All posts by NewEngland_Muse

I'm a traditionally and self published author. I write in the genre of children and YA at the moment but working my way up to adults. I'm a sports loving, photo taking gal who loves to sing/dance to my own enjoyment. I love to laugh even at myself. I am also owned by 8 birds and 2 hamsters, and yes they know it. :)
Happy tears, Life, People

Happy Tears

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2013-02-20 07.14.53

Have you ever been so happy for someone that you just busted out into tears? I am sure you have we all have. But have you ever done it for someone you did not know? Have you done it for someone you seen on tv?  I have on quite a few occasions. I was watching “Our America” with Lisa Ling and they were showcasing obesity in our country. It is a rising concern for our nation especially for the children.

Brianna is a young woman at the age of 12 from the state of Mississippi. She weighed over 300 pounds. She was one of the individuals who was showcased. At the end of the program they showed the many steps her family and she was taking to help her get healthy. When they checked up on her a few months later she had lost enough to drop a pant size. I can’t recall how much they said she had lost. But the story touched me enough for me to be sitting on my couch crying for I was so happy for her and the efforts she had made to get to this point.

I am not sure if my tears are due to my getting older or perspective of the show. But this has been happening for me. Total strangers who I do not know and will never know but when something amazing happens I am just so happy for them that I tend to tell them, “Well done.”  Even if they never hear me, I still say it.

The release of this emotion is a good cleansing of one’s insides. It shows you can be happy for others, you can think of others and can truly just enjoy them doing well. In this world of me me me or what can you do for my family and me I think we as people should start being happy for others and not just ourselves. It is so easy for myself to think of what is going on in my own little percentage of the world that every thing and every one around me can be forgotten. I am such a small nano percentage of this universe as the rest of you are as well. It would bode us well to get along with others and also to be happy for them when great things happen even if those things are small and minute to us.

I wish Brianna continue success on her road to being happy. May I find more people in this world to be happy for even if I never meet them.

Birds, Family, Therapy Warriors

My Therapy Warriors

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Due to a recent surgery it is hard for me to sit up for long periods of time. So today I will be sharing some of my little therapy warriors with you all instead of a long post.

This is my sole finch Cosmos. Finches live anywhere between the ages of 5-8 years old or at least that is what I have been told. But when he lost his mate last year I was sure he would be gone within a few months if I did not replace her. Yet he is still among us and living at the ripe old age of 13.

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These are my keets, Cory and Snowball. I rescued them in May of 2011 when they were a year old.

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These are my tiels who have been my true therapy warriors over the years.

Twopiece is my first bird ever and he adopted me in 1998. I am not sure how old he was when I got him but he has been with us for close to 15 years old. He is my buddy.

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This is BJ and my sweetie pie. We got him when he was four months old in April of 1999.

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This is Angel, my feisty little man. He was also adopted when he was four months old a year after BJ came home.

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Nye is the son of Twopiece and Maxie. She came home with Twopiece in 1998 but we lost her a few years back. Nye is the perfect combination of his parents. He looks like his dad but has the girth of his mama.

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Most people know about my youngest child Jasper who was five when he came home with us in Oct of 1999

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Children's Market 2013, Publishers, Submitting

Submission Wolves

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2013-02-12 09.28.41

The process of submitting to traditional publishers is long and tedious. More so if you are a writer without an agent. This is the route I am approaching at the moment.  Last year I preordered the Writer’s Market for 2013 and recently added the Children’s Market 2013 to it. I started making a list of where I can submit my children’s book. The entries in this book has what each company is looking for and in some cases what they are not looking for.

I tend to check out each publisher online to give it a look over to double-check what they are saying in the book. Things change and perhaps what was written in the book is no longer accurate.  However I came across something that literally blew my mind

Just a note to all who are actively submitting. Please read the fine print.  I came across this:

By agreeing to review a submission, we do not assume any obligation to refrain from publishing a book based on a similar idea, concept, or story.

My first thought was what the hell are you kidding me? Mind you my grammar can use some work but it seems a company can turn down a writer’s MS but yet use that idea to make one of their own. Writing on my FB page I wrote what I had discovered. Like myself similar authors were blown away that this was listed.  As much work as it takes to get a book written, edited, polished, beta tested and submitted someone can swoop down and take our ideas? How is this fair? I tell you it is not fair at least to me it isn’t.

Needless to say I won’t be submitting my books to this company I can’t take the chance. But it is a good lesson for all of us to read every thing before sending off your baby, aka MS, to the wolves for them to decide if they want it or not. If you need to copyrrite your work then do so. But please please please do your homework and if something seems fishy walk away.