Show & Tell & Tea & Stitches

My kid lit crit group met yesterday around Claudia's kitchen table. For the first time since we organized, we didn't critique each other's work. It was more of a show-and-tell time.



Amy told us some of the things she'd learned at the SCBWI convention in New York—and gave us handouts of the highlights and nifty little journals filled with writing quotes. She's now in the process of rewriting her middle-grade historical novel.

Claudia showed us the contracts she'd gotten from a greeting card company for a couple of her poems.

I showed Claudia and Amy the two books that Christine Blevins had sent me—Mistress of the Blue Ridge (which was published last summer) and an advanced reader copy of The Tory Widow (which will come out in April). I also showed them the neat little goodies that Christine had packed in the box—lavender water, a hankie, tea.


Claudia just happened to have a tea ball and a teapot handy. Soon we were sipping some really good tea.

OK, this isn't the best picture of us, but you get the idea that we were having a good time.

So, Christine, if you're reading this, please know that your tea was enjoyed by all three of us.

I'm only halfway through Midwife of the Blue Ridge, but I like what I've read so far and hope to have the review posted within two weeks.

This has been a busy week. Monday, I finished critiquing Sally's whole manuscript (her second Smith Mountain Lake murder mystery). Tuesday, I finished critiquing the last chapter of "Duke" Daly's detective story (which takes place at a lake suspiciously like Smith Mountain Lake). I still have to do a couple of manuscripts for the young writers that I mentor, though.

On non-literary matters, I took Foxy to the vet today to get her stitches removed. The vet told me he's done several fibrosarcoma removals in which the cancer didn't return.

Foxy was actually running through the house this morning—she's telling me she really wants to go out. Maybe tomorrow. . . .

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