My Official Business Website is Ready!

First of all, let me assure you that nothing - absolutely nothing - is going to change at either of my blogs.

You have filled my life with such joy and creativity that nothing (well almost nothing) will stop what we're doing here. I love to share my creative ideas with you and I love to read your blogs and your comments to my posts.

Actually, I can't think of much of anything I'd rather do than communicate with you.

That being said, my new business website is up and ready to go. Would you do me two favors? Please go to my website and tell me what you think. Then please share my website with anyone you know who might even remotely need a writer, want a speaker, or need to spark some creativity in complacent employees. I want to do it all.

Creative people come up with creative ideas. I decided since freelance work is so scarce right now, I was going to market myself. With your help, I can get my website circulating.


Thank you so much.

I can't leave you without a creative writing exercise to do together. So let me think for a minute. How about if you (or your kids) personify your pencil.

Here's what I might say:
I am Jan's pencil. I can tell when she's stressed out because she chews my eraser down to the metal. I can tell when she's in a hurry because she moves me way faster than I'd like to go. Sometimes my lead breaks. Then Jan has the nerve to shove me into a grinder until I have a point again. When Jan is happy she uses me to write about her family and pets......

You get the idea! Give it a try. Have fun. Let your kids do this too. In fact, do it at the same time and then compare notes. Remember writing is fun. It's therapeutic. Keep wallowing in the love of language! Spill your joy right onto your papers!


Oh! I almost forgot! My new business website can be found at http://www.ignitetowrite.com/
Really...please let me know what you think. I welcome your advice, suggestions, and criticism.

Let's Have Some Fun - Poetry About Pets and People

My blogs bring me so much joy. I love the creative curiosity that abounds from this writer's blog and my blog for animal lovers too. Sometimes I feel like I'm glued to your blogs. Many of your are such good writers that I feel like I'm in the middle of a good book or even a part of your lives.

Believe it or not, Tweedles (a pug dog) stopped by here the other day and asked me to share a creative writing activity.

Off the top of my head, I suggested that I could learn more about Tweedles by an activity that requires thinking outside the box. Somehow, I have a feeling lots of you are going to have a really good time with this activity too.

Many of you have used your senses to create this same poem (in another way) that I suggested for Tweedles. This time, I'd like you to use your senses to describe a pet or person that you really like. Play with words. Wallow in language. Have fun!

I asked Tweedles to fill in the blanks:

Tweedles looks like __________
She smells like __________
She sounds like _________
She tastes like __________
She feels like __________
Tweedles makes me want to ________

Here's Tweedle's poem!
Tweedles looks like a cute baby monkey
She smells like bubble gum
She sounds like a seagull with its mouth full of crackers
She tastes like strawberry shortcake
She feels like the softest velvet ever
Tweedles makes me want to giggle!

Here's the poem that I wrote about my granddaughter:
Alexa looks like a graceful swan
She smells like horses and shampoo
She sounds like a talking dictionary
She tastes like fresh fruit on a summer morning
She feels like a conditioned athlete
Alexa makes me want be a kid again!

Have any images formed in your mind? My guess is that they have.

Now it's your turn. Fill in the same blanks that Tweedles and I did. Choose an animal or person that you really have strong feelings about and use your senses to create a lovely picture with your words! I have no doubt that you'll be very descriptive. Why? Because you're writing from your mind and heart.

Can you do it? Yes you can! Please share!

Journals - Great for Kids and Grown-Ups too!

Many of you know that a few weeks ago I lost my scrappy little dog, Kelly. One of the first things I did was to write about him. Why? Because writing is a way to clear my mind. It's a way to get my feelings uncluttered and down on paper. Writing is therapeutic to me.

I chose to share my writing but the beauty of most journals is that they are not intended for an audience. They are, however, a good way to get rid of anger, take a close look at fear, or simply follow a vacation with words that won't be forgotten. Journals are a very good way to learn more about who you are and how you react to different situations.

Obviously, I love journals. Journals can be written in thousands of ways. Every journal can be unique to its author. It can start from writing prompts like: The most important thing that happened today was____________________.

or simply Guess what?

Writing prompts usually get the mind engaged but they're not necessary. Sometimes you'll discover that something you wrote and planned to keep to yourself is worthy of publication. You'll want to share what you wrote.

Journals are fun. Writing is fun. With journals, anything goes!

Do you already keep a journal? Has it helped you or your writing in general? If you have children, I've got loads of ideas for journal writing that are creative and quick. Let me know if you'd like any of them!

The Luckiest Writer in the World

The Carnegie Library in Washington Court House is full of creative kids and terrific librarians. How do I know? Because last week my dear friend Kathy (who is also a writer) and I traveled there to conduct a creative writing workshop.

