By Amanda Smith

So, you have been writing and revising and polishing and editing. You also attended an SCBWI conference or two, and printed out the highly coveted faculty submission guidelines. You poured over editor and agent names, highlighted deadlines, and bookmarked MSWL. And then you stuffed the guidelines in the bottom drawer along with your manuscripts, and climbed under the covers with a flashlight and a book. Because putting your precious story OUT THERE is just too much.

Or life got too busy. It was spring, and then the school year ended, and then it was summer, and then the school year started, and phew! And now you’ve missed all the deadlines. Oh, well, next year after the conference you will do better.

NO!

Make a plan. Today. Because your beautiful story, your heart spilled onto the page, will never ever see the light of day if you don’t send out those submissions. Lots and lots of submissions. And if you don’t cowboy up and deal with those rejections. Lots and lots of rejections. And keep on sending out submissions until you get the call or the email. And then there’ll be dancing. But first. Submissions.

​So, here’s my plan: (Because yeah, this is totally me.)

• Pages and pages of printed words make me nervous (except if it’s a story, then it is awesome). I need summaries, lists, and calendars where deadlines are clearly marked.  I drew up a sheet to summarize the basic agent/editor info. On the calendar section, I mark each editor’s deadline, so I don’t miss any.
• The final column on this sheet, is where the real work begins. I pour over all my submission-ready manuscripts, and research each agent, or editor and their publishing house to find possible manuscripts matches. It’s okay to have more than one manuscript next to someone’s name at this stage. The more research you do, the clearer it will become which agents/ editors are good matches for your work. Some agents or editors will NOT match any of your work, or your personality. It’s okay. You don’t have to submit to everybody. 
• Please, don’t submit to everybody.

Summertime themed stories:
SUMMER DAYS AND NIGHTS by Wong Herbert Yee
THE WATERMELON SEED by Greg Pizzoli
MOUSE'S FIRST SUMMER by Lauren Thompson, Illustrated by Buket Erdogan
DUCK AND GOOSE GO TO THE BEACH by Tad Hills
HOW MANY STARS IN THE SKY by Lenny Holt, Illustrated by James E. Ransome
ICE CREAM SUMMER by Peter Sis
THINK COOL THOUGHTS by Elizabeth Perry, Illustrated by Linda Bronson
MONSOON AFTERNOON by Kashmira Sheth, Illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi
NIGHT OF THE MOONJELLIES by Mark Shasha

By Francine Puckly
 
While summertime can be filled with creative restoration, it can also be a time when many of us struggle to capture enough writing time. For those of us who work on larger projects, the summer holidays often disrupt our usual writing schedules. Visitors, vacations, and “bored” children requiring care and entertainment make focusing on larger projects practically impossible. But the summer months don’t necessarily mean we have to put our imaginations on hold. We just have to figure out how to create differently.
 
Carving out a few minutes each morning or evening to put pen to paper can keep the creative juices flowing throughout the summer. If you’d like to keep your writing going this summer but not sure your current project can handle the inevitable interruptions, here are 25 summer-y prompts to help you persevere! Pour a glass of lemonade (or sangria!), steal away to the back porch, and write as fast as you can. You might get a new idea, but at the very least you’ll keep the brain (and pen) moving!
 
