Summer Time

The kiddos are out of school and they need to be entertained lest they start to argue among themselves like they did last year. So I devised a plan. In May I printed out blank calender sheets for June, July, and August then I filled in every square Monday through Saturday with activities. Some are simple short ones, like garden, movie, or picnic. Others take more planning, for example, research a country and camping. We've gone to the library made play dough and gone hiking. I love that we have a plan for everyday and so do the girls. With a generous amount of activities that we don't usually do or haven't ever done we are having a blast this summer!

Cover Flip

I follow Maureen Johnson on Twitter for a couple reasons:

1- I love her books. They have a fresh writing style and a twist is always coming. They keep you on your toes and laughing every so often, which is nice. Which brings me to #2
2- She is funny. 'nough said.
3- She is a writer I wanna be a writer, so I follow other writers. They like to talk about bookish things and general publishing industry info.

A few weeks ago she posted about book covers and started a small contest. Here's what she said:

...And let’s have a CONTEST! It’s called COVERFLIP. It works like this.

1. Take a well-known book. (It’s up to you to define well-known.)

2. Imagine that book was written by an author of the OPPOSITE GENDER. Or a genderqueer author. Imagine all the things you think of when you think GIRL book or BOY book or GENDERLESS book (do they EXIST?). And I’m not saying that these categorizations are RIGHT—but make no mistake, they’re there. 

Well people went nuts for it:

It got a lot of coverage. First in the United States, the article went slightly supernova on HuffPo, becoming one of the top articles on the site. Lots of other places started sharing the link (or mentioning it). It turned up on Jezebel, and the USATodayBooks page, and on The New Yorker site, The Rumpus, and onWired.com. In the UK, people started really talking about it quite a lot. I missed two emails from the BBC that came while I was sleeping asking me to speak on Radio Scotland and the Newshour (a UK author did the piece, as I was too late for the time difference). There were two pieces in the Daily Mail, including one in which Jacqueline Wilson (the grande dame of middle grade and YA in the UK) called for an end to the genderized covers. There were two in the Guardian, and the amazing Katy Brand wrote about it for The Telegraph. Jacqueline Wilson came back swinging even harder in The Telegraph.

She also said this:

Coverflip’s ultimate goal is to show that books have no gender. Let’s stop pre-determining what’s for boys and what’s for girls. And it aims to do this by playing around with the cover image to show that covers are simply covers, and you can switch them around and change perception in a heartbeat. The media is not going to fix this. And publishers can’t really fix it. It’s up to readers. To paraphrase John and Yoko, “Gendered books are over, if you want it.”

READERS CAN DO THIS …

Go into a store and really LOOK at how the books are sorted, what labels they’re put under. Those labels are not accidental, and they’re not always that accurate (especially in big stores). What’s in fiction? What’s in “Women’s Fiction”? What’s in “Urban Fiction”? Put some covers side to side and really have a good long SQUINT to try to see what it is you’re being told and sold. Tyr out something new, something that sounds like it might be good, but has a cover you don’t feel is meant for you.

And if you don’t like the cover, take it off or make a new one! It’s YOUR BOOK.

Also, write to/tweet at publishers and TELL THEM what you think!

TEACHERS CAN DO THIS …

Do a Coverflip in your classroom! Post the results! If kids can’t do the art, have them write about it. Teachers have already started doing this, some in just 40 minute periods, and are getting some amazing results.

LIBRARIANS AND MEDIA SPECIALISTS CAN DO THIS …

Mix up those displays. Do a BLANK COVER table. Give kids something you know they’d like, but might be afraid to be seen reading. Set a coverflip challenge!

The covers change when the feedback changes. So, change the conversation, change the cover.

DO YOU HAVE MORE IDEAS? SEND THEM TO ME.

COVERFLIP IT.

My mom and I started talking about many of our favorite books and the covers they could have if we cover flipped them and also about books that came out with one cover in hard back the had a different--sometimes gender stereotyped for the paperback version and how the first was a more fitting representation on the story. But what do you think? What are your favorite covers and why? What cover would you want to flip? 

Friday Feature: History of Rap

I'm probably the last person ever to see these but I love it!
Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake singing the History of Rap

Parts one and two

Part three
Part four


So what do you think? Have you seen them before? I love mash ups so these are awesome! :)

Giving it Another Go

     A year and a half ago I bought a book from Amazon and read it from my Kindle app for my phone. I hated it. reading from my phone, not the book, the book was great. But I decided then and there I was NOT an e reader kinda gal. I scoffed at my mom and sister reading books on their Kindles and iPads. I thought no, that will never be me.
     So about two months ago my husband and I were going on a family trip and try as might, I couldn't get all the books I wanted to take to fit in my luggage. My mom suggested I borrow her Kindle and the rest is history. I love it now! I have read many of the books she had loaded onto already and I look forward to borrowing from my sister next! I guess its true, never say never. :)

Sharpening Sentences

I'm finishing a rewrite on a book that I have been picking at for basically forever and I'm doing edits on another with Canda. The thought that keeps coming over and over to us is sharpening sentences.

There are two ways, specifically that we are talking about:
1- Getting rid of all sentences repeating what was already said or done. No echo's needed. :)
2- Strengthening the sentence with descriptive language to provide emotion/tension to a scene and paint pictures in the readers mind. Using more similes, metaphors, and all together lyrical language. This provides a distinction from amateur writing to professional writing.

This is what polishing is for us. Once we have the characters, plot holes covered and questions answered we look at sentences and how we can make them richer, giving the reader a more complex story to enjoy.

Book Trailers

I posted about anamoto as a possible use for homemade or fan-made book trailers HERE. But I also really enjoy the ones on authors websites that have a more polished feel about them, not so drag and drop. Here are a few great books with their trailers.
The first is DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth
Read the books soon because the rights have been snatched up by Summit and they are already casting for the movie.


The next is STOLEN by Lucy Christopher

And the last one, SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater



Have you read these? which are your favorite?

The Beginning of the End

Hubby has one more year of school left! YAY!! :) It's hard to think that just one year ago he was freelancing graphic design and considering not doing college any more and now he has a year left in game art and design. Yes, that's a different degree. But it's absolutely perfect for him and the most important part it that he will love his job. So one down, one to go, which for our family mean big changes.

1- He won't be working his "day job" anymore. the normal 401K contributing, insurance providing job doesn't let him get the classes he needs to graduate. Too much scheduling conflict means goodbye normal, hello unknown.

2- Hubby will not be at work he will be at school, as in all the time. Once he comes home it's homework time. Which is fun for him since he loves the course work but everyone will need to pitch in and help mom out, weeding, cooking, cleaning and laundry. Thank heavens they are old enough to actually help :)

3- The hardest one for me: No new car. We were planning on trading in the car I currently drive for a different car but due to budget cutbacks it's not happening.  Also not happening: any vacations out of state. Shoot! Stay-cations here we come!

We'll be dipping into savings and tightening our belts, and cruising pinterest for free fun ideas. Luckily we don't have any credit card debt and a great interest rate on our current car, and awesome family support near by. So I'll update yall on our new adventure as the year goes by.

What about you? What are your favorite cheap or even better free thing to do by yourself, dates, or to entertain kids?

Picture from: http://www.nasriatallah.com/tag/typography/