Master Jedi Renn has Spoken!

For a Children's Book Writer nothing is more important than making a child laugh, allowing a child to see themselves in a story, and/or winning a reader over.

Thank you to everyone who submitted a pitch to Renn's Pitch Contest! The entries were so creative and fun to read and it is definitely evident that you all have the power to do the above!

Master Jedi Renn has spoken and the winner of the contest is...

Beth Stillborn!!!

Congrats, Beth!  I will be in touch regarding your prize.

Friendspiration Friday: Bethany Telles

Not only is today the 4th installment in my new Friendspiration Friday series, but it is also the conclusion of Renn Week here on The Write Routine. 

Let's face it, we cannot conclude Renn Week without giving special mention to his amazing mom.  So today, I would like to introduce Bethany Telles as my Friendspiration!

I am relatively new to the Children's Book Writing community.  In fact, I have only been pursuing this field for a little over a year and did not join a community online til I participated in Tara Lazar's PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) in November of 2011.

However, it became very clear early on that Bethany Telles was a special member of the community.  Although she lives clear across the country from Brooklyn, NY in Clovis, CA it was easy to become her friend and immediately feel a bond. 

At first we had small chats on the PiBoIdMo Facebook page, and later on the 12x12in12 Facebook page.  We then became Followers of eachother's blogs and Friends on Facebook.

Bethany's blog, Perched in a Tree, features wonderful little musings on both life and writing.

I think what stands out to me the most about Bethany is her unapologetic authentic-ness.  You see, life for Bethany is not always peachy.  She is the mother of two young boys and the wife of a man who has a very demanding, dangerous and somewhat secretive job.  And so, yes, sometimes she probably doesn't get the chance to write every single day.  Sometimes life gets in the way.  And with this newest 3 day stay in the Children's Hospital, life can seem scary. However, like a true artist, Bethany is honest about the ups and downs and allows her readers to see inside of that amazing soul of her's.

It is the fact that she has such a wonderful heart that she is willing to bare no matter how unpretty it may look that makes her accessible and likeable to her readers.  She's that friend that invites you over for coffee and you laugh and cry together around her kitchen table...at least that is how it feels each time you read her work.

Through all of the crazy occurences this past year, I do want to make sure to acknowledge that Bethany was a finalist in the MeeGenius Writing Challenge  and her first e-book "Waiting for James in a Sea of Pink" was published!!  If that's not a testimony to perseverance, I don't know what is! 

Balancing life and writing can be tough.  Bethany proved it can be done. 

So on this rollercoaster of life, Bethany grabs onto her writing community, her family, her Faith and her talent.  She is amazing.  Its not surprising that Renn has endured all of his latest struggles with a smile on his face.  It is obvious to me that he inherited that smile from his mama.

Do YOU have a Friendspiration you would like to introduce us to on a future Friday? Please send an email to marciecolleen@gmail.com and we will make that happen.

Writers Weigh In: Renn's Pitch Contest

Alright, Writers!  Today is still Renn Week at the Write Routine, as well as Wednesday Weight In.  We are going to change it up with a little contest. 

From what I can see online, Renn is doing really well and is enduring his stay in the hospital with the true spirit of a Jedi.  (If you do not know Renn's story, please look to Monday's post).  However, he's still not home yet, so let's continue to show the love.

Today I would like you all to Weigh In with a very special pitch contest!  Let's hone our skills while also making a little guy smile.

Rules:
Pitch a story about a main character who undergoes a struggle (like Renn) and has to go away for a while to deal with it (in Renn's case, to the hospital).   The story will be about how they deal with This struggel and their time away and how they overcome in the end.   The  main character should have many of Renn's characteristics (brave, smiley, etc).  You can read his story again to get yourself acclimated with him.

Pitch your story idea in the comments section. 

When he is able, Renn will choose the story he likes best and the winner will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate!

Sound good?  Ready to play Renn's Pitch Contest?  Writers Weigh In!

Pitching closes at midnight PST on Friday, July 27th, 2012!

Renn's Story: A Call for Togetherness

For many adults, entertainment provides an escape.  It doesn't matter if its watching a movie, cheering on a sports team or reading a book, entertainment helps adults escape their reality and live in another world for awhile.

For kids, most of the time reality doesn't need to be escaped.  Instead, entertainment provides time for togetherness and community.  Whether its going to the circus with your family, watching a movie with your best buddies or curling up with a bedtime story its about being with the ones you are with. 

Today I would like to share a story about a very special 5 year old and his mother.  They need our togetherness, our community as they enter the hospital for some tests.  Its a scary time.  But, Renn and Bethany, today I hope you can feel our togetherness.  Our love.  Our support and encouragement.  Imagine that you are in a big comfy chair with us reading your favorite bedtime story.  Its about togetherness...and escape if needed. 

We love you and hope to hear good news soon.  My prayers are with you. 

Here is Renn's story, as told by his mother, Bethany Telles.


You see this little man? ---------->

Well, he's my oldest son. His name is Renn, and he's 5 years old. In less than a month, he'll be going to Kindergarten. He loves Star Wars and knows everything about all six movies... Seriously. He's very smart (okay, yes, I'm a teensy bit biased!), and has said some of the most hilarious things I have ever heard in my life.

Back in February of this year, Renn began having seizures. I mean, out of NOWHERE. They are not your stereotypical lying on the floor, twitching, convulsing, and drooling type seizures (those are called Grand Mal seizures). He has what is known as Petite Mal seizures, which are far less scary to watch (unless you're the person's parents!). He'll begin by shuffling his feet, pointing at or asking about a million different random things, and then his body will "spasm" and he'll flail his right arm out, and might run in a circle while clapping or hopping.

We ran him through the gambit of tests. He had a CT Scan, an EEG, and a MRI... I must admit, with each test, my heart sank. It was hard to watch. But him? With each test, he got to be a cooler and more intelligent Jedi. The resilience of this child... I can't even explain. Anyway, the CT scan came back clear. MRI? Perfect. But the EEG? No such luck. The doctor said it was just "ugly". Believe me, I didn't spend years in medical school learning how to read EEGs, and to me, that thing made me cry.
So in March, we got hit in the gut with a load of the heaviest bricks. Our little boy was diagnosed with Complex Partial Epilepsy.

EPILEPSY??!!!

That word just didn't make sense. He was perfectly FINE all this time! Would he be able to live a normal life? Would he be able to drive one day? What did that word mean, exactly? It truly is unbelievable how little we knew about the disease, and what kind of stigma it holds for those who don't know. I've long dealt with people not understanding my disease (I'm a Type 1 Diabetic- have been since I was 10), but now? Was I going to have to go into each teacher at every new school year and whisper quietly all the restrictions he was to have? NO. I just wasn't having it.

Luckily, his Neurologist- thankfully a close family friend of ours- calmed me the heck down. He said Renn would be just fine, and there were no restrictions. He'd be on medication, and once it kicked in and he stopped having seizures, we'd recheck in a year and see if we could start weaning him off the meds. That meant there's a chance he'd outgrow this!

Hope! There was hope!

But, three months, three heavy medications, seven different dosage changes, and many seizures later, that one year goal seems further and further out of reach.

Tomorrow (July 23, 2012) I will be taking Renn to our wonderful Children's Hospital, where we will admit him, and he will be monitored for at least 72hrs on what's called a VEEG (Video EEG). The goal is to find out what, exactly, is going on in that beautiful, innocent brain of his. I am praying for answers. I don't think there is anything worse, short of losing your child, than not knowing what is going on with your baby.

Why am I sharing this? Well, one- I'm a writer. I have to write, and as I've explained before, it's extremely therapeutic for me. But, two- I am sharing this because I know I have a family, here. A family that cares about what is going on. But more than that, we write for kids everyday, so odds are, we kinda like them. :) I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, I can lean on you in this hard time.

So I am making a request... If you wouldn't mind it this week while Renn is in the hospital, could you share this picture and story with everyone you know? I will be making it my profile picture on FB, but you certainly do NOT have to go that far. But maybe ask your friends, families, or followers to pray and/or share? I want to be able to show Renn, as he sits and sits and sits during the VEEG, that there are people in the world praying for and thinking of him... That he CAN get through this, the only way Jedis can... By using the Force. :)

Please share this story and/or Renn's picture today on your social media outlets.  And please feel free to leave comments for Renn and Bethany here.

Friendspiration Friday: Julie Rowan-Zoch on Jon Agee

Welcome to the third installment in my new Friday series in which YOU get a chance to guest blog about someone who has inspired you in the writing community! I look forward to hearing from many of you.

Today Julie Rowan-Zoch joins us from her garden in Colorado to introduce her to her Friendspiration.

Please welcome, Julie...

First a round of applause for Marcie - it looks like the beginning of a beautiful inspirationship!

I am honored to introduce Jon Agee to anyone not yet familiar with this talented author/illustrator of numerous picturebooks for children, and a series of wordplay books enjoyed by all ages. His first was published in 1982 (If Snow Falls, Pantheon) but his fourth finally put his name on the map: The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau (1988, Farrar, Straus, Giroux).

