Maureen Bush

Yes, I am working. Really.

I have been writing, even though all my recent blogs are about wildlife in my garden, storms, and the mountains. I’m working on the sequel to Feather Brain. It took a couple of years to come up with a substantial enough idea for a sequel (bad sequels drive me nuts).

Now I’m writing away, sometimes pleased with progress, sometimes frustrated at what feels like a plod. Whatever the pace of the week, I’m accumulating chapters, working forward when I can, polishing when fresh writing is slow.

Of course, this is all interspersed with kids off for the summer and holidays and hail storms and gardening and . . . well, life.

I have a title I like (which I’m not sharing, not yet), and a plot that works (won’t reveal that, either). So there’s not much to blog about! But I am working.

Maureen

Feather Brain Nomination

Feather Brain has been nominated for the 2010-2011 Red Cedar Award (BC’s Reader’s Choice Award). Check out the other nominees at http://www.redcedaraward.ca/index.php?s=10

Maureen

Dinosaurs

We had a rare morning when we were all free to play, so we trekked off to the Calgary Zoo to see the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit. Animated dinosaurs have been set all through the dinosaur park.

It’s ridiculously silly – the wee kids are terrified – everyone else is delighted. The dinosaurs roar and move their heads and arms and tails.

It definitely deserves a place in the sequel to Feather Brain.

Maureen

O Frabjous Day!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
She chortled in her joy

Eric Orchard is doing the cover for the soon-to-be-renamed There’s a Witchdoctor In My Grandmother’s Bathroom (Orca, Fall 2010). He did Feather Brain, and I adore it. I begged for Eric again, and it’s finally organized. I’m so pleased.

http://ericorchard.blogspot.com/

Maureen

My Stories Are Nagging Me

This morning I want to settle in and focus on three different projects. The kids at Lakeview and a brainstorming session with my younger daughter have inspired me to start on a sequel to Feather Brain. I want to get back to The Veil of Magic book III for another round of editing. And I received the first editing comments for Witchdoctor last week, so it’s time to launch into that.

It’s like having three little kids tugging at my pants wanting attention, and I have to choose one.

I know which it has to be – editing to a deadline comes first. But I’m really pumped to settle in for weeks of focused work on each one. I guess I’ll just have to be thankful I’m feeling inspired, pat my darlings on the head and tell them, “Later, dear one. Later.”

Maureen