Category Archives: The process

Almost Published…

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It’s been a while since I blogged about the book I’m writing, and I’m sorry for that. This whole blog was supposed to focus on the process of writing my book and what I’ve found is that its hard to sit down and type about typing a book. I’d rather just type the book. You know what I mean?

Anyway, I wanted to make it public – book one is done. All I have to do now is figure out if I need an ISBN number to publish an e-book, if I can use the same ISBN number for print and e-book formats and then I need to get the cover designed and the book formated into an e-book and for print. I already know who is going to do the formating and cover design. I plan to get that started today and should have the final project done in the next week or two.

Wish me luck!

Selecting a Child Care Facility

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How to select the right Child Care facility – Answers from a Child Care Director!

(NOTE: The presence of the logos above does not indicate support in the centers)

There are a thousand child care centers to choose from, so how do you pick the right one? Okay, I get that selecting a child care facility isn’t quite the same thing as selecting where you want to go to college or what your future career is going to be, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t one of the most important decisions you will make.

Honestly, I was pretty passive about selecting my college. I went where my sister went, and didn’t really think twice about it. But, selecting the child care center where my children would attend, that was harder. Not only are these people (whom you don’t know) going to care for your child and teach your child they are most likely going to be with your child more during his/her waking hours than you are five days out of the week. You can’t just select a child care center at random. You have to make sure you are 100% comfortable with the facility and staff because they will soon become like family to your little one.

There are some very important questions you should ask when ever interviewing a child care facility. And yes, I do mean interviewing. You shouldn’t be going in trying to be accepted by them. It is the Center Director’s responsibility to prove to you that they are good enough for you, not the other way around. So, questions you should ask, and answers you should hear:

(1) Is the facility safe and secure? Child care centers should be locked from the outside at all times. Parents should have a code to get into the building or be buzzed in. This ensures the safety of the safe and all the children in the center.

(2) Does the facility utilize an education based curriculum? Okay, I know it may sound silly to want your child to have a curriculum at say 6 months, but there have been studies to prove that children that start in an early education facility at a young age, even infancy, will do better in their later education years. Yes, my children both went to centers with a curriculum. My kids were doing sign language at 9 months, singing their ABCs between 18-20 months, and talking in complete sentences before they were 2. I am a firm believer that children need to be stimulated regularly with music, colors, books, paint, etc.

(3) Is the facility licensed through the Department of Human Resources? Every state has an organization that regulates what child care facilities are allowed to do and have in the center. Check out the Minimum Standards set up by the Alabama Department of HR at http://nrckids.org/STATES/AL/al_all.pdf. This covers everything including but not limited to: equipment in the classrooms, teacher to student ratio, procedures for illnesses, etc. In my state it is called the Department of Human Resources, you may want to do a little online research to see what state department regulates child care facilities in your state. With that said, I do not recommend enrolling your child in a facilities that is not licensed through the Department of HR or equivalent. If a center is affiliated with a church it is not required to be license, as well you may find some in home centers are not licensed. But, don’t just assume one way or the other. Make sure you ask!

(4) Can I see your most recent Department of Human Resources evaluation? Okay, this only applies if the answer to number 3 above was yes. If they are licensed then their most recent evaluation/inspection report should be prominently displayed in the main area where you and anyone else that is interested can read it. Look on the front page under DEFICIENCIES. This is the most important section. You want to look for things like: Student to Teacher Ratio not followed, Students left unattended, Director of the center is not qualified, Health Hazards, etc. When you see deficiencies on the report make sure you ask the Center Director to explain them to you, and make sure you feel 100% comfortable with his/her explanation before just moving on to the next part of the tour.

(5) Is the facility accredited? That’s right I said accredited. Child Care Facilities just like schools can get academic accreditations. This goes back to number 2 above when you asked about a curriculum. Elementary Schools, High Schools, and Colleges all seek accreditation. That is how you know they are worthy of your attendance. Child Care Centers do the same thing. The most common child care accreditation is NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) http://www.naeyc.org/. Child Care Centers can also obtain accreditation through AdvancEd http://www.advanc-ed.org/. AdvanceEd is the ideal education accreditation. Any center with a current accreditation from AdvancEd has proven themselves as a leader in the education field. Doesn’t your child deserve every advantage he/she can get?

