Writing Hooks

If you can’t boil your book down to two sentences then it isn’t ready. This is true.  It also follows that if you can’t boil your book down to two sentences then you can’t write the hook at the top of your query/cover letter.   But, what goes...

How to Mower-Mulch Leaves

The leaves on the lawn in my yard don’t satisfy my leaf craving, so I go trolling the curb for bags and bags of my neighbors’ leaves, too.  I’m sure I raise some eyebrows, like when I raid their cardboard on recycle day, but I can’t help it. I...

Cloth Diapering Confidential

I’ve been doing cloth diapers for two years and have made a few observations along the way.  Anyone wanting to hear my reflections on the subject of infantile excrement management is so in luck. 1.  I am humbled by the incredible transformative miracle of the...

Noisy Hens

Since the hens began laying they have gone from quiet pullets to gabby girls.  The racket begins in late morning and continues intermittently until around noon, while the laying is going on. BawkbawkbawkbawkbawkbawkBAWKAW!! By midday the hubbub has subsided and they...

What Happens If They Like It?

Your carefully manicured manuscript makes its debut on a desk, somewhere inside a publishing company.  If the reader likes your manuscript–it goes to the editor. If the editor likes it, he/she may call you then, but more than likely, he/she has taken it to a few...