J is for Juvenile Fiction

Hello all I am still chugging along and planning to catch up on Sunday. Hopefully nothing too exciting will happen this weekend.

Blogging 

From A to Z

I wrote this Juvenile Fiction for my son because we were having a problem exactly like this and the fable flash fiction seemed to help get the point across to him the other day. I printed up the fable and asked him to help illustrate it for me. He had to read it and think about what it meant to be able to create an appropriate picture. I hope you enjoy it.


“Mom may I use my own money to buy some LEGO?” asked Levi.

“I thought you were saving up for the new Pokemon game coming out next month,” his mother said as she put new sheets in the cart.

“I am, but I really need new LEGO for the city I’m building,” Levi said as he followed his mother to the next aisle. He was beginning to feel impatient as they moved closer to the toy section because his mother had almost scratched everything off her list.

His mother stopped, bent down and looked at him. “Well, if you need them and you are willing to spend your money, I suppose we'd better go look at them,” she said.

“Yay,” he said bouncing up and down while his mom grabbed the last few items on her list and headed to the toy section.

Levi sped up and his mom let him lead the way to the LEGO aisle. Levi knew exactly what set he wanted and ran right to it. “Mom, this is the one I need,” he said stressing the last word.

“I see,” said his mother. “How much does that one cost?”

“It is twenty-nine dollars,” Levi said beaming at his mother.

His mother took a small manilla envelope out of her purse that had LEVI written on the front and handed it to him. “How much is left in the Levi envelope?” she asked.

“Levi quickly opened the envelope and pulled out a ten and six ones. He took a moment to count twice and looked up sadly. “Mom, there are only sixteen dollars here. I got forty for my birthday and it’s only been five days, what happened to it?” He asked.

“How much did you spend on games at the fair Sunday?” She asked.

“I only spent ten. I should still have thirty and that’s enough to buy the set I need, right mom?”

“You’re correct it would be, but how much did you spend on your extra books that came with a minifigure when you and daddy went to the bookstore?”

Levi scrunched his face up and said, “They were each seven dollars, so fourteen.” He looked down at the LEGO set in his hand and said, “I think I spent most of my money. How will I get this set?”

“I am sorry Levi, you can’t afford that LEGO set,” his mother said bending down again and hugging him.

“But mom I have to have it, I need it,” he said pouting and feeling really upset he wouldn’t be able to finish his city this weekend.

His mother pulled back a bit to look at his face and asked, “Need? Do you need or want this toy?”

“I need it,” Levi answered quickly. “Without it my city will never be built.”

“What will happen if you don’t build your city?” His mother asked with a kind smile.

His eyes widened and he leaned forward, “A whole world will never exist,” he said shaking the LEGO slightly with every word.

“No matter how badly you want that LEGO set it is still a want, not a need. Needs are food, shelter, clothing, love,” she said as she gave Levi another hug. “Needs are things people can’t function well without. If you want this toy, or anything else, badly enough you can choose to save your money instead of buying something every time you go out. It takes a lot of practice and self-control, but I know you can do it if you choose to.”

Levi looked down at the LEGO set one last time and placed it back on the shelf. He turned to his mom and said, "I guess I will have to save for it. Can I wash the dog when we get home?"


There seems to be some disagreement as to what is considered Juvenile Fiction. Some places were lumping it in with Young Adult and some saying it is a synonym for Middle Grade. While others are saying it is 2nd through 6th grades. Much confusion was caused, but this was written for my son who is in 2nd grade. I think that leaves it about as clear as mud.

Levi's story turned into another moral of the story flash, but I think most of Juvenile Fiction has a moral at the end of the story anyway. I was originally going to go with Jiangshi Fiction, which is about a Chinese hopping vampire/zombie hybrid thing. Unfortunately, I am not really feeling the horror at the moment. Though the comedic value of a hopping zombie thing might have been worth tapping into. I already had a vampire in G’s Gothic Romance. Then V and Z are earmarked for vampires and zombies respectively. Making Jiangshi feel repetitive and redundant.

                

Which author of Juvenile Fiction should I be sure to check out with my son? We are always looking for new books to read. Let me know in the comments.

ROW80 Rundown

Make the check-ins on Sundays and Wednesdays - So far so good, but I think I was a bit tardy last check-in.

Visit 5 fellow ROW80 bloggers each check-in - I only hit 3, but I am not ready to reel the number back yet. I really want to see what you all are up to and love the supportive feel of the ROW80 community.

