O is for Opportunity

The April Blogging from A to Z Challenge continues!

O (Photo credit: chrisinplymouth)

Opportunity is supposed to knock but once, except in my case, where I chase it down the street, grab on to its coattails and cling to its leg while being dragged along.  I’m not really the kind to wait around for opportunity to find me.  I moved too much as a kid.  If Reader’s Digest couldn’t find us after six months, how was opportunity going to catch up?

I believe we create our own opportunities in life.  Need a job?  Make one.  Want to sell something?  Make an offer.  These passive newspaper ads and craigslist begging hats have become invisible to society, so it is up to us to make our dreams happen.

Me?  I’m on a personal mission at the moment.  I’ve been knocking on a lot of doors and trying to get a “yes”, and you know what I discovered? 

I AM OPPORTUNITY. 

I am a chance for you to build something great, to learn something new, to grow in directions that aren’t on any map.  I thought our roles were reversed, and I was sitting around waiting for something to happen.  But that’s not the case.  I am the one who’s coming for you.  I’m knocking on your door, so you might want to answer it.

Leave a comment for me, if you please.  Writing is a lonely business.

Also, visit some of the other few thousand bloggers participating in the A to Z challenge by clicking below:

I is for Illustrator

The April Blogging from A to Z Challenge continues!

 

(Photo credit: Leo Reynolds)

 

 

Illustrations bring an author’s words to life. Nowadays, people seem to link illustrations with children’s books – pictures that help tell a story to young readers-in-training.  But once upon  a time, artists’ works decorated the pages of stories for adults.  Just think of the beautiful maps and line drawings in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. 

 

 

 

Whether you love the sweet watercolor renderings of Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit, or the magic of Andrew Lang’s colorful series of world stories, many of us fell in love with the visual representations of what a writer inscribed on our imaginations.

What are your favorite illustrators?  Here’s a few names to get you started:

Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, Jules Pfeiffer, Dr. Seuss, Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell…

Check out some modern famous illustrators HERE.

 

Leave a comment for me, if you please.  Writing is a lonely business.

 

Also, visit some of the other few thousand bloggers participating in the A to Z challenge by clicking below:

 

 

D is for DEADLINE

The April Blogging from A to Z Challenge continues!

 If nobody dies when they miss a deadline, what’s the big deal?  Because your editor wants to kill you.

If you’ve made a commitment, set a date, and got someone else on board with your project, you have an obligation to follow through.

This may not have been a big deal when you were writing that 5-paragraph essay for Mrs. Whatshername in 6th grade…especially if it wasn’t an assignment you had any say in.  BUT, you’re playing with the big kids now, and deadlines matter.

DEADLINE = Deliver or Die

I’m amazed at how many writers think a deadline is flexible.  As if the calendar is some kind of temporal gateway, and dates can be sucked back and forth through time to accommodate the writer.  As an editor, I can assure you that missing a deadline throws off the whole series of events that must occur once your manuscript is submitted.  (Sorry, it’s not as perfect as you imagine.)  Editing, proofreading, formatting, proofreading again, citation checks, copyright checks, photo attributions…. there is an endless list of items that need to be acted on after you’ve delivered your piece.  And while you may have stayed up all night to finish that puppy, I can assure you I do not want to be up all night trying to catch up to your missed deadline!

The fact is, we’re all just dominoes in a long chain.  When one falls, the others follow – usually in a pleasing pattern that ends with a polished piece we can all enjoy.  But if the first domino never falls, the rest of us are just left standing there.

Be the King Domino.  Cause a chain reaction.  Meet your Deadline.

Leave a comment for me, if you please.  Writing is a lonely business.

Also, visit some of the other few thousand bloggers participating in the A to Z challenge by clicking below: