Diary of a With It Kid

Or more specifically: Diary of a tomboy who loved to read, tell jokes, ride bikes, play Barbies, bury dead birds, play sports, and who eventually became boy crazy in junior high. Yeah, that kid.
Most of you blog readers are writers. And you write for children, right? So, where else to capture the voice of youth but a diary. How about my diary? Yes, I'll give you a peek. I'll try to post one a week for a while. Don't worry, it'll get juicier by the time I'm in the throes and woes of junior high...

I received this diary when I was almost eight years old.

Here are my first two entries word for word that I wrote the summer before third grade:

6/18
Dear Diary,
I have been thinking of what I am going to be when I grow up. I want to be a vetinarian, pet store lady, model, be on commercials, a TV star or a song writer. or a teacher.

6/18
Me and Anne are writing in our Diary's today. And Anne is writing about our last eclipse and what she is going to be when she grew up. Anne let me see her Diary and I got what I was going to be, from her.

It's nice to see that I accomplished a few goals of my childhood. I did become a teacher. I was an extra in two tv shows, and I write song parodies (okay, those are a stretch)!

What did you want to be when you grew up? What does your character want to be when he/she grows up?

Travelin' Teddy Bears

Go, Bears, go!
The second graders at my children's school recently participated in a project called Traveling Bears. This project is similar to Flat Stanley, if you are familiar with that. Each child brought in a teddy bear to send along with family and friends on their adventures. My daughter named her pink teddy bear Cotton Candy. The students then kept track of the states and countries that each stuffed teddy bear visited. Each teddy bear had a notebook in its back pack where the sponsors could write about each adventure. Cotton Candy sent letters or postcards to the school from each stop, too.

We sent Lil Missy's bear with family on their trips from January to April. The lucky bear went on a cruise to Hawaii, California, Arizona, Indiana, and Wisconsin. We took the bear with us to Canada (see pic above of Niagara Falls), Michigan, Ohio and Indiana on spring break as well. The students also made a flat bear to send to places. Lil Missy's flat Cotton Candy visited Spain, Montana, and New York. It's a fabulous project that incorporates so many school subjects like music (there was a Teddy Bear Singalong to kick off the project), geography, world cultures, reading, writing, and more.
Lil Missy just had her Teddy Bear Fair to end this five month school project, and I wanted to share a few of the fun pictures that came from Cotton Candy's adventures.

On the cruise ship in the Pacific Ocean



A few fabulous authors also hosted Cotton Candy. I am a helper in my daughter's classroom and also a mystery reader in her class so I shared the stories of Rena Jones and poetry and illustrations of Douglas Florian with them. They were excited to receive pictures and correspondence from these two authors as well.

Rena took Cotton Candy to many scenic spots in Montana and created a wonderfully creative packet about the trip. She also sent taffy for the students to share!




Douglas was kind enough to paint a bear and send a note from New York for Lil Missy to share with her class. Isn't it beautiful? This polar(k) bear will be framed soon!



THANK YOU so much Douglas and Rena for going above and beyond for my daughter and her class!! Also thank you to my family and friends for letting Cotton Candy tag along with you, too!

I also want to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to my friend, Anita Laydon Miller! Anita recently signed a contract with Sara Megibow of the Nelson Literary Agency! Go to her blog and say congrats! I just know the news of your book being sold will be next, Anita!

More Mark McVeigh!

A few weeks ago, Agent Extraordinaire, Mark McVeigh, invited a group of his blog followers to participate in a webinar about the publishing industry. I was one of lucky ones to join in on the fun!
Fun you ask? Absolutely! Mark McVeigh is an agent with The McVeigh Agency. Mark is a former teacher and former editorial director at Simon and Schuster. This man knows his stuff!
During the webinar, I was able to see and chat with Mark and other attending writers while learning about different aspects of the publishing world. Mark presented so much wonderful information about getting an agent or editor and of course, about getting published! I have about five pages of notes that I have already revisited. They will also come in handy when I get back to the agent search. We discussed everything from writing schedules and critique groups to query letters and networking. Of course I was a bit nervous at first, but Mark made everyone feel very comfortable, and we were all able to ask specific questions about agents and publishing.
During our webinar, some of us formed an online critique group which is now called “Mark One Page at a Time!” Sharon Mayhew came up with the clever name as a nod to Mark since he was the one who brought us all together. Mark was discussing the importance of online and face to face critique groups. Some of us were not in online groups yet, so we decided to form one!
This was such a worthwhile experience, and I am certain that each and every one of us came out much more informed and even more inspired. Thank you, Mark, for your generosity and expertise and thank you, ladies, for your wonderful discussions and continued support!
Check out The McVeigh Agency website here and the agency's blog here!

