Daffy Female Robin:

For several mornings a female robin has perched on a lawn chair or stands on the deck near the patio window. Her eyes are filled with rage as she forces her chest again and again against the window. She appears to be knocking herself silly.

The same old story is told when this happens; that she sees her reflection and believes it is an adversary that she needs to scare off. I don’t believe this, for the robins have returned three years prior to this time, utilizing the nests on both end of the house over the down spouts. This has never happened before.

I believe she is knocking herself silly so she can take up with that dark rust-colored dude who has been hanging around her. He constantly bugs her and will not take no for an answer.
Once her eyes are blacked where she can’t see who she has taken up with, and appears to look as if she had a bad hair day – then maybe, she’ll take up housekeeping.

It doesn’t really matter how she looks when she gives in to him. Later, he’ll act as if he’s God’s gift to another female robin; he’ll strut around below her as if he didn’t have a care in the world, knowing he’s was the conquer

Is there a moral to this observation? You tell me what you think.
(C) Mary Nida Smith

Writer's Digest Books: Resource books - Children's Writer's & Illustrators Market, Writers' Market and Poetry Market are books people buy or bring home from the library to find a market for their writings or illustrations.

But, they miss many other important features provided in the front and back pages? Yes, they do. I am one who reads my book front to back, then, puts it on the shelf. I get busy where I only bring it out when searching for a market for my work. The front and back pages should be read often.

The books are full of helpful resources: contest, awards & grants, agents & art reps, clubs & organizations, conferences & workshops, list of helpful books & publications, useful online resources, glossary, names index (list of all the editors, art directors, agents & etc listed in the pages of the market books), age-level index, subject index, and professional organizations. This list is in the back - now read the front.

Writing is a difficult task
You think and research
You write and rewrite
It is no ordinary task.

A writer is made
Out of many rewrites.
The length of a writer's life
Is as uncertain as the morning fog.
-(c) Mary Nida Smith

What a day!
Fog filled the air with heavy mist evoking the mood of mystery lurking beyond as I went for an early morning walk.
I was on a mission to visit one of the World War II Veterans who has a monument with four other veterans created in their honor at Naperville, Illinois. He was not home.

I took my camera for fog can sometimes creates strange encounters with nature and the surroundings. The woods I passed by was filled with rat-a-tats and squeaks of different woodpeckers working on trees. The ice storm had gutted rotten trees exposing meals fit for the king of the woods; the pileated woodpecker.

The ice storm caused terrifying crisis for the vultures roosting near the tree tops. As the trees suddenly creak, broke, and dropped; so did some of the vultures. One still hangs low on a broken bough, it's body limp and cold. A warning of the unknown, perhaps more death may enter these dry woods. Of cause I photographed this eerie, but sad phenomenon. I love watching vultures fly, they are beautiful as they tip their wings moving with the wind. Vultures are 26-32 inches in length and have a wingspan up to 6 feet.

I photographed the little fog spiders; this is what I call them, for I only see their webs on foggy mornings. I also took pictures of the butter-yellow forsythia bush; Ally, the neighbor’s dog with her green St. Patrick Day scarf; a young sweet girl who held her lovely cat, and the gray-white foggy backdrop beyond the trees.

The afternoon was spent in my Woodland Garden raking, uncovering flowers, building little forts for the rabbits (I hope) and placing garden ornaments back where they belong.
Tomorrow, I hope the mist has created fungi to photograph. I have lots of fungi pictures, but I
continue to find more for my collection.

Mystery Writers:

Links of interest to OWL members and other writers interested in writing and reading mysteries! (Plus, some good publicity for some of our OWL members!)

http://research-writing%20techniques.suite101.com/article.cfm/writers_rituals_radine_trees_nehring
AND
http://mysteriouspeople.blogspot.com/ Lots of authors and helpful information on both.

Missouri Writers' Guild Conference:
The 94th Annual Missouri Writers’ Guild Conference will be held April 3-5, 2009 at Drury Lodge (phone number: 573-334-7151) 104 South Vantage Drive, at Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Speakers will be Lee Goldberg, writer for Monk and Diagnosis Murder Television series,
Angela Mackintosh and Annette Fix, editors of the WOW! Women on Writing e-zine. Fix is also the author of The Break-Up Diet, and she will present a session on memoir writing, poet Harvey Stanbrough, Simon and Schuster editor, Kate Angelella, editor of Listen Magazine, Celeste Walker, tween series author Jessica Burkhart, and Mary Higgins Clark Award winner Marcia Kay Preston. Check the website for speaker updates, bios, and classes at http://www.missouriwritersguild.org or http://www.mwgconference.org
or Margo L. Dill 217-714-8582 or margodll@aol.com

The Arkansas Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators(SCBWI) Spring Conference is set for May 15-16, 2009 at the University ofCentral Arkansas in Conway, Ark. On the slate to speak are Martha Mihalick,associate editor at Greenwillow Books; Jennifer Rofe, associate agent atAndrea Brown Literary Agency; Anastasia Suen, author, consultant and writingteacher; Darcy Pattison, author and writing teacher; and, Melanie Siegel,illustrator.The conference brochure is now available online at
http://www.arkansasscbwi.org/conference.html

Dear members of the Arkansas Region of the SCBWI,
I retired as the Arkansas SCBWI Regional Advisor on March 1. The last four years as your RA have been a pleasure, but the time has come for me to concentrate more time to my work. Phyllis Hemann, who has worked hard for the last couple of years as the Conference Director is the new RA. She will do a wonderful job. You can reach her by email at: advisor@arkansasscbwi.org
I will continue to support AR SCBWI in any way that I can, and hope to see each of you at the Spring Conference on May 15-16.

With warmest regards,
Carla