Wednesday, May 21, 2008

My rotten kids

. . . finished school up two days early. All three of the younger boys made up their minds that they wanted to be done, buckled down today and zoomed through their last sections of schoolwork. How could I not reward that kind of motivation?

So I'm re-reading Troubled_Waters and gearing up to start the sequel. I'm a little worried about consistency of voice as it's over a year since I finished it.

Also, a very small bit of good news: Mothering published my poem, "Reading Lessons" at least in their online zine. I do not know if this means it made it into the hard copy or not as I've not heard from the editor either way, I just found it there by accident. I haven't gotten this month's issue yet so I'll check when it comes in. I'm both pleased and a little taken back as online publishing wasn't my goal. I certainly wasn't looking for fame and fortune, just shiny slick pages to fold back and forth and hold up to the light in amazement that someone felt my work was worthy of of the permanency of print. Apart from the fact that she chose mine, the editor has good taste. There's some good work there (some of it dating back to issues published in 1978--which means it will be archived for a while). I also spotted a few names I recognized and a search on a couple of others turned up poets who are far more serious about their poetry than I am. So I guess I'll quit whining about the change of venue and be at peace about it.

With that out of the way, I'm kicking around querying them about an article. I just have to decide which topic to tackle. I've got two or three waiting in the wings: what it's like to be a homeschooling, working mother; kids and pets and why the combination is a good idea; the importance of teaching children to develop a good sense of humor; and spirituality and kids.

Maybe I'll write one about what to do with kids who are more ambitious than you are.

4 comments:

Debby said...

Put 'em to work in the garden!

Unknown said...

Great news about ezine. You are a clever chicken. Well done! Thanks for your words of wisdom, too, they were very much appreciated. I have reserved books in the bookshop. Now, I wait... :)

Scotty said...

Congrats on another publication, Mary, well done.

Anonymous said...

"I'm kicking around querying them about an article. I just have to decide which topic to tackle. I've got two or three waiting in the wings: what it's like to be a homeschooling, working mother; kids and pets..."

That sounds like a series of articles,perhaps a weekly column.

Congratulations on the publication.

DavidM.