I am thrilled to be a part of a new online critique group as well as continuing with my local one (we had an amazing session last night). Do you have a critique group? If so, what brought you all together?

Miscellaneous Monday

1. I hope all of you wonderful moms had a great weekend. Mine was close to perfect. My daughter had her First Communion on Saturday followed by lunch and laughter with family at our house, finally watched The Blind Side (excellent movie), and then played Apples to Apples. On Mother's Day we went to church and to a most delicious 12:30 brunch. I even ordered three of my favorite drinks right away when I got there: champagne, chocolate milk, and a Coke. After eating way too much at brunch, I came home and got into my jammies! Except for the very cold temperatures, the weekend was awesome. How did you celebrate?

2. NaPiboWriWee is all done! Check Paula Yoo's site for more details on this 7 Picture Books in 7 Days week. I did complete a rough draft of one non-fiction book and worked on about half of a rhyming PB. I knew I wouldn't complete 7 rough drafts in 7 days, but it did motivate me to do a lot! It was a much needed break from my Middle Grade which I will get back to this week.

3. Thank you to Nicole at One Significant Moment at a Time for the Awesomesauce award. That's....awesome! Also thanks to Wendy at Musings from Down Under for the Sugar Doll award. Sweet!

4. Jonathan Arntson tagged me in this fun FIVE THINGS meme. If you want to do this too, consider yourself tagged!

Where were you five years ago?
1. Nursing and nurturing an eight month old son
2. While chasing after a very rambunctious two year old daughter
3. and worrying how my kindergartener was handling all the attention I had to pay to the other two more demanding children
4. Changing many, many diapers
5. Receiving much love in return

Where would you like to be five years from now?
1. Agented
2. Published author in the genres of PB and MG
3. Attending, cheering and carting my kids to many sports events and activities of my 10 yr old, 12 yr old and (gasp!) 15 year old.
4. Same house and hope it is full of as much hugs and kisses as it is now (see my kids ages in five years).
5. Perhaps teaching grade school either full time or substitute teaching

What is/was on your to do list today?
1. Substitute teach P.E. in the morning (my daughter was very excited, because I will sub for her class for 35 minutes)
2. Laundry catch up since I ignored it all weekend
3. Take library books back (or renew them online)
4. Read your blog
5. Cheer on JD at his t-ball game (if it doesn't rain!)

What five snacks do you enjoy?
1. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
2. Salted cashews
3. Chocolate chip cookies
4. Popcorn at the movies
5. cheese and crackers

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?
I'm not sure I'd want to be a billionaire...seriously. I'd love a million dollars...but no more. :) I like my life the way it is. This was the toughest of the questions...
1. Save for my children's colleges and set up accounts for their future children.
2. I'd pay off my house and probably buy one on the lake for my fisherman hubby. I imagine we'd both get new cars (a corvette and truck for him, a big family suv for the kids and I). Help out other family members too in a reasonable way.
3. Go to more SCBWI conferences, specifically the L.A. and NY ones, help pay for some of my blogger buds to go, too (or to a writing retreat).
4. Get front row seats to concerts with VIP passes of course.
5. Donate to charities, specifically ones for children and education.

Holy Acronyms, Awards, and Contests, Batman!

CONTESTS!

Have you heard all the buzz about WIBIJ?! WIBIJ is "Where in the Blogosphere is Jon?" On various Wednesdays, supernice bloggers Tina, Heather and Jon host a game where you follow the clues to very cool blogs, and if you do it fast enough, or leave the best comment out there, then you win an award! This week's award includes books! You know you love books! The game is crazy fun, and you can definitely find me there on game days! The game starts at 1PM EST time TODAY! If you can't make it then, the game is open for 24 hours! Stop by and try to beat three-time winner Dena or come up with the most clever comment!! The play by plays after the game are amusing, too!

Another ubercool contest in the blogosphere is this!
Candace Granger at The Misadventures of Candyland is having not one, but two contests to celebrate 100 followers! Prizes include books, homemade candle, signed bookmarks, a query critique, a chapter critique and gift card!! Holy wow! Go, now!

