Nikki Loftin

Archive for September, 2009

Coming To A Library Near You…

Howdy, folks! Well, it was a pretty perfect day for a writer today! Kinda rainy, nothing to do but write — did I accomplish a lot, you’re wondering? Why, yes, I did. 3,600 words on the work in progress. Woot! (But are they GOOD words, as my Mom always asks? Natch, Mom.)

Also, a little Squeee moment — I sold a puppet play to an anthology coming out in early January. Now that I’ve sold them MY piece, I’ll advertise the link for all my writer buddies who might be able to produce something fabulous in a matter of weeks. Check it out here. And, yes, it is for libraries, so it’s not a big paycheck — but the glory, people, the GLORY of having toddlers and preschoolers all across America laughing at YOUR funny little characters! Seriously, if that’s not jewels for your Heavenly crown, I don’t know what is.

Now I need to go feed my own little Angels/Devils. Have a great weekend!

A Blog I Done Read

Happy Labor Day! We’re celebrating at my house by not laboring, and not going into labor (ever again), and pretty much sitting around eating ourselves sick on homemade chocolate-chip-oatmeal-toffee-raisin-walnut-pecan cookies while we play Super Smash Bros Brawl/Flight of the Hamster and/or troll around the internet looking for funny sites.

And I found a doozie. You gotta check out the review site, Books I Done Read, especially the review of Evermore. This may only be funny if you suffered through the Twilight series, and I don’t recommend reading those just to get the joke, but if you don’t LOL for real at least once…. you are a hardened soul. If you are a writer of MG/YA books… bookmark this one. I did.

Now I gotta go finish the hard labor of letting my toenail polish dry.

Playing Hooky With A Sick Kid

When I was a kid, my mom would take me out of school one day a year to play hooky. We had fun: shopping, lunch out, time together. Fast forward to my world. If I took one of my kids out of school for fun, I’m pretty sure the sheriff would be sent ’round.

They’re a bit militant about absences at the local public schools. I’m lucky, my kids are usually well. They hardly ever miss a day. So, I kind of look forward to days like today and yesterday, when my kid has a fever — nothing else, no aches, flu, or whatnot — just one of those little fevers that keep them out of school for two days. (You have to hit the fever-free for 24 hours mark to send them back, and that’s always at least 2 days. Sometimes I fudge on this, but this fall I don’t want to be known as The Mom Who Gave All the Kids Swine Flu. So, Drew and I have had 2 days of fun — reading together, playing with the dogs, playing on the Wii, watching movies (Howl’s Moving Castle — rent it today!), and napping.

Yes, napping. Because if you make staying home from school look too appealing, they’ll be “sick” every day for months.

Kind of glad I wrote those 6,000 words on the novel on Monday and Tuesday, though, or I would be dying to write. As it is, I’ve written a puppet play, revised a bit on the novel and a picture book, checked my email obsessively for news from some submissions, and taught 2 Zumba classes. Not bad for Nurse Nikki Nightingale.

Bonus: All kids well enough for a kickin’ Labor Day weekend! Hope yours is very relaxing.