Surprises Come In All Shapes, Sizes and Ages...

I can’t tell you the exact date that I met Lenny, but I can tell you it was around the time Stripes died. I stayed in bed with my computer and my remote for about two weeks. Sounds silly, but I was sad…really sad.

I think it went something like this: I was on Susan’s blog and I saw Old Kitty’s picture and name, click… saw Brian’s picture, click…saw Lenny’s comment and click I had a new friend.

About a month later I got an email from Lenny…He had gone out of his way to find out what S.M.A.R.T. goals were because of a comment I had left somewhere in blog land. AND then he had taken the time to figure out my email address (which wasn’t so easy because I didn’t have it showing on Blogger) and sent me an email.

Lenny is a writer. Lenny makes me smile. I know when I see his name in my comment section I’m going to have one of those feel good moments. I know when I see his name on your blog you’re going to have one of those moments too.

Lenny is almost ELEVEN and likes cake a lot. I like cake a lot. In fact, I like it so much I wrote a picture book (manuscript) about baking a cake. I DVR three cake baking shows! Back in June, I joined the Next Top Title Blogfest and lots of you guys (including Lenny) liked my title A CAKE I WILL BAKE. Lenny mentioned my title in a comment recently…it made me think. He remembered my title! I was super surprised! I asked him if he would like to critique my picture book and he said yes. I was thrilled!

Lenny did a great job critiquing A CAKE I WILL BAKE! He wrote almost a whole page of comments for me.

He told me things he likes:

-i like the title cause its real catchy

-its real easy to read and that riming makes it fun

-its got cool fun words. i love the word dump. ha ha. and i like the word yummy

-its a happy story and could have lots of happy pictures with it

-being an i poem is cool for when a kid reads it cause it makes him feel like its about him

-its got a good message for sharing with someone and with dad.

And things he thought I could do better:

-i read it out loud and some parts of it got a little slower or got me stopped for a minute cause it lost its beat.

-i didnt like sticking that teddy bear on the top. i could like it better if it was a chocolate teddy bear and not the favorite for real one. yikes it could get all sticky and messy and maybe get ate up.

And then his brother Sebi threw in his ten cents too. I have to say with their help A CAKE I WILL BAKE made some big improvements and I can’t wait to present it at an agent lead critique group at SCBWI –KC in a couple weeks….

If that weren’t enough…I came home from running errands (yesterday) and found a package on my front porch. I was a bit confused because I wasn’t expecting anything. When I opened the package this is what I found.

TWO HUGE VOTES OF CONFIDENCE!!!

Thank you so much, Lenny and Sebi! I’m so glad we're friends…Your encouragement means so much. (You two will be the first people I email when I sell A CAKE I WILL BAKE!)

I truly hope every one of you has someone in your life that surprises you with encouragement…Please feel free to share!

PS...Have a safe and Happy Labor Day Weekend!