We braindropped. We painted with words. We used our senses to create the most descriptive showing sentences you've ever seen. And most of all, we had fun.

Every time I spend an hour or two with kids, I'm reminded why I love to write so much and why I'm so inspired by kids. They have more creativity in their thumbs than I have stashed in my very old memory. All Kathy and I have to do is create an environment that says, "What you have to say is valued and respected and we are honored when you share it with us!"

The children's department at Carnegie is lucky. Their children's librarian, Anne Quinn, is the kind of educator all children deserve to have. She brought out the best in me, so it's easy to see why kids flock to the children's department. Her rich laughter is contagious. If I were a kid, I'd park myself as close to Anne as I could get and soak in every book she suggested I might like to read.

My guess is that if the kids in Washington Court House like to do journal writing, half their journals would mention Anne, the library, and summer fun.

My school visits are over for the summer. Now it's on to more library visits. I think I'm the luckiest writer in the world!

The Story I Promised You...

As I promised, I'm going to share the story I wrote with you. I'm trying to recall all the specifics, but I'm having a little difficulty. What I DO remember is that I wrote the story for an educational publisher. I think I wrote it for 5th graders and I think that I was given some specific vocabulary words that I had to use. It's probably floating around as a leveled reader in lots of different schools.


Writing leveled readers is probably my favorite kind of freelance. Just knowing that lots of kids are going to read (and hopefully want to write) because of an idea that came from me is amazing.

Message in a Bottle

Ribbons of color filtered through the bedroom window casting a delicate pink glow across my room. The early morning sunshine did nothing to shake my need to crawl back under my covers, but I could hear Catherine clambering up the porch steps to the front door. "Coming," I yelled as I scrambled to get ready. Catherine always came early to meet me when we went to the beach. She said the prettiest seashells were always gone by mid-afternoon. I grabbed my sunglasses and tote bag and trudged downstairs, wiping the sleep from my eyes. About halfway down the doorbell rang again. "Hold your horses!" I screamed, I’ll be there in a sec!"

Patience was not one of Catherine’s virtues and this morning was no exception. As usual, she couldn’t wait for me answer the door, and like always Catherine opened the door and marched precociously inside. She looked more like she was more prepared for a month at Camp Katydid, than just one day in the sun. "Come on Liz," she whined as I eyed a donut on the counter, decided against it and grabbed an apple instead. I followed her out the door, silently chuckling at her weighted-down walk. It was a gorgeous day outside. The sun wasn’t scorching yet; it was pleasantly warm, and the breeze made it a perfect day for the beach. I swung my leg over my bike and rode up the street.

We got about two house down the when I sensed crazy old Hattie Thompson before I actually saw her. I tried to look preoccupied as I rode by, but I made the mistake of taking a sideways look to see if Ms. Thompson noticed me. Unfortunately, she caught my glance and I was forced to acknowledge her presence. I tried to avoid Mrs. Thompson whenever I could because she was the craziest crankiest woman I ever met and frankly, she scared me a little bit. In fact, she gave me the creeps.

"Hi, Ms. Thompson," I stammered in as friendly a tone as I could muster, "How’ve you been?"
"Slow down on that bike before you fall off and end up on my grass," she snarled. I assumed that was the end of the conversation, at least I hoped it was, and began to pedal off, when once again, I sensed old Hattie’s eyes boring a hole in my back. "Always say goodbye," Hattie singsonged, "Always say goodbye." "Don’t answer her," Catherine whispered, "You know she’s loony as a bat. Pedal f-f-faster…. Let’s get the heck away from her!"

We rode like there’d be no tomorrow, the muscles in my calves began to knot up like baseballs, and sweat began to trickle down my face and drip on the handlebars of my bike. I looked over at Catherine and couldn’t help laughing out loud. Her once triangle-white sunscreened nose was now void of protection, but the ooey gooey white stuff was running down her face and she looked like a clown ready for the performance of her life. The tension broke.

We left our bikes on the bike rack, rusted from years in sea mist and sand, and started walking along the shore. Shell collecting isn’t exactly for me, I’d prefer kicking a soccer ball any day, but since Catherine is my best friend, I strolled with her at a leisurely pace.

Before long, Catherine was ahead of me, bent over searching for seashells. I was in a relaxation mode, listening to the gulls and splashing water, when a dark green glass bottle hit my ankle and broke my concentration. "Oh great," I thought, "She’s finding shells and I’m finding old trash." I grasped the old bottle by the neck and was about to fling it back into the sea, when I noticed a slip of paper inside. I stuck my finger in the neck of the bottle as far as it would go, squeezed the paper between two of my fingers and as gently as possible, pulled it out.

