Contract is Signed!

Our contract is signed, and we've met again with the publisher. Tom and I have a huge line up of book venues already! Our publishing agency really works hard with their authors and illustrators to sell the books. Of course whether we can do all the venues or not will depend on how fast Robert can illustrate. His bio is complete and we have...

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Oh Happy Day...We're Getting Published!!

Well, in spite of our plans to self publish, we have stumbled upon a local publisher who has offered us a publishing deal way too good to pass up. We get all, yes, ALL the royalties for the first publishing, and 90 percent of the second and subsequent publishings. We do have to pay the printing costs, but hey, we would have had to do that...

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Deal, or No Deal?

Got word from a publisher. I"ll fill everyone in on that soon. If and when we get a book deal going, we will keep everyone posted"Wrestling The ABCs"A Children's Picture Book for Wrestling Fans of All A...

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Lazy Weekend

This past weekend was so relaxing. Izzy didn't have any games. The boys (well just Logan) had a meet Saturday morning out at Kensington, and after that we went out to Deidre's to visit with the cousins. Rem and Izzy decided to sleep over there, Logan had plans with a friend for the evening so he went back home with me. Sunday was Tom's Duathlon....

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The Waiting Game

I hate waiting! The two publishers that took copies of my "I Wanna Be..." series manuscripts at the conference I attended last month told me it could be weeks, or MONTHS before they get back to me regarding any interest. The one gal really seemed to like the idea that my ideas were directly generated from the students I work with everyday....

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Do The Mash...The Monster Mash!!

Most of you should be getting these tomorrow or Saturday at the latest (I popped them in the mail today). Hope to see everyone there! We've yet to have a Halloween without hosting some sort or party. This year plans to be no exception. After the party, all the kids that want to spend the night are going over to Grandma Dodd's, and all the...

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Kids Can Drive You NUTS!!!

Izzy's enjoying band (probably because she gets out of class!), although it was a struggle to convince her that my trumpet from when I was in band is just as good as any that she could rent. Rem and Logan both played it in 6th grade. Rem switched over to baritone at the junior high, and then totally abandoned band. Logan never did have...

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I Am MOM!

Man! We have been soooo crazy busy. Hardly have time to sit down these days. This will be brief, cuz I gotta go to a PTA meeting. Between Tom and I writing, Izzy writing, the boys running, izzy's soccer, PTA board duties, ROAR writer duties, dogs, foster dogs, helping Tom train for the triathlons, etc. I barely remember who I am. Oh ya,...

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Princess

As usual, we are with another foster dog. This is one we rescued ourselves. No tags or collar. She was just wandering around the middle of Ford Street without a care in the world. And never mind the traffic. Surely it is canine senile dementia. Such a pitiful little thing. She only weighs 7 pounds, and about 1/2 of that is fur! And she's...

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Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

You should see the other girl!   This is what happens after a night of playing "Beauty Parlor" with Izzy and her friends. Of course I'd already scrubbed off several layers of makeup by the time the girls snapped this pic, but look at the hair! My goodness. Tom worked hard on the book last night (so he wouldn't be in the doghouse...

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Ball's Bridge

According to the currently available statistics, our dog Chewy is the first official canine member of the "Ball's Bridge Jump Club." Actually it was accidental, but when Chewy is chasing butterflies, nothing can stop him! I was just glad the nutball didn't get hurt-the river was pretty low, and, he nearly landed on the abutment. Whew!...

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Dan Gable

Great News!!! Dan Gable called today, and he's anxious to write the introduction for our book. He said he'd love to write at least two or three paragraphs, and is looking forward to seeing the rest of our manuscript. Tom and I have set an informal deadline for ourselves of September 30. Tom actually did quite a bit of work on the book on...

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Camp Canada

What an absolutely perfect weekend in Canada. Of course "perfect" is a very subjective adjective. You see, it was too cold for most of us wimpy adults to go to swimming, but not too cold for the crazy kids to go swimming. So we just sat on the beach and drank. Perfect. Although Tom, Carey and Adam did a mile swim in prep for their next Triathalon...

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Gettin’ The Lead Out!!

Talked to Robert the other day. He said he's not on a job right now, so it would be a great time for him to illustrate our book. In other words, he wants us to "get the lead out!" Literally! Well, at least that will serve as additional motivation for us, because we really, really are dragging our heels on this. It just never really was...

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Happy Anniversary to US!!!

I can't believe Tom and I have been married for 20 years! And we dated for six years steady! We are truly more in love now that we ever were. We did a little bit of work on our book today. Tom's going to talk to Robert tomorrow-see how illustrations are coming along. VBS got postponed this week, so our schedule has been lightened a bit....

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I Think I’m Turning Japanese....I Really Think so

I do think there is a secret conspiracy out there keeping us from getting our book done. I just found out today we will be getting some Japanese wrestlers to host next week. We only need to host them until we leave for Canada on the 16th, but that will make it a bit harder to focus-and I had planned to kick butt on our book this next week...

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Top 10!!

Even though Tom and I have been in a slough regarding our book, I can very proudly and excitedly say, that Izzy's poem which was previously selected from amongst thousands of poems to be published in a children's poetry anthology book, was just selected one of the top 10! She received a $50 savings bond, a free copy of the book, and a press...

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Triathlon Training

Just to let you know, we STILL haven't progressed any on our book. We have been just way too busy with other things.  For one, Tom and Izzy have been busy training for a Triathalon-Tom's is a sprint Triathalon, which is a half mile swim, then 18 miles on the bike, then a 3.6 mile run. Izzy's is a mini triathalon which is 8 lengths...

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There’s No Need to Fear....Underdog is Here!

OK. So it has been a long time since the last post!  Well we HAVE been busy seeing Remington safely off to Japan, and I've been getting the Underdog website up and running.http://www.underdogwrestlingclub.com , and Tom and Izzy have been off with the Underdogs camping and attending a wrestling camp since Sunday, so Logan and I...

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Touching Base

Tom and I touched base yesterday with Robert. We wanted to get his opinion on some ideas we were playing with for the book. We didn't do a lot of work on our manuscript this week. It's been so crazy, trying to get Rem ready for Japan, Izzy had conditioning camp this week in addition to her Indian Ed camp, and we've been trying to get our...

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Can Two People Be a Writing Group?

Well, Tom and I are back into our groove, and we spent several hours today writing together. Sometimes our ideas clicked, sometimes we locked horns, but in the end, we got something done! I must say, writing a book after you're committed to it is a lot harder than just plucking away at it for fun, that's for sure. We should be able to...

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Great Minds Think Alike

It seems there are quite a few famous writers out there that decided for various reasons to go the self published route. Here are just a few: William Blake, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lord Byron, Tom Clancy, e.e. Cummings, T.S. Eliot, Benjamin Franklin, Zane Grey, John Grisham, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway,...

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You’ve Got A Friend In Me...

Well, the verdict is in, and YES!!!, Bobby Lence wants to illustrate our book for us. He seemed pretty excited and thought is sounded like a great book idea, very unique. I wish everyone reading this could see the silly ear to ear grin I've got on right now...

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A Big Debate=A Big Decision

O.K. After much debating, Tom and I have reached a decision. We are going to self publish our book. This has been Tom's desire from the beginning, however I had wanted to go the old fashioned route and try to get a publishing house to print it. Tom, on the the other hand (and I do now believe he is right), feels we could sell way more...

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