{"id":4256,"date":"2018-02-04T14:55:39","date_gmt":"2018-02-04T19:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/?p=4256"},"modified":"2018-02-05T21:49:14","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T02:49:14","slug":"the-shape-of-chocolate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/?p=4256","title":{"rendered":"The shape of chocolate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was sitting at the\u00a0kitchen table\u00a0(which is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reeseplain.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4263\" src=\"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reeseplain-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"reeseplain\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reeseplain-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reeseplain-150x112.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reeseplain-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reeseplain.jpg 2016w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>in the dining room because our kitchen isn&#8217;t really big enough for a table) doing some prep work for a school visit. It was right after Halloween, so I was also raiding my daughter&#8217;s candy.\u00a0 I found what I was looking for and bonus! The package was a twofer. So I set one peanut butter cup on top of my book while I <del>gobbled<\/del> ever-so-daintily ate the other. And that&#8217;s when I noticed it: A peanut butter cup is the SAME SIZE AND SHAPE as an award sticker.<\/p>\n<p>Award season can be\u00a0hard for some of us. Though we are genuinely cheering the winning books (we&#8217;re big fans, too!) this is\u00a0also the time of year the self-doubt comes creeping back. At least for me.<\/p>\n<p>My favorite thing to read during award season is Kate Messner&#8217;s poem,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.katemessner.com\/what-happened-to-your-book-today\/\">What Happened to Your Book Today<\/a>. You should read it, too. Out loud. Because everything in it is true. Maple syrup stains on a book? Those are stickers. Dog-eared pages? Affirmation. But this week, maybe what your book needs is a little something extra. A tangible reminder that says: YOU DID IT! YOU PUBLISHED A BOOK! A REALLY GOOD BOOK AND SOMEBODY OUT THERE LOVES IT. This week, maybe what your book needs is a peanut butter cup (or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nowheychocolate.com\/Milk_Free_Nut_Free_Gluten_Free_p\/vegan-chocolate-peanot-cups.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8aexosmA2QIVgsDICh2zSQ9wEAQYASABEgIBtfD_BwE\">this version<\/a>, for those of you with\u00a0food allergies).<\/p>\n<p>You\u00a0deserve\u00a0it. Because your book is awesome, my friend. Pretend the chocolate is from me. Or from that kid over there,\u00a0the one who read your book three times through already. Or maybe the chocolate is from you, introvert you, hopeful you, proud you, author you. And after you eat that chocolate (you know you&#8217;re gonna) take that surge of energy and GO WRITE SOMETHING BRILLIANT.<\/p>\n<p>XOXO<\/p>\n<p>Madelyn<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4267\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reesemany.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4267\" class=\"wp-image-4267 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reesemany-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"reesemany\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reesemany-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reesemany-112x150.jpg 112w, http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reesemany-768x1024.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reesemany.jpg 1512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4267\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Why stop at one, really?<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reesel.jpg\">\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/reesemany.jpg\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was sitting at the\u00a0kitchen table\u00a0(which is\u00a0in the dining room because our kitchen isn&#8217;t really big enough for a table) doing some prep work for a school visit. It was right after Halloween, so I was also raiding my daughter&#8217;s &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/?p=4256\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,243,242,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anxiety","category-awards","category-chocolate","category-kidlit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4256"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4289,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4256\/revisions\/4289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}