Abigail paintings

A short post today- I am busy working on the paintings for my new book Abigail Spells. Here is a sample:

author photo, take II

I realized that my dissatisfaction over my previous author photos had really nothing to do with the photos or the background, but my own author photo envy. The truth is after seeing fellow blue rose girl Linda's author photos, I realized how much more these photos could be. Not just a standard snapshot of a robotically-smiling author, Linda's photos are amazing--artworks themselves, they are a true extension of her creative self. See, like this:


and this:Can you blame me for having some author photo envy? They were such an inspiration that I was determined to do more with my pictures. However, since I have no Ophelia or Amelia Earhart tendencies in my blood or art, I obviously needed to think of something else.

So in China, when I saw this package of Old Calendar/1910-1940 postcards, the bells began to whistle in my head. Wouldn't it be fun to have an author photo like this:
or like this?But when I asked my mother if she had any qipaos (the Chinese dresses they wear) that I could borrow and told her why, she laughed. "Come to Taiwan," she said, "They have studios with costumes for people to do that in. It's very common and inexpensive."

So, last week, in Taiwan I did what they call a "glamour shoot." It is VERY common there and it is not very expensive (less than $100. US, though it depends on what package you want--some packages were crazy fancy--bound albums, posters, etc., I got the cheapest one). Apparently, engaged couples and teenagers do these fantasy glamour shoots fairly regularly--they are everywhere. Any store that seems to sell formalwear also offers these shoots.

And these shoots are not your run-of-the-mill come in, throw on a costume and get a poloroid either. I had kind of pictured it like the single shots you get at carnivals, when you put on old western clothing and get a fake sepia tintype. No, these are elaborate, complicated affairs that they ask at least two hours for.
So what do they do? Well, at my photo shoot, they covered my face with a mask of makeup so that I couldn't smile, stuck these strange transparent stickers on my eyelids to make my eyes larger, and shellacked my hair so that it could be snapped into two. When they finally allowed to take a peek through my glasses (I was not allowed to wear them so I was pretty blind to what was happening the whole time) it was actually quite a horrifying experience. "Don't worry," the make-up artist said in very broken English, "under camera light, looks very natural."

Well, at that point I just had to take her word for it. So I was pretty scared when I finally got the photos. And for good reason--they WERE scary! There was only one or two that I felt I could live with.

But luckily, one is all I needed...
to make my brand-new author photo! I hope they let me use it for the back of my novel. What do you think?

crazy

POETRY FRIDAY: The Poet

As this is the first Poetry Friday of National Poetry Month, I thought that I would post a poem that describes some characteristics typical of someone who writes poetry—at least according to Tom Wayman, a poet. Do you write poetry? Is Wayman speaking about you?

The Poet
By Tom Wayman

Loses his position on worksheet or page in textbook

May speak much but makes little sense

Cannot give clear verbal instructions

Does not understand what he reads

Does not understand what he hears

Cannot handle “yes-no” questions

Has great difficulty interpreting proverbs

Has difficulty recalling what he ate for breakfast, etc.

You can read the rest of the poem here.


At Wild Rose Reader, I have an interview with children’s poet J. Patrick Lewis.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Becky’s Book Reviews this week.

Trip to Virginia

I've just returned from a week in my hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia doing school visits for the Va Festival of the Book. This was my second trip down for the festival. Its fun for me to attend because not only do I get to visit schools in the neighborhoods where I grew up, but I get a little dose of spring before it arrives here in Boston.

In Charlottesville the daffodils are in bloom:



The forsythia is bursting yellow all over:



And the friend's house where I stayed sits next to a fully blooming plum tree that floats tiny pink petals all over place:



Ah, the good life. Sitting on porches on warm afternoons, waving a lazy hello to the neighbors. I can't say I was thrilled to return to the grey cloud that is Boston in March.

When I wasn't staring wistfully at the flowers and trying to soak up as much sun as possible, I was touring around local schools and doing my school visit presentation. I think this is the most public speaking I've ever done in 3 days. I visited 5 schools and gave 14 talks to more than 1000 kids.

The last day I was there was the most intense... on Thursday schools were closed due to a bizarre incident on the highway that runs through town. Charlottesville is a pretty peaceful place so it was fairly shocking that someone would sit on the side of the highway and shoot at cars. Fortunately they caught the guy pretty quickly, he was caught on video shooting at a bank awhile back, in a bright orange Gremlin. Did he want to get caught?

