Writing Progression

If you want to read the condensed version, you can read it here.

It began with blogging...

I began this blog six years ago in 2009. Initially, it was a way for me to share our family, especially Meghan's progress in speech. (Back then I wrote here several times a week.)

After about six months, I realized I had a bigger audience than just family and friends. People I had never met before were reading about us. It was at that time I began a second blog (Live, Learn, Love) to share the things we were doing such as crafts, recipes, and books and to do it a bit more anonymously, especially in regard to the children. I continued blogging here about the more personal stuff.

It was in 2012 that I began This Simple Home to bring focus to my blogging. At this blog, I limit my topics to things related to homemaking and family. (And in our home books are a topic!) To keep up with other Pinterest, Facebook, and such, I try to take nice photos and always watermark them with the blog name.

Writing voice found...

It was through blogging that I learned I loved to write; I just needed to care about the topic. I don't recall any teachers encouraging my writing. I'm sure I was just average. As I have practiced through blogging (and taken a class or two related to writing), I have improved, though I know I'm not a great writer. You will still find grammatical errors and typos because I typically publish blog posts without editing.

A year ago I took some classes related to writing. I thought I wanted to begin writing for magazines. I have had a few pieces published. It was quite an honor to get to write an article about Derek's grandpa for a farming magazine. (It was even better to interview him and learn a lot I didn't know about Grandma and Grandpa.) A magazine has also paid me for a couple of f book reviews (p. 33-34, with another review to be published this spring). Professional writing takes a lot of effort for me, but I still enjoy it. (Blogging is easy...I write like I speak. But to write well is work.)

New writing goals...

Last summer some circumstances changed my writing goals. Meghan's enrichment teacher had asked me to work with her during the summer on critical thinking skills. I ended up creating critical thinking questions and a mini-unit based on a book by Dick King-Smith. It was nothing but fun for me to make the unit. (That's the former teacher in me.) During the summer I was reading to the children The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. After each chapter, we consulted a family guide for Narnia called Roar for discussion. The kids loved it.

A book idea... 

I realized I would really enjoy writing a book like Roar. A book about a book. And that's a book I am capable of writing. (Don't ask me to make up a story...I'm not a creative writer.) After some research I realized that the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder do not have such a guide for the child. Though curriculum and lesson plans abound, there is no companion guide for the young reader. That's what I am writing.

The Little House Companion book will be a guide to the Little House series. For children. There are nine books in the original series; I want to write about all of them in this book. So far, my manuscript only covers the first book, Little House in the Big Woods. A great benefit to trying to publish a nonfiction book is that it does not need to be completed before getting a literary agent and, ideally, a publisher.

I began a new blog called Little House Companion to build an author "platform." I share recipes, book reviews, activities, and other things related to the Little House books. Publishers expect authors to be able to publicize their books and to have a built-in audience for the book upon publication. As part of this platform, I created some public social media profiles since publishers want to see them.

Support me...

If you'd like to support me in this project, please put me in touch with your cousin who works as an editor at Harper Collins. Here are some other ways to help me build that author platform. (Please note, the Facebook account is fairly new, so you may not have "friended" me with this account.)

• Subscribe to LHC by email
• Twitter- @AnnetteWhipple
• Facebook- Annette M. Whipple
• Facebook- Little House Companion

Thanks so much for your support! 

If you are interested in providing constructive feedback for my book proposal or a portion of the manuscript, please let me know. (My writing email is annettemwhipple@gmail.com, but any email you have for me works.)

I have officially registered for a writer's conference in June. I'm rather excited about the writing conference though I'll be fully out of my comfort zone. It's specifically for children's nonfiction writers. I've been told the networking alone is worth going. It's a small conference so there are a lot of casual opportunities to meet and learn from agents, publishers, authors, illustrators, and more in addition to the sessions. One author/illustrator has already offered to meet with me to chat...no charge. (We've gotten friendly through Facebook.)

The reality is that we do not know if my book will ever see publication. If it's not to be, that's okay as long as I give it my best effort. I want to honor God through all of it and follow his leading.

Thanks for reading to the end! I know this was a lengthy post. If you want to read more, read the short version here.

Spring Pictures

It's the first day of spring break! Woo-hoo! 

It's snowing...but it's PA, so that makes perfect sense to have snow during spring break. Anyway, this morning I had the kids put on their new outfits that they picked out. Despite chilly temps outside, they were very cooperative for these spring pictures. 

Chocolate vs. Books

Meghan: I'm giving chocolate up for lent.
Me: So if I make a chocolate chip cookie pie tomorrow, you'll just say no thank you?
Silence.

When I explained she didn't have to give up chocolate, she decided to give up books. She said she wants to read two chapters of the Bible each day beginning with Genesis. She may change her mind tomorrow, but it's honorable.

Almost...

Esther: I can't see. I'm blonde.

She doesn't quite remember the word blind...but she is blonde.

A Well-Read Child

Meghan has been reading since age 4. She's a rather bright girl with an excellent memory.

When she reads a book (which she does a lot), she picks up new words. Because of this, she has a very large vocabulary.

But sometimes her reading vocabulary can be a little tricky. She will often mispronounce words because she has only seen them in print.

Here are a couple, but there are many more that I can't think of.

Ladle- rhymed with saddle. Thompson is said with TH at the beginning. You know...that kind of thing. :)

I think we both get a little laugh from her reader's vocabulary.

Esther's New Do

It was time for Esther to have her hair cut or trimmed. Esther had been asking to get it cut short.

We had cut four and six inches from Meghan's hair on different occasions before we decided to go truly short. Meghan was 5 when she donated her hair for the first time. She'd like to grow it again for donation.

I measured. It was long enough to donate through the Pantene Beautiful Lengths wig program. They only require 8 inches.

 These snowy pictures are from today. It's beautiful outside. We did put on our coats for our walk, but Esther was fine for a minute while we took a couple pictures outside...without her coat.