I Just Don’t Have It Right Now…

But I promise to get it back soon!

You’ve probably noticed that this is the first time I’ve posted in a few weeks and I truly apologize for that. It has really been one of those summers that I can not force myself to be inside any longer than I have to be!

All 3 H’s have been in full effect in Boston for the past 4-6 weeks -- Hazy, Hot & Humid -- and I have to confess, I am loving it! Summer is definitely my favorite season, with warm temps that mean no socks, plenty of time at the beach, the smell of salt air, road trips with Matt and wide open windows, it really is tough to beat.

The problem of course is that makes it very tough to concentrate. Then throw in: painting jobs for Chucka Stone Designs, completing the edits and beginning to query agents for my full length manuscript, some new sewing inspirations for my Etsy shop, writing an article every couple weeks for the EcoEtsy team blog, and the chance to see a good friend who just moved back into town.

All of the above equal time of course, so the thing that had to fall off the back end was writing posts for Green Leaf Reviewer. Sorry loyal readers but if there is one thing I know about all of you its that not only do you understand but most of you are out enjoying your warmest season too! That is awesome and I truly hope you all have a super fun time doing whatever it is you’re doing. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know in fact!

I do promise not to take the rest of the summer off, there will be posts here and there when something amazing, cool, awesome, fun, funky or loveable passes across my desk, but it will definitely be sporadic until September.

Here are some of the amazing things I’ve been lucky enough to experience this summer.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Enjoy the few weeks we have left and I’ll see you all on the flip side!

Publishers Going Green

I recently read an article that indicated of the 4 billion books published every year, only 5 - 10% of them make use of recycled materials. As a Greenie and a writer, it really got me thinking.


Most of you know that I wrote my first novel last fall. This book is about two days away from being able to be published (IMO mind you, no professional Editor has laid eyes on it just yet) but I’m wondering how and where I should market my piece of fiction.

Two years ago, one of our favorite musicians here at GLR, Jason Mraz, put out a photography book titled “A Thousand Things”. When it came out I thought it was super innovative for its use of sustainable materials in the paper (Forest Stewardship Council [FSC] certified wood free, chlorine free) and ink (soy based). Even the cover is wood free and, upon Jason’s request, all waste during the printing process was recycled.

Not bad! But how about for those of us who aren’t already a celebrity? When we put out our first book can we be as demanding of how it is printed or do we have to suffer as a tree is chopped down and deal with it because we don’t have any influence in the process?

Well that question is mostly rhetorical when it comes to me because if there is anything you all know about me by now it’s that I never rest quietly on what someone else says I should do! ‘Question, challenge then understand’ should be my motto in life.

So then the first question of course is: where do I begin?

Many publishers are thinking of new approaches to the questions of sustainability. For example, they may use standard tree pulp for their paper but it comes from sources deemed FSC certified*.

There is also a growing trend to offset their paper footprint in ways around the office. Chronicle Books has an Environmental Policy link right on their homepage where they talk about the Green initiatives in their office construction three years ago, as well as their support of various social and humanitarian charities through their staff’s volunteerism.

Another new movement cropping up among many publishers is the elimination of paper from their media. There are so many ways to publish electronically these days -- blogs, websites, pdf documents, even twitter! -- it is almost not necessary to cut down a tree just to put an author’s perspective out into the world.

Other publishers will plant a tree for each book printed, such as Eco-Libris. Because many of the publishers that partner with Eco-Libris print on demand (only print copies when an order is placed), it reduces the advance of materials in order to satisfy orders.

For me it will be easy enough to cross reference the publishers I find listed online with my Writer’s Market 2010 guide to publishers that I have in paperback form in my office already.

Since there is an environmental angle in my manuscript, it might not be a bad idea to start with those folks. After all, we will be on the same page when it comes to the printing process. No pun intended.

*read more about certification and sustainable forestry on the FSC.

Boogie Board Paperless LCD Writing Tablet

We’ve all been there, we need to make a quick note and can’t find a piece of scrap paper to write on, our pen runs out of ink or worst of all we get the note written but lose the paper later. If that was a piece of critical information for our jobs we might be up the proverbial creek! Boogie Board has tried to alleviate the potential for any of the above scenarios with its LCD Writing Tablet.

As you can see from the lower right corner of the photo above, I am a note taker extraordinaire! I have countless scraps of paper & pads on my desk detailing all the items I need to complete, research, or file away. Once the task is complete I reuse the rest of the paper or recycle it. So when I was fortunate enough to open up the mail to find this Boogie Board one afternoon I immediately started doing the happy dance!

First off, inside the cover is a statistic that one of these babies per student in one classroom for the life of their education (Kindergarten through High School) can save upwards of 3 million trees. Holy cow that is great! It is great for notes or drawings, then simply push the erase button to free the screen for the next great idea.

The Boogie Board is super thin, only about 1/8” thick at the screen, and the stylus pen that comes with it is telescoping (it extends to double the size). Compared to a small pad of paper, its compact size of roughly 4” x 7” fits nicely on the corner of a desk or in a laptop case and won’t add a whole lot of extra weight. Plus it comes with a cleaning cloth that wipes down the screen, static and liquid free, and the unit is priced at under $30.

There are some drawbacks. It can not be connected to a computer so notes must either be transcribed or a photo needs to be taken if the user wants to save the screen. The screen is pressure sensitive but it does not come with a carrying case (I fashioned my own out of the superfluous cardboard packaging it is shipped in). There is no attached slot to store the stylus so I could see it easily getting lost. Finally, the product runs on non-rechargeable batteries (3V watch battery, sealed) so the unit must be trashed upon the end of their life. Researching recycling options is recommended but to me this is a real bummer.

Overall, I feel the innovation outweighs many of the drawbacks and I am granting the Boogie Board a Three Leaf Rating!

