On this Memorial Day weekend, we try to remember those who have passed before us and their dreams. We talk with family and friends about dreams that were accomplished and dreams to come.
As you fly your kite at the beach, barbecue with the family, play and laugh with loved ones take time to note your dreams. Day dream in the sun and make your dreams become reality.
Have a great weekend!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Without Dreams...
I was on my chaise lounger, in the shade with a nice breeze blowing all the bugs my way. The birds were singing and fighting. I closed my eyes and tried to picture the next chapter in my book. Naturally my thoughts wondered.
When we were young, adults told us to have a dream and strive for it. Then when we would day dream about what we wanted to strive for, we would get yelled at by the teacher and called lazy. However, I digress.
If you keep focused on that goal, day dream about that goal, it has a better chance of becoming a reality. I, for one, would not be teaching or writing if I didn't day dream about doing it one day.
What did you day dream about? What do you day dream about now? Where do you think you would be without your dreams?
When we were young, adults told us to have a dream and strive for it. Then when we would day dream about what we wanted to strive for, we would get yelled at by the teacher and called lazy. However, I digress.
If you keep focused on that goal, day dream about that goal, it has a better chance of becoming a reality. I, for one, would not be teaching or writing if I didn't day dream about doing it one day.
What did you day dream about? What do you day dream about now? Where do you think you would be without your dreams?
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Is Your Day Quiet Enough for Dreaming?
Many years ago my father's mother, who I affectionately called Nana, sent me a card to let me know she was thinking about me. It said, "May your days have room enough for new experiences and new friends. May they be busy enough to fill your life with meaning and especially, may they be quiet enough for dreaming."
I try to make friends all the time and I try stay busy. The past 8 years have all been new experiences for me. Getting married, Moving to NC, heating a home with wood, having various employment challenges, learning how to care for goats, turkeys, chickens, and guinea fowl, and writing. Are my days quiet enough for dreaming? Sometimes, when I'm on my back deck, and hear the birds chirping and the wind chimes...chiming, I start to day dream about my writing....then the turkey gobbles or the guinea fowls start making a racket. But for that moment, it's peaceful and I get a glimpse of what might be.
Is there a time in the day that is quiet enough for your dreaming????
I try to make friends all the time and I try stay busy. The past 8 years have all been new experiences for me. Getting married, Moving to NC, heating a home with wood, having various employment challenges, learning how to care for goats, turkeys, chickens, and guinea fowl, and writing. Are my days quiet enough for dreaming? Sometimes, when I'm on my back deck, and hear the birds chirping and the wind chimes...chiming, I start to day dream about my writing....then the turkey gobbles or the guinea fowls start making a racket. But for that moment, it's peaceful and I get a glimpse of what might be.
Is there a time in the day that is quiet enough for your dreaming????
My dream to fit an agency's list
I have been told by a certain literary agency that responded to my query that my work has merit and saleability. So why didn't they want to represent me? I don't fit their list. What list? I'm still wondering and hoping for an answer.
See, my work is a wide range. I have a picture book--in need of pictures.
I have 3 books of a series that could grow to more, that are about a little girl who finds a special pebble and struggles with telling her parents or not.
I am currently working on a teen mystery (no vamps, no dark side) that deals with the real dark side of our society.
So, what list do I fit in????
See, my work is a wide range. I have a picture book--in need of pictures.
I have 3 books of a series that could grow to more, that are about a little girl who finds a special pebble and struggles with telling her parents or not.
I am currently working on a teen mystery (no vamps, no dark side) that deals with the real dark side of our society.
So, what list do I fit in????
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
I Have a Dream That...
I had a dream that I would be this awesome teacher that could reach every student and that they would thank me at a reunion for affecting their lives somehow.
Then I woke up to the reality that I cannot teach in the public schools. I have no patience for the head of the big class room. Too much paper work, too many complaints from parents.
I know I'm good teacher but where is my niche?
I have a dream of teaching a smaller group of students. I dream of teaching the STAR progam to several classes and having 50% of my students graduate, then 70%, then I get recomended for a job at consulting other schools and colleges as to what could work for them.
I also have a dream that an agency will call me and want to see my manuscripts and want to represent me!
What are your dreams?
Then I woke up to the reality that I cannot teach in the public schools. I have no patience for the head of the big class room. Too much paper work, too many complaints from parents.
I know I'm good teacher but where is my niche?
I have a dream of teaching a smaller group of students. I dream of teaching the STAR progam to several classes and having 50% of my students graduate, then 70%, then I get recomended for a job at consulting other schools and colleges as to what could work for them.
I also have a dream that an agency will call me and want to see my manuscripts and want to represent me!
