Kimmy Finds Her Key

A TV program about homeless kids made Kimmy sad. Her mother suggested that she should look for the key to her happiness. She sets out with her friend Emily to find her key.

Along the way, Kimmy and Emily admire the tree in Kimmy’s front yard. They begin to appreciate all the things trees provide, including shade and oxygen for us to breathe. The see a baby bird fall out of the tree, and put it back just as the mother bird arrives with lunch.

The pair pick up some trash laying on the street, Later they plant flowers in an empty spot in an empty field on their block where they often play with their friends. With each task, they realize the importance of treating our planet and all its inhabitants with love.

They run into a schoolmate, Ashley, walking to the library. Realizing how far away it is, they ask why she doesn’t ride her bike. Ashley explains that since she lives with her mother in a homeless shelter, she has no bike to ride.

Kimmy decides to help by donating her old bike,the one that she prefers to ride, to the shelter to help homeless kids.

Kimmy realizes that her Key to Happiness is helping other Earth and all the creatures who call her home.

Coming soon from 4RV Publishing.

My Next Big Thing: The Heart Happy Bubble

The “Next Big Thing’ is a blog hop for writers working on their next book. I have been following several writer friends as they post a description of their Next Big Thing. I was tagged by Brandi Barnett. See her Next Big Thing at http://brandibarnett.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-next-big-thing-lucky-charm.html.
Here’s my Next Big Thing! Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts and questions.

1: What is the working title of your book?
The Heart Happy Bubble

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?
This story came from trying to help my then four-year-old who was having some issues in her pre-school class in that she was bringing home emotions and attitudes from other kids in school. I invented this story on the way to driving her in and decided it should be my next children’s book.

3: What genre does your book come under?
Picture book

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I think my book would be best made into a movie as animation.

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When Emily goes to school, she often takes on the emotional state of other students and comes home sad or grumpy, sometimes being mean to her little brother, so Emily’s mother tells her that she has to figure out some way to avoid these situations.  One night, in her sleep, Emily is visited by the Rainbow Fairy who informs Emily that she, the fairy, is really a part of Emily’s spirit and is there to show Emily how to gather some of her heart muscle (the strongest in the body), some of her love and happiness (positive emotions) and some thoughts (her best mental abilities) and roll it all together, letting the light of her spirit shine on it until it becomes a bright, clear, shiny bubble that goes over Emily– her own Heart Happy Bubble.  Emily’s Heart Happy Bubble not only protects her from taking on the emotional state of the other children, it reminds her to use her own calm state to help other kids overcome their own overpowering emotions.

OK, so it’s 3 sentences. Best I could do…

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?
Shopping for an agent after 5 other books published through a small publisher

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Two weeks, but I have been tweaking it for a year. I’ll probably keep tweaking it until I sell it or get an agent.

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Everything I See is Part of Me, by Chara Curtis Without You by Sarah Weeks.

9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
My five-year-old daughter, Azuranna

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
It’s a spirituality-based with the theme that we are all connected via our higher selves to everyone and everything else. We can use those connections to help ourselves when we have problems. This is a self-help book for children who need tools to get along with others in life. It gives them a tool to use so that the negative emotions of other don’t drag them down to that same level.

For next week’s hop, I tagged Gayleen Rabbakukk, Patty Stith and Kristi Ayers. Read about their Next Big Things Friday, March 1.

A Unique Astronomical Event

Last week, a hunk of space rock 50 feet across slammed into our planet in Russia. No one was hurt directly from the meteorite as it exploded about 12 miles up. But the shock wave shattered windows and falling glass sent more than 1000 folks to the hospital for treatment.

Is this unusual? NASA scientists say an impact of this magnitude is a once-a-century event. The last impact from an object in that size range occurred in 1908, also over Russia. One has to wonder what Russia has done to anger the universe.

The last time any object from space hit Earth was about a second ago. Whoops, there goes another. And another. Truth is, 50,000 pounds of stuff from space comes to Earth every year. At night, we see them as shooting stars. During daylight hours, we don’t see them at all, unless they happen to be big enough to glow brighter than the daylight sky. And they occur over land. Where there are people living. Since most of our planet is oceans, most such events occur over water. Most of the land of Earth is uninhabited, so most meteorites go completely unseen by humans.

That’s the normal state of affairs for a planet, nothing unusual abut it. In fact, our Moon formed when a rock so large we call it a planetoid slammed into Earth 4.5 billion years ago. The debris from that massive collision coalesced into our moon.

Yes, these things can be very dangerous. Just ask the next dinosaur you meet. But big ones, ones that generate significant damage, are quite rare. The little ones, the ones we can experience every clear night, are common.

Would you like to see an absolutely unique astronomical sight, one that no one has ever seen or ever will again? You can, and it’s not the least bit dangerous.

Wait until it gets dark tonight. Go outside and look at the night sky. Look carefully. Do you see it? It is unique in all of the history of the universe.

It is tonight's sky.

As the planets move in their annual dance around the sun, as our sun orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and as other stars move under the various gravitational influences that direct their motions, the sky is eternally changing. The sky has never looked exactly as it does tonight and will never do so again.

This is the true magic of astronomy. You never get reruns. Each night remains unique. So, enjoy this night sky, because it will be different tomorrow.