Anyways, as a result of the schools shutting down when I was supposed to visit them, I needed to fit two days worth of visits into one. I began on Friday at 8 am and gave 2 presentations at one elementary school. I hopped in my car and drove to a second school and gave another. Then I drove back to the first school and did 2 more talks. Then finally to a third school where I gave one more talk. Normally I don't do more than 4 talks in one day, it was a marathon for sure!

I was greeted by enthusiastic librarians who did a phenomenal job of prepping the kids (so important). One in particular went above and beyond decorating the school before I came:



I don't have many shots of the larger groups I visited, but here is one of me (midsentence of course, ha, pics of me talking are always super nerdy) visiting a Head Start program. This was my first time visiting Head Start, and was a fun reminder of my preschool teaching days (the kids are SO tiny). Here I am making a drawing with some 4 year olds, they came up with this character which they named Tina the Turtle:



Favorite quote from the week:

Me: "Does anyone know what happens when a book gets published?"
First grader, in a sweet southern accent: "They fancy it up!"

remember this?

And this used to creep me out big time... yet I kept wanting to watch it.



The part I didn't like was when the guy turned into different things. I think it harks back to my fear of people not being who they say they are. I used to have nightmares about people turning into evil characters and trying to CHANGE me into someone else. I often woke up screaming and yelling "Mommy! Daddy!" until one of them came in to calm me down. One vivid memory was a woman who tried to put special glasses on me. The glasses would turn me into what the rest of the neighbors had been turned into--some sort of alien invasion type thing. I wonder a lot of kids worry about this... or was it just me? I was always a bit odd. Nevertheless, I'm sure other people were a little weirded out by the video. Were you?

how much does it cost to create a book?

200 dollars for art supplies for the year. That's it. Not very expensive!

Where do my expenses come in? Inspiration and research--1,300 in books and videos

850 dollars in office supplies--paper, plants, containers, etc.

And of course I bought a new iMac and wrote that off too.

So there you have it. This is the first year that my taxes were done in one day (including putting all my receipts into Excel) and I think they were actually done right! No H&R block for me. I did it "myself" on Turbotax.

meghan

POETRY FRIDAY: Anthem for a Doomed Youth

The Iraq War is now in its sixth year. More than four thousand Americans have lost their lives…and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. There are those who may think war is “romantic”—but not people like Wilfrid Owen (1893-1918). Owen served as a volunteer soldier for the British military during World War I. He was killed by machine gun fire a few days before the end of that war.



Anthem for Doomed Youth
by Wilfrid Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

At Wild Rose Reader, I have three original tanka poems I wrote for Tricia’s Monday Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Cuentesitos this week.

a little diversion

I'm finally feeling back to normal (whatever normal is) today so I bought some canvas and decided to start some new paintings (yes, I have other things to do such as come up with new books and do my taxes). Here's one in my "series" (it's in quotes because there's no series yet) of warped portraits.



I've only worked on this for a few hours so it has a long, long way to go! Can you guess who it's of?

spinal tap

Don't EVER get a spinal tap!!!! This is a warning. Just don't do it. There's a 20 % chance of something going wrong--the hole not closing and spinal fluid leaking... and OF COURSE that's what had to happen to me. For the past 5 days I have been in COMPLETE agony. If my parents didn't drive down from RI I would have probably had to be admitted to a hospital. Every time I lifted my head I got severe head pain and nausea. If I tried to get up I'd start vomiting. This went on for 5 days!!! The issue was finally resolved by something called a blood patch--the anesthesiologist takes blood from your arm and injects it into the spine to seal the hole. The doctor said there's a chance the problem can come back in a few days so I'm crossing my fingers! So scary!

HOPEFULLY I will be able to get back to work and get going on some new project ideas soon. I also need to update my website!

On the topic of books--I'm trying to brain storm for some craft ideas for my book The Astronaut Handbook. If any of you have any good ideas for projects please let me know! Also let me know about promo ideas... anything that has to do with space and/or astronauts. The book is coming out in 3 months I believe.

meghan

Dog sitting and the power of books

Sorry for the late post today, I've had a busy weekend and am currently dog sitting/house sitting while editing Grace's new novel (which is fantastic, by the way--it's slated for next Spring). This morning I woke up to discover that one of the dogs, Maggie, who has recently had surgery on her leg, had somehow gotten the cone off from around her neck and had succeeded in biting the stitches off. About a week ago, she had done the same with her staples with her cone on, so they stitched her up and gave her a bigger cone. Obviously, that didn't work.

We took her to the vet, and it reminded me of how I had wanted to be a veterinarian when I was little. I've shared this story at several writer's conference, but thought I'd might as well share it again here as it relates to children's books.

I loved loved LOVED animals as a kid (still do). We never had pets, though, except for fish and parakeets, because of various family member allergies (I'm allergic to cats myself), but I always adopted the neighborhood dogs and cats as my own. I remember loving one black cat in particular named Midnight, and my piano teacher's Collie named Lady.

I kept with my decision of becoming a veterinarian when I grew up for many many years. And then one day, when I was probably around 10 years old, I read a book. My love of animals had always spilled into which books I read. I read all the dog books (Where the Red Fern Grows, Ribsy), all the horse books (Black Beauty, The Black Stallion), all the rabbit books (Rabbit Hill, Watership Down), etc. etc. I don't remember the title or author of the book in question, but what I do remember was it was about a girl whose father was a veterinarian. She had always wanted to be a veterinarian herself, until one night something happened to her dog, and her father asked her to help him care for her, which involved giving the dog a shot. At that moment, she discovered she didn't have the stomach for doing that, and realized that however much she loved animals, she couldn't be a veterinarian.

At the same time, I thought, I don't think I could give an animal a shot, either. I guess I can't be a veterinarian, either. And from then on, whenever I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I no longer answered "A veterinarian," and instead answered, "Well, I used to want to be a veterinarian, but now I'm not sure."

I actually think this is a bit sad, that a book had so much power as to change my mind about what I wanted to become so completely. And I realize now that, as I'm not really that squeamish, I probably could have become a veterinarian if I had wanted to. At the same time, I realize that I probably would have eventually changed my mind anyway, and as I feel I've found my true calling as a children's book editor, perhaps it ended happily regardless. But I also take this as an example of how powerful books can be. One can never predict the message a child will take away from any particular book (Alison Morris has a somewhat related post on this idea here) and it's pointless to try to predict how something is going to be received, or to censor one's self too much, but I think it's a helpful reminder as to how impressionable kids are, how much of what they see, hear, and read is absorbed.

And by the way, Maggie will be fine.

****

Anyway, I'm off to Bologna, Italy for the Bologna Book Fair this Friday. It's my first Bologna trip, and I'm super excited. If you're going to be there, let me know, let's try to meet up! I'll try to post while there, but it may not be possible, so my apologies in advance.

Happy Spring!

Beginnings

Advice

I found this while I was searching for a bicycle -- it's from Kerri Smith's blog. I do most of these a lot and I like this because it's a good reminder of how stupid it is and how easy it is to stop, too!

This week hasn't been great -- my beloved blue bicycle was stolen and I miss it more than I've ever missed any object. But all the kids in the neighborhood have promised to look for it and we are distributing signs everywhere. One suggested that I write a book about it -- THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE BICYCLE (this of course when we have solved the crime). Or maybe I could make up a solution. Another child suggested writing an article for the town paper and referring to myself as "Mystic's own Libby Koponen."

But meanwhile, many people are looking. As someone said,
"That bike is FAMOUS!"

This is it:



Next week, my solution to #6 -- by then I will know if it has worked!

POETRY FRIDAY: Phenomenal Woman

Since March is Women’s History Month, I selected Maya Angelou’s poem Phenomenal Women to post for this Poetry Friday.

Phenomenal Woman

by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size

But when I start to tell them,

They think I'm telling lies.

I say,

It's in the reach of my arms

The span of my hips,

The stride of my step,

The curl of my lips.

I'm a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That's me.

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.

You can read the rest of the poem here.


I’m doing the Poetry Friday Roundup at Wild Rose Reader this week.

today

Yay, I finished Seabiscuit! I turned in the final agonizing piece yesterday.

TODAY I have had a spinal tap aka lumbar puncture. I'm stuck right now lying on my back with the computer propped up on my bag, which is on my chest. they won't give me more than one pillow! Apparently I'm supposed to lie FLAT but Im cheating a bit.

Anyway, as much as I'd like to post something today, I can't. Typing is hard. Talk amongst yourselves.

Fusion Stories

So while I've been rushing to finish an extensive revision of my new novel, a lot of things have been swept under the rug. Things like laundry, blogging (don't think I'll finish posting about China before I go to Taiwan!), cleaning, talking to people...But I am proud to say, that I was able to make a little bit of time for the following:

FUSION STORIES: New Novels For Young Readers To
Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (May 2008)

Newton, Ma, April 2, 2008 — Ten new contemporary novels by Asian Americans aren’t traditional tales set in Asia nor stories about coming to America for the first time. They’re written by authors who understand two-time Newbery Honor Book author Lawrence Yep’s (Dragonwings and Dragon’s Gate) removal of the ethnic qualifier before his vocation. “I think of myself principally as a writer,” Yep told the International Reading Association’s The Dragon Lode. “I often write about my experiences as a Chinese American, but I’ve also written about faraway worlds. Writing is a special way of seeing.”

Without a doubt, an Asian American vision has moved into the mainstream of the children’s literary world. In 1994, only 65 of the 5,500 children’s books published featured Asian American authors. Last year, that number doubled. Some of these have become national bestsellers that are guaranteed a place on bookshelves for years to come. Linda Sue Park (A Single Shard) and Cynthia Kadohata (Kira Kira) each won the prestigious Newbery Medal, while Allen Say (Grandfather’s Journey) took home a Caldecott Prize. An Na (A Step From Heaven) won the Printz, an award for young adult novels, and Gene Luen Yang garnered a National Book Award for his graphic novel, American Born Chinese.

In 2008, a wave of middle grade novels (ages 7-11) written by Asian Americans is already catching the attention of readers, teachers, librarians, and parents – and not just within multicultural circles. Children’s literature experts are calling Grace Lin’s Year of the Rat (sequel to the popular Year of the Dog) a “classic in the making” along the lines of Besty-Tacy. Janet Wong’s forthcoming novel Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer explores the joys of vacation and friendship, with Jake divulging that he’s a “quarpa,” or one-quarter Korean. Winner of the Sid Fleischman humor award, author Lisa Yee makes kids (and adults) laugh out loud with bestselling stories like Millicent Min: Girl Genius and her newest title, Good Luck, Ivy. When it comes to books like these, as Newbery winner Linda Sue Park told author Cynthia Leitich Smith (Tantalize) during an on-line chat: “At last it seems we’re getting ready to go to stories where a person’s ethnicity is a part but not the sum of them.”

New releases for teens, too, aren’t mainly immigrant stories or traditional tales retold. These YA novels deal with universal themes such as a straight-A teen struggling with a cheating scandal at her school (She’s So Money by Cherry Cheva), a promising athlete coping with a snowboarding injury (Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley), and a Pakistani-born blogger whose father is about to become President (First Daughter: White House Rules by Mitali Perkins). An Na’s The Fold, a novel about a teen considering plastic surgery to change the shape of her eyelids, speaks to all who long to be beautiful, and art-loving teens far and wide will connect with Joyce Lee Wong’s novel-in-verse Seeing Emily. Paula Yoo, a one-time writer for People magazine and television hits like The West Wing, fuses her pop culture savvy and love of music in Good Enough, a novel about a violinist in rebellion. Her brother, David Yoo, connected with hormone-crazed nerds of every race in his funny novel Girls For Breakfast and is offering his fans the forthcoming Stop Me if You've Heard This One Before.

Founder of readergirlz, a literacy initiative for teens, award-winning author Justina Chen Headley notes that these books are relished by readers from many different backgrounds. “There are a ton of interesting cultural trends that make it cool to read about Asian American characters,” she says. “Take manga and anime, for instance. Or Gwen Stefani’s harujuku girls. Mainstream, popular celebrities from actors to athletes are Asian American, and this is filtering into YA and middle grade novels.”

Dr. Sylvia Vardell, Ph.D., a professor at the School of Library and Information Services at Texas Woman’s University, isn’t surprised either by the growing appetite for books featuring protagonists of every race: “Most kids live with ethnic and cultural diversity everyday. It just makes sense that books for teens would reflect this too.”

These stories continue to resonate with Asian American readers as well. Lisa Yee remembers the frustration of not finding many books about American girls like her. “When I grew up, there was no fiction featuring contemporary Asian Americans, unless of course the book was about the struggle of immigrants,” she says. Thanks to exciting changes in children’s book publishing, it’s a different world for today’s young readers of every cultural heritage with many choices when it comes to novels.

This year’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month begins May 1, 2008, and ten authors are banding together to offer FUSION STORIES (www.fusionstories.com), a menu of delectable next-gen hot-off-the-press novels for middle readers and young adults. FUSION STORIES' critically acclaimed authors so far include Cherry Cheva (Los Angeles, CA), Justina Chen Headley (Seattle, WA), Grace Lin (Boston, MA), An Na (Montpelier, VT), Mitali Perkins (Boston, MA), Janet Wong (Princeton, NJ), Joyce Lee Wong (Los Angeles, CA), Lisa Yee (South Pasadena, CA), David Yoo (Boston, MA), and Paula Yoo (Los Angeles, CA).

FUSION STORIES aims to be a helpful resource for parents, educators, and young readers, so if you know of a novel that (1) is for middle readers or teens, (2) was published in 2007-2008 by a traditional publishing house, (3) features an Asian American protagonist, and (4) is set primarily in contemporary America, please send a .jpg of the cover, a .jpg of the author, one or two reviews, and a brief description of the novel to press@fusionstories.com. FUSION STORIES would be delighted to add titles and authors to the site.

A press kit package (available at FUSION STORIES, www.fusionstories.com) includes downloads, bios of FUSION STORIES authors, information on their books, and conversations with experts about Asian American literature for young readers. For more information, review copies, or interview requests with any of the authors, please contact press@fusionstories.com.

Abigail Spells jacket sketches

Sorry for the short post today, somehow I managed to schedule three outings in one day- this morning I had a school visit in Arlington, in a few minutes a college student is interviewing me for her research about kids books, and tonight I'll be signing books at the Wellesley book fair. After weeks of sitting quietly in my studio this is a lot of talking for me. Heres hoping I don't lose my voice!

In the meantime, here are some jacket sketches I've been working on for my new book. I think my favorite is the first one, what do you think?

Media Luncheon, and a Sneak Peak

A few weeks ago, my company hosted a lovely Media Luncheon at the restaurant craft. We invited people from various media outlets, such as Publisher's Weekly, Cookie, Child Magazine, and many more. And then on the publishing side, we invited four picture book authors and illustrators with books coming out this Spring.

I was excited for the event for two main reasons:
1) the opportunity to introduce one of the books I edited, Sergio Makes a Splash by Edel Rodriguez, coming out this May,
and
2) the opportunity to eat at craft, a restaurant I've been wanting to try for a long time.

The event started with drinks, hors d'oeuvres (the homemade potato chips with creme fresh and caviar was amazing), mingling, and viewing of the final art of the three books that were represented. Here I am with Edel and his art:
The art for Sergio is finished on the computer, but he first sketches by hand and then does, um, I think they're called lithographs (please, someone correct me), and scans them into the computer and does some fancy things with color, etc. Okay, that was a horrible description. But at any rate, the final result is really cool and retro-looking.Isn't Sergio adorable?!

Then we sat down to lunch at four tables, one author or illustrate per table. The author and illustrators would switch tables between courses to give everyone a chance to meet them.

The conversation was great. Along with Edel, we had Robie Harris and Michael Emberley, the author and illustrator of Mail Harry to the Moon:
and Mary Jane Begin, the author and illustrator of Willow Buds: The Tale of Toad and Badger:
And the food! The food was incredible. We ate family style, something I'm not used to in a non-Asian restaurant, but I was glad to be able to sample a little of everything. It's been a while, so I can't remember it all, but one dish in particular made an impression: the duck risotto was exquisite. I wanted to lick the pan afterwards, but didn't think that would impress our media guests. Unfortunately, chef Tom Colicchio didn't make an appearance (I'm a Top Chef fan), I guess that would have been too much to ask.

Here's a group shot with everyone, from left to right Mary Jane, Edel, Robie, and Michael:
All in all, the lunch was a great success, and it was nice to take a break from the office in the middle of the day.

******

And now on to a book that's coming out next Spring: The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. You probably know Peter from Flight of the Dodo, Chowder, and The Fabulous Bouncing Chowder. His next book is something completely different. I don't want to tell you too much about it, but will just give you a sneak peak at the art. I visited Peter's beautiful new studio in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn last week, and was excited to get my first glimpse of the final art that he's hard at work finishing right now. And I really mean right now, right, Peter? Here is Peter with some of the art:
And a sampling of two pieces (sorry about the bad photo lighting/quality):
Stay tuned for more about The Curious Garden in the future!

POETRY FRIDAY: When I Am Asked

Has anyone ever asked you when or how or why you began writing poetry? Lisel Mueller provides us with her reason for writing.


When I Am Asked
by Lisel Mueller

When I am asked
how I began writing poems,
I talk about the indifference of nature.

It was soon after my mother died,
a brilliant June day,
everything blooming.

I sat on a gray stone bench
in a lovingly planted garden,
but the day lilies were as deaf
as the ears of drunken sleepers
and the roses curved inward.

You can read the rest of the poem here.


At Wild Rose Reader, I have an original spring acrostic poem and some suggestions for spring and seasonal poetry books and picture books in verse.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Jama Rattigan’s Alphabet Soup.

MORE ALIENS!!

Now I have a whole fleet of these babies. Some are easy to make (for the kiddies) and some are for advanced sewers. All of these aliens will be up on my website soon with patterns... so stay tuned!