What are your dreams?
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
When Dreams Can Become Real
I write about our day dreams and ways to escape. Sometimes we dream of something that can become tangible. For instance, a person who had to drop out of school for various reasons, dreams of one day going back and getting their GED and being able to read as well or better than their children. A person's dreams can get clouded and interrupted when "life happens". Here is a question a child once asked, what are we doing to help?
We can learn, accept, and re preserve those dreams. First, we learn how many people in our country are learning disabled, drop outs, or illiterate. We learn how many people in our state are illiterate or drop outs or learning disabled. We learn how many people in our areas or counties are ld, illiterate or drop outs.
Secondly, we must accept the raw facts that we find out. Fact: In our county, out of our 1400 students there is a 5% drop out rate and 13% of the students have IEPs or they are in special education services. Most of the 13% are between 1st and 6th grade. A few are between 8th and 12th. Another fraction of those who are currently in that 13% might drop out by 10th grade or get in trouble with the law.
A professor once asked if we believed that we are responsible for our fellow "man". I believe that we are put on this earth for a purpose. I've always believed my purpose is to care for, protect, and teach the children that I come across in my life. It has grown to teaching those children, who are now adults, and their children, whom society and the education system "sieved out" or let fall through the cracks in our floors.
The third thing we do as teachers and writers is re-preserve those dreams that those people had as children, to complete there education and to read so they can create and hand down new dreams that become real.
Lets make dreams become real, contact your local community college and talk to the Dean of Basic Skills. Then come back and tell the rest of us about your experience.
We can learn, accept, and re preserve those dreams. First, we learn how many people in our country are learning disabled, drop outs, or illiterate. We learn how many people in our state are illiterate or drop outs or learning disabled. We learn how many people in our areas or counties are ld, illiterate or drop outs.
Secondly, we must accept the raw facts that we find out. Fact: In our county, out of our 1400 students there is a 5% drop out rate and 13% of the students have IEPs or they are in special education services. Most of the 13% are between 1st and 6th grade. A few are between 8th and 12th. Another fraction of those who are currently in that 13% might drop out by 10th grade or get in trouble with the law.
A professor once asked if we believed that we are responsible for our fellow "man". I believe that we are put on this earth for a purpose. I've always believed my purpose is to care for, protect, and teach the children that I come across in my life. It has grown to teaching those children, who are now adults, and their children, whom society and the education system "sieved out" or let fall through the cracks in our floors.
The third thing we do as teachers and writers is re-preserve those dreams that those people had as children, to complete there education and to read so they can create and hand down new dreams that become real.
Lets make dreams become real, contact your local community college and talk to the Dean of Basic Skills. Then come back and tell the rest of us about your experience.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Since we know my work has merit...
So, now that we know that at least one agency enjoyed my youth fiction we must narrow down their view. Since I have no illustrator for the picture book...put that aside. Since it's teen mystery that is on the market right now, I'll set the Polly series aside. So, when this book is finished I will bombard agencies just with it and see how that goes. the book probably won't be done for a number of months. Patience is a neccessity.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Day dreams vs. sleep dreams
When we escape it could be by sleeping or just staring off into another world.
In a day dream we can control the characters, the plot, and the outcome alot more than when we sleep. Has anyone else found that to be true? When you dream at night or when you are asleep, you have to go along with the dream untill you force yourself awake or you naturally wake up. That also depends on the dream. I find that if I'm dreaming something I enjoy I go along with it. If I'm having a nightmare or just getting annoyed by my dream I try to force myself awake.
A day dream, on the other hand, is where you get to control the characters, the plot, when you want to end it or just pause it. You have a choice of settings that work for you and not against you. And your day dream can be as heavenly or as H---ish as you wish it to be. Sometimes, not too often, and only by a select few, day dreams become quick flash portals into past lives. We can see our selves in a different time and place. Then we know that where we are may or may not be where we belong.
In a day dream we can control the characters, the plot, and the outcome alot more than when we sleep. Has anyone else found that to be true? When you dream at night or when you are asleep, you have to go along with the dream untill you force yourself awake or you naturally wake up. That also depends on the dream. I find that if I'm dreaming something I enjoy I go along with it. If I'm having a nightmare or just getting annoyed by my dream I try to force myself awake.
A day dream, on the other hand, is where you get to control the characters, the plot, when you want to end it or just pause it. You have a choice of settings that work for you and not against you. And your day dream can be as heavenly or as H---ish as you wish it to be. Sometimes, not too often, and only by a select few, day dreams become quick flash portals into past lives. We can see our selves in a different time and place. Then we know that where we are may or may not be where we belong.
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