It’s cold in Chicago.
Actually, it’s really cold in Chicago, even by winter-in-Chicago standards. School is cancelled for the second day in a row. A couple weeks ago we had Monday and Tuesday off as well, for the first Polar Vortex. As a rule, teachers are more excited than students about having classes cancelled. But now that I’m required to do a bunch of reading and writing (I have to send in a packet that includes 40 pages of manuscript, a critical essay, and an annotated bibliography for 10 books, among other things, a month from now,) the extra days off are even better. Yesterday I was able to finish a draft of chapter 2, and revise it. Today, I get to work on chapter 3.
My wife, famous author Bromleigh McCleneghan, has to turn in a couple of chapters of her book by the end of this week. So she’s home as well, working away (though sadly for her she has to do her REAL JOB from home today too.) The only snag in the system is that our kids are home. But, I must say, they have been pretty good about playing by themselves, at least for some stretches during the day. Yesterday I had to put in some serious time in the fort, but eventually I got to do some writing.
Our oldest, Fiona, wants to be an author and librarian when she grows up. That sounds like a great life, so we are encouraging that path. It’s what Vaunda Micheaux Nelson does, and she is awesome. The upside of that is that Fiona wants to be writing whenever Bromleigh and I are writing. She’s been churning out books, not to mention devouring chapter books when she’s not writing, over the past few days. It’s perfect.
Calliope, on the other hand, needs to be entertained. That job has been farmed out to the Max and Ruby television series. Honestly, I hate that series. I just don’t get it. Max and Ruby was on our required reading list. From what I can tell, you’ve got a nagging older sister and a little brother, with diminished mental capacity, that does his best to ruin everything through greed and avarice. Somehow, despite the fact that he destroys everything, it all seems to work out in the end. Drew Magary wrote an awesome sendup of the television show. At any rate, I was pleased to learn that Rosemary Wells is not a fan favorite among those who have to deal with her.
Fiona read this book that she received at a book exchange at school called The Puppy Place: Chew and Chica. Apparently, the kids in this story form a group to protest puppy mills. So now she’s hard at work forming a club to stop puppy mills. Books, man. I let her use my laptop so that she would give us a little space to write our own stuff. Here’s what she has so far (grammar, punctuation, etc. sic’d:)
What we need: we need stuffed animal dogs to practice on, pretend dog food, pretend dog beds (for stuffed dogs) and dog bowls (pretend ones).
What we will do: we will try to stop puppy mills and find out if there are any.
Who will be in it: Maeve, Kayla, Belle, Julia and Tess
president: Fiona. vice presidents: Maeve, Kayla, Belle, Julia and Tess.
Okay, a couple of things. She’s pretty liberal with the use of colons, and her penchant for parenthetical statements echoes that of her mother. I am amused that she is ready to stop puppy mills, even before she is sure that they exist. Lastly, I’m a bit dismayed that she has taken on the contemporary approach of ditching the Oxford comma. I’m going to have to speak to her about that.
Yes, it’s been an idyllic morning, though just as I am finishing up this blog post, Callie is by my side demanding that I play with her. So given some time to write, I failed to actually work on my required writing, and completed a blog post instead. Whoops.
Yes! This is an incredible journey! Congratulations on your acceptance to Hamline’s program. Practice makes writing a habit (she says, knowing she should take her own advice). And always always ALWAYS start with Draft 0. That’s the draft that NO ONE sees. When I edit it down into something that might resemble coherent writing, it becomes Draft 1. I hope you enjoy the power of Draft 0! -sml
That’s great advice! One lecture I attended was about self-editing, and the message seemed to be, “Don’t make other people read your terrible, terrible garbage.”
I laughed so hard when your critiqued Fiona’s punctuation. Also I applaud her for wanting to stop puppy mills, because that is a cause i, too, deeply believe in.
Also, i wish i had to put some serious time in the fort.
I love that Fiona is the President and everyone else is the Vice-president. That girl definitely knows her own mind. And, you can never make too many forts…trust me, I know!