25 Summer Writing Prompts

• The curtain billowed in the morning breeze. From my window, I could see...
• As the wave crashed on the shore, I noticed…
• The bell on the bike rang out in the still evening air...
• She grabbed my hand and yanked me toward the roller coaster…
• It took fifteen minutes, but finally Sue stood in front of the ice cream window. She stared at the 73 flavors and couldn’t make up her mind. The irritated customer behind her…
• Tracy stood at the entrance to her Aunt Mary’s backyard and surveyed the scene…
• It was the fourth time since noon she had had to sweep the sand from the kitchen floor…
• The bonfire crackled and...
• Joan picked up her sangria and dumped it in Jason’s lap…
• It wasn’t the first star she had seen that night but Nora decided to try her luck anyway…
• The bat swooped low and, to Kara’s amusement, entangled itself in Judith’s hideous beehive...
• Marcia grumbled. Whose idea was it to see the sunrise anyway?
• Dennis shouted hello as he walked into the kitchen. The house was dead quiet…
• Robert spotted the strawberry pie sitting on the counter and, seeing his wife asleep on the sofa,…
• Rebecca stood sixth in line at the convenience store. She was parched, covered in salt and sand, and overcome with the urge to throttle the whining child in front of her…
• Samantha ducked behind the stuffed animal display when her dad walked into the store wearing a garish Hawaiian shirt, plaid shorts and yellow flip-flops…
• The flowers dripped with morning dew as Peter carefully arranged them in the vase Mark had given him last September…
• Caroline sat back in her beach chair and gazed out over the choppy waves. She missed Andrea most when…
• Greg cupped the visor of his cap and stood motionless watching the bald eagle soar overhead. Unfortunately, he missed the crack of the bat and the fly ball heading straight for his head...
• Bridget was absolutely, positively the only girl from Rothschild Middle School going to the fireworks with her parents…
• Jeremy and Jacob tugged on the plastic bucket, each screaming he had it first.
• Little Jimmy Jenkins decided if Annie Culver could open her lemonade stand on his sidewalk, in front of his house, then he was going to set up an art gallery in front of hers…
• Arianna’s bikini strap had broken for the final time…
• Kyle sat down on the bench next to the fountain and uncapped his latte…
• By the time Nick had ducked into the hotel lobby, his bald spot was searing with pain and… 

 
Happy writing!
~ Francine

By Kelly Carey (foreword by Francine Puckly)

​If your life is anything like mine, the mid-year popped up out of nowhere and you’re staring at annual goals that you’re hitting, not hitting, or can’t remember setting. June is the perfect time to assess how we’re doing against our annual plans, and Kelly’s 2015 blog – Happy June Year’s Eve – is full of wise words and acts as the perfect reminder to take stock and adjust.

So grab an iced tea and pull out your plan. Make a new commitment to realistic goals for the last half of the year!
~ Francine
​
Happy June Year's Eve - Time to Revise Your Writing Goals
by Kelly Carey

In January, bubbly with champagne excitement and intoxicated by the shimmering crystal ball in Time’s Square, we all set down our writing goals for 2015. Since writers are ambitious dreamers, we probably set very lofty goals. To that I say, good for us!  That drive and stamina to succeed will get our manuscripts published.

But did you over promise? Did some unforeseen event steal time and attention from your writing? Did your January va-va-voom  sput-sput-sputter somewhere in March? Then I would like to be the first to wish you a Happy June Year’s Eve!

June marks the mid-year point and is an excellent time to track our progress and make sure we are well positioned for writing success. On June 1, 2015 writing goals and resolutions everywhere can be given a solid scrubbing and be reset, recharged and REVISED for success.  You set New Year’s resolutions, now is the time for June Year’s resolutions.

As writers, we are not only intimately aware of the power of revision, but we are also experts at revising.  It is time to apply that skill not to our manuscripts, but to our writing goals. Read through your goals, keep what is working and toss those goals that just don’t fit or make sense anymore. Maybe that middle grade novel whispered to you on a cold day in March (which frankly could have been any day in March since they were all cold) and you put aside your picture book plans.  Perhaps you had a light bulb moment while attending a conference, reading a blog, or while brushing your teeth (true story, just ask Amanda!). Great! Time to make your 2015 writing goals match that reality.

Just reminding yourself of the promises you made and the plans you had will refocus your energy for the next six months. This is not a bash session. Do not beat yourself up over missed goals. You are not giving up, you are revising.  What writer would forsake revision?

I’d like to clink a glass with you on New Year’s 2016 in celebration of hitting our 2015 writing goals.  The best way to make this happen is with a serious mid-year goal revision.

Happy June Year’s Eve and happy goal revising!