I only recently discovered the work of Jon Agee, but its impact on me as a picture book maker has been none-the-less powerful. He is as capable with words in telling stories as he is with pictures, a trait I don’t find to be common. His books on palindromes, oxymorons, spoonerisms and tongue-tanglers are visual proof of an artist in love with words. Agee mentions on his website (www.jonagee.com) that he was influenced by the work of Tomi Ungerer, also one of my top favorites in the picturebook pond. Between the bold, simple lines and casual yet careful use of color I feel Agee’s straightforward and quirky humor, like butter in my belly-fly!

How could I not be taken in by someone who says this about writing: “I like taking an implausible, off-the-wall idea, and seeing where it will go.”

Esteem for a master craftsman is one thing, but each book of his I read convinces me to embrace my crazy ideas and run with them instead of fretting their salability. I think I’ll stick to his advice: “Absorb stuff and see what happens.”

Graphic designer and picturebook maker Julie Rowan-Zoch is a NY transplant soaking up the sun on Colorado's Front Range.   When she's not writing or illustrating she can be found with a garden shovel or local brew in hand, or biking to the library.

Do YOU have a Friendspiration you would like to introduce us to on a future Friday? Please send an email to marciecolleen@gmail.com and we will make that happen.

Wednesday Writers Weigh In: Keeping Routine in Summertime

Summer is usually a time for adventure and travel.  And it is also a time of disrupted daily routine.Whether your kids are home from school or you are away from home staying in a hotel or your social bbq-ing is leading to later nights than usual, it can be hard to accomplish what you need to do on any given day.

I really feel the disruption when it comes to my marathon training.  I train with my team on Saturday mornings, however for the next few weekends I am traveling.  Therefore, I have had to map out runs in other cities, sometimes for 8-10 miles, or seek out the nearest treadmill.  It definitely causes extra work and research on my end.

Luckily, I don't write on the weekends, so that routine has remained relatively unharmed...although busy weekend travel leads to exhausted Mondays when I really struggle to be creative.  So I have limited what I set out to accomplish on Mondays, usually focusing on blogging and researching only.  I then spend the rest of the week focused on writing and revisions.

What about you?  How do you keep your writing routine during the summer?  What changes and/or accommodations do you make in order to keep momentum?

Writers, Weigh In!

Sleep, Perchance to Dream: 5 Tips on Resting

"There is nothing a good night's sleep won't cure" sounds alot like advice my mother would have given me after hours of crying over a boy who broke my heart.  And although this advice seems incredibly basic there is a lot of truth to it!

Whether you are a Wall Street Trader or a pre-published KidLit author, finding a good balance between work and life is key to productivity.  Included in that balance should be a healthy daily dose of sleep and rest.  And even in marathon training, there are days of rest within the weekly schedule.  Though it can be tough to step back and let go on rest days, it can be most beneficial in the long run.

I write this after a very busy weekend spent in Canada that found me stuck at the Toronto airport last night waiting for a severely delayed fight back home.  Therefore, I am running on very little sleep...something that I have never been very good at.  And as I sat at the airport gate last night I could feel my potential for productivity today slipping away.

Today I realize I am not going to get much creative work done on my WIPs, but instead of getting upset I want to focus today on how to add rest and sleep into the Writer's Routine.

• Keep a notebook handy.  You might tell yourself that you are going to rest and not do any writing, brainstorming, or revising on a Rest Day, however its very hard to "turn off" the writer's mind.  So, keep a small notebook handy.  If any ideas come to mind on a rest day, write them in the notebook and then let go.  They will be there tomorrow.
• Unplug.  Many times "resting" means not even turning on the computer for me.  Its too tempting to open up my WIPs file or to start and do research online.  So, perhaps even for a few hours a day or one day a week, unplug. 
• Crosstrain.  In marathon training we crosstrain, meaning we use our muscles in a different way than running.  In the long run it actually helps keep you toned and makes you stronger.  So why not use your creative muscles differently on a Rest Day?  Go to a museum, take a photography tour around your neighborhood, paint or doodle, bake.  Do anything creatively that does not include writing.
• Reflect and Dream.  Most of us need to be asleep to dream.  So on a rest day, spend time thinking about what it will be like to open a box of your published book or visualize your first book signing event.  Reflect on things that you have accomplished and celebrate how far you have come.  And then dream of what is to come. 
• Sleep.  It sounds simple, but it isn't.  However, you need to find time to sleep.  Whether it means going to bed a tad earlier on a Rest Day or letting yourself sleep in a tad longer, you will be doing your creative-self a favor.  It is said that Robert Louis Stevenson came up with the plot of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde during a dream.  And Paul McCartney said he discovered the tune for the song "Yesterday" in a dream.  For more, check out Wikipedia's list of Anecdotal accounts of sleep and creativity.

So do yourself a favor.  Find one day this week and give yourself permission to make it a Rest Day.  Although it might seem counterproductive, I guarantee you will return to work the next day stronger and refreshed. 

Happy Writing  Resting!