(6) Does the center serve a well-balanced meal plan? Child Care centers, for the safety of your child and every other child in the facility should provide snacks and meals for every student. That doesn’t mean it always happens. A lot of centers make the parents pack a lunch and bring in snacks every day. My feeling is that the cost of meals should be an expense the center takes on. This ensures every child is served a healthy well-balanced meal each day – Double check the centers menu though, you don’t want to just take their word for it. You shouldn’t see a lot of cookies, juice, or sweets on the menu. Those types of things should be the occasional item for special occasions. Look for a vegetable, fruit, and a main dish to include a protein, along with milk at lunch. You should be seeing a nutritious breakfast snack and a light afternoon snack. Your child shouldn’t have to go all afternoon without eating. Centers should also provide occasional snacks if the children get hungry between meals. Kids eat more when they are going through growth spurts – make sure the center can accommodate.

(7) Lastly, and this isn’t really a question, but more an observation you should make as you tour the facility. Do the teachers talk to you and make you feel welcome as you enter their classroom? If they don’t make you feel welcome what makes you think they will act any differently when your child comes in each day. Is the Center Director/Assistant Director knowledgable about the center, the state/federal regulations, education, and child care in general? Ask a lot of questions and find out just how much the management team really knows. They need to be the experts because they are the ones that are going to ensure your child’s safety, education, and treatment. Make sure the managers are qualified and that you are 100% comfortable with the fact that they will be in charge of how your child is treated each and every day. Is the staff (management and teaching staff) educated? Just because they are teaching children between the ages of 6 weeks and Pre-Kindergarden doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be educated. The best early education facilities are hiring teachers even for the infant classrooms. Your child’s teacher should have a minimum of a high school education and at least three to four years experience in child care. However, preferably, and especially for the children that are 2 years and older the teachers should have a minimum of an early education degree or a related field (or going to school currently for a degree in education or a related field).

So, these are just a few things you need to look for when searching for the perfect center. If you have questions about other child care related issues feel free to comment and ask. I worked in the child care industry as a center Director and I would be happy to share my knowledge.

Hello, my name is Nina and I’m a Workaholic!

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I wasn’t always like this. At one time, I’m sure I was just your normal average run of the mill kid. I liked to play with my friends, go to the park, have sleep-overs, and all kinds of great things. Then when I took that first job… FoodLand grocery bagger it all changed. I went to school and worked. I liked making money, and actually being able to put gas in my car and buy the things I wanted.

When I started college I went to school full-time (which was like a job), worked on campus part-time, and worked off campus part-time. Not to mention I was in the theatre department and was constantly involved with a show which took up most if not all of my evenings.

After graduating college (in exactly 4 years) I decided to continue to work on campus full-time, and take a few more classes (just for fun) while working part-time at the local high school teaching tech theater and tool safety! Oh yeah, and I was still constantly involved with a show, but instead of it being on campus I was producing, directing, and acting in shows off campus with a theatre troop I helped found.

When I finally moved out to California to try to make it BIG (insert laugh here) I took on a full-time job along with daily auditions and twice weekly acting classes. But, I kept on trucking…

I left Hollywood, and started a family with my amazing husband! Okay, so just because being a mom doesn’t pay – doesn’t make it any less a job. I happen to love being a mom, and it’s a job I wouldn’t trade for the world, but it can be tiring and hard and stressful just like any other job, and you don’t get off after 8 hours of work its a 24 hour a day job for the rest of your life! So, I do that… and a full-time job, and a part-time job, and of course I am trying… when I have time… to be a writer.

Okay, so my progress in the writing field can’t really be seen over these last few months, but it is still a dream.

I have recently sent my latest version of book 1 to my editor Jamie Aitchison (haven’t heard back yet). I am working on book 2 rewrites… I plan to pick it back up in the second week of January. My goal is to have book 2 rewrites done by the end of February. Then I will start back in on book 3. I’ve already written about 10 chapters, but due to all the edits in the first 2 books, I think I’ll pretty much be starting from scratch, oh well.

So, you see… I’m a workaholic! Wish I wasn’t, but there just isn’t enough time in the day to do everything I need to do.

If anyone out there can think of a way to add two more hours to my day, let me know.

My Latest Endeavor

National Novel Writing Month

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Okay, so I’ve recently discovered that November is National Novel Writing Month! People all around the world will be powering up their computers, sharpening their pencils, pounding the keys, and thinking out of the box to put their creative thoughts on paper or the screen with the single goal of completing a 50,000 word (or more) novel.

Alas, I am no different. I love a challenge as much as the next person.

Over the last several weeks… Months… I stepped away from my story, and having taken time away I now feel prepared to start fresh with my previous outline as a guide.

My plan of action…
Rest, finish the play I am currently in, and then starting November 1st I will open a new clean fresh word document, type ‘Chapter One’ and the rest will be history!

