Goals One and Two Reached!

/ Tracy Abell

Last June I wasn’t sure I could keep on writing,
and the thought of attending my local SCBWI conference again
without any professional/career progress to show after another year
of effort was horrible to contemplate.

I needed to accomplish something that would help me hold my head high.

So I set two goals: I would apply for a conference manuscript critique AND 
finish the revision of BIRD BRAIN before the conference.

A few weeks ago, I found out I’m having a critique with Bruce Coville.
(Goal One: check!)
And today, just a few moments ago, I finished my revision.
(Goal Two: check!)

There are still days when I doubt my sanity in all this,
but I have to believe I will prevail.


40 thoughts on “Goals One and Two Reached!”

    • Thanks, Sheela. I hope you’re making progress and will soon reach The End on your project.

      Go, Sheela, go! You can do it!

      (I love your photo. Was that taken by the photographer you chose a while back?)

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    • I LOVE that big ol’ Whoooooohoooooo! And I send one back to you, friend, for helping me along when I most needed a hand.

      I am persistent, in part because of support from people like you. Thank you again for keeping me going. I am exhausted from the conference but will give you a report on the critique in the next day or so.

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    • I’m so glad my little progress report gave you a lift, Laura. And I hope you’re made some progress of your own in the past few days.

      Your beautiful bracelets kept me grounded throughout the hectic, exhilarating weekend. You were with me.

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  9. I’m so impressed.

    Strike that…I’m in awe.

    You set your sights on a lofty goal. And you perservered until you PREVAILED!!!!!

    I hope the conference is all you dreamed it would be. Please, come back with stories to share. xoxoxo

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    • You’ve helped me keep on track, Melodye. We’re a team, and we will both meet our goals. And we will both Prevail.

      The conference went very well. I’m exhausted and still in my pajamas, but am also filled with a huge sense of accomplishment.

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  11. Other people’s eyes

    Beware the shadows that appear while looking at ourselves through the eyes of others. They suck up the light and before you know it we in darkness.

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  12. Bruce Coville! I should think he will give you a most helpful and interesting critique! Awesomeness.

    Hang in there, T! Does it help to remember it’s so so hard for almost everyone? I’m sure there are lots of writers at your local conference who’ve been through pub biz heartbreaks and setbacks, who feel they should be “further along.” It’s a crushing business. But I’m glad it hasn’t yet crushed you.

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    • Thank you, again and again, Dot, for all the understanding and support. It helps SO much to have this writing community with me. You’re right, so many of us have suffered huge setbacks along the way, but we get up and keep on writing.

      I will not be crushed.

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  15. I like that word! For me, it evokes memories of listening (with my young sons) to Sterling Holloway recordings:

    “One misty, moisty morning / when cloudy was the weather / I chanced to meet an old man / clothed all in leather…” LOVE his lyrical voice! ❤

    Happy Monday, Tracy. I hope it’s filled with misty-eyed memories & lovely things that bring you joy.

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  16. WOW! That is a beautiful refrig. Mine has never been that clean and I am a neat freak. It’s a holiday weekend. Who cleans over a holiday weekend?

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  17. The Phone Book, set to the tune of Macarthur Park

    >I think this also captures some of the cryptic passion of the original.<

    Rain was never waiting for us, girl
    It poured one step ahead
    As we sloshed into the dance.

    We tried to part the pages
    We even tried to press them with an iron
    Like a striped pair of pants

    The phone book, it is melting in the dark
    Oh, the sweet black ink a-flowing down
    Someone left the phone book in the rain

    And I don’t think that I can take it
    ‘Cause it took so long to print it
    And we’ll soon be putting all of it online–oh, no–

    I can still recall the yellow pages
    Crinkling in waves
    On the ground around your feet
    The ads like tender babies in your hands
    Disintegrating, checkered, ‘neath the trees

    The phone book, it is melting in the dark
    Oh, the sweet black ink a-flowing down
    Someone left the phone book in the rain

    And I don’t think that I can take it
    ‘Cause it took so long to print it
    And we’ll soon be putting all of it online–oh, no–

    There will be another book for me
    For I will write it
    There will be another dream for me
    Someone will bring it

    I will use the directory while it is new
    And never let you catch me Googling instead
    And after all the numbers of my life
    After all the numbers, I’ll still check this book

    I will take this book into my hands and I will use it
    I will look up tiny numbers and my eyesight, I will lose it
    I will find the numbers I desire
    And the ink will run like rivers ‘cross the yard

    And after all the numbers of my life
    Oh, after all the numbers of my life
    I’ll look yours up and wonder why

    The phone book, it is melting in the dark
    Oh, the sweet black ink a-flowing down
    Someone left the phone book in the rain

    And I don’t think that I can take it
    ‘Cause it took so long to print it
    And we’ll soon be putting all of it online–oh, no–

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  19. *hugs*

    But I have to say your neighbor showed a lot of heart and guts to leave that note for you and to do what she did.

    I’m not going to give you any advice what to do, except to listen to your heart.

    On a lighter note. My husband changed our backyard enviroment by getting a dump truck load of topsoil. You’d think the birds wouldn’t mind dirt, but a family of catbirds has spent days screaming about the unfamilar mountain. Hate! Hate! They hate it as much as the cedar waxwings who are stealing berries on the other side of the lawn.

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  22. I think I’ll keep this photo on my screen today as a reminder it won’t always be gray and snowing the way it is right now.

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  23. I want the protesters cleared out of our parks at night. It is difficult to protect them, and the crime in the ‘camps’ is out of control. Women are getting raped (they tried to make a “safe tent” because it was so prevalent), 2 nights ago a man came into the ‘camp’ and was swinging an axe, and attacking people. There is a stench from the human waste.
    I am all for protesting, but I think they must clear the stinking- feces- filled park at night. The poor families and businesses in NY that live by the park have no quiet, it is constant drumming, yelling, carrying on. They are not the 1%. The man who had to lay off his workers because no one is shopping in his little store by the park- jobs lost and he is not the 1%.
    What is the solution? What does the 99% want to happen? Will CEOs start writing checks to them? Will they stop when there is a certain some kind of legislation passed? I honestly do not understand the occupying. My sons have student loans, and lack health insurance, and are struggling with work in this economy, so I am not dim to the problem, but I am dim to how this could possibly be a solution.
    My son took the NYPD test. If he was there, I know he would be trying to keep the peace.
    http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video/#!/news/top-stories/Protesting-the-OWS-Protesters/133845803

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