Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Am I the only one who didn't know this?

Stephen Hawking wrote two children's books with his sister Lucy. I haven't seen these books yet but I'm definitely going to check them out at the library. They're for ages 8 and up. They look great don't they?
You can find more information on these children's books and Stephen Hawkin's other books on  Stephen's  web site.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

The Resurrection of the Blog!


One of my New Year's resolutions was to start blogging again and the holidays even provided me with an idea for my blog for the coming year. The problem was December and January brought me tight deadlines for three new joke books. What a great reason not to have time to blog! So, here it is March and I finally...have a chance...to catch my breath.

My idea for the blog this year was taken from a conversation over Christmas dinner. My mother-in-law said you must wake up every day with the goal to learn something new. So I thought, wouldn't it be great to share what we learn each day?  It can be something as simple as a fun fact or how you learned of kindness in an unexpected place.

Today, I learned something via an email from Gotham Writers Workshop that included 10 Questions for the Writer. The first question listed pertained to a grammar question that came up in one of my manuscripts. While our critique group went back forth about when to use the words lay and lie, we eventually came across the correct answer. Although we learned how to use them correctly, even in their past tenses, I still found the rule hard to remember. Thanks to Gotham teacher, Brandi Reissenweber, today I learned an easy way to remember the rules for these two very different verbs. So lie back in your chair and read Brandi's simple tips here. I also learned that you can email your writing questions to WritingQuestions – at – WriterMag.com.