Okay, so I’m doing a half-hearted, one-eyed (because some days the web seems more boring than other days) internet surf, when I come across some pictures of Iceland. What a beautiful place.

There’s a website, Art-Iceland, that hosts some amazing pictures. Art-Iceland describes the Reykjavik photo on the left: “Looking out on Reykjavik from the church bell tower you can see typical Icelandic architecture. The houses seem to be thrown together from different eras and different cultures!”

Art-Iceland is a website worth checking out.

Artist, Stephen Wiltshire is both amazing and inspirational.

From the Daily Mail online. Interestingly, the comments following this article contain posts by people claiming that not only they, but even their 18-month-old kids could do this. That’s akin to making the claim that you can shoot as many baskets as the all-star wheelchair basketball player. Woo-hoo. Bring it on.

* Dave March, founder of WaterCar, Inc., has been building cars & boats since 1976 when he opened his collision repair facility in Fountain Valley, California. Since then, he has repaired and re-built thousands of vehicles at his facility, Fountain Valley Body Works, which is now one of the largest and most highly respected collision repair facilities in the industry. * From the website: WaterCar, Inc. - Builder of the World’s Fastest Amphibious Car.

This is cool.

This is cool.

It would be an obvious statement to say that no one cares about your work as much as you do. I sent three manuscripts to semi-friendly editors. Here are the results:

• One third of the editors responded.
• About half of that one third responded to my follow-up questions.
• For those who have not responded and those who did not reply to my follow-ups, I will not repeat the questions. I decided up front not to be a pest.
• Almost unanimously, one story received very good reviews. Adults like it, some love it. No feedback yet from the editors with kids.
• The other two manuscripts have both received mixed reviews. The reviews for these range from love it, to hate it, to numerous steps in-between.

Ultimately, the reviews have been relatively thorough, constructive and without fluff. That’s a good thing. Don’t let it be said that friends can’t be good reviewers. Some family members had the guts to tell me they wouldn’t be objective reviewers because they think I’m really cool. Well, they’re right, and I appreciate the honesty.

The more experienced writers on a site I shared the “children’s book” with, aren’t as enthusiastic. They basically shot it down as a picture book. I obviously mis-categorized it on that site. Oh well, live, learn and move on.