In our society, a lack of sleep seems to have become a status symbol. I don’t understand it, but have fallen into that trap.
“I slept only three hours last night” with the implied, “Look how fabulous I am/how hard I can work while sleep-deprived.”
I sleep an average of seven-and-a-half hours a night. Less than that and I’m tired all day (not a caffeine-drinker)-more than that and I walk around like I’m on cold medicine. You know that ‘my head is tethered to my neck only by a thin string’ feeling? That’s me if I sleep for too long.
Tell me how you slept last night. No judgments. I promise.
Here’s the scenario: You stand in a hotel and wait for the elevator. Your current manuscript fills your head. You know it needs to be published. You have done your research and know which editors are best for you and your work.
The elevator doors slide open.
Lo and behold! There is dream-editor standing alone in the car. Your time is now. Take the chance!
But you have only the length of the ride up or down to pitch your current work-in-progress (WIP). That’s usually less than thirty seconds. How are you going to boil down your plot and your subplots into such a short time?
That’s the premise of a pitch. Don’t waste the editor’s time with ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’. Don’t squander this opportunity.
Be ready!
#pitmad is an opportunity to go through the same scenario from the comfort of your own home/work/rock. Using Twitter, #pitmad is going on today. Can you feel the anxiety permeating the world? This is the Olympic Trials and we (the writers) want to be selected for the team.
If you’re a writer, get your pitch ready and head over to Twitter! Sonja
Your brain instantly starts to call yourself a failure, a loser.
Here’s the thing: you tried. That’s more than 98% of the population. (Okay, I made up that number.) Lots of people TALK about doing whatever it is you tried; few actually attempt it and even fewer are successful.
The thing to focus on is that you TRIED.
A coach of mine always said that if you don’t fall sometimes, you aren’t trying hard enough. I think that’s true.
When I ski raced, you have to ski ‘on the edge’ in order to win. When you ski ‘on the edge’ you have to be willing to go one way or the other. Which means, you either complete the race of your life or you have a spectacular crash. I have had many (with the evidence of a few broken ribs on MRIs), but also I have my share of wins.
Let me tell you, the wins more than make up for the crashes. I don’t call them failures because they’re needed to get to the wins. Not every idea or plan is golden.
Embrace the tarnish and polish it off the next time. Sonja
Today is also called ‘Dr. Seuss Day’. These books are mandatory reading for pre-readers and early readers, it seems.
My favorite titles are ‘Go, Dog, Go’ and ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go’–
I don’t know why these books are my faves–
I love dogs and loved climbing trees when I was younger, so maybe that explains my first choice.
I’m big on motivation and taking chances, so I love the message in ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go’. “And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)”
Wait, I think this stream of consciousness has answered my question.
When Guinness the Therapy Dog and I go to play with the at-risk kids at the domestic violence transition shelter, we always read at least one book. Last week, we read a book about a dog with no tail who had a pretend tail attached by a button.
My first question was: how was the button attached to his butt??? My second question was: why did the tailor (get it!) make the tail so long???
The poor dog already had self-image problems and now he has a tail that vies the length of ribbon used by Olympic rhythmic gymnasts.
In the end, the dog and his friends decide it’s better to be yourself than to rely on a fake tail. That’s a good message for the kids and the wordplay by author Kate Feiffer is fantastic.
I love how kooky it is. Some folks don’t like how the eyes follow you as you move about the yard.
The wings flap and there’s a place to put a tea light inside so it will illuminate at night. I haven’t tried it but I wonder how hot the metal will be and if the paint will start to peel off when it is heated.
I think it’s time for an experiment!
Enjoy your garden (and don’t forget to make a lovely place for the fairies!) Sonja
You see, Rome followed a 355-day calendar, not 365 days like we do currently. They wanted to keep festivals in the same season every year. To do that, the Romans began to add another month to their calendar every other year.
I think that would be confusing.
So did a lot of people way back then. In 45 B.C., Caesar created the 365-day calendar and decided to add one day every four years. (This schedule was actually created by his astronomer, Sosigenes).
It was Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582, who decided to add the day to any year divisible by four (except in years divisible by 100).
For groups that don’t follow the Gregorian calendar, the dates still need to be adjusted. A month is added to the Hebrew calendar every nineteen years and the Baha’i calendar has a leap day added as necessary to ensure the Vernal Equinox is the first day of their new year.
Whatever the reason, enjoy your extra day in 2020! Sonja
Watch this site for news on big discounts and price cuts just before the Tucson Festival of Books! I’m not going to advertise it anywhere else, so if you are a consistent reader (thank you!) you will have the pricing available only to you.
When the pricing is available, I’ll post it here. You’ll need to go to the Amazon.com website (here’s the link) to find my books and see the special pricing. I plan to have it available for all my books, including the new ‘Guinness the Therapy Dog’ series. Click on “here’s the link” and then on the square with the arrow through it to go to a new window that will have my Amazon.com page.
You can also access all my books in the left margin of this website. Those links will take you directly to each book. If you want to see my entire catalog, use the above link or search for my name ‘Sonja Danielson’ on Amazon.com.
