My friend, Billy Shaffer, is appearing in "The Million Dollar Quartet" at the Apollo Theatre in Chicago.  It is a musical about a December day in 1956 when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis had an impromptu "jam" at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee.  I had the opportunity to see the show this week and it is fabulous!  I really want to take my two teenage sons to see it.  I know they will enjoy the music.  It's only about 90 minutes long with no intermission (which is great for me because I have never been able to sit still longer than a few minutes at a time).  :-)

The musicians are great, especially the guy who plays Jerry Lee Lewis!  I was exhausted just watching them!  The box office number is 773.935.6100 and the Apollo is located at 2540 N. Lincoln Ave.  Easy to get there and there is usually plenty of parking.

Here's their website:

http://www.apollochicago.com

You really should go!

Attention all Children's Musicians:

There will be a "Song Swap & Jam" at Nibbles Play Cafe in Wheeling today, January 24th from 2-4p.m.

Kathleen Weinberg is hoping to host this fun event every fourth Saturday of the month.  It is going to be a great time and also, a great opportunity to network and meet other musicians.  Hope to see you there!

With many thanks to Sue Ferdon, my new website is up and running and productive.  Through PayPal, I just sent off a copy of  my book, "Nile, Nile, Crocodile" to a public library that requested a copy.  What an easy way to do transactions!

Please visit Sue's blog at Ferdonmusic.blogspot.com

She has so many great ideas and is a font of information and help for us 'technically challenged" individuals.  With Sue's help I have been much more confident in maintaining the website by myself.  Of course, I'm sure I will have questions for her in the future...

I know she will be willing to develop websites and blogs for anyone who is interested.

GREAT NEWS:

Yesterday I was contacted by a publisher who is interested in my next project. They actually were very impressed with "Nile" and complimented the look of my website. (Thank you, Sue).

 I am so very excited about this.  I am on cloud nine!  Imagine how excited I will be if they actually commit to publishing me!!

We will be working on recording the music this week as well as the rough draft of the text.   I am feeling energized and am trying to keep my ideas organized.  It's a little more difficult to stay focused at this time of the year... 

 SO, back to work!  :-)  

"Nile, Nile, Crocodile" to be at Crocodile Pie Bookstore

I will be presenting "Nile, Nile, Crocodile"at Crocodile Pie Bookstore (how appropriate) :-) in Libertyville, Illinois on Thursday, December 18th at 10:30a.m.

We will learn a bit about the Nile crocodile and the Nile River, hear the song and story, and then do a 'crocodile' craft.

If you are not able to attend that day, it would be really worthwhile to come another time. The bookstore is adorable and filled with all kinds of kid friendly 'goodies.'

http://www.crocodilepie.com

SCBWI Conference

The Prairie Writer's Conference was held November 15th at Dominican University in Chicago.  It is part of the SCBWI (aka) Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

  

The day included presentations by several Editors and Agents and included topics such as "The State of the Industry," character and plot development and revision.

 There were reps from some well-known  publishing houses, such as Greenwillow Books (an imprint of HarperCollins), Wendy Lamb Books (an imprint of Random House Children's Books), and Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic.  

 Jennifer Rofe, from the Andrea Brown Literary Agency gave insight as to what a literary agent does and what they expect from a writer.  I especially enjoyed Harold Underdown's view of  the children's book industry...the pessimistic and optimistic thoughts.  It seems that everyone and their dog has a book they want published and there are too few 'slots' in the publishing houses.  On the 'happy place' side, traditionally, when the economy is bad, children's books still can hold their own!  Harold Underdown is a freelance editorial consultant and is the author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide of Children's Book Publishing."

I was, however, frustrated that there was virtually nothing for educational writers and very little for writers of non-fiction.  Although, I'm not sure what categories my "Singing Books that Teach" fits into...Educational, Music, History, Social Studies, Historical Fiction, Non-Fiction, or all of the above!?  I guess what I'm trying to put out there is for a very specialized market and I need to do more searching to find my niche.

Anyway...

The SCBWI people are very friendly and encouraging and provided a wonderful conference for the almost 200 people who attended.

Even though, my projects didn't quite fit into the 'curriculum' of the day, I made some valuable contacts and met some very nice folks.  So, I strongly urge any of you who are a writing "newbie" to join this group and attend their programs.  It really is worthwhile...if for nothing else, to keep those creative juices flowing!

October 31, 2008

I am excited to report the first meeting of ACT, the Alliance for Creative Thinking.  The meeting took place last week with two Elementary Principals and me.  They are as excited as I am.  We will meet in the next few weeks to discuss forming our Board.  We are looking for interested people who share our vision of providing opportunities for children to discover their creative and innovative thinking skills.  The subject areas are very broad and can include not only the "Arts", but also, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, and Math.

We will be looking for people to help present 'lessons' in these areas.  If you have suggestions, ideas, or comments please let us know.

If you are interested in participating, please contact me.  My E-mail address is:  MGFurlong@comcast.net

On Monday, October 6th, I had the opportunity to meet and 'shadow' Heather Terrill Stotts.  Heather is the Creative Facilitator for River Valley High School in Spring Green, Wisconsin.  The main focus of the day was filmmaker, Wendy Schneider, and her documentary about teen self injury called, "Cut".  The film was shown in separate viewings to all 9th grade boys and girls.  After seeing the film, the kids wrote anonymous questions for Wendy.  Along with answering the questions of the kids, Wendy discussed the making of the film.  The staff of the high school had the opportunity to view the film before hand.  There was, also, a viewing for any interested parents that evening.  I think EVERY high school and even middle school should consider offering this amazing documentary to their students, staff, and parents.  It is eye-opening!  For more information, visit Cutthemovie.com.

Along with Heather, I met with the committee who started this innovative program.  The group, called Council For Creativity, or C4C, is comprised of community leaders, business people, and educators.  The funding is all through corporate and private donations and grants.  This is only the second year and already they have done amazing things...photography club, art club, integrated writing projects, field trips to corporations that use creative and innovative thinking techniques, and presentations by several area authors and speakers.  These are just some of the examples of what has been brought to the children (and teachers).

I am hoping to do something similar here with schools that might not have the resources to promote this worthwhile opportunity .   I will be meeting at the end of the month with two school principals to see if I can get them 'on board'.  From there, we will be looking for folks who are interested in helping bring this plan to fruition.  In the meantime, I will be very open to any ideas or suggestions you may have to help get this idea off the ground.

One more thing,  if you have never been to Taliesen, Frank Lloyd Wright's home in Spring Green, Wisconsin, it is SO worth the trip.  The town of Spring Green is really cute...lots of nice shops and quaint restaurants.  I will definitely have to go back for some shopping!  :-)