Greetings from Nowhere

I inspired someone

2009-11-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

My favorite part of this is "Me thinking."

Book lamp

2009-11-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

This lamp turns off when you put the book on it and back on when you lift the book off.

Closing shop again

2009-11-05T06:00:00.004-05:00

Once again, I'm closing up my blogging shop for a few days.

I lost my dear friend, Joe Guccione (age 62) after a valiant battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).

My husband and I spent almost every Saturday for a year and a half with Joe and his wife, my dear, dear friend, Leslie.

Saturdays will never be the same.

Sigh....life is hard sometimes.

NCTE blogging panel

2009-11-04T06:00:00.001-05:00

I'll be at the NCTE conference in Philadelphia November 20-22. I'll be speaking on a panel about author blogs with Laurie Halse Anderson, Lisa Yee, Maureen, Johnson, and Justine Larbalestier

(For an easier to read version of the info below, click here.)

Some awesome writing

2009-11-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

From a biography of his mother, written by a fifth grader:

Original version:

She hated putting price stickers on plastic bags at her father's bakery.

Revised version:

Peel, stick. Peel, stick. She hated her job. Her fingers were aching, shaking and sore as she put price tags on plastic bags at her father's bakery.

School Library Journal Interview

2009-11-02T06:00:00.003-05:00

An interview with little ole me in the November issue of School Library Journal.

Photo credit: Getty Images

100 Best Book Blogs for Kids, Tweens, and Teens

2009-10-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

I'm proud to announce that my blog is on this list!

Grace Lin

2009-10-29T16:19:00.003-04:00

If you're a fan of Grace Lin (and who isn't), you'll enjoy this lovely tribute to a lovely person.

Don't let the pigeon lose the race

2009-10-28T06:00:00.001-04:00

So, I'm noodling around with an idea for my next book. While I have absolutely no story (heh), I know it revolves around pigeon racing.

Here's what I know about pigeon racing:

ZIPPO

So when I learned that the national convention of the American Pigeon Racing Union was being held nearby, well, dang, how could I NOT go, right?

AND - there was going to be a Junior race (for kids who race pigeons). Oh, yeah!

It was totally fascinating.

I talked to lots of kids about raising and training their pigeons.

For this race, the pigeons flew 217 miles!!! From Ilion, NY to Somerset, MA.

Five hours straight.

Isn't that amazing??

And they find their way back to their loft!!??

Here is the loft:

These are breeders (as opposed to racers):

A fancy schmancy fantail pigeon:

Here they come!! This part was SO exciting!! They literally made a huge shadow over the ground and circled around and around in a big flock - having just flown FIVE HOURS and 217 miles:

Swooping down to the loft:

Landing on the loft. (They just flew in from New York and, boy, are their wings tired.)

A couple of stragglers:

When they enter the loft, they walk over a pad that scans their band and sends their time to a computer.

The kids I talked to were awesome. They told me about building their lofts out of scrap wood from the dump...and which pigeons were their favorites....and how sometimes they lose them, etc. etc.

Okay, now all I need is a story.

National Gallery of Writing

2009-10-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

This is my contribution to the National Gallery of Writing, sponsored by NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English).

Young Hoosier Award Nomination

2009-10-26T14:19:00.005-04:00

How to Steal a Dog has been nominated for the 2010-2011 Indiana Young Hoosier Award.

That brings the total state book award nominations to 17 (but who's counting?).

A lovely review

2009-10-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

Many thanks to Megan Germano over at Read, Read, Read, for this lovely review of The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

2009-10-23T12:17:00.002-04:00

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by my friend, Grace Lin, has been chosen as December's book club pick by Al Roker of the Today Show!

Go, Grace...go, Grace....go, Grace.

I love you, Steve Jobs

2009-10-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

You listened to me! Finally somebody listened to me!

A new Apple wireless mouse!

I am so happy.

Please, please, please be a GOOD mouse.

Stevie, tell me it's a GOOD mouse.

(I'm going to totally ignore that person who left a one-starred review on the Apple web site. I did NOT see that one star. I did NOT.)

I'm back

2009-10-22T18:47:00.001-04:00

Back from my temporary retreat. Thanks so much for all the kind words.

Temporarily closed

2009-10-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

My beloved father-in-law passed away yesterday. He was a great man and I adored him.

So - I'm hanging up the ole "Closed" sign for a few days.

Book boxes

2009-10-19T06:00:00.001-04:00

These are cool - boxes that look like books!

Thanks to the Bookshelf Blog for the link.

How David Small changed my life

2009-10-16T06:00:00.001-04:00

In honor of David Small's National Book Award nomination, I repost how David Small made a big impact on my writing career.

Cool poster

2009-10-15T06:00:00.003-04:00

Vintage library posters available from Etsy.

Thanks to BB Blog for the link.

Quote of the Day

2009-10-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the music the words make.

--Truman Capote

Ahhhh

2009-10-13T06:00:00.001-04:00

First she does this:

Then she does this:

How do you stay mad at a dog like that?

Stupidest post ever

2009-10-12T10:08:00.003-04:00

I know, I know. This is, like, the stupidest post ever. But I can't seem to get my writing in gear so I'm staring at my bookshelf.

On the very top shelf is a clock my son made when he was six. (He is now twenty-two.)

In the basket on the top shelf are my vices: video games for my Nintendo DS.

On the next shelf is my new little Willy dog, a Smoky Mountain thermometer, and my favorite writing books....and....

...an inspirational paperweight that I got from my uber cool friend and writer, Kim Marcus - at our crit group holiday gift swap.

One of my many bird nests (I have a collection) and some of my manuals because I have OMD (obsessive manual disorder).

Some of my many children's books and a vintage globe bank like the one I had as a kid.

More manuals (I told ya) and several tons of revisions.

The bottom shelf has a box I like that holds junk and my "Ego Books." Those are scrapbooks with every nice thing or semi-nice thing or sorta nice thing anyone has ever said about me (and reviews and letters and articles and stuff like that.) I save these things in notebooks because it's much cheaper than therapy.

Notebooks and boxes

2009-10-09T06:00:00.003-04:00

Because of my obsessively organized nature, I absolutely LOVE boxes - pretty, fabric covered boxes, little wooden boxes, handsome leather boxes. Sometimes I buy boxes and then have to think of something to put in them.

You'd be surprised the things you can put in a nice little box: spare keys, paperclips, all those chargers and cords that amass, letters and pictures from kids, etc.

I also love notebooks. Pretty fabric covered notebooks, handsome leather notebooks.

Now, oddly enough, I am not a journal writer.

So I use my lovely little notebooks for mundane things like grocery lists and phone messages.

But that makes the little minutiae of life so much more pleasant.

At any rate, I love this notebook so much!

Long ago and far away

2009-10-08T06:00:00.001-04:00

A million, trillion years ago...

...in a galaxy far away....

...I was a hippie.

See, I was a doggie gal even back then. Those dogs are named Bubba and Katie. And guess what? I still have that coat!!!!

I lived at the end of a long and bumpy dirt road, lined with blackberry bushes and wild day lilies...

In a ramshackle little house that I loved.

I worked three nights a week as a cocktail waitress way out in a country bar called Wayne and Jimmy's. I came home with $100 cash in my jeans each night and felt quite wealthy.

I had a '65 VW van with a rusted out bottom that was named "The Green Bean." That van took me to the Smoky Mountains many times.

This was written on the back of that photo:

And then I left the South where I had grown up and headed to California. I moved into the basement of a villa in the Hollywood Hills that used to be the home of Barbara Stanwyck but had been converted into apartments.

I took a class on writing for children at UCLA.

And a lot of other stuff happened and now I live in New England and write books for children.

The End

A slow news day

2009-10-07T06:00:00.001-04:00

This is kinda interesting.