Writers conference & workshop: Ozarks Writers League meets February 17 at the College of the Ozarks. For more information go to www.ozarkswritersleague.org and click on calendar to learn more about the speakers. Saturday March 10 a free writers conference at Springdale, Ar. You will find more information on the Ozarks Writers League (OWL) website.

Exciting happenings are beginning to surface as the new year slowly
awakes from the old year's holiday celebrations.

Carla Killough McClafferty AR/SCSWI Regional Adviser's book, Something out of Nothing:Marie Currie and Radium (Farrar,Straus and Giroux 2006)has been selected as a 2007 NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book
for Young people, a cooperatie project of the national Council for Social Studies (NCSS)and the Children's Book Council (cbc).

Katy Duffield, author of Farmer McPeeper and His Missing Cows (Rising
Moon Children's Books)will have a new book released May 07, Mysterious Encounters:Poltergeists (Kidshaven Press). Katy has been published in
several children's magazines.

Darcy Pattison (http://darcypattison.livejournal.com) received her Chinese translation of her children's book 19 Girls and Me, including a CD. Darcy's blog has been sharing information on revisions of writing a picture book.

Arkansas Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators(SCBWI) annual Spring Conference is April 13-14. Speakers are Alexandra Cooper Associated editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Liz Waniewski, editor at Dail and Lin Oliver, SCBWI Executive Director,author and producer. The Conference will be held at UCA, Conway.

I have volunteered my service for the second year as "bag lady." Publishers send me requested catalogs that I place in bags to give to each attendee. Audrey B. Baird, Editor of Once Upon a Time magazine sent over 100 back issues. I sent her a thank you note and a short article for possible publication. It was published in the January 07 issue.

The excitement of what this new year will bring inspires us to continue working toward our goals.

Life is not perfect, therefore I am not perfect. If I don't
give up - take the easy way out I must swallow my pride and
continue to chip away. Like the sculptor chipping away
and smoothing the rough edges until she perfects
the best piece of art she can provide for public view.

Writing- is difficult. I love it, but there isn't a day I don't think of giving it up to spent more time gardening. No matter how hard I try, I make way too many mistakes. I will have a special day for every day is precious.

Life is a continuous struggle. If I didn't continue to struggle to do what I love to do, I wouldn't be rewarded the small and sometimes large rewards hidden in the struggles of life. I received an e-mail from a friend yesterday who has published two children's stories in Spider magazine. Now for the first time an article for a regional magazine: The Ozarks Mountaineer. To me it was one of my rewards. She was so excited and so was I. When friends share I feel happy - life is good. We both will have our articles in May issues. My garden article, MARIGOLDS: A diversified annual with many facets will be published in Ozarks Magazine. This is my fourth or fifth garden piece not all this magazine. I am known as a wild gardener. Allowing the moss and native plants to grow while wildlife visits for a day or more - to drink,eat,chew,dug and most of all have fun. My stress release is watching them out the window of my studio office. The hardest part of writing is not to write as I speak.

Remember to exchange the negative thoughts to positive thoughts. If you think you are not contributing to the world or any person - try sharing a smile, it takes little time, cost nothing and it will turn your life, a friend or a stranger into wearing an everlasting smile filled with good feeling.

Diverted plans, are they created by a higher calling or is it a cop-out to do something else-something easier? Many of my daily plans change as I head out to my studio office before the rooster crows. I am requested to practice the role of one of my many characters - labeled the housewife or better known as house slave. I do remember signing some kind of contract when I got married to love and honor. I have done so with a soft spot in my heart, but I don't remember or was informed I was signing a commitment to be anyone's house slave.

It could be my fault for some of the roles I place myself because I enjoy doing everything. But, I need a break to get to play my favorite role of a writer. No matter what I do, I still write and rewrite in my thoughts and I talk way too much to myself and our little 18 year old dachshund. Oh, by the way she is writing her life stories. The first story is how she came to live with us just a day before the people she was staying with was to sent her to "that place." She finished that one and it has been with a publisher for about four months.

By the time I sit at the computer I am rearing up like an unbridled horse. Yet, I can take a detour with all my plans to work on my children's manuscripts when my mind deverts me to my adult writing. No, no, not that kind of adult writing. Maybe, it is because I started writing for newspapers and regional magazines. So far it has been easier to be published there. Sometimes I think I write too tight in my children's story books and poems. It is so totally different style of writing.

I have written lots of children's material; poems, short stories, picture books and non-fiction. But, I have not been published in this market except in a couple of SCBWI newsletters. I have recieved words of encouragements and suggestions from editors when they have rejected what I had written. I guess my biggest problem is I am not consistent in submitting.

Keep on, keeping on with the mind open to new beginnings.

Time is flying. I relaxed Sunday and Monday in-between mopping up blowing rain below the garage door and the windows of the summer porch. We had about about 6 inches to add to the 2006 total of 58.15 inches.

Sunday night enjoyed the night with PBS-Live from Lincoln Center with the New york Philharmonic and Audra McDonald for two hours and three hours of Great Performances with Garrison Keiller and his guest Vince Gill, Rhonda Vincent, Emmylou Harris, Old Crow Medicine Show (A new bluegrass group)and several other guests. It was a break from Dick Clark and all that New York roaring sound effects. New Year's Day watched the Rose Parade on HGTV no commercials and both of my favorite college teams played each other, so when one lost, I still had a winner. In-between everything I read the Daddy Goose Treasury and Monster Goose books - the old nursery rhymes will never be the same. It is a great writing exercise to loosen up the silly bones.

Back to work writing cover letters.