The Muse Goes to College

Feeling stuck? For Tuesday Museday this week I offer up a picture of a piece of paper that hung in my freshman dorm room at Colorado State University. This is a record of the many stupid things my friends and I said that year. Perhaps one of them will end up in your MS. If it does, and you get it published some day, all I ask is that you mention me in the Acknowledgements.

PS--if it is hard to read the quotes, click on the picture. It'll open in its own window and you can zoom in.

If you are working on a query and you'd like fresh eyes on it, let me know in the comments! I'll pick someone for a query critique.

Remembering Dr. Seuss

I just found out today that Dr. Seuss's birthday is coming up in two days. He would've been 110 years old on March 2nd. :)  I thought I'd commemorate him on the the blog.because Dr. Seuss will always hold a special place in my heart. One of his books (I think it was Yertle the Turtle) was the very first book I read on my own. I remember sitting on my living room couch and painstakingly going though the book, word by word. When I finished, I was so proud, displaying the book to my mom.

Now, as an adult, I have new memories. Sitting with my kids and listening to the cadence of Dr. Seuss as I read them books like, Cat in the Hat, or Green Eggs and Ham (my favorite to read out loud).

Today, I want to share a few of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes. Feel free to add to the list by including some of your own in the comments.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss.


“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” 
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!


“A person's a person, no matter how small.” 
― Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who!


“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not.” 
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax


“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!” 
― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!


(I always think of this one when I am cleaning the house.)

“And this mess is so big 
And so deep and so tall, 
We cannot pick it up. 
There is no way at all!” 
― Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat


And if those weren't enough, here are some more. Thank you Dr. Seuss for a life of fun and rhymes.

Never Give Up. Never Surrender.

"You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence."

Octavia Butler

Writing is hard. If anyone says anything different then I want what they're having. *grins* But, despite the (occasional) hard moments, you write. You make the time to sit at the computer to type those words day after day. You edit, rewrite, query and go through the rainbow of emotions that accompany it. 

You smile at requests. You file away the rejections. You shelve manuscripts you love. You write scenes and dialogue on scraps of paper/cereal boxes/text messages. You balance your real life with your fictional ones. You write. You persist. And that is the important thing. 

Never give up. Never surrender. 

You are a writer.  

Happy New Year! from a few awesome writers :)

As I am winding down from a long (though fun) Christmas vacation with my kids (filled with games of Sorry and Bananagrams and very few (aka no) new words in the WIP) and am gearing up for a whirlwind month of games and prizes leading up to my book release in a few short weeks (eep!) I thought I'd share with you a few favorite New Year's quotes from a few awesome writers :)

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day."

- Edith Lovejoy Pierce

"Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account." (hehe)

- Oscar Wilde

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential."

- Ellen Goodman

"One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things."

- John Burroughs

"For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning."

- T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

Happy New Year's Everyone :) May the new year bring you WIPs filled with usable words, requests or at least rejections filled with useful advice, helpful critiques that are blunt and truthful but never cruel, and above all, may you laugh, love, and WRITE! :)