Well, let’s see. My pile of picture book manuscripts are sitting on my desk downstairs untouched with a few partial sketches sitting beside them. My beautiful office sits gathering dust because Bane insists on me working upstairs so he can be on the outside back porch, so my home office is now on the dining room table. I bring him in the front door from his walk and he runs straight back to the back door! Silly boy. He is loving the snow and cold weather.
Book 2 for my middle grade fantasy is at 4305 words, and I’ve sent out 100 queries for Book 1 with only 37 rejections back so far. Last week there was a pitch party scheduled during the inauguration and, against my better judgement, I took part. To say it was very stressful is an understatement! I did however draft a few different pitches to play with (I included pictures below). Feel free to share your thoughts on which one is the best!
I’m also excited to share that Bane is rocking his service dog training. We had a couple of set backs due to people not knowing proper service dog etiquette. We’ve had several incidents of dogs being aggressive towards him, and one incident of a person charging at us – they charged after me in a store and managed to corner me, which triggered my cptsd. Poor Bane, still being in training, was very confused on how to get me out of the situation, but stood firmly between me and the man. I am thankful that my son was with us!
On another occasion, a man was walking a large dog on an extended leash and allowed it to aggressively come on our property after Bane. The other incidents were all dogs not on leashes. These set us back a bit but my Big Boy is right back on track. I am so proud of him!
Felix, our little grey cat, is actually getting along with Bane now! I’m so excited and it gives me hope for his brother Theo and Bane.
Tanya Packer 