Sarah J. Schmitt

Last weekend I spent an awesome time with Kidlit writers from around the state of Indiana. There was top notch talent brought in from the state and New York and overall, I have really come to look forward to this conference. The irony of the conference is that the theme was diversity. Why ironic? Let's just say that, from the outside looking in, the room seriously lacked in diversity. And it got me thinking about the #WeNeedDiverseBooks Campaign. Now, this is not the first ti

In case you didn't notice, I've been MIA for the last two weeks. I have a very good and very acceptable reason for that: FAMILY. Okay, that's not exactly true. The first week was Book Fair week at school and as the Librarian, it's kind of my job to pull that bad boy off. (With awesome volunteer help, of course!) But the second week was because our family was on their annual "screen-free vacation". Now, I'm the first to admit that my kidlets are in front of a screen way to muc

So last week, in case you missed it, I talked about busy-ness and how busy-ness was taking its toll on my family and my sanity. This week, I worked on that. Yes, I still found myself busier than I want to be, but I did take the step of recognizing that I needed to cut back on one commitment (because I was adding a new one) and my plate was one pea size catastrophe from staining the white lace tablecloth that covers the scratches on the table of my life. (I’ll let you figure t

Many years ago, at a converence far, far away, an agent told a group of writers not to worry about your cover because, more than likely, you won't have any say in it. And I accepted this as truth, giving little thought to what my cover would look like. And then I got a book deal and I became VERY concerned with my cover. And VERY concerned that I wouldn't have any input into my cover. Would the art director read my book? Would my editor fight for a decent cover? What if I hat

I recently read an article about how "busy-ness" is a disease. That by always being busy, we are making ourselves not only physically sick but mentally exhausted. Wow. I mean, really... wow! It's so true. At the beginning of February, with 4 events to plan and pull off in 3 weekends, I remember telling myself, "Just get to March. If you can get to March, it will all be okay." Well, it's March. And you know what. I'm still busy this month, too. I would like to say t

Aw crap. Yesterday, in one of my spirited rants about the evils of all things negative, I made this promise that I would report back on Mondays to let you know how that was going. And now, today is Monday. And I am supposed to report on how, in the last 24 hours, I have started to change the world. As if Monday's weren't bad enough! Dooh! Negative. CONFESSION TIME: I'm not always going to be positive. And there are days where this personal happy crusade if going to get old. B

Normally I keep this blog pretty focused on writing. Normally I keep this blog pretty positive. Normally I don't bring up politics or religion or anything else that divides people. Normally. I guess today isn't normal. Yesterday, while reading through my feed on Facebook, I came across an article about two people, a mother and her son, who, though they were both in good health, died from some sort of mysterious "flu" strain. I noticed this article because it was posted by my