By now, I had Catherine’s attention…I’m sure she thought I’d found the most extraordinary conch shell of the day…. and she came to inspect my treasure.

"Lizzy," she asked in a tone that usually implies she wants what I have, "What did you find?" I didn’t reply. "Liz?" For a minute I couldn’t talk, in fact, I couldn’t move. Catherine grabbed the paper out of my hand and read it out loud, "My darling Hattie, today is the day I’m leaving to fight the Nazi’s, we both agree it’s important for me to go. My heart aches because I can’t find you to say goodbye. Know that you will always be with me in the air that I breathe and the moon that I sleep under at night. When I come home, we will make our life together. Since I’m going to put this note under "our rock" I have do doubt that one day you will read my words. Goodbye Hattie Thompson, wait for me. Forever yours, Jonathan." The tattered yellow note was dated September 5, 1944.

I stood stone still and dumbfounded. Catherine was the first to break the silence as she shrieked, "This note can’t be to the crazy old Hattie Thompson we know, can it? No one could have ever loved her like this, Liz, it’s not possible…is it?!" "Let’s go find out," I whispered. sounding only a little braver than I felt. Catherine took longer than usual to gather her paraphernalia, but she did it, and then somewhat begrudgingly unlocked her bike from the rack.

It seemed like it took us twice as long to get back to Hattie’s house as it did to leave there…in fact it seemed like an eternity. Now instead of muscles knotted like baseballs, my legs felt as though they were made of heavy lead, and my mouth was so dry I could spit cotton. I didn’t ask Catherine how she was feeling, somehow, words just didn’t seem right.

As we approached Hattie’s paint-chipped house, I had an overwhelming sense of trepidation. I could see her old face peering from behind the lacy curtains that kept the sunshine, and everything else, out. Before we had time to think, Hattie flung open her door. "Now what," Hattie growled in her usual way, "Didn’t I tell you girls to stay away?"

My hands were shaking like a washing machine out of balance as I reached out to hand her the crumpled up note. "We think this m-m-might be yours," I stammered. Hattie started to turn on heel and slam the door, but something made her change her mind. Her withered hand took the note from me, and as she begin to read, tears fell from her eyes and softened her wrinkled face.
"Come on Catherine," I said, "Let’s go." The moment seemed surreal but as we began to pedal away something made me turn around to look back. Old Ms. Thompson was still standing where we left her, but a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and I could swear I saw a twinkle in her eye. "Goodbye, Liz," Hattie singsonged, "Goodbye."

"Hello Ms. Thompson," I whispered.

Start It!

Stories are so much fun. Often, I'll write the ending of a story before the beginning. Why? Because it gives me direction. It gives me someplace to go. Does my ending always stay the same? No. But it can.

Writers: Give it a try. I've written the ending of a story (one I actually wrote ages ago) below. You write the beginning and middle. A short paragraph or two to will fill in the gaps and give the ending some meaning.

After you're done, I'll tell you what the story was really about and who I wrote it for...actually, you do some writing and on Thursday I'll post my original story in its entirety. It will be fun to see the different directions we can go!

As usual, parents, you can talk this through with your kids. Let them help you. Make it a joint effort. Share the fun and love of writing together.


Here's the ending for you:

My hands were shaking like a washing machine out of balance as I reached out to hand her the crumpled up note. "We think this m-m-might be yours," I stammered. Hattie started to turn on heel and slam the door, but something made her change her mind. Her withered hand took the note from me, and as she begin to read, tears fell from her eyes and softened her wrinkled face.

"Thank you," she said.

It was as simple as that.

Question for You!

I'll get right to the point here. We've been writing together since January and I'm happy as a clam. Since writing is as natural to me as picking up the phone and talking to my best friend, this blog takes me no time at all. I love writing with you and I love the new blogging friends that I've made.

Since this is an interactive blog, I need to know what you'd like to do for the summer. Do you want to keep on just doing what we have been doing or would you rather do something else? I am willing to do anything (well almost anything) you'd like.

For those of you who truly do want to get published, we can work on that. For those of you who need to talk about igniting the spark of creativity in your children, we can do that too.

The reason that I'm saying all this is that soon I'm going to have a webpage up. It will direct people to my blog and it will offer services for a fee. I am not going to charge any of you anything. But since my freelance work is so down, I need to turn Ignite to Write into a business.
We'll see how all that goes. When you're creative, you're creative. Writing is what I love. Writing is what I do. I just have to figure out a new way to make it work financially for me.

Nothing will change for you at all. I would just like your feedback. Your visits to my new website will be greatly appreciated. It will help to encourage advertisers for me. That's all I will ask from you. As soon as my new website is ready please check it out. I'll make it interactive so it will hopefully be almost as much fun as this blog!

