Baby's First Halloween: A Photo Story

This is the costume the baby will wear.

This is the night that we'll use the costume that the baby will wear.

This is the snow that fell on the night that we'll use the costume that the baby will wear.

This is the mommy that cleaned off the snow that fell on the night that we'll use the costume that the baby will wear.

This is the baby who's held by the mommy that cleaned off the snow that fell on the night that we'll use the costume that the baby will wear.

This is companion cube. (For the benefit of non-gamers reading this blog)

The end!

Now go get some sleep! NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow!

Request for Guest Posts

I realize that writing up a request for guest posts after I had a long hiatus is odd, but it's something I've been meaning to do for a while. Now, like all parents, I know that my child is the most wonderful kid in the world. But I remain humble and open to the idea that readers might want to hear from the parents of other most wonderful kids in the world. I also realize that I don't actually know anything about parenting a kid older than ten months. (And even under ten months, it's highly questionable.)

Specifically, I'd love to showcase any of the following:

1) Letters to Baby: Anything you wrote for your children, be it a letter, a poem, the lyrics to his/her personal rock song, ect. Can be sentimental or silly.

2) Parental Wisdom: Do you brainstorm plot twists while changing diapers? Do you name your characters after your kid's imaginary friend? Share your ideas on how to get the creative juices flowing without ignoring the kids or refusing to sleep.

3) Kids' Writing: What sorts of creative writing activities do you do with your kids? How do you help feed their imaginations? This is something I would love to feature on this blog, but as my child does not yet communicate, it's a bit hard.

By the way, the age of your "baby" is totally irrelevant. If you want to write about how your 50-year-old son inspires you, that's fine by me. As for word count, I'd prefer if posts stay somewhere between 200 and 400 words, but I won't bite your head off for submitting something a bit outside that. (Nor am I sure how one goes about biting someone's head off through the internet.)

Okay, I think that's it. If you're feeling generous with your time, you can e-mail me me your submissions, or feel free to share any comments or questions.

Thanks so much everyone!

Seriousness and the Getting Thereof

One of the reasons I took the hiatus was because I got a bit obsessive over finishing that final edit. It is done, the queries are out, and honestly, I couldn't be happier to have that behind me.

A quick glance back at my writing timeline will show that there's a point where I decided I was serious about getting published. That it wasn't something I was going to dream about, but actively pursue. In fact, after I made this decision, I actually got irritated at people who talked about publishing a novel in a whimsical sort of way, but clearly weren't thinking of it as a real endeavor.

Then it hit me that this could apply to anything. I could dream about about having an awesome blog, but I'm not serious unless I sit down and work at it. I could dream about having quiet time every day where I read my Bible and chat with God or I could get serious and actually do that instead of obsessively checking my e-mail. I could dream about all these wonderful things the baby and I could do together, or I could actually work them into our schedule.

At some point, I have to decide that I'm more serious about some things than others, because there's only so much time in a day. And right now, even though I am working on a new novel, writing takes a back seat to several other, more important things. Because if there's one thing I never want this blog to be, it's an advice column about how to avoid your kid (or anything else that's important in life) so you can write a novel.