Wednesday, December 24, 2008

mele kalikimaka

From Mount Crumpit comes news, Recession Steals Christmas! Even Santa is downsizing, resorting to hiring non-union reindeer...



Can we bring back Cindy Lou Who, now nearly fifty-two? Have we lost her at the mall? Does she still sing at all?

With my own youngest Who at that awkward age where he's "too old" to help me decorate, yet still young enough to miss it if I don't, I've been waxing nostalgic. Dragging out the old ornaments and tinsel wreath, threading hooks through Popsicle stick stars and seashell angels with crooked eyes.

In the process, I found some old Christmas origami I designed years ago. Instructions can be found on my Origami Page. Simply print and fold.


Christmas Tree



Santa



Angel




So have fun this Christmas. Don't sweat the small stuff. And if you see Cindy Lou, tell her Christmas dinner is at my house. I'm preparing roast beast.

Mele Kalikimaka


©2008 Tammy Yee

Friday, December 12, 2008

all work and no play in monterey (hey, that rhymes)



Walked the beach twice...gulls, pelicans, kelp, a dead cormorant, sand dollars, strange mole crabs...surfers in 4mm wetsuits braving the cold. Met a couple of surfers. Was hoping for fodder for fiction...alas, none had seen a great white up close and personal, though they did know surfers who drowned. Sadly, everyone in Hawaii knows of surfers who drowned...



Big cross to mark the bicentennial of Don Gaspar de Portola ("You killed my father, prepare to die.") calling it quits in Monterey and returning to San Diego for "lack of provisions."



Spent most of the time indoors, working and revising. Submission was 20 pages for a one-on-one consultation and two faculty-led critique groups. Each critique group (6 people max) met twice, for 2-2.5 hour sessions. You were expected to return to your room and WORK. There was a business center and a Staples where you could print and make copies of your revisions.

Faculty was outstanding. Editors, agents, established authors. Excellent feedback, not just some cursory review. Best of all, the faculty made themselves accessible and were easy to approach.



Brain frazzled.



Thank God for ground squirrels.



And purdy flowers.

Would I recommend? YES. But be prepared to write. Big Sur Children's Writing Workshop

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

preparation and panic...the big sur writers workshop

Checklist of things to do...

1. Hold seance to channel successful authors (preferably not those who died young and destitute)...

2. Make desperate offering to Great Publishing Gods (clams and urchins work best)...



3. Kiss babies for good luck (can never hurt)...



4. Groom self, make good impression...



5. Prepare for constructive criticism...



6. Network ("Girl, you let him touch your clams?!")...



7. Make new friends (he smell funny, but he creative genius, and gots nice socks)...



8. PANIC!



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