Saturday, April 19, 2008

Double Tagged

Spring has sprung and the memes are on the loose!

I'll handle this one tonight (but won't try to tag anyone else since Tricia already tagged our whole Critique group):

1. Choose anyone of YOUR OWN manuscripts. It can be a picture book, MG novel, an adult novel... It makes no difference.
2. Turn to page 30 of your novel or page 3 if it is a PB
3. Find the 5th sentence.
4. Post the next 5 sentences of text.


1. When the Clock Strikes Two

3. 5th sentence: She gasped at the poem written on page three with a red marker.

4. Next 5 sentences:
When the clock strikes three
It’s your Aunt you will see
When the clock strikes two
You don’t want to know who
(Chapter 8 )
Cammy slapped at the snooze button on the clock radio.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Doctor Ted has arrived!

It's not every day I get a package in the mail with the return address from "Three Silly Chicks", in fact this past Tuesday is the only time it happened. I had the good fortune of winning an autographed copy of Andrea Beaty's picture book Doctor Ted in the Chick's latest contest! There was even a bonus gift -- a Dr. Ted prescription (for reading) pad.

Thanks go out to Andrea, Carolyn and Julia. A full review will follow, but if I were to do a one word review it would be "Funny!".

Jim Danielson

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Timing is Everything

Sometimes things just work out.

Last weekend my wife and son were talking about things that added value and functionality to a home and she said something to the effect of, "I'd love to fix up the laundry/storage side of the basement."

I responded, "Do you know how much is being thrown out for demolition work in my building. Let me see if there are any decent bottom cabinets left anywhere." The building I work for is clearing office space on a number of floors to be converted to hotel space. Sure enough, I found 15 feet of cabinets with counter top. I spent a couple hours after work this week splitting them into individual pieces and all Saturday morning making two trips downtown to pick them up. That's the other thing that worked out nice -- when my son bought a vehicle after graduation last year, he bought a pickup truck and helped moving them home. My other son also helped carry them down in the basement. Now mind you there will be additional paint, drywall and tile involved, but so far the only expense has been gas for the truck.

The area the cabinets were in is being demoed starting tonight. If the conversation originated today, it would have been too late.

Yep. Sometimes things just work out.

Jim