That's it. Thank you for making my life so interesting and this blog so much fun!

Jan

Finish It!

Many people think that writing for children is easy. It is and it isn't. When you are writing for children who are learning to read, less is more. With that being said, I told you I was going to write a story for you to end. What I didn't tell you was that you need to end it in five sentences or less.

My story was inspired when I recently traveled to the zoo...the animals gave me ideas galore.

PROVE IT!

I looked once and then twice. "I think that tortoise is dead," I said to Sandy and Julie.

The girls looked at me as though I'd lost my mind. "Okay and you're going to prove it how?" Julie chuckled.

I looked around for a zookeeper. No one was in sight.

"Don't even think about it," Sandy said as I began to step over the low fence.

"Tortoises aren't the least bit dangerous," I told Sandy. "Don't worry!"

I glanced around the tortoise's lush habitat as I walked closer and closer to the gigantic creature.

"How can you tell if a tortoise has a pulse?" Julie asked.

Julie was having a good time with this for sure.

"I'll let you know in a minute," I said.

I bent over and began to lift the tortoise's head out of his dish and........

Writers: Go ahead and finish the story. An easy way to do this is to write the first thing that came to your mind when you read my last sentence. No more than five sentences will be plenty to give my story an ending. It needs one! Give it a try.
Parents: Make sure to let your kids know this story is FICTION and that no one really climbs a fence at the zoo..... then, LET YOUR KIDS FINISH THE STORY! Playful fun writing activities leads to amazing creativity!

The next time you go to the zoo, encourage your kids to do some journal writing or make up their own creative story. Wallow in the love of language and the joy of writing!

School's Out for Summer....What Do You Know?

First of all, thank you for all the stories about your animals. I loved every single one of them. Each tale that I read could be made into a book. Some could go into anthologies or magazines. Others could go into picture books. And some could become that special series that kids can't wait to get their hands on to read again and again.

You are all terrific!

Now back to the business...I mean fun...of writing! I traveled to a second grade classroom last week and since last week I was feeling a little off, I decided to make it easy on myself. I wanted no prep time, just kid time.

Frequently, at the end of a school year, kids are asked to write about what their plans are for the summer. I decided to take a different approach. I asked the kids to write one sentence about what they learned during the school year. I told them it could be about anything from friendship to division.

The kids did what I asked. They wrote a sentence. One girl wrote, "I learned how to multiply."

Another boy wrote, "I learned about the water cycle."

Yet another child wrote, "I learned about rules."

Those were all good sentences...grammatically. But you know me. I was on a mission. I wanted those sentences to jump off the paper at me.

Caleb said, "You want those sentences to B I N G, right?"
I love Caleb. He gave me goosebumps. I wanted those sentences to bing and boing like a ping pong ball!

So, long story short, "I learned how to multiply," turned into "My cat had two tiger kittens last year. Last month she had three kittens. Only one was a tiger. The other two were as yellow as the sun. 3 x 2 = 6. My cat has had six kittens!"

"I learned about the water cycle," turned into, "Rain falls from the clouds and makes the creek behind my house get so deep it covers the bridge."

And, "I learned about rules" turned into, "I learned not to run on the blacktop because if I fall, I could skin my knees. I only run in the soft grass so if I fall I won't get hurt."

WAY TO GO KIDS.....WAHOO!

The kids painted pictures with their words. That's what I want you to do.

Writers: Write one sentence about something you have learned in the past year. Then paint a picture with your words to SHOW what you learned. This could get really interesting if you braindrop first!

Teachers and Parents: Braindrop first. Then do the same activity that I did with the second graders. Have fun! Join in...what DID you learn in the past year?

PS...I visited the zoo yesterday and came up with a plan for a different kind of writing journey we can take together. Later this week I'm going to post a story for you or your kids to end. I just have to get that story written. Hmmm....maybe I'll make it really challenging. We'll do it in as few words as possible. Stay tuned!

Writer's Block...

I know I should be posting something creative for us to work on together, but frankly, I have writer's block.

My little dog, Kelly, died yesterday and I'm feeling emotionally drained and sad. If you'd like to read about him, please go to my Animal Talk blog at http://animaltalk4u.blogspot.com/

If you'd like to cheer me up a little, please tell me about animals that have made a difference in your life. I've already heard from Latte Lady on my other blog. If you haven't visited her blog, you should....especially if you home school your children. She has ideas galore.

I've gotten off track here. My thoughts are jumbled up right now...see, I told you, everyone gets writer's block from time to time.

On that note, paint a picture for me. Show me your animals through the words you write. I know most of you have or have had an animal in your life that was special...just like my scrappy little Kelly.