I look forward to where your technological efforts lead in the future Boogie Board! ♥love♥

Keeping Myself Sane

Hey friends and dedicated readers of GLR! Most of you might remember that back on November first I featured the Chuckie Goodnight Foundation. Those folks are really cool and have a whole bunch of fun stuff on their website that is aimed specifically at kids in order to teach them about the benefits of environmental protection.

Another thing all of you fine peeps might remember is that I have officially signed on as a NaNoWriMo participant this year. Why? Well simply because I know there are a few novels inside this old head of mine that are going to cause it to explode if I don’t let them out! So far the challenge is going great and I am staying on track to my personal goal of 2,000 written words per day.

So what do these two things have in common?

Well in the greater sense of the world at large, not much, but in my world they have met with a sweet hug. While perusing the Chuckie website I came across a coloring page. I saved it because I had meant to include it with the last post on these folks but in the end forgot to do so. Here is what it looks like in its original state:

I love that they have included a whole slew of different animals and ecosystems into this one fantastical rendering. A long time ago I read somewhere that coloring is a very calming activity so I decided in order to shut off my brain from characters and dialogue for a while, why not pull this baby up in Photoshop and give it some punch! I have always been a literal coloring gal, even as a kid I was not the one who created a purple sky or orange whale so in keeping with my standards here is the finished product:

I had to make a few minor line placement adjustments to make sure they were connected in certain places so when I used the fill bucket it didn’t fill in half the page but voila! I love how it turned out and for the thirty or so minutes I was filling this baby in my mind was completely free of clutter.

I think I might just have to locate my colored pencils (always my favorite over crayons) and print out a few copies of this just in case I get stuck on a scene. Freeing my mind helped me to write almost 6,000 words in one day so thanks Chuckie Goodnight Foundation! I feel ready to tackle the second half of this writing challenge.

National Novel Writers Month Is Taking Over the Green Leaf Offices!

Those of you who have been reading GLR for the past year may have picked up on the fact that I love to write. In fact so much so that I host another blog and publish articles online as well. What many of you may not know is that I have long dreamed of being a novelist but could never seem to fit it into my already jam packed life.

As you may have guessed, the real issue here was my fear of just going for it with reckless abandon. Generally speaking it was because most of us writers have that sneaky inner editor that eventually shows up to convince us that what we have written is crap; sadly I have listened to it all these years.

But no more!

NaNoWriMo is an event, which takes place in November every year, that allows writers to lock away their editor and throw out the key until December. The way to win NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel (minimum) in just 30 days. Woo hoo!

I have a few fantastic characters who have been trapped inside unfinished 8,000 word stories for far too long now and the lucky one who has come out to play is a pretty cool gal named Sarah. The novel is a chick-lit style where she and her friends (not to mention an overbearing mom) live their life on a day to day basis and we readers get to share in 50,000 words of it.

Some basic outline and a few plot twists and turns have been put to paper already but for the most part this is going to be the first time ever that I have:
A. written something this long
B. mostly developed my cast on the fly
C. been encouraged to write 1667 words of fiction per day
D. done something this insane in my writing career
E. been so jazzed to see the end result

Because the month is going to be a blur of characters, I will potentially be posting a little less in the way of reviews. As of now I have done a big push to front load a whole bunch of posts that are scheduled to go up automatically through about the middle of the month, and I am allowing myself up to five days off from the book so I plan to jam in a whole bunch of reviews during that time too. You may see a post or two from Melissa during this month as well, who knows!

As a little teaser I will tell everyone that one of the characters in the story is very eco-centric and has made a fortune on a Green line of products.

I hope everyone has a great month and I do intend to report back on my overall progress either here or over at Random Lunacy sporadically during November.

If you would like to track my progress on the novel feel free to visit my author page!

Sharing Is Caring

Yesterday I was desperately trying to contribute to the novel I am currently working on and I must have opened it fifteen times but could not conceive of a single sentence that would add to it so I closed it just as many times. It frustrated me that there was nothing inspired coming to mind with regard to the story or character development so instead of typing I picked up my journal and pen. This is one of my favorite exercises as it tends to free the blockage because I am just frantically writing whatever comes to mind no matter how insane it may read later.

At one point while scribbling away I happened to sprawl out lengthwise on my sofa and glanced out the window at the treetops that are visible out back. I stared at them for quite some time and was instantly inspired by their naked beauty so I threw down a little bit of prose.

Generally when I write poetry it is about me, dreams I have had, feelings I need to purge and for the most part I tend to use words that no one but me understands the true meaning of, although many people can relate to the feeling or tone. Prose in my world tends not to be literal and never about nature but for some reason yesterday was different. I posted this over at my personal blog but got to thinking about it this morning and wanted to share my view of yesterday’s nature with all of you as well. Hope you enjoy it.

Just Outside
The wind blows through the branches
And they sway effortlessly,
Elegantly
Against a backdrop of cloudy sky.
A tree can bow in the
Strongest storm
As long as the trunk is sturdy
And the roots are deep.
A shaft of light bursts through
Illuminating the brown bark
Creating shadows for birds
To hide from my eyes.
The light begins to fade
But the tiny tips of the branches
Protrude proudly.
The wind picks up
Branches thrash wildly,
Waving at me inside my home
As if to say ‘pick me for the team’.
Trees do not show emotion
All they do is hold firm.
Years go by,
Centuries.
They see everything
But remember nothing
Except how to flower in the spring.
The monochromatic brown
Suddenly turns to green
Still a singular color palate
Nothing more than the same waving tree,
The same swaying limbs,
Now against a blue sky.
But the branches are hidden
And the leaves show the spirit
That swelled up from deep within the trunk.
The trees may not know how to show joy
But I do.