The Ling heads were made: the Ting heads were made: The boxes had their cupcakes: And the bags were filled with their magnets and chopsticks: And only needed decorating: But I had a hard time getting the help to part with the paper flowers:
However, everything was finished and brought to the bookstore for the LING AND TING BOOK PARTY!!! Where, after I spoke a little (tried to keep it short): It was time for the cupcakes! It was kind of a long line (thanks for your patience!): Because I had to admire everyone's matching Twin outfits!! This family deserves a prize for the cupcake theme coordination--they even have a matching Lissy doll: Though, these girls looked pretty delicious in their dim sum shirts: And these ladies are lovely in their spring colors, coordinated with Mom