Autumn Has Fallen

We are in the full swing of livin' it up Fall style! 

Farah and Erin's Day of Fun

I mentioned on Friday that my friend Erin and I were going to celebrate her life and healing from cancer with a day of fun. We spent the whole day Saturday shopping, eating, laughing, and scoring some major deals.




I made her a little guide for our day:














We started our day out right: breakfast at Starbucks. My first pumpkin spice latte of the season!



Then we headed to San Luis where we first stopped at Mission Thrift where my fab sister-in-law Susie works. It's the best thrift store!
After scoring some great finds we went to downtown SLO and had lunch at the Habit.






We spent about an hour in this great consignment shop.






I scored this brand new scarf for $8!

We shopped some more downtown, then recharged with maple lattes at Peets.



We needed the fuel for our last leg of the fun day: Forever 21 who was having a 50% off sale on already clearances items!






We literally shopped till we dropped and until they closed and kicked us out!






In between we talked and laughed and shared Pinterest ideas and thanked the Lord for the beautiful miracle He us doing in my beautiful friend's life!

Mrs. Sunshine

Hooray for the weekend! I’m so excited for tomorrow. My dear friend Erin and I are having a fun day in SLO to celebrate. June 6 was her birthday. But we didn’t get to celebrate because on that day she was diagnosed with breast cancer. This past summer she has been doing chemo treatments and fighting the cancer. Well, last week she finished her last chemo treatment and she is doing awesome! She hasn’t lost her hair, she has had no other negative side-effects from the chemo, and she is practically cancer-free!

So we’re celebrating her victory over cancer, and we’re having a birthday-redo because we never got to celebrate it. God has done a powerful miracle in her through this experience. She is such an inspiration to me. And she is the cutest, kindest, cheeriest, and most generous person ever.

When she told me she had cancer, I told her, “Erin, you’re pure sunshine—there’s no way the cancer will survive in you. You’ll burn it all out!”

Messy Messy

I got my muse back. I’ve been struggling the past few weeks in being motivated and inspired to write my new book. Part of the reason could be that I’ve had a lot going on the recently with teaching this college course and releasing my last book. But part of the problem was the book itself.

I went to Starbucks this Sunday for my writing afternoon (thank God for that or I would never get writing!) And I read over the last few chapters and realized they weren’t working. I totally rewrote chapters 2-5. You might think what a shame all that work in writing the first drafts of chapters 2-5 was. But I realized that was all prewriting for these new chapters.

It reminded me of a keynote speaker at the SCBWI conference I went to in August. He was David Weizner (author/illustrator of the picture books Flotsome and Art & Max and Tuesday). He took us through his creative process of writing/illustrating his books. It was amazing how many ideas he scrapped, how many changes he made, and how many great lightning bolts of ideas came. His message was that the creative process is messy, but you must follow the story.

He was right. That’s where I am right now. I’m following the story and getting messy along the way.

For Your Information..

In case you're wanting the newest book in the Sherlock Academy series (or any of the other four books) you can purchase them at Toy Zoo in Santa Maria. They are also available on amazon!

Art with My Little Doodle

I am being really diligent in doing weekly art lessons and activities with my Westly. He absolutely loves it! Here's one we did recently: balloon painting!

New Endeavor

For the next 8 weeks I'm trying something new. I'm teaching a college class! I'm teaching aspiring teachers how to teach art in the classroom. Last week was our first class and it went really well. I have a passion for teaching art to kids, and I'm excited to pass that on to future teachers.

 I have the kindest husband!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

My Book Release

This last Saturday was the last book release for the last Sherlock Academy book Moriarty's Final Threat. Toy Zoo hosted it again. We had around 150 people come and win prizes, buy books, and say hi. We had a blast sending Sherlock Academy out with a bang!

 Winner of our $100 gift basket raffle!

Little gift from my hubby

Tomorrow' Saturday

TOMORROW! TOMORROW! TOMORROW!

I will be at Toy Zoo in Santa Maria selling and signing my last Sherlock Academy book: Moriarty’s Final Threat. If you’re free, please come by and say hi. Help Sherlock Academy go out with a bang!

Saturday, September 7 from 10am to noon at Toy Zoo. 

Snail Mail

I’m going to this big writers’ day in October. I paid a little extra to have the first 10 pages of my manuscript critiqued by an editor. The thing is I had to send off the pages this week. I sent off chapter one of my new story I’m working on. The chapter is pretty solid, but I had to also include a synopsis of the book.

 Here’s the other thing: I haven’t completed the book! I only have five chapters as of now. In two months when I go to the writers’ day, I will be a lot farther along. I may even have a working draft finished. But for now I had to write a synopsis of the book…as far as I can tell from now.

It was a good exercise for me right now though. What started as synopsis-writing led to an evening of brainstorming with Michael. Right now it’s really fun to be in the beginning stages of a story…

…but hopefully by October I’ll have a solid story to pitch!

One Week to Go

LAST Book Event for the LAST Sherlock Academy Book:

Moriarty's Final Threat

Sat. Sep. 7 from 10am-12pm at Toy Zoo in Santa Maria

$100 Gift Basket Raffle!

Make a purchase before 9/7/13 at Toy Zoo and enter the raffle for this great gift basket.

Drawing will be on 9/7/13 at 11am at Toy Zoo (must be present to win)

• $1 Off Coupon: pick up a flier/coupon at Toy Zoo for $1 off any Sherlock Academy book on 9/7/13
• Instant Door Prizes: draw a Bingo ball upon arrival at Book Event and instantly win a prize
• Free activities for the whole family
• Book signing by FC Shaw
• Gift Basket Raffle
• For more ways to win prizes, check out www.sherlockacademy.com
• Spread the word and bring a friend! See you there!