A Letter to the Tooth Fairy

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I have two questions. What is your real name? What do you do with the teeth?

Love, [K]

p.s. Please write back.

***
If the tooth fairy who visits my house wasn't a writer, she might have panicked last night. Even so, I'm pretty sure she wiped a bead of sweat off her brow answering such personal questions. To the delight of the child, here's the reply:

Dear [K],

Thank you for your nice note.
I love answering questions. My real name is Delphinia (isn't that a pretty name?)
I recycle the teeth. I was going to leave you How to Train Your Dragon with the coin, but I noticed you already have it. I hope you like it. It's my favorite new book (I like the dragons).

Love, T.F. (Delphina) XOXO :)

***
for some reason T.F. always leaves a new book along with a coin when she takes a tooth. Too bad Mom had just purchased the first two How to Train Your Dragon books on the same day the tooth finally fell out. ;)

The EB White Read Aloud Awards

I'm not always good at predicting award winners. Usually, I like what I like, and it's not what the "critics" necessarily like. However, yesterday afternoon I mentioned to my children's librarian that I thought The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. by Kate Messner would win a book award this year. I actually walked upstairs just to tell her that.

Late yesterday afternoon, I was scrolling through twitter updates, and noticed an agent that I follow had tweeted about Kate Messner's wonderful story being shortlisted for The EB White Read Aloud Awards. Did I call it or what? Not that I'd ever heard of the EB White Read Aloud Awards before. By the way, Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is also on the list. I'm not taking credit for calling that one...I think Grace's book might have already earned some accolades (*cough* Newbery Honor Book *cough*).

I don't know Kate, but she lives in my region. So, I feel like I know her. Okay, that sounds slightly stupid. But her book is so good, if you haven't read it, you should. I'll link to Kate's blog so you can read her good news in her own words.

Congratulations to both Kate and Grace and the other shortlisted authors!

Honesty vs. Victory

Because my novel is about golf (well, a girl who plays golf), I’ve been paying more attention than usual to golf news.

This story, about Brian Davis, is awesome. Brian is a professional golfer who has never won a major tournament. Over the weekend, he was in a final showdown with Jim Furyk when he called himself on a penalty that no one else saw. It underscores the reputation that golf used to have as the sport of gentlemen (or gentle-people - is that a word?). Regardless of recent news of golfers doing bad things, Brian Davis took the honest route. He knew he’d earned the penalty, and he faced it. Took responsibility.

And Jay Busbee, the writer of the news article I read, gives a great quote: “In golf, honesty is more important than victory.” If only more people felt that way about life in general. It's sort of a twist on the theme of my book - that victory is not the most important thing in the end.

Would you do it? If no one would know? If a million dollars were at stake, would you own your mistake? Brian Davis did - and he's sleeping better tonight because of it.

The Agent Search

My critique group has been discussing agents and queries a lot lately. We're all gearing up for the agent-hunt. I've got a list of about ten prospects so far. There are so many great resources for the search, but it can take serious time away from writing, revising, and critiquing.

I've been using:

1. Literary Rambles (Casey McCormick) - Casey has great list of agent profiles, as well as questions to ask when you "get the call."
2. Query Tracker - great way to organize your lists as well as basic information about agents.
3. Various agent blogs - if you're not aware of it, many agents blog and tweet. It's a great way to get a feel for who you might want to query.

The most important tip I've seen lately is this: Follow the guidelines. FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES. And every agent has a slightly different version. Make sure you read the fine print. Don't get yourself booted 'cause you didn't follow the rules.

But first, finish the book!