The Truth about Naps

My apologies for another string of silent days here at the Exile. Here's what's new:

I read Sara Zarr's latest, Sweethearts, and while it didn't have quite the same effect on me that Story of a Girl did, it was of course great. She humbles me at every turn of the page; I maintain the slightest hope that she will stoop to blurbing YA Novel the First.

Authors Now!, class of 2010, has graciously accepted my membership. Not sure when my profile will be added to the site, but I'll check occasionally and keep y'all posted. (Not that anything terribly thrilling will be on my profile.) So far, both debut-author-promo groups I've joined have been hella understanding about my previous pubbed work, and therefore nice and loose with their definition of "debut."

I went and joined a crit group via MeetUp.com! It's a weekly group, which is so much more frequent than most I've heard about. Also, it's not strictly children's, which is fine with me. The folks I've met so far haven't been the slightest bit dismissive of YA as a veritable genre of literature, and in fact enjoyed the first chapter of YA MS the Second quite a lot. In many ways, I think YA is as suited with a group of writers of adult lit as it is with a group of writers of children's, especially picture book or chapter book writers, or more so.

Anyway, last night was my first meeting with the group. Only five of us discussed long-form stuff, which was nice, since everyone who submitted material got a good amount of crit in the two hours we spent around the table. At one point, the group leader suggested I go last, because that way I'd be "dessert." I assumed that was a bad thing, like, they were going to eat my piece last, like a drooling cave monster might save the tastiest adventurer to really savor the kill. Of course, you realize I had that wrong, because you, unlike me, are not a crazy person. In fact, "dessert" simply meant "treat," because everyone really liked the chapter I supplied. (I confessed to them that while, yes, I'm confident with my characterization, it's my plot arcs that typically need help. They should stay tuned for the trainwreck that is the continuing YA MS the Second.)

I feel like I probably digressed.

In other news, Sam has one tooth, now visible, as reported by Beth a few days ago. This means his eight-month-long freedom from brushing his teeth before bed has ended. Each night, for the rest of his life, he will have to brush before bed. For now, Beth will do it for him most nights, naturally, but there's no turning back now.

I guess he needs a second tooth before he can floss. So that's something.

Today we're cleaning the house to prepare for the arrival of Beth's mother-in-law, which is a roundabout way of saying "my mom." She arrives Friday afternoon. And you know what that means: live-in babysitter!

Naps seem much longer when you're not taking one.

(That's a lot of text. I better find some images to put in here so your eyes aren't bleeding before you reach the end.)