Pearl of Wisdom

I decided what I want to be when I grow up, pretty much...Wendelin Van Draanen. That lady is amazing.

So I don't really want to be her, because hey, I like me. (Shout out to Flying Dutch Pig)

But I want to do what she does, because it's about the funnest thing I could ever imagine. Wendelin is an author--so she writes, she goes around the country visiting schools and giving presentations/rock concerts, she inspires kids to read, write, exercise...and you get paid for it! Isn't that craziness...that people will pay you to have fun.

I got to see one of her presentations this last week, and I am inspired. She told amazing stories (voices included) about her road to getting published, how much fun it is to create characters and write out things you never get to do in real life (like punching the bully at school in the face, or sneaking into places) and then she got up with some of the seventh graders and sang a rock song she plays in her family band...called thing two. How cool is that? (p.s. that's the guitar I'd have to get if I were in a band)

I am truly impressed and inspired. It took Wendelin ten years to get published, but that's why she is such an amazing writer, she really has crafted her talent...and although I really hope it doesn't take ten years, the biggest part of her message was don't give up and it will happen. Be persistent. So that's what I plan on doing.

So about being persistent, it doesn't matter who you are or what you write, people will always criticize... this is hilarious:

The fifty best author vs. author put downs of all time:

Mark Twain, according to William Faulkner (1922)
A hack writer who would not have been considered fourth rate in Europe, who tricked out a few of the old proven sure fire literary skeletons with sufficient local color to intrigue the superficial and the lazy.

But, of course, there must be SOME writers we can all agree on as truly great, right? Like Jane Austen. Or not:
Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice,' I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone. --Mark Twain

AND

This made me laugh so hard...probably because I do some of these things Alot :)