MARGARET DILLOWAY

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  • Hawaii at Last

    It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Best because we were FINALLY going to go see Daddy. Worst because we had to leave behind the oldest kid (only for a couple of weeks, so she can finish school while staying with the grandparents) and Los Gatos, who had at least…

  • Limping Toward Hawaii

    I am packing and unscrewing pieces of toys until my fingers ache, hoping my husband will find us a place to live. Granted, it’s not been easy for him.  He finally rented a car on Friday and looked at a few places.  We had talked about criteria, which apparently left his head immediately. Cadillac: “I…

  • Writing Acknowledgments

    I turned in my (fingers crossed) final manuscript draft last week, leaving me fully free to fret about all the moving details, most of which I have no control over. So now I’m trying to concentrate on writing my acknowledgments and Author’s Note sections. This is a lot harder than I thought. Who do I…

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  • Squid and Octopus Hotdogs

    I read about how to make hotdog “squid” a while ago, and decided to make it along with some hotdog octopi. My son loves eating real squid and octopus, so he was all about eating hotdog ones. For some reason, the kid won’t touch fruit but he’ll nosh on a piece of raw chewy octopus…

  • 5 Tips for Finding a Literary Agent

    Finding a literary agent is a bit like finding your one true love. It can take forever and you might feel like crap sometimes during the search. Here are five tips to help:

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  • Quite Literal, Are We?

    I just showed Kaiya a small toy plane and said, “Oh, let’s pretend we’re flying to Hawaii.” She said, “That’s not a plane, it’s a jet, and we can’t fly on a jet because there are no seats or seatbelts.” Oh. She was right. It WAS a jet.

  • Inching Toward Hawaii

    The kids feel it, too. The little girl had the most trouble adjusting, arising each night between midnight and one to seek out her daddy and wake me up. She’d turn on the light and say, “I gotta talk you, Mom, ’bout Disneyland,” and try to get in bed with me. Sigh. I told her…

  • A Huge Box of Chocolates

    The other day, in the midst of garage sale prep, I arrived home to find on my doorstep an enormous, heavy box. It was my Werther’s box! Huzzah! I belong to this site called Houseparty which allows you to apply for parties in which the company gives you stuff to give to your pals. In…

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  • Moving Progress

    I sold my son’s Thomas the Tank Engine collection for the full asking price. One lady wrote to me (disdainful sniff imagined) “I can buy these trains for a dollar each at the swap meet!” I wanted to respond: “So do it! Quit bugging me.” But you know how it is with Internet trolls. You…

  • What did Burakumin look like?

    In my novel, I have a character who is one of the “untouchables” of Japan, an Eta, or Burakumin. These were the leatherworkers who were deemed untouchable by Buddhist vegetarians. Eta were discriminated against though it was outlawed. Apparently even today,some people look into family backgrounds to make sure there are no untouchables in families…

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