Friday, March 26, 2010

Stopped Counting - Started Blogging

In with the NEW: I changed the blog name so that I could blog about my passion – the wonderful side of everyday life.

Here are SOME of my family’s passions:

My kids love to jump off the second floor balcony.


We love to make Gingerbread houses - even in the springtime.


We love family parties!
(Mom’s sixtieth - we all dressed like hippies – except mom always dresses like that!)


My son loves to moon us through the skylight on the roof of the house!



We love to sleep on the living room floor!

We love to cook the babies!
(This was when my sister let me babysit her son!)

What are your family passions???

-Buffi
http://www.imbuffi.com/

Please take my Poll. Click here.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Pitch and Bitch Conference

This past week I had the pleasure of attending the NY Pitch and Shop writers conference . It was an intense four days of crafting the perfect pitch and trying it out on visiting Editors.

On the first day we were broken into groups by genre. My group was lead by Susan Breen, author of The Fiction Class . Susan worked with us tirelessly to smash our full novels into a concise 150 word marketing pitch. Susan was the perfect blend of kind, professional and intelligent. Her advice was spot-on and in the end we all walked away with better pitches.

I wrote 50 versions of a single paragraph
and still rewrote it the next day!

I will admit that I had reservations about paying for ANY conference, but I took a chance. All of my reservations are now gone and I would delightfully recommend the NY Pitch and Shop to any author with a completed manuscript who is looking to properly market themselves. I promise, Algonkian is not paying me to write this, but I will take any money they want to throw my way.

Many of us ate lunch on the steps of the Post Office and fate graced us with the best weather imaginable. The writers in my group were dynamic, supportive and intelligent. I know I will have lasting friendships with many of you!

People ask me, “Did you meet any interesting people?

I answer, “Plenty. Want to know what happened to them?

Well, since the conference, Amanda quit her job as a journalist to become the new babysitter for Toots, but was fired when her obsession with cyber-sex became out of control.

Our fearless leader McFearson was picked up by a major publishing house, but when they found he led a secret plot to embezzle millions from the self publishing industry, he was forced to move to Paris.

Rafael, realizing where his real talents lay, went on to become an exotic dancer, or was it Brad? No wait, I think his name was Johnny.

The raven, who was making rude jesters behind the editor’s back, was shipped off to a mental institution where he is scheduled to be released later this month as a polite blue bird, instructed only to sing songs from The Ramones and Led Zeppelin.

Emma, formerly a textile expert, is now the author of a successful blog called “But really, who doesn’t know a homosexual minister these days?”

Kip gave up his job as a composer to work on his pitch with the literary genius, Rose. But when Rose turned out to really be a bra-burning hippie, Kip escaped to bartending on the Jersey Shore.

And no one can forget the little old couple, seen swapping spit in the corner of the room. They went on to host their very own talk show entitled “Old People do IT too”. We are so proud of you!

I wish the best of luck to all of my new writer friends.

Get published or get me published!

-Buffi

http://www.imbuffi.com/

Monday, March 8, 2010

You Can’t Choose How You Die

Mom is terrified of flying, so I promised take the trip to Oklahoma with her last week. When we were waiting in the airport I didn’t tell her what “Express” means and that our plane would be quite small for our 3+ hour flight. This news would have to wait until the last possible minute.

While waiting for the plane, I could see she was nervous so I tried to find the words to make her comfortable. I asked, “What are you afraid of?” As she thought to herself, I continued, “Are you afraid of dying?” After all, the fear of flying is simply a control issue, right? If Mom can just give up control, she will not be afraid. Sounds good in theory only, I’m afraid.

I said, “Mom, you can’t control when you die. If today is your day, there’s not much you can do about it. So if you let go of the fear of dying, then maybe you won’t be afraid to fly.” Here I am trying to teach my mom about life. My mom, a woman who was a Hospice social worker for longer than I can remember, a woman who raised five children and went back for two more, a woman who carves stone statues and designs stained glass in her spare time. Okay, life -maybe Mom has me beat but flying - now that’s something I know more about for sure.

Mom just smiled at my attempt to help her and answered with a simple, “I’m not afraid of dying. I just have a lot more living to do.” So simple. Did she just turn my words around? I guess wanting to live is different than being afraid to die, which got me thinking:

You can’t choose how you die, but you can choose how you live. It’s not a unique thought, but a good one to be reminded of every now and then. I choose to live content with what I have, I choose to make a difference where I can, and I choose to write.

Mom was not happy when we entered the tiny plane, but she did it. God really smiled on us because it was definitely the smoothest flight I have ever taken. Good job, Mom.

This week I worked on my book covers to distract me from my real task of writing the book proposal, here they are, let me know what you think.

** NOTE: These covers represent 3 Different Books - A Series of Memoirs


Please support me with your honesty.

-Buffi

http://www.imbuffi.com/