Okay, maybe I’m just hoping that if I announce my goal online for all the world to read, or just my two subscribers, maybe I will be pushed to follow through. It isn’t that I don’t follow through on things it’s just that as busy as I am I rarely find time to enjoy a quiet moment alone let alone hours a day to type. However, this November shall be different! That is my end of year, new years resolution!!! Considering my birthday is on the horizon calling it a new years resolution kinda makes sense.

BTW – it is not easy to type a blog post on my phone! LOL

Editor’s Letter – 7 Stages of Grief

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They say that when you suffer a loss or tragedy in your life you go through the seven stages of grief. I would say that these stages are not all that different from what a writer goes through after receiving notes/edits from their editor. Although, maybe the process from one stage to the next is a little quicker, than say for someone who just lost a loved one.

Today I received an email from my editor. The email was four printed pages long, single spaced, and rather small font. As soon as I opened it I was SHOCKED (stage one) that all of these notes could possibly be about my book DENIAL (stage one continued)! Then I realized that not only were the notes on these four printed pages, but when I opened the attachment, my manuscript, I realized that there was not a single page, or even paragraph, that didn’t have deletions/additions/notes, etc.

OH MY GOD!!! PAIN (stage two) struck through my gutt and heart like a knife sliding into butter. I quickly shut the attachment, not wanting to see all the red mark-ups. I decided that reading the email first would be best. However, that only led to the impending GUILT (stage two continued) that I felt for having put this woman through reading, my obviously horrible manuscript. Why on earth would I have tortured her in that why?

Then I got to thinking. Why hadn’t any of the previous six people who read my manuscript told me how awful it really was? Why did they lead me to believe that it was good? ANGER (stage three). I began BARGAINING (stage three continued) with myself, telling myself that the story isn’t really that bad and maybe it just wasn’t her cup of tea, yadda yadda yadda.

Finally, I started really looking deeper into my editor’s notes. I read the email at least five or six times, and slowly I began to doubt myself, my ability to complete this project. Not only did I feel completely alone, because no one else was going to do it for me, but I felt like maybe I wasn’t going to be able to do it either. DEPRESSION (stage four) struck after reading the letter for the seventh time, but that didn’t last long! I’m not one to wallow. I put the letter down, woke up my children up, and got them ready for school. After seeing their smiling faced I decided that feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

I am always telling my children they can do anything and be anything they want in life. If I was going to set that example then I couldn’t allow myself to just give up so easily. I changed my attitude and read the editor’s letter again, and this time I looked at it not as a personal attack, but as constructive criticism, and I took an UPWARD TURN (stage five) toward a better attitude.

I called my editor and left a message, thanking her for all of her hard work and the great feedback she provided. I knew that reading the notes she sent me wasn’t going to be easy, and that I have a hard road ahead of me to get my book to its finished product, but that if I just WORK THROUGH (stage six) it with an open mind then I would be able to get it done.

So, now I am at that point of ACCEPTANCE (stage seven). I understand the task I am left with and I know that there is a lot of hard work ahead of me, but I am okay with that. I am willing to accept that challenge, and not back down. On top of all of that I have a new sense of HOPE (stage seven continued) that this challenge will bring with it a whole new set of experiences, and that I will learn so much from this process.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it isn’t going to be easy, and I am sure that in about a week or so I will be back on her crying, bitching, moaning, and complaining about all the work, and the fact that it is to hard, impossible, etc. However, for today, I am optimistic.

I’d like to say thank you! Thank you Jamie Aitchison, for taking the last two months to put so much hard work into my manuscript. It has been a huge project for me, and it means a lot to me that you would be so brutally honest with me. I know that sometimes it’s easier to say the nice thing, trying to avoid hurting someones feelings, but thank you for taking the harder road and telling me the hard to hear truth. With your notes and a lot of hard work I am confident that I can get this book to be as great as I know it can be.

One Step at a Time…

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Have you ever had one of those days, where every inch of your body and soul wants to be creative, but the world around you is just fighting you every step of the way?! Yeah, well that’s where I am today…

I have been sitting in front of my computer; with a story line, a plot, and a goal, for the last hour. Yet every two minutes one of my kids bursts into the room yanking me out of my concentration and forcing me to listen to their whining and complaining.

I thought that taking them for a mile and a half hike through the cold caverns would wear them down and make them lethargic enough to sit on the couch and rest for a while, but no such luck! Apparently exercise only invigorates my children’s sense of adventure and energizes them to make it through the rest of their day.

Thus, meeting my goal of making it through chapter eleven of my book seemed to quickly be slipping away. That was until I discovered the power of Pepperidge Farm cookies. That’s right, Pepperidge Farm cookies happen to be a lot like crack to children. They love them, and will do just about anything for them, to include sitting quietly while watching a movie so that mommy could get some quiet time. Ah, the power the cookie.

