almost done!

I forgot to post yesterday. Thursday is my day to post. You probably wouldn't be able to figure that out because I can't recall that last time I've posted on Thursday. I've been really sick for a long time. I'm finally feeling better (more like myself). I don't know how long it will last but I guess I just have to enjoy it for now and try go to get as much work done as possible. I'd gotten a really bad diagnosis (yes, worse than Lupus, but caused by it) called Central Nervous System Vasculitus. It's as serious as it gets. For some reason I haven't yet gotten upset about it. Maybe I won't? Maybe I"m done being upset. But it really took a toll on the whole - get the book done thing. So it's REALLY late. But FINALLY it's almost done!

I'll show some finishes soon. Most of the good ones have been turned in. I talked to my friend Julia (The Secret Plan) about how we do the art - what the order is. We agreed that neither of us do the pieces in order. I tend to get tired of painting at some point and think - eh, good enough - after a while. IF I did the book in order then when you read it the art would go downhill visibly! I usually try to get some of the hard ones out of the way in the beginning while I have the energy to do them for for some reason this time I didn't. So this time I was left painting little people in a parade scene when I was completely out of steam. Oy!

I'm wondering--how do you others paint?

I also change the text after the art is done. Sometimes, like with this book, I can't match the sketches so the art has to be changed. Like for this book I did a lazy sketch of a doctor sending out a telegram. I just ASSUMED that I'd be able to find a good photograph of a person sending out a telegram in the 1920s. WRONG! So now the text has to be changed because the art has to be changed. Woops.

So those are a few little insider things into making a book. Or should I say insider screw-ups.

meghan

Wedding Bells on My Mind

Wedding Photograph by Tom Underwood

Regular readers of the Blue Rose Girls blog are probably aware that my daughter Sara got married last Saturday. We had a fabulous “wedding weekend” full of fun and high spirits. My daughter was a beautiful bride. She and her new husband beamed with happiness—as did my husband and I.

For Poetry Friday this week, I selected one of my favorite “love” poems by Edward Lear—The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
BY EDWARD LEAR

I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

II
Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-Tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

III
"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

The Beautiful Bride

Photograph by Tom Underwood

A Picture of Me with Sara at the Salem Waterfront Hotel

Click here to view more of the wedding pictures that Tom took.

********************

At Wild Rose Reader, I’ve posted the wedding poem that I wrote for my daughter Sara and her husband Jerry.

Heidi Mordhorst has the Poetry Friday Roundup at My Juicy Little Universe.

loveliness

I had a hectic but pleasant weekend teaching and reading at the Pine Manor Solstice Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA Program. That is a long name for a lovely MFA program that I am delighted to be a part of.

I taught a class that I called "The Read Aloud Novel" with this description:

One of the differences between a middle grade novel and a YA (or even adult) novel is that the middle grade novel is multifunctional. While it is a book a child can read to themselves, middle grade novels are often books that are read aloud in a classroom or at home after dinner or before bedtime. Words and sentences must be complex enough to have rhythm and interest but not so much that they would discourage a young reader. In this class, we'll discuss the key elements of a middle grade novel and consider them in our own writing.

It was a fun class where we talked about overwriting and writing tightly, though during it I realized how guilty my own work-in-progress novel is of those same issues!


However, what was more fun was that between my class and reading I was able to go to Elaine's daughter's wedding. The apparent happiness of the bride and the mother of the bride was loveliness defined.

And the cake was really good too!

(I had two pieces.)

Desmond's Rich Inner Life or A Tale for Shrinking Violets

The first review of Disappearing Desmond is in, hurray! I love this review from Publishers Weekly, they really got Desmond's spirit.

"'How Not to Be Seen' is a famous Monty Python sketch, but it also describes the peculiar and poignant talent of shy children like Alter's (What Can You Do with an Old Red Shoe?) hero Desmond, an anthropomorphized cat. Desmond is so self-erasing that he can easily blend into a classroom poster: "Sometimes, even his teacher could not find him." Then one day, a vivacious and persistent rabbit named Gloria (think young Auntie Mame with long ears) arrives in class and pulls Desmond out of his shell. One good turn leads to another, and soon most of the class wallflowers are blooming--although the final image makes it clear there's still work to be done. Many of Desmond's camouflage efforts show a lot of ingenuity, which could convey to some readers that his inner life in rich enough to compensate for his lack of friends. But Alter's empathy is never in question, and with Gloria's arrival it becomes clear just how much yearning was in Desmond's heart--socially confident readers and shrinking violets alike will be won over."

-Publishers Weekly

And in honor of "not being seen", take it away Monty Python:

PS. There are some explosions and gun shooting in this video, if you're showing this blog to your students be warned!



Desmond will be in stores August 24th!

A Special Wedding Day for a Blue Rose Girl

Despite the heat, humidity, threat of torrential downpours, and a church that felt like a sauna--my daughter Sara's wedding day was truly a grand one indeed. The rain stopped just before the groom, ushers, best man, and father of the bride boarded the trolley that would take them to the church. Fortunately, we were able to have photos taken at Derby Wharf in Salem after the wedding ceremony as Sara had planned.

Here I am with Sara before she put on her gorgeous wedding gown.

Sara was truly the most beautiful bride I have ever seen in my life!
If you don't believe me, check out the weddingpictures that Tom Underwood, the photographer, posted on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=191187&id=276487922866

P. S. The wedding reception was a blast!

I'll probably be posting more of my own wedding pictures later this week at Wild Rose Reader.

GEEKTASTIC Twitter chat

To celebrate the paperback release of GEEKTASTIC: Stories from the Nerd Herd edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci (read my Beyond the Book post here), please join me, Holly, Cecil, and some of the other people who contributed to Geektastic for a tweetchat tonight! Monday, July 12th at 8 PM EST / 5 PM PST. Use the hashtag #geektastic and come and hang out and be geeky!

If you're new to Twitter chats, you can read more about what they are and how best to participate here. I occasionally participate in the #kidlitchat and #YAlitchat.  I'd recommend using Tweetchat.

Join us! It will be fun!!

thank goodness for acrylic - and how I was touched

So I was painting last night, finally with A/C (I'll tell that bit in a minute) and drinking some water, a glass filled to the top with ice and liquid, when I reached over for a brush... or something.... and knocked it over. Oops. Now if you were painting with oil or using pastels, or using watercolors (god forbid), then you'd be (f--) fill in the rest there. I, however, was not. Thank you acrylic paints! Simply pat and dry and you are on your way!



Anyway, it's been about 103 degrees in NYC more of less for the past few days (week?) and I've suffered through it, sweating in my shorts and tank top... but I hit the tipping point two days ago (I guess when I got to the days off pattern in my week - it's like 55 at work!) and I couldn't stand it anymore. I almost passed out a few times, though I think that's due to lack of drinking water and my blood pressure meds and standing up too quickly). So anyway, I NEEDED to finish my book, but I couldn't in the windowless studio of mine, so I went to my landlady and asked her to get my air conditioner from the basement.



(my windowless "studio")

After speaking in Polish to the guy who doesn't speak any english they concluded that there was no air conditioner in the basement! I said "But... but... you guys put it there. You TOLD me to take it out of my window and put it in the basement." She went on to blame me for not doing something sooner. She asked me why I wanted one now. She said the heat wave was almost over. Um, what difference did it make? It was MY air conditioner! (well, it's more complicated than that. She gave me 80 dollars to buy one and I ended up buying a 200 dollar one. But she knew that because I told her. She said - here's 80 TOWARDS one). She says "Well, the 2nd floor has their own, and the first floor brought their own, so I don't know who could have taken it. Did you throw it out?" "NO!" I said. "It was BRAND NEW!" She talked in Polish some more and then said "Here, here, come outside with me." She gestures towards the back window - "Is this yours?" I looked at the back of a metal contraption. How could I tell? but then I read the words ""LG." "Yeah, I think it is. I have the remote control upstairs. We can find out right now if it is because if it is I cant shut theirs off. I was silently INFURIATED because this meant the 1st floor people had TWO air conditioners. " She shook her head and said "I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do..."





You know what, I don't know why I"m going on and on about my damn air conditioner. I think I've been so hot I've lost my mind! I'm going to stop talking about it. Anyway, that's a long enough post about nothing. I want to talk about something else. I've been so bitter about everything lately. I've felt that my life is a complete waste of time. I mean, I've been so sick and I've seen people get married and have kids and I'm thinking to myself that none of that will happen and I'm just going to be that stupid sick person that everyone has to worry about. I won't be able to get work done on time and no one will want to work with me. My life will be worthless. Then I have these terrible thoughts that why couldn't this happen to someone else? someone who doesn't want to do so much with their life? Isn't that AWFUL? Do I value people just by their accomplishments? Apparently so. WOW. What is this, dear diary??? I'm waaaay off base here.

Back to the point of this. I was at work the other day and a guy came up to me with his kid. He was all paranoid about me thinking they were going to steal this black presentation book. I calmed them down and told them it was fine to "try" it out and told them it was fine for the boy to put his art in it to see how it looked. The kid was SO excited to see how his art looked in the book. He begged his dad to buy the book. He said "You don't know how happy this makes me!" It was obvious to me that he hadn't gotten much art training. I asked him what grade he was in and he said 12th. I guess that meant he was going to graduate this coming year. I asked him what he wanted to do as a career and he said graphic design. I gave him a few tips as to where he could buy cheap art supplies. He knew nothing about this stuff! I wish I gave him my contact info or something, although maybe that would be weird? It just makes me think that if I had more time that I'd love to stop by inner city schools when I could and go to the art depts. to help with portfolios (if they even get that far) and such. It seems sad that kids have such enthusiasm but no guidance. Needless to say, I was inspired by the boy's enthusiasm. I remember how excited I was now, when I was his age. I need to keep more of that with me.

meghan

POETRY FRIDAY: The Kiss by Stephen Dunn

My daughter is getting married tomorrow! I thought I’d select a "love" poem to post today.

The Kiss
by Stephen Dunn

She pressed her lips to mind.
—a typo

How many years I must have yearned
for someone’s lips against mind.
Pheromones, newly born, were floating
between us. There was hardly any air.

She kissed me again, reaching that place
that sends messages to toes and fingertips,
then all the way to something like home.
Some music was playing on its own.

You can read the rest of the poem here.



At Wild Rose Reader, I have an original poem titled Things to Do If You Are the Ocean and information about Salem, Massachusetts—the city where my daughter’s wedding and reception will take place…tomorrow!

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Carol’s Corner.

Camping out

Oh the heat! If you are on the east coast you know what I mean. Hope you're staying someplace indoor and cool. We have temporarily moved all essentials into the bedroom, where we have a little ac unit working very hard at its job- its a little tight with my drafting table stuffed in the corner so I can paint and Bruno with my desktop into another corner so that he can write papers (his laptop just exploded, its been a great week) and the cats sleeping on every available surface (or running in circles wondering why we've locked them in this tiny room). But its better than melting in the rest of the apartment. And its a cozy in a way, a little concentrated family time.

Celebrate LING & TING!!!!

guess what?

Ling and Ting is NOW AVAILABLE!!!

I can't tell you how excited I am about this book, my very first early reader. This is my best reviewed book ever, with FOUR starred reviews! I hope you've seen the book trailer and you can also read some fun back story about the book HERE and HERE.

You can even DOWNLOAD AN ACTIVITY GUIDE (courtesy of www.gracelinbooks.com, the new supplemental website put together by my publisher!)

The guide is super fun, with a sight word chopstick game and even an "ING" song!

And today, to celebrate the book birthday I'm offering limited edition Ling & Ting bookplates!

Yes, for TODAY ONLY, I'll send you a personalized bookplate for your Ling & Ting book. Just e-mail gracelin.manager@gmail.com with:

-to whom you wish the bookplate to be personalized to
-your mailing address

And I will mail it to you! There is no limit on how many bookplates you can request but this promotion is for TODAY ONLY. This is a limited-design bookplate, which means this design is only for this promotion, so it is extra-special!

Wait, there's more!

I have 12 Ling and Ting cupcake decoration heads left from the Book Party. The FIRST 12 people to e-mail me their bookplate requests will receive one! These decorations are hand-made by me & Squatchie and look super cute on a cupcake:

Unfortunately, I can't mail a cupcakes to you but please have one in honor of Ling & Ting!

A small bottle

Last summer a two year old's favorite book was Rosemary Wells/Iona Opie's MOTHER GOOSE; we read it so many times that we learned every single one by heart. (He also wanted to know what every word -- including "treacle" -- meant.) He loved the book so much that he kept asking me to read it even once he could say the rhymes along with me. We both loved the sounds of the words, even when they didn't make any sense; and I think that nursery rhymes are a great way to give children a love of language. I bet if someone did a scientific study of them they might even discover that the sounds they repeat are the very sounds babies need to learn in order to strengthen the muscles that will later enable them to talk.

I myself love fairy tales just as much -- but those books have too many words and not enough pictures for him. So this summer I was very excited to find a new book of fairy tales with pictures on every page.



I love the cheerful illustrations -- but Red Riding Hood brought "a basket of food," not "a little cake and a small bottle of wine." I remember loving those details when I was a child, especially the small bottle -- I wanted that basket! The story also left out the mother's warning not to stray off the path; without that detail,the plot loses much of its point.

The only thing Jake liked in the book was the fight scene in The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We never even read most of the stories, and I couldn't help wondering if the way the author dealt with details was why the stories didn't capture his interest. I'm all for cutting out unnecessary words and details, but it's sad when a book doesn't pay enough attention to the words. Taking out too many can make stories bland and deprive children of the joy words can bring.

A Book Spine Poem about Friendship

Here is a picture of me with my two literary advisers--

Janet Wong & Grace Lin

I'm dedicating the book spine below below to my two good friends and literary advisers Grace Lin and Janet Wong. Both Grace and Janet have been of invaluable help to me in recent years. They are always there for me when I need help and advice with a poetry collection that I'm working on. They are busy women who are most generous with their time. I wanted to show them how much I appreciate everything that they have done for me by creating a friendship poem with the titles of children's poetry books.

Over at Wild Rose Reader, I have an original poem titled Things to Do If You Are an Orb Spider and a tale about how Grace and Janet helped me refine and rework my Things to Do poetry collection.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Poem Farm.

The Newbery Banquet, or My Cinderella Night

Once upon a time, there was a Cinderella who received an amazing invitation program to a ball banquet.
It even had her name on it!
As she sat in the ballroom banquet hall, she looked in awe all around her. She was really there! She knew it was magic that got her there. But, unlike other well-known Cinderellas who only have one, measly fairy godmother, this Cinderella had many.

First there was the Dress Fairy...Dress Fairy Cindy Pon who is the nicest & loveliest person to dress stalk as well as being a great author! Her Silver Phoenix is kind of a Young Adult Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.
who made sure Cinderella was clothed as well as a princess:

Because I went with the Dress #2! Majority ruled, even though I had to put straps on the dress.

And the Great Friends Fairies:
The blue rose girls, my greatest friends with me through thick and thin. From L to R: Anna Alter, me, Alvina Ling (back)Libby Koponen, Meghan McCarthy, Elaine Magliaro (missing: Linda Wingerter)
The Awesome Agent Fairy:
My agent, Rebecca Sherman, who so wisely guided & guides my career & does all the biz stuff that I hate to do, all while being a friend.
The Revelation Fairy:Janet Wong, whose wise words pushed me to finish Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. As well as being witty and warm, she is a great author whose new book looks really good!
Cinderella met some fairies for the first time:

I met Pam Coughlin (MotherReader) for the first time at ALA. We've been reading eachothers' blogs for so long, we felt like old friends! Pam was passionate advocate of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, so much so that I almost felt like I needed to send her a check at the end of the year!

While other Fairies had been there along the way:

Marketing savvy (and great author--check out all the buzz for her Bamboo People)Mitali Perkins, who helped me create the online booklaunch...she is the one who had me start my FB fanpage!

The fabulous Kirsten Cappy of Curious City who put together the the Activity Book and the Event Kit which a librarian told me she used recently to rave reviews!

Besides the many fairy godmothers (there are a lot who missing from this story, so sorry!) Cinderella, of course, had her Prince Sasquatch.

Alex, aka Squatchie, who made up for having to be on good behavior by purposely making goofy faces in all his photos!

So with friends, magic and a Prince Sasquatch, Cinderella was at the ball banquet. And, oh, how happy she was!

The King spoke his words:

Jerry Pinkney, winner of the Caldecott medal, gave a heartwarming speech. People ovated (is that a word?) him 3 times.

And, then, Cinderella had a feeling that the big dance was coming...

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon on the big screen!

Yes! Her time had come!

I jump onto the stage to receive the NEWBERY HONOR!

"Is it really for me?" I ask Newbery Chair Katie O'Dell with my psychic mind. She assures me it is.

See, it IS mine! My name's on it!

I'm just going to take this with me, okay? You don't mind, do you?

Run! Before she changes her mind! NO TAKE-BACKS!

Safely back in her seat Gracefully retired, Cinderella listened to the words of the Queen:

Newbery winner Rebecca Stead gave an inspiring speech!

And then the evening was ending...the clock was striking midnight:

The receiving line after the banquet was really, really long! Though it was nice to meet so many people.

And Cinderella had no slippers:

But my feet couldn't take my heels anymore. And neither could Alvina's!

But she didn't care, because she had a much better accessory!

But my tired feet was still able to carry this home!

So, she lived happily ever after.

The end.

P.S. You can also read Part 1, Part 2, Part 2.5 and Part 2.75 of this story!

AlA recap

As everyone has already said, it was a great weekend at ALA! I only wish I could have squeezed in some signings and chatted with more of you, I think the heat might have melted my brain a little and slowed me down. Also (in case you can't tell in the photos posted), I am five months pregnant and a little less mobile than usual.

Anyways, my ALA weekend started at a Random House cocktail party at the Newseum. My publisher was celebrating the launch of the Cat in the Hat PBS show, and hosted a lovely party (complete with Thing 1 and Thing 2 cocktails) up on the rooftop below. We only stepped out on the deck for a few minutes as it was 100 degrees, but I did get these shots...





Then is was off to a lovely celebration dinner with Grace and company.

Sunday I visited the convention center and strolled along the isles looking at all the publisher's displays. Then in the evening headed back to Libby and Alvina's hotel to change for the banquet, which Grace so generously gave us all tickets to. Choosing my outfit was less about finding the perfect dress and more about finding something appropriate that would fit over my belly, but I managed with a very stretchy dress I bought on Etsy.

I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but I did get this one of the beautiful programs, filled with art from The Lion & the Mouse.



This is the banquet hall, SO big.



When they called Grace's name we all got up and cheered! She looked gorgeous with a glowing smile on her face. Such a perfect moment.



Then came Jerry Pinkney's speech, throughout which he had an irrepressible grin. I loved that he has his whole family stand up to be cheered for (librarians sure know how to hoot and holler!).



I found Rebecca Stead's speech incredibly moving. She divided it into four parts... how she became a writer, found the courage to keep working on her novel then accept the attention it brought, then ended with all the ways in which she is grateful. It was so humble and relatable. Especially the part where she talked about always fearing the moment when people sung her happy birthday and were all staring at her... she said winning the award felt like a million happy birthdays, but she loved it!



Here is me, Libby, and Elaine at our table. Again, I wish I had taken more pictures, but hopefully other people's posts will fill in where mine leaves off. Congratulations Grace and all the winners!