The Changing Season, or How Rahm Emanuel and Sara Zarr Ended Up in the Same Post

There are so many things I've been thinking about and wanting to post about and wondering if I even have anything interesting to say about. Like:

• Registration opening for the SCBWI Winter Conference. Sara Zarr is one of the keynote speakers along with Louis Lowry and Linda Sue Park, and Jane Yolen and Mo Willams will take part in picture book panel discussions. I find inspiration in the writing of all of these authors, so hearing them all speak at one event would be... Well, words fail to describe the total awesomeness this event will be. Just do me a favor: no one register until I can save enough money to attend. I can't have the conference filling up before I can afford it.

• National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner. Last year I participated and laid the groundwork for a really solid novel. And while the experience was emotionally, physically and creatively exhausting, there's something magical about belonging to a community of writers like that. It pushes you to do more and work a little harder because you know that someone not to far away is doing the exact same thing.

• The simply amazing Laurie Halse Anderson's #speakloudly campaign  has got me thinking a lot about what we can do to increase public awareness of how books impact children and teens. I keep coming back to the concept of parents and children reading together. And I don't mean parents necessarily reading aloud to their children or reading books before they allow their children to read them. I simple mean reading about common topics/themes/genres and then talking about those topics/themes/genres together. (More on this in a later post that I'm still working out in my head.)

• I'm running into problems with the initiating action in a couple of my WIPs. I'm in the middle of rewriting one of the manuscripts I thought I was done with, and I need to fix the beginning of another before I can move forward. Lots of headaches and worries, but I'm hoping the hard work will pay off in the end.

• There are a ton of amazing books coming out in the next few months, and I'm dying to get my hands on them. The only problem? I already have a ton of books I need to read, and my October is turning out to be just as insane as my September. I need a professional time manager to come organize my life. And I might need a motivational speaker thrown into the package to help me follow through.

• On a lighter note, Dancing with the Stars is finally getting interesting. I find myself almost charmed by The Situation (and I promised myself I would forever feel indifference towards the cast of Jersey Shore) with his surprising work ethic and self-deprecating humor. And in a positive turn of events, the dancers I like the least have all been voted off, 1, 2, 3. Now if only Glee would stop over digitizing their music so I could watch an episode without wincing...

See, a lot to write about, but nothing that actually makes an entire post. This is what happens when I have too much to think about--nothing comes out fully formed. I've also been thinking a lot about The Trevor Project and how important it is to show love for people despite (or maybe because of) their differences. And then there's Rahm Emanuel leaving the White House and the upcoming holiday weekend and the changing seasons and the end of baseball season. Fall is a season of transition, and I guess my brain just needs to wrap around all the changes going on.