Friday, August 28, 2009

1) Take a deep cleansing breath. 2) Set a goal. 3) Enter our contest!

One-half of knowing what you want
is knowing what you must give up before you get it.
~ playwright Sidney Howard
(he adapted Gone With The Wind for the screen)


Envision what you want your life to look like.
Then ask yourself, “What do I have to become to manifest this vision?”
~ Rev. Michael Beckwith (paraphrased)

Dear Readers,

Huzzah, huzzah--it's nearly fall and a new
Teaching Authors CONTEST has begun!

New Year At The Pier—A Rosh Hashanah Story by April Halprin Wayland, illustrated by award-winning Canadian Stéphane Jorisch, is so delicious, we want you to have a chance to win an autographed copy!

Here’s lots of juicy stuff about the book, here's the 1:16 minute book trailer and here’s a summary of the book, which got a starred review in Publishers Weekly:

Izzy’s favorite part of Rosh Hashanah is Tashlich, a joyous ceremony in which people apologize for the mistakes they made in the previous year and thus clean the slate as the new year begins. But there is one mistake on Izzy’s “I’m sorry” list that he’s finding especially hard to say out loud. Humor, touching moments between family and friends, and information about the Jewish New Year are all combined in this lovely picture book for holiday sharing.

So...how can you win your very own autographed copy?

Simple. Since the book is about the new year...do you have a new school year goal? Great! Then post one reading, writing or teaching goal you'd like to accomplish by December 31, 2009 in 25 words or less.

Here are some sample goals to get you thinkin':

Do you want your student(s) to understand the concept of Show, Don’t Tell?

Do you want the courage to delete all of your emails so that the clutter isn't keeping you from writing the next Charlotte's Web?

Do you want to set aside 30 uninterrupted minutes to read for pleasure each day?

Do you want to send out a manuscript by Halloween?

What is that one goal for this bright and shiny new school year?

Be specific. Here’s the place to ‘fess up!

Win-an-autographed-copy-of-New-Year-at-the-Pier CONTEST rules:
1) Read the two quotes at the top.
2) Take a deep breath.
3) Post ONE reading, writing or teaching goal for the new school year in 25 words or less.
4) Your goal must be posted on one of the
Teaching Authors blog posts between Friday, August 28, 2009 and Monday, September 7, 2009.
5) You must include your email address in your post so that we can contact the lucky winner.
Here are our general giveaway rules.

The winner will be announced Tuesday, September 8, 2009.

We expect to hear back from you in the first two weeks of January—every one of you. If you don't win this time, you'll have another chance in January when you report on your progress. How did you do? Who or what helped you? Who or what hindered you?

Coming next week: more on New Year at the Pier!

And finally, because it's Poetry Friday...and to REALLY confuse you now that you're thinking about goals...I leave you with a beautiful completely contrary anti-goals poem by my wonderful friend, poet and author
George Ella Lyon
:

First homework, then housework, now soulwork.

No list, no checking off, no done.


~ George Ella Lyon


image of girl with a goal by April Halprin Wayland

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

My goal is to write my best-ever, most-publishable novel during my sixth year of participating in National Novel Writing Month in November of 2009.

Womenswrites@inbox.com

Brenda said...

My goal is to send my next novel to my agent my December 31st.
brenda at brendaferber dot com

Anonymous said...

My goal for 2009 is to take time to sit down and write - and if there isn't time to take, to make time.

Chase

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Yep, go on and enter me, ladies. I love these sorts of books.

I posted about this at Win a Book. Thanks for the e-mail!

As for a goal, I've got many. But the #1 on my mind is to finish this draft I've been working on for WAY too long now.

e-mail me directly at susan at westofmars dot com

Tara McClendon said...

The book looks cute. My goal: Finish revisions by end of September.

Tara McClendon said...

D'oh. Add the email to the comment:
Tara@InspirationForWriters.com

Pam said...

My goal is to take the time to learn Tagalog (my husband's first language).

melacan at hotmail dot com

Michelle Sussman said...

My goal is to polish my book until it sparkles and find an agent who loves it as much as I do.

April Halprin Wayland said...

Dear All (so far),

I LOVE reading your goals! And Susan, for posting this at Win a Book. I didn't know about this site.

If you know of any teachers, librarians, homeschoolers or writers who might be interested, please send them our way!

xxx,
AHW

Kelly Brannock said...

My goal is to embrace my inner artist! I want to co-create and teach at least one lesson that integrates story, music and dance.

Mary Lee said...

My goal (for the whole school year, not just until December 31, but that will make a good check-in point) is to stay BALANCED. I will not let school (teaching, planning, grading, mentoring, committee-ing) take over my life. I will work on my writing project every week (but I will not require a certain number of hours of myself). I will tend to my gardens. I will spend time with family and friends. I will keep up with my reading project (Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts for NCTE). I will keep the house reasonably clean and I will fold and put away my laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer. (okay, that one might be a little unreasonable, but I'll TRY...)

Mary Lee said...

oops...(at least I'm not the first one to do this...)

mlhahn at earthlink dot net

Margo Dill said...

My goal is to send queries to agents for my YA novel I just completed (and not to freak out about current MG book).

Margo Dill
margodll [at] aol [dot] com

Anonymous said...

My 2009 goal reaches beyond December 31: to approach the writing process with the joy and elan of Esther Hershenhorn.

Susan Schaalman Youdovin
ssyoudovin@aol.com

Gail P-D said...

My goal is to finish the 500th version of my MG novel by Prairie Writers Day! (BTW--Shante' really wants this book!)

gail@gpdavenport.com

Mozi Esme said...

My goal is to get my daughter's toddler school back on track, develop a steady source of income, get caught up on my book reviews, and successfully follow a schedule. And lose 30 lbs... :)

janemaritz at yahoo dot com

April Halprin Wayland said...

Thanks for all your goals! Remember to keep them to 25 words or less if you want to enter the contest.

Warmest,
April

Lori Degman said...

My goal is to finish the two PBs I've been working on forever and send them to my agent.

ldegman@aol.com

Leslie Kohler said...

My goal is to successfully promote my first novel and spend more time working on my 2nd.

Linda said...

My goal is to make reading poetry everyday a habit for my 7th grade honors students.

Christine Kohler said...

My goal is to revise a YA historical novel that had been filed away until I heard the MC's voice. (He finally spoke to me!)

editorperish@yahoo.com

Carla said...

My goal is to complete my manuscript and rough book dummy for the picture book I am writing/illustrating.

carla.t@att.net

Kim Winters said...

My goal is to write two pages a day on my current fantasy novel in progress now through the end of the year.

Jennifer said...

My goal is to read with my son often, hopefully developing a love of reading, writing, and learning.

Anonymous said...

My goal is to get some manuscripts out in the next month, and in October to work on some new ideas.
Kay Winters @KayWin@aol.com

Lisa said...

Congrats on the book and the starred review - yay!

My goal is to make significant progress on the YA novel I'm writing while maintaining my regular writer-for-hire workload.

lisa AT llowens DOT com

Mary Lee said...

Thanks for the reminder about 25 words or less. Here's my revised goal, in just two words:

Stay balanced.

mlhahn at earthlink dot net

Anonymous said...

My goal is to be prolific and productive in the 2 1/2 hours my children will be in school each day this year.

Anonymous said...

And my email address: tarawrites at yahoo dot com.

Holly Thompson said...

My goal: for my students to write four 250-word story starts with clear characters, setting and problem before writing their first complete short stories.

holly [at] hatbooks [dot] com

Myra said...

My goal is to sift through my unfinished, (un)submitted, forgotten manuscripts and rediscover the magic that drew me to the story in the first place.
Myra Sanderman
Rojo42@aol.com