COOL WEBSITE ALERT!
Have you visited the website, Nightstand.com yet? If you haven't, what's stopping you? Nightstand.com's mission is to help people learn how to build a lifetime reading plan.
This website features interviews from various readers such as Jamie Weiss Chilton, Cynthia Liu, and Bruce Hale. Plus it has lists like 100 Greatest YA Novels and Greatest Zombie Novels. This fab website even has links to where you can donate your books! What else? The creator, fellow writer David Case, went to high school with me (he was in my sister's class!). Check it out!

NAPIBOWRIWEE!
Anyone else participating in the 7 Picture Books in 7 Days? Well I am! I thought I'd take a break from my MG to write some picture book fast drafts. I know I can't possibly write seven, but I am about 1/3 of the way done with one so far! Check out Paula Yoo's website for details.

AWARD TIME!

Disclaimer: If you aren't big on passing awards around, don't worry about acknowledging mine to you. I just want to give you a shout out!! I am terrible about remembering myself and don't follow the rules half the time!

*Big thank you's to 1 Zany Zoo author, Lori Degman, and some other very nice person that I am blanking on at the moment (so sorry!) for presenting me with the Prolific Award.
I hand this to Elana Johnson for her daily informative posts!Thanks again to Elana for Spreading the Awesome on Monday. Look here for some great book recommendations from Monday.

*I also received the Too Cool for School Award from Candy! (Though I was at school yesterday substitute teaching first graders, so I really am not too cool for school...maybe just slightly cool...). Thanks, Candy!! (see her contest in first part of this post)
I award it to Suzanne Casamento because she always has fun questions on her blog, and she grocery shops at the same place as Jared Leto!

*Thank you to Kelly at Just Write for the Super Commenter Award. Anita, even though you aren't big on awards, I need to hand it to you as well because your comments always make me giggle! And if sarcastic, witty comments aren't cool, then I don't know what is -so you can also have the Too Cool award too!

*Thank you also to Susan Fields for awarding me the Spreading the Sunshine award. Here comes the sun....to the terrific trio - Tina, Heather, and Jon- for their awesome WIBIJ game and sunny contributions to the blogging world. (Tina Laurel Lee also had a blog called, "The Practice Room" where writers unplug for an hour then chat about it! It's a great way to make sure you get writing time in a busy day. See this week's schedule here!)

PHEW! This post ended up being much longer than expected...thanks for sticking with me to the end. You still there? Good. Have yourself a wonderful day, you!

Spreading the Awesome: Stay Gold, Ponyboy

Today Elana Johnson is hosting "Spreading the Awesome: National Hug an Author Day!" Please go to this post to see a list of the many published authors who are being celebrated today. Then check out Elana's pick, Kathleen Duey.

Today I celebrate a longtime favorite of mine: S. E. Hinton. I recently reread her classic, The Outsiders, with my fifth grade son. He and I have read and explored new books together like the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series. I was excited to share something that I read and enjoyed when I was 11 years old.

Coincidentally the movie, The Outsiders, came out around the time I would have naturally read the book. The movie was released in March 1983 when I was in sixth grade. I started buying the Teen Beat magazines around that time and due to the fact of so many handsome, young men (or babes as I would have called them back then) in this movie, The Outsiders had plenty of coverage in these mags. And on my walls. I may even have to say that this movie caused my boy craziness in junior high. I devoured any magazine about this movie. C. Thomas Howell and Matt Dillon were plastered all over my walls and bedroom door. I watched the movie many times. Two lines from the movie have been quoted by my mom, my sister, and I hundreds of times since then. "Do it for Johnny!" and "He couldn't take it - he's gonna blow!" are still peppered in our conversations today.

But back to the book. The movie may have intensified my interest in reading the book, but the book itself kept me reading it and rereading it all through my teens. I remember bringing the book to my grandparents' cabin and rereading it one summer for the third or fourth time. There I made up a song about the characters of the book, much to the annoyance of my older sister. The song wasn't annoying so much as the fact that I sang it all the time! I also memorized (and can still recite) the first line of the book.

What did I love about this book? It was honest, yet not totally graphic. The characters were likable even though they smoked, stole, rumbled, and cussed. Ponyboy Curtis and Two-Bit Mathews are two of my all time favorite characters from a book. Ponyboy was smart, handsome, but felt picked on like many youngest siblings do. He even loved to read and enjoyed poetry (just like me). Do you remember him reading "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost? Two-Bit was a riot. He was carefree and joked around even before a big rumble. I giggled as I read his flippant comments to others. And of course I cried at another point of the book for another character. My husband, son, and I also recently enjoyed watching the movie together. A totally random fact about the widespread influence of this book/movie is that the lead singer of rock band Buckcherry, Josh Todd, has "Stay Gold" tattooed on his knuckles!

I loved rereading this book so much that I am now rereading That was Then, This is Now by S. E. Hinton, her second book. I even forgot that Ponyboy was a minor character in this book! I plan to read or reread her other books when I'm done with this one.

Here are a few facts about Susan Eloise Hinton that I found on her website.

*S.E. Hinton's first novel, The Outsiders, was published in 1967.

*The pressure from the fame of her first book helped cause a three year writer's block. Her boyfriend (now husband) then encouraged her to write two pages a day. Her next novel, That Was Then, This Is Now came from these writings.

*She has a cameo as a nurse in a scene with Dally (Matt Dillon) in The Outsiders. I remember this from my teen magazines. I was the authority on Outsider fun facts back then.

*Hinton still lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

*Her other books include Tex, Rumblefish, and Taming the Star Runner. Big David, Little David and The Puppy Sister are her books for younger readers. Her latest book, Hawkes Harbor , was released last week!

So, today I hug you, S.E. Hinton, for your honest and inspirational books that stand the test of time. Thank you.

Pocabulary

Many families have words or phrases that are commonly used (or uniquely used) in their household. Some are made up, some are overused, some are just plain goofy.
Here are some words and phrases that are used often in the Polark household.

Polark vocabulary (or Pocabulary or Polarcabulary...I couldn't decide which was better)

Famwich - my husband made up this word for when all three kids and two dogs come into our bed with us to giggle or talk or snuggle (this has on occasion turned into a Dutch Famwich which I will not elaborate on).
Meaner - my five year old coined this for well, someone who is being mean
Bob Georgenfeller - a character name in one of my fifth grader's stories. I just like the name so I am including it in the Pocabulary.

Toaster Paster - my five year old accidentally called his Pop Tart/toaster pastry this, so now it will always be known as a toaster paster.

Skin sweater - skin with hair on it, I guess
Broadzilla - my husband occasionally calls me this. Isn't he a romantic?!
buttocks - potty talk is rampant in this house
Taco Tuesday - yes, we try to have tacos so often on Tuesdays for dinner, that when we serve it on a different night, one of the children will be confused and ask, "Wait...is today Tuesday?"

Phrases frequently used in our household (besides of course "I love you," "No," and "Wash your hands.")

"I was like.." - my five year old will do or say something and then recap it for us.

Justin Bieber's hair (or as my husband would say, Justin Beaver's hair) -thanks to this post by Murph, this topic has been used lately to make each other laugh or scare my five year old (who finally realized that he really won't be attacked by J.B.'s hair)

"Can I say the prayer?" - We have a competitive household that even after we say, "Wash your hands for dinner" the three children yell this so they can be the one to say the prayer before dinner. You wonder why we won't just rotate who says it? Because then it wouldn't be as big of a deal.

"That's cooooold!" - by my fifth grader twenty times a day, must be the new groovy phrase going around in the middle school

"That's where my babies were born!" I say that every time we pass the hospital where my babies were born (which is in the area). So, everyone expects it and chimes in now.

Words or Phrases that once used to be overused but are now "so two years ago" as my fifth grader would say.

Big Ticks. (see my old post for the reasons for this one. My son can thankfully say his "k" sounds correctly now.)
“Not so good, Al.” from the end of the Weezer video, "Buddy Holly." We'd say it when something was not good.
"Save that talk for dinner!" At dinner, our talk would always end up being ridiculous potty talk somehow, so that when someone would be talking about toots or poop during the day, I'd tell them not to say that because that kind of talk was reserved for the dinner table.

"Pool and a pond. Pond would be good for you." My husband has been saying this line from Caddyshack since I've met him. Plus other Caddyshack lines like "You'll get nothing and like it!" and "Thank you very little."

What words are commonly used in your home?