http://www.sandishelton.com/blog Thoughts about writing and life Wed, 07 May 2008 17:46:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It is just disgusting how some people never get around to writing on their blogs. I have so much to say and yet somehow, as my children remind me, I never seem to write any of it down. Why? Why? WHY? Well, it's because I am working on my new novel...and ... http://www.sandishelton.com/blog/2008/05/07/its-good-to-have-goals/ My friend Carol has more energy than most people. She's written several books, about a million newspaper and magazine stories, AND she's flown off to all parts of the world to make full-length, incredible documentaries. Plus, she volunteers in the school system and runs the Fairfield Writers Workshop where she ... http://www.sandishelton.com/blog/2008/04/25/cookin-with-teens/ "One of the best things about being a novelist," said my friend Beth the other day, "must be that you get to use up all those names you couldn't give to your kids. Or your dogs and cats." She's right. Picking a name for a character is even more exciting than ... http://www.sandishelton.com/blog/2008/04/20/when-naming-your-own-children-isnt-enough/ Do you remember when you first found out you were going to be a parent, and how suddenly the whole world seemed to have advice to throw at you? Did you have people saying, "Get ready for your life to suck" and warning you that you would never sleep ... http://www.sandishelton.com/blog/2008/04/16/blindsided-by-a-diaper-the-musical/ On Friday, I came home to find my cell phone bill in the mailbox...and it was double the amount it usually is. And just when we had decided to stop our wild, spendthrifty ways, too. We have had three months now of trying to be soooo careful--radical things like eating at home ... http://www.sandishelton.com/blog/2008/04/13/no-one-believes-me-when-i-tell-this-story/ I know. I know. I've been a failure as a blogger lately. It's not even because the New York Times, bless their hearts, has discovered that being a blogger is hazardous to your health and written this story about the dangers of it .I couldn't bring myself to read the full ... http://www.sandishelton.com/blog/2008/04/09/the-craziness-of-april/ My novel misbehaves in the middle of the night. Last night it woke me up with a start at 2:14 a.m., insisting that I get up out of bed and FIND MY NOTEBOOK and a pen QUICKQUICKQUICK, which are not easy things to locate in the dark at somebody else's house. (I ... http://www.sandishelton.com/blog/2008/03/26/blame-and-the-novel-in-the-middle-of-the-night/ My writer friends, Alice Mattison, Leslie Connor, and I are giving an all-day writing conference together, and I couldn't be more excited. If you're anywhere near Fairfield, Connecticut on April 5, and you want to get a chance to talk about writing all day long...please come! Here's the notice about it ... http://www.sandishelton.com/blog/2008/03/14/come-to-a-writing-conference/   Have you met Google Talk? I have to admit: I'm on it all the time, whether I want to be or not. It's the main way I write my novel AND talk to my kids all at the same time. Sort of like major multi-tasking. I'm getting ... http://www.sandishelton.com/blog/2008/03/13/google-talk-out-of-the-mouths-of-babes/ I was thinking for a while of trying to become perfect. It's all because of an article I read in "O" magazine last month--one of those personal experience pieces in which the writer decided she'd do everything just right. I can hear you right now saying, "Oh, yeah? Under ... http://www.sandishelton.com/blog/2008/03/11/march-madness-should-i-try-to-be-perfect/