I hammered my way through chapter eleven, and quickly moved on to chapter twelve. Who knows if any of it is any good… I certainly don’t, but I’m enjoying the process, and to me that is the goal! At least for now. When I’m done the goal will be to publish, but for now I’m taking it one step at a time…

WRITE… Write… write…

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Okay… let me start by saying, I miss my husband! He recently started classes toward his masters program, and he attends classes every Tuesday and Thursday evening. I know what you’re thinking, “Tuesday and Thursday? Is that all?” and you’re right. It’s only two days a week, not bad at all. Yet, still… I miss him when he isn’t home with me and the kids. Although above even that I am incredibly proud of him! Going back for his masters isn’t going to be an easy road, by any stretch of the imagination, and the fact that he is doing it with a full-time job, two kids, and a sometimes needy wife, I commend him!

Now, as I sit here and sulk… I can do one of two things. I can literally eat the pan of brownies in the kitchen and watch television until he gets home – not a bad idea, or I can pull out my computer and get to work! I am choosing the second option. I am always struggling to find time to write, and now with him going back to school I have been given two evenings a week, after the kids are in bed of course, to do just that. So, take advantage of it I will.

My goal is to see significant progress by the end of this coming weekend… which is to say that I will finally get through chapter eleven!

I think that my creativity has maybe taken a brief vacation, and left me in somewhat of a stump or creative block. I shall hammer through it this week though, and come out victorious! lol… That actually sounded confident. This just may work. If not, I might just cry… I figure if I don’t get to work soon, then when I receive my editor’s notes next weekend I really will cry. I am expecting them to be detailed and extensive, because that is what everyone had told me editors like to do. I have mentally prepared, but who knows how much that will really help. Although, I do look forward to the suggestions. I am excited to get book one in the Blood Angel series ready for the publisher, and an editor is just one of the many steps so… BRING IT ON!!!

Finding the time…

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It seems as time goes by my days get shorter and shorter, and I am having less and less time to write. It makes me sad to think I have spent less than an hour writing over the last two weeks! How am I supposed to get through this project if an hour or two a month is all I have to devote to it?!

It’s no ones fault but my own! No pointing fingers here, it just is what it is. I have a family and at the end of a long work day it’s hard to want to do anything but spend time with them. How do you tell your kids, “No sweetie mommy still has to work, I can’t cuddle or draw right now.” I can’t do it. They give me those puppy dog eyes and I just melt!

So, now I have fallen behind, WAY BEHIND on my self-set goal of having book three in the Blood Angel series complete by the end of August. I’m only on Chapter Eleven… with so much story left to tell.

Please send me out good creative thoughts to help me get through the rest by my newly set goal of November 26th MY BIRTHDAY!!! Because what better birthday gift could I give myself than finishing the book?!

Stay tuned for more updates in this on going adventure…

Bad news?

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Is it bad when your editor pushes back your deadline? She was going to get her edits to me the first weekend of August but pushed it back to the first weekend of September! I hope it’s not that she hates it but how can I be sure?

Okay… I’ll stop freeting!

I’m at the beach with my amazing husband Eric, and am not going to worry about what may or may not need to be changed in the book! I plan to edit, rewrite, and edit some more when I get back home!

I’m going to just love my vacation now!

Patiently Waiting

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Its Sunday now, August 7th. I sent my manuscript off to my editor on July 15th with the knowledge that she would send it back with editor’s notes by Saturday August 6th.

The fact that it hasn’t yet arrived in my email box feels like bad news, but I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything. We all have deadlines, other commitments, distractions, etc. I’m sure that she has dug in and is on her way to completion. I don’t want to be the writer that hounds her, because I think that good work takes time, and I want to know that I am getting everything she has to offer me. And yet, I still feel this appending doom headed my way when I do see her email pup up.

So, to distract me until that day happens… I shall write.

I have finished the rewrites to book two, and plan to send it off to said editor as soon as book one is back in my hands. Until then I am picking up book three again, and starting off where I left off… Chapter Eleven! That’s right, I set it down ten chapters in and havent touched it since. It has been about four or five weeks… I hate when I have to stop for such a long time. But, I did good work on book one and two during those weeks.

Back to book three… Today is rewrites on chapters one through ten… Okay, I do have a husband, two kids, and a full-time job. Rewrites will take me a couple of days. Then, later this week I will continue where I left off with chapter eleven! I am super excited where this book is headed, and can’t wait to have someone’s feed back. Book one, got great feedback from close friends and family… Book two, is still being read by a number of people, but my sister (and lawyer) finished it and says its amazing… Book three, is so far my favorite of the series… Then again, I love them all, but I’m the author, lol.

Okay, off to work I go.