Tomorrow, very early,  I board a plane to NY. Now this may not seem like a big deal to most, but it’s one more step towards  a goal I’ve been pursuing for a long time. I’ll meet  my new editor, Howard Reeves, at Abrams/Amulet,  attend the SCBWI conference and have dinner with the amazing Jessica Bian and her Ted.  

So intrepid writer friends, I’ll be keeping you posted on visitng a NY publishing house (this is big news for us West coasties), meeting with my editor for the first time,( and hoping I don’t say anything too goofy), and I’ll  be taking notes on the latest publishing buzz at the conference. Of course, I’ll have to take notes on a few good restaurants too. Did you know it’s open table week in NY? Nom!

Do you think three pairs of shoes are enough?

A photo of some of the pirate-wrtiers at Chelan Middle School after the Map Your Way into Story workshop. I’m hiding in the middle. Watch for their maps and stories here.

So what do editorial comments look like? First round. Lots of work to do.

Admit it. You love having the last word, especially if it is the perfect exit line. How many of us turn to the last page of a book and read that final sentence before we should? Here’s the goal. Write one last line a day, a last line that could end a short story or a novel. Happily ever after does not count. Check them out on Twitter @maureenmcquerry.

Nancy@1stsentence will be tweeting first lines. Try your own story using both the first sentence of the day and the last.

To start us off, J.D. Salinger, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

The next ones have to be original.