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Want a chance to win this awesome Millennium Falcon soap or the equally awesome Death Star soap made by Soapsudsations?

Go to https://www.facebook.com/TeresaRobesonAuthor/posts/10156251851605328 for details!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators NYC Conference

Because I'd spent the previous week preparing for the conference and then most of the week away for the actual conference, I don't really have a post today. Therefore, I'm going to post a few doodles I did while I was listening to the speakers at the SCBWI Conference, and a bit of rambling and call it a day. 

Not only was it an inspiring conference, I also got to meet a whole bunch of online friends for the first time: Douglas Florian with whom my friend Elaine and I spent a lovely half-day with,

he signed a bunch of books for me

my Penguin Posse critique group friends and Minnows Literary Group friends. I am pretty sure I have new best friends for life, partly because we shared some scrumptious meals. When you break bread (or sushi) together, you are bonded in friendship!

tapas, Japanese-style

scallops at Cognac, NYC

I hope to have a very cool post about a very cool friend for next week or the following week. Stay tuned!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Happy 2015!

I've not been able to shut down comments without deleting my Disqus account (which, then, deletes all the wonderful comments I've gotten from all of you, and I can't bear to do that). I'll see if I can have the commenting option shut down a day after the post appears, so people can just come peruse and not have to leave a comment.

I thought I had a post ready for today, but it was not meant to be. So I'm just going to go with a bit of news and a promise to be less lame for my next post. :)

Firstly, it's the First Birthday of KidLit411, the brainchild of my genius picture book critique buddy, Elaine Kiely Kearns, along with her partner in crime, and also my PB critique buddy, Sylvia Liu. To celebrate, they are having an awesome bash, offering tons of great prizes. Go check them out!

Secondly, The Minnows Literary Group is pleased to announced our fourth e-anthology in support of Doctors Without Borders. Centauri Station is a collection of stories about the adventures and perils of space travel. At 99 cents, it is a bargain and goes toward a great cause.

Now, go forth and have a great week!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

20 years of writing: a long, difficult road

Writing for publication, that is. I've really been writing for much longer than 20 years if you count any creative writing that wasn't done for a school assignment...including schmarmy poetry and stories that led nowhere fast that I penned in elementary school.

And it's not actually 20 years, but because I started querying in 1993 and the first two pieces I submitted were published in 1995, the mid-point is 1994, which would be 20 years.

I hadn't looked at my records in a long time, but I was pleasantly surprised to re-read them. The letters I got from the Indiana DNR were so flattering, I really should frame them.

This was the acceptance letter:

"...the quality was exceptional!" - I should read this line every time I get a rejection

This is actually the first letter I got from them, and they sent the one above after I replied and said I'd be happy to have them keep it on file for future use:

"...you're one of the best writers to approach us lately." - so good for the ego

About the same time that I queried IN DNR, I sent out my first piece of fiction to Ladybug Magazine. It was a story I'd written for the ICL course I'd taken the previous year. The lovely Paula Morrow called me and asked if it was still available (yes, I screamed with joy after I hung up).

 Here's the first page of the story:

one never gets tired of bylines

I must have been on a roll back then. Even my rejection letters were good. See the hand-written note at the bottom? "The story is artfully written - very much so -- Please do try again."

Thus began my foray into writing. Unfortunately, while my writing career started on a high note, there were many depressing low ones in between too. While I never really stopped writing, I stopped submitting for a while.

It wasn't until the past 5 years that things started happening and chugging along again. For that I have to thank The Minnows Literary Group (and Michaela Rossner from Gotham Writers Workshop), my in-person SCBWI group (we need a name, people), and the Penguin Posse - my online critique group (and the 12x12 Challenge), and, my agent, Ella Kennen.

It's enough to make one sing!

So, have heart, if you have only begun writing (or whatever you've decided to do) in the last several years and haven't "hit the big times" yet. Be patient. Don't give up. You will eventually find your groove. Unless you're one of the lucky and talented few whose stars all align like a bunch of stellar schoolgirls in a Madeline story from the get-go, sometimes, it can take a couple of decades to hit the publishing sweet spot, that place where you have arbitrarily defined success, be it having an agent or being picked out by a big publishing house.

Has your career, or a change in life direction, started out promisingly and then took a turn for worse before becoming better?

(I used the PS Express blotter function to blot out the addresses, which is why some parts of the letters look funny.)

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

The creative process blog hop

Well, it looks like I've been tagged again. I've not been tagged this often since on the grade school playground! Last time, it by the lovely Catherine Johnson (here's the post). This time, it's my dear friend and critique group buddy, Sylvia Liu.

1. What am I working on?

Right now, I'm 
a) putting finishing touches on two stories for upcoming anthologies for my sci-fi critique group, The Minnows Literary Group. We publish science fiction anthologies of different themes and donate 100% of profits to Doctors Without Borders. So far, with our first two anthologies, Out of Time and In a Land Far Away, we have donated close to $5,000.

 
In "That Way Madness Lies," to appear in Centauri Station, a space-travel themed collection, I quote Shakespeare and put my poor main character, Nathan, in peril. 

For our second time-travel themed anthology, I'm writing a story called "Occupational Hazard" wherein Bertrand and Alexa face a time travel disease that may end up being a cure for loneliness.

b) finalizing three picture book manuscripts for my agent. 

c) revising a sci-fi short story that I want to submit to Writers of the Future. 

d) working on illustrations to prepare a portfolio and samples for art directors.

e) editing a middle-grade humorous sci-fi novel

f) doing research for, and writing, a young adult steampunk novel

2. How does my work differ from others in my genre? 

Science and science fiction guide pretty much all my writing (and some of my art).

I had a much better answer last time:
Aside from having a voice that is uniquely my own, as every writer does, I tend to weave science facts into my work. In the adult pieces that I write, I sometimes make people work a little bit to "get" the story. For example, in In a Land Far Away, some of the things I mention in "Three Long Pigs" will make the story much richer if you looked them up.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

Because it gives me joy and I hope it gives others joy too to read my stories or to see my artwork.

4. How does my writing/creative process work?

In fits and spurts, between harvesting and processing veggies in the summer, and homeschooling my kids year-round...tucked between my various other creative endeavors, and spurred on by the fires of Hades deadlines.

For writing, when I get an idea, I just open up a new document and do a brain dump. I need to work on being a plotter, though, if I hope to write novels that make sense.

For art,  I think about what it is that I'm trying to draw or convey, and then like with writing, I dive right in, sketching either with graphite, charcoal or digitally (I just started using the ArtStudio app that Sylvia had told me about; it's marvelous for beginning digital artists). After I'm happy with an initial sketch, depending on what kind of art I'm trying to produce, I will either work tight or loose with colors. My favorite are chalk pastels, water-media (either watercolor or tempera), and colored pencils.

Some of my current digital art can be found at http://trobesonart.wordpress.com/portfolio/illustrations-digital/

I normally don't tag people, but there are some folks whose creative processes I'd love to know more about. So, Steve Long, if you are up to the challenge, I'd like to see a blog post from you. No pressure! ;)

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams