Day #233: New Monologue Videos

I'm always flattered when people choose my monologues... and even more gratified when they post a video to help spread the word about my plays.

Here's one of my recent favorites:

Day #232: Star Wars Dreams

I keep having dreams with a recurring theme... I am at the theater getting ready to watch the new Star Wars movie. The events in the dream vary, but what remains the same is that I am having a disappointing / frustrating experience. Sometimes the movie won't play. Sometimes I don't even make it to the theater (the hallway is like a labyrinth that leads back to the lobby).

I'm still in shock that George Lucas sold the franchise to Disney. There's a lot that could go wrong with the new movies, but because I didn't expect any more films after the prequels, I look at the approach of episode seven as an unexpected gift.... At the very least, the title is awesome!

At least I try to look at it that way. I guess I'm a little worried that something will happen that will somehow ruin the way we look at the original trilogy (sort of how the Phantom sequel tampers with my enjoyment of the original musical). 

Oh, sorry, I started talking about Phantom of the Opera, please don't confuse my reference to the Phantom Menace. 

Is that enough nerdiness for now? I thought so. 

Day #231: The Tao of Picture Books

In my World Lit class, we've been reading the Tao Te Ching by Laozi. I told my students, we will be learning about the Tao by not learning about the Tao. Instead of a typical lecture, we went outside and wrote Renga (collaborative poems).

The Tao (or the Way) asks one to empty his mind. I find that very difficult to do. I've noticed that I spend much of my day looking for my next idea. The problem is, I'm too busy searching to make a discovery.

I'm going to spend this weekend letting go of the desire to come up with the next big idea... I might even try to meditate. (Do naps count as meditation?)


Hey, speaking of picture books and Taoism, have you ever read this? 

It's awesome!

Day #230: The Work Cycle

During the summer, I had a certain schedule that I developed in order to be as productive as possible.

But now that I'm back to work, there's a new schedule that's developing:

1) Wake up too darn early

2) Drive to work

3) Teach

4) Attend meetings and/or office hours

5) Drive home

6) Grade papers

7) Drive children to and from karate

8) Watch an episode of MASH on netflix

9) Try to draw ducks

10) Go to sleep

Repeat Monday through Thursday... (until Christmas!)

Day #229: A Haze of Papers

Once again, the semester is underway, and I'm buried beneath a slew of essays. They are narrative essays, so at least they are more enjoyable than a batch of research papers.

I have not been working on Duck Town as much as I would like to... Starting to fall behind on my schedule!

Day #228: Wade 1, Rejection 3

Today we heard back from two more places. They passed on the book, but wished us well in finding a home.

The cool thing is, no matter how many rejections we get from this point on, it doesn't matter because we received that one glorious "yes."

Still, it's exciting to know that more responses will be coming in tomorrow. When Abi sold Book #3 last year, we had two offers -- so there was a little bit of bidding back and forth... Maybe it will happen again? If not, that's fine by me. I don't like being fought over!

Day #227: Wade 1, Rejection 1

Big, huge, enormous, fantastic news!

You may recall that last week I mentioned that Picture Book #4 had been sent out into the world -- specifically to 15 different editors-- guided by my incredibly talented and intelligent agent, Abigail. About ten days passed by in virtual silence, and then Book #4 finally received its first rejection (which I also blogged about). That wasn't surprising or disappointing since rejection is all part of the writing business. However, the rejection did make me steel myself for an onslaught of more rejections.

That's why I was so surprised when Abi told me that Book #4 has an offer. The second response is a big fat wonderful YES.

It's funny. When I am waiting for a response, I become addicted to email -- I'm like Gollum pawing over his ring, except instead of a piece of Mordorian jewelry, I'm hovering over my keyboard constantly refreshing the screen. And when my agent's email actually arrived -- even though it's exactly what I had been hoping for -- it was hard to accept the good news as reality.

You might be thinking, "Gosh, Wade... This isn't your first book sale. Why so much euphoria?" My explanation would be that each book is its own challenge. So far, writing picture books doesn't get easier -- the ideas don't magically appear on the page. It takes a lot of work, a lot of creativity, and a lot of failures and revision sessions. So, yes, I'm euphoric... And nervous and excited and curious to see what my next book will be... because I haven't a clue as to what is in store for Book #5... but I can't wait to find out.