Back on the rollercoaster of publishing (and life) ups and downs.
It was the 1st yahrzeit (anniversary on the Hebrew calendar) of my mother’s death. I ordinarily sleep for 5-6 hours. I slept for 12. By the end of a very long day, I was left with not sadness, but rather a feeling of being overwhelmed by the kindness of hundreds of strangers who reached out to me on Twitter. I think it was the sheer universality of the experience of loss and grief that struck a nerve. Now I just have to get through the Gregorian calendar date, her birthday and Mother’s Day.
I signed my 2nd PB contract with a 2nd publisher! I really excited about this one! It’s a ‘Noah’s’ Ark retelling with a very unique perspective. I can’t wait to say more.
In the meantime, I’ve sent 2 more picture book manuscripts out, each to a different publisher for different reasons. One is a story about a Talmudic personality and the other is a Hong Kong history. I’ve already heard back from one of the publishers, not an answer but the start of a conversation which at least shows that there is some interest there. I also got a rejection on a PB that I had sent to a publisher. Ups and downs.
I entered The Spring Fling Writing Contest. To enter, writers had to create an entire story in 150-word or less. This short-form is the only thing I’ve been able to work on during the Covid pandemic. Mine was 150-words exactly. There’s no prize for that though.
The challenge for me was that a GIF also had to accompany the text. Attaching the GIF was more challenging than it should have been. Another challenge was navigating the form in only in Chinese. The contest was just for fun though, but I think that the piece I wrote may have potential to be developed further. The tremendous effort and generosity of the contest’s creators and the positivity and encouragement from writers to each other, again proves how great the KidLit community can be.
Another up was that I joined a Twitter MG group (MGKnights). Now there’s Slack to learn too which is new to me, but I love that people are finding ways to create community. Working, most often alone, online connections are invaluable.
Speaking of online, my amazing critique partner and I are back to work on each other’s new WIPs. We had a hiatus of a few months where we were both slightly overburdened (both mothers of +4). Writing between the quiet moments with everyone home still isn’t easy, but connecting others that are doing the same makes it easier.