Write 667 words every day to keep up with my Camp NaNo goal - Sunday - 633 Monday - 873 Tuesday - 634 So I missed my goal more days than I hit it. Must work on that.

Post every day in April for ROW80, A to Z or both - Still a letter behind, but haven’t missed one since the last check-in. (PSA: Unless you are looking for photos of butts don't search behind on Pixabay. Late is a much better choice. Yes, go ahead and laugh that butt off.)

I can't find the Linky code this check-in again. Maybe she stopped making the code available. If you want to see what the other ROW80 Bloggers are up to check them out here.

Camp Nano Update

I am at 7,345 and should be at 8,666. My average words per day are going down which is making me feel a bit panicky. I guess I need to have a bit of a sprint. Camp NaNo is doing sprints on Twitter at @NaNoWordSprints I am following, but haven't sprinted yet. I am adding this to my catch up plan.

Photos by Pixabay.

Almost On Track and Important PSA

Today's Mascot: Grunting Running Guy!

I'm 110 words short of on track for Camp NaNo, but I'm tired and my brain hurts. I just wrote a scene that actually made my heart start to race. I have never experienced that before. Of course it could be because it is so late and I need to go to bed, but I am going to go with it was an exciting scene.

PSA: It's hard to breath hot chocolate. The oxygen content is just not sufficient and you will be hacking up a lung for a while. Which is not only very distracting while you are trying to write, but wakes up small children. Also, when it's piping hot the burning sensation lasts longer. You have been warned.

How do you know when you've really gotten into a current work in progress? What do you like to do to your characters to get your heart pounding? Make sure you leave a comment to say hello. Don't forget to let me know where you are visiting from so I can follow you back and see what you're up to.

ROW80 July Goals Rundown

1. Write at least 800 words per day on my Camp NaNo novel The Most Magical Place.
I am very proud of myself for making my goal of at least 800 words every day even though I really didn't want to do it any more and was mega frustrated on Wednesday evening. Some arguing with my husband to get him to take the little one to play outside was a huge help.

2. Post for every ROW80 check-in.
Still on target for this goal. So far I haven't missed one.

3. Spend 1 Pom per day visiting ROW80 friends.

I had been doing more than 1 pom of visiting, but I only made it to see 4 people. There were a few people I normally check in on that I missed. I hope you all had a very productive week.

4. Post to Twitter every day.
Refining this goal to be posting on Twitter when I blog. I will still check it out when I can, but I am not going to pressure myself to do this right now. I am not getting it done anyway and I need not to be stressing over stuff that isn't as important to me. So we are moving right along!


Photos by Pixabay.

Baffled By Falling Behind Again

I set the goal lower than NaNoWriMo and still I am loosing steam. I went to the memorial service today for my Great Uncle Joe and realized that I didn't recognize half the people there, though I was related to them. It made me so sad because it seems that our extended family has stopped gathering except for funerals and weddings. They are kind and amazing people, but everyone is so busy with life and we always think there will be tomorrow. I tried to write tonight, but I am having trouble concentrating so I will leave this short check-in and go to bed.

PSA: Not sure I have said this recently so I will say it now. Back up your files! Go on, do it now. You don't want to loose what you have been working so hard on, do you?

ROW80 July Goals Rundown

1. Write at least 800 words per day on my Camp NaNo novel The Most Magical Place.
I think I wrote on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but all the days are running together. There is no

time where there is peace long enough to write while people are awake and the more I need some time alone the harder it seems to get people to go to bed. I am still ahead of my projected goal, but just barely. Hoping it holds out and I can make it across the finish line.

2. Post for every ROW80 check-in.
I am on target for this. So far so good.

3. Spend 1 Pom per day visiting ROW80 friends.
I did a lot of reading, but was having some trouble commenting on Wordpress blogs on my phone so didn't say hello to as many as I would have liked.

4. Post to Twitter every day.
So much no. I really want to and I think I will, but it seems to slip through my fingers every day. I am wondering if I should just change this one. Must think on it.

Photos by Pixabay.

100th Post Celebration

I can't believe this is my 100th post! I started this blog way back on Halloween of 2012. My first post read like I was all hopped up on candy, which I may very well have been, and overly excited. For anyone who is keeping score that is the day RIGHT before NaNoWriMo and I did participate that year. I lost a lot of steam in 2013 only posting 26 times even though I was participating in ROW80 and should have made like 90. Best, or rather worst to the point of being entertaining, post from that year. Then I fell off the face of the blogging world in 2014. Times were super hard and I completely stopped writing. However, in 2015 I found my way back to writing and ROW80 remembering what an amazing community of people hang out there. I wish I could run some awesome contest to celebrate, but I am truly strapped for cash to buy prizes and I didn't even realize it was coming up until a few days ago. So instead I will just say thank you very much for stopping by and reading. Enough about things a long time past, on to what's been going on the last few days.

