Thing I'm Thankful For

There are a million things I have to be thankful for this year. Some are hugely obvious if you know me -- see my poetry post from Nov 7 and you'll know how thankful I am for my wife.

Here, however, is an eclectic list of other less obvious things:

• I'm thankful we are going to my nephew's for dinner tomorrow leaving us time to go see a movie tonight. We saw 4 Christmases. At the Dad's house (Vince Vaughn's Dad), our cloth countdown calender was in the kitchen -- I think that means ours must be tacky and will be discarded.
• I'm thankful my daughter (math major) is home from college for the week. She even shared a mathematician/bartender joke. Now that's a true college student's joke.
• I'm thankful for the prize package I got from Lisa Yee's contest. In addition to a signed copy of So Totally Emily Ebers , I received peeps. A few were microwaved here (I took a video). The rest gave their lives to science in my son's physics class (he's the teacher).
• I'm thankful for the children's writing community. Special thanks to editor Martha Mihalick (from Greenwillow Books) for a very thorough critique in conjunction with Prairie Writer's Day -- it was far more detailed than those I've received in the past and had some very useful points. (I'm sure she'll never see this, but I'm none less thankful).
• You're thankful that I know when it's time to end what could be an endless list.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Jim

Pictures from Prairie Writer's Day

Last Saturday Illinois-SCBWI's Prairie Writer's Day. The day was fantastic! I share a few pictures.


Harold Underdown who spoke on the state of the industry with the his assistants "Mr. P" and the more upbeat "Mr. O".

Editor Martha Mihalick who spoke on "Character" (as in those in our books).

Editor Cheryl Klein spoke on "Plot".

Illinois SCBWI member and friend Carol Grannick spoke on "Learned Optimism" (right up Mr. O's alley). Jenny Meyerhoff assists with the signs.

Editor Carolyn Meckler spoke on "Voice".

Agent Jennifer Rofe spoke on "Revision".

Sharon Darrow, the Vermont College faculty chair for their MFA Children's and YA Writing, presented a wonderful teaching session.

Carolyn, Martha, Cheryl and Harold at the Mix 'n Mingle.

You can see more pics at Trina Sotira's blog (including one with me in it).

Candidate for Veep helps win Jim peep(s)

If you head on over to Lisa Yee's Blog you can find out the details. Don't panic at the heading -- "peep(s)" is not capitalized. The real Peep will still be safely in Lisa's custody.

I might add, thanks to Lisa for creating a special category of the contest so that I could win a prize (which included peeps).

Poetry Friday: Original from the distant past

I was reminded a couple weeks ago by my wife how I have been writing poetry for a long time. I probably gave her a strange look, so she went on to remind me of the verse I wrote while we were dating that ultimately was on the front of our wedding invitations. Had I not taken a 25 or 30 year rest from poetry writing, I could have quite a collection! I share my til now untitled verse (from memory):

LOVE

by Jim Danielson

Sometimes feelings are hard to say
The words I know just can't convey
The warmth that comes from in my heart
So I repeat the words
(That say but just a part)
I love you more than yesterday
And tomorrow's just the start


Today's roundup is at: Check It Out