeks, but for now, it's full days of wall-to-wall kids. (Indeed they do run from wall to wall and back again, leaping and jumping and crashing into things and each other with more energy than I can handle!)

I thought I'd do a word cluster for a story my 7-year-old son recently wrote, called Luke's Mission to Mars.

I've seen these on other people's blogs the past few days, and I find them fascinating! These are word clusters of some of the most commonly used words in my manuscripts. The Wordle application generates them in randomly chosen styles, fonts, and colors.

Click on them to see them larger!

Here's one from the midgrade I'm almost done drafting right now, Purple Panic, which is obviously about chewing gum! This one seems perfect to me.



And here's my favorite, from my YA-in-progress, End of the Line. This was the first one I generated, and as soon as I saw it I gasped because it looked just like something my protagonist might doodle about her own story. (I've noticed the protagonist's name doesn't appear in it, though!)



For my older YA novel that's the closest to being done, Chasing Monday, I had it generate a few versions with different fonts and colors, but I think this rather fish-shaped one is my favorite of the ones I saved. Clearly, my protagonist is a little self-absorbed...but since it's basically about her figuring out who she is, I guess "I'm" is a decent word to be the most common.



Then I even made some for the picture book manuscripts I just submitted to the mustard writing contest! Think the word "mustard" is prominent enough? It's certainly more prominent than in a typical manuscript!





And finally I did one for my abandoned NaNoWriMo novel from 2006, which I only got about 7,000 words into. This almost makes me want to go back to the manuscript!



I did a few others besides those, but most of them didn't seem worth saving.

To my surprise, these things have actually improved my kids' dental hygiene.

This probably wouldn't. (But you never know!)

I sat down to write on my midgrade novel today, and can't believe I ended up writing 5,408 words! I didn't even mean for it to get that much longer at all! It's now at 37,308 words. It's mostly finished, but longer than I wanted it to be, and it still needs a wrap-up scene, which could probably be just a thousand words long or so. I also think I made a plot misstep today, which I'll have to rethink, so I may have to revise the way things go down in the section I wrote today.

The whole manuscript has gotten sloppier and sloppier since I started working on it again this spring, and I've dropped entire characters, etc., that I didn't mean to drop, just because I didn't keep going back to previous sections to get their names and couldn't really remember them or how they fit in. I need to add several characters back in. I won't feel like I'm done with a draft until I actually write a final scene for it, but wow, I did get pretty far and I wrote some stuff today that I really liked! Now I am tired.

Calling all poets! dorichaconas  is having a contest on her blog to win a signed copy of her latest picture book Cork & Fuzz! To enter, write a poem about cheese and post it in her comments.

I already have a sonnet about cheese that is very cheesy indeed. I wrote it in 1995 and it was featured on a now-defunct web site called CheeseNet for quite a few years, so I'm not sure if it qualifies for the contest, but I'd already thought about sharing it for a Teaser Tuesday recently just for fun, so I might as well share it now.

Here's my cheese sonnet in Dori's comments, and I urge everyone else to enter, too. Dori's books are great! 

(P.S. I couldn't find an appropriate icon for this post, so I made one!)

I'm at the library again, 525 more words into my novel and desperate to finish a draft, but feeling once again like I'm banging my head against a wall. I've never had a plot give me so many fits. Every time I think I've got it nailed down, it gets away again like an untied balloon flying out of my hand and swirling around the room. I'm soooo close, but not there at all. And I have a sinking feeling it's all for naught anyway. I can't imagine any editor buying this book. It's weird, and the pacing is much slower than what people seem to want these days. I could write a book about this that got off to a swifter start and ended fairly quickly, but that's not the book I'm writing, and not one I think I want to write. Or at least, I want to finish this version first!