I was calling a character by the wrong name. I did it 28 times. When I went to talk about the character who's name I had been using and I wrote "I'm sure you miss Evelyn very much," said Evelyn it hit me. Now the hero's mother is talking about her self in 3rd person. She's not Napoleon and I don't want her to have that big of an ego. I know you aren't supposed to edit until Camp NaNo is over, but this bugged me SO much I had to fix it. Of course with the find feature and control V it was done in no time, but REALLY.

Today's Mascot: Rampaging Dinosaur

A few people asked if I had any proof that I had to deal with a rampaging dinosaur. The truth is yes, yes I do! I edited the photo to remove the name of the school in an online photo editor, but the rest was done on NUKE 8 which is an awesome rendering program that is node based. Or at least that is what the instructor said several times. Who am I to argue or interpret? As for the odd expression on my face. She didn't tell us what the pictures we took on the green screen were for or that she was taking a second shot of me when everyone else just got one. This was the best one and that makes me sad. Also, apparently I just make faces all the time. Incidentally I was the only person who didn't look as much like they were in a line up and I made up a backstory. The rays of light around my head are divine powers (They are not a result of my failure to follow instructions and desire to push ALL the buttons.) that have been granted to me to help me defeat the rampaging dinosaur. The look is my and you think you're tough do you look. In the next frame I will shoot some sort of ray out of my palms to destroy it or at least give it an all mighty sun burn.

ROW80 July Goals Rundown

1. Write at least 800 words per day on my Camp NaNo novel The Most Magical Place.
I have hit this goal every day since last Saturday, but I am not sure if I will make it today. I wasn't able to focus on writing once the kids went to bed because I had to find some paperwork and for some reason I put on a book shelf instead of the dedicated file in the filing cabinet. Luckily I found it, but it took me about 5 hours. The moral of the story is always take the extra few minutes to put things back where they go. You will probably not remember to come back to them later and when you need them you won't be able to find them.

2. Post for every ROW80 check-in.
I'm here and so happy to share this 100th post with you all.

3. Spend 1 Pom per day visiting ROW80 friends.
I over did this a little, but you all had such interesting titles and I wanted to see what was gong on with you.

4. Post to Twitter every day.
Oh, darn. I was dong well at this, but just realized that I forgot to post Tuesday.

Photos by Pixabay.

Camp NaNo Makes Me Insecure

It's the first Wednesday of the month and that means it's time for this month's edition of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. They are a great group of very supportive people who are working hard to make it in the writer world or who have and are sharing their success to inspire. It's a place writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. So glad to have you join me and feel free to hop over to their link and see what other's have going on.

The thing I am most insecure about today are my fears about Camp NaNo. That's not to say I don't have a lot of other things chasing it down, but it is firmly in the lead. I have been planing to write The Most Magical Place story for a while. Other things came between us and I even lost a huge amount of previous work from my first ever NaNoWriMo attempt back in January. (Same old PSA always remember to back up your writing often.) I thought about just moving on and tried to make that happen, but I kept thinking about those characters and wondering what they would be doing next. So here I am back with them. I was aiming for about 55 scenes total, but only have 34 planned in detail and it is almost go time. The other thing about Camp NaNo that is worrying me is that I have not yet made it across a NaNo finish line. I always have the best of intentions, but follow though is not my strong suit. There is a huge drawer and several closets stuffed full with half finished craft projects that will attest to this fact.

I am still working deciding what my ROW80 goals will be for the upcoming 3rd round. I should have put more effort into them by now, but I have been so distracted. Of course I always feel distracted. I saw a post today that said something like: I was trying to get my ducks in a row, but then I realized that I have too many ducks. This is me dead on. I need to decide what to cull from the flock and what to nurture, This means also deciding what is most important to me. Nuclear family and homeschooling are top on the list, but I want to put writing very closely after and have let things other people want push it further down the list. Now to figure out how to eliminate or at least reduce the guilt of telling people and things NO.

Well, I am off to start my Camp NaNo. Wish me luck.

Procrastination is NOT a Friend

I have 2 more days until the madness starts and what do you think I am doing? Yes, that's right I am procrastinating! I spent a lot of time finding a background I liked more than the plane old purple that used to be on the sides. I do think it looks nice, but probably the time could have been better spent working on the A to Z posts that are kind of refusing to take shape. I could also be plotting the rest of the Camp NaNo novel, but no here I am playing with the settings. There are a ton of settings to play with by the way and they all do something cool. Of course there were a few that I didn't notice a difference, but I am sure they still did something.

Not that I have only been slacking off. I managed to make the A to Z thing a lot more complicated by planning to add some flash fiction into the mix. It's been a while since I've flashed someone. I, uh mean, participated in Friday Flash. I am actually really excited about adding this because I am having trouble finding writing topics for all the letters and I can always use a name is I have to with a flash fiction.

I am jumping all over the place trying to get things in order and making plans for the things I can do in advance. The problem is there isn't much cohesion and I am not really sure exactly where this crazy train is headed. Hopefully off the rails is not the  final destination. I find if I try stick with one thing I get distracted by an idea that pops up and then I have 2 choices. I can interupt what I am doing and try to hop over jotting down the idea somewhere hoping I can find it again and remember where I was before the idea hit. Then there's choice number 2, I can try to put the new idea on the back burner and continue what I was doing risking loosing it forever. I've been using the Evernote app on my phone to take down the note without switching tabs. It seems to help me remember what I was doing if I don't change what's on the monitor.


My post feels a little naked without my check-ins. I still have to work on deciding what my round 2 goals will be. I know I want to stick to the 6 goals thing and they will probably be tweaked versions of round 1, but still I worry about making them the right amount of challenging and achievable. I wonder if anyone ever adjusts their goals up because they are doing so well?

What are you working on?

photo credit: Self, 2013 via photopin (license)

A Post Vortex and a PSA

I went looking for information about body language. My plan was to add descriptions of actions to let readers know what my characters are thinking when they aren't the POV character. At first everything seemed to be going along fine, but then I must have gotten stuck in a post vortex. They just kept coming and I just kept reading them. The next thing I knew it was like 4 hours later and I had consumed a ton of information, but written no new words. It was late so off to bed with me, but I vowed to try again tomorrow.

Also, PSA there is a point at which your Chrome will start having trouble with how many tabs are open. I am sure every computer is different and I am by far no expert. However, I now know that at 75 tabs my Chrome stops responding and just cries. I was waiting for something to happen and did actually take the time to count all 75 tabs that were open. In case you were wondering it also causes the user to curse. So, be warned. If you want to know why that may be, Geek has an interesting read on it.

The next night I put the kids to bed and was all ready to write when my husband asked me if I had a chance to read, which actually means fix, his resume. My head fell down and DAMN was all I could think. I am not great at writing a resume. I am not even sure I have done it since high school and that has been a long while. I knew it would be time consuming, but the worst part of it was finding a free template that was actually FREE. I wanted to share Hloom with you in case you need to write a resume and need a little guidance like I did. They have 279 different templates, I know that's a lot, laid out in 8 categories. You do have to scroll down a while to get to them, but they are there. When you go to each resume it tells you what it is best suited for which helped me quite a bit. Save this link just in case. Save it even if you don't think you will need it, because someone will.

ROW80 Rundown:

1. Write 500 words per day on any project.
Monday: Info gathering vortex instead of writing.
Tuesday: 866 words, in bed on my phone. This is interesting because when I went back to look at it some of the words near the end didn't make since. I had to break out my phone and Swype the word that was there to see what other suggestions were so I could figure out what the heck I was talking about. That only happened twice, but still. PS: Evernote is awesome and syncs up to my on line account. I was amazed at how much I got done.
Wednesday: 705 on this post.

2. Blog at least every Wednesday and Sunday.
No new way to say it, but still getting this done. I really didn't feel like working on my blog today, but decided that I didn't want to give up the only goal I was doing so great on.

3. Check out at least 10 posts from each new ROW80 linky before the next one comes out.
I only made it to 5 this time around. I need to put more focus on this because I really enjoy reading what you all are up to and it helps me so much when you comment so I want to return that feeling to others.

4. Use Twitter at least once per day.
So far so good. I am retweeting mostly, but still doing it.

5. Post on my author Facebook page at least 2 times per week.
More yes! I like meeting goals.

6. Read 1 book per week.
I am really loving the book, but I feel like I also need to dedicate more time to this goal because I am so far behind that there is no way that I can possibly read 52 books in what is left of this year.

Photos by Pixabay