1. My writer pal Stacey Heather Lee (who I might get to meet in LA! – more on that later) interviewed me on her blog, on what I do when I’m not writing. You can see my favorite boots! My firstest book ever written (you can see that here, too, but Stacey’s background is gorgeous, so you should see it there also)! My bucket list! That I came up with at the last minute when I realized I didn’t have one! My secret! Well, it’s not really a secret, but…I’ve written a novel in verse.
2. I’ve written a novel in verse. More on this in a future post, but basically – the first few phrases I ever had for the book were in verse, and the emotion of them reached right out and sucker-punched me. Still I thought, no thanks. I am not a poet, and I know it. This is just aimless brainstorming in my diary, la la la. But I kept getting stuck while I was drafting the thing. Everything in prose paragraphs felt flat and lifeless, so I thought, Well, I’ll just write the stinker in verse and come back and redo it in prose once it’s all down. No biggie. Except I fell in love with the verse, and it just…works. I think it works. I hope it works.
3. My regional SCBWI chapter awarded me a $1,000 scholarship for the SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles! I’ve been wanting to go for years, and have been saving birthday and Christmas money accordingly, and now I will finally get to go! Thank you, SCBWI California North/Central!
4. Maverick is going to be one year old next week! I have mixed feelings on this. He’s my last baby, and while part of me looks forward to him getting older so that he’s not so dependent on me, another part of me just wants to hold him and keep him this age forever. SIGH.
5. Somehow “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” got stuck in my head a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been trying to memorize it. I’ve gotten through the yellow fog stanza, and after that it’s sort of “Hmmm hmm, I have seen the eternal footman hold my coat and snicker…Hmm hmm hmm hmm, I grow old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled…hmm hmmm hmmm…Til human voices wake us, and we drown. TA DA!” (Also, today’s Shifty “painting” isn’t from Prufrock, I know. But still. That April. She’s such a jerk.) (Maybe next Friday we’ll have another Eliot line that gets stuck in my head, “Now that lilacs are in bloom / she has a bowl of lilacs in her room…”)
Beth Hull 
What a great interview! Pressing question: are you SURE those boots won’t work with yoga pants? They do look extremely comfortable. Beth, congratulations on the scholarshop, wonderful news. You are chock full of great information this Friday! I think “Prufrock” is definitely the perfect poem for April. Time for you and time for me, /And time yet for a hundred indecisions/ And for a hundred visions and revisions/Before the taking of a toast and tea. (and before vacuuming, laundry, mopping behind the refrigerator, etc.)
And for a hundred visions and revisions” – that’s one that always gets stuck in my head when I’m revising.
And yup, absolutely sure those boots don’t work with yoga pants. I’ve tried various lengths of yoga pants, too. 😦 But sundresses work great with them! And it’s nearly time to bust out the sundresses!
I’m so excited about the grant, Beth! I still remember your first SCBWI event and now look at you–all growed up and going to the Big Momma Conference at the Plaza. Mazel, QS! Have so much fun. Well deserved and I know you’ll get so much out of it.
Thank you, Jamie! Any pieces of advice for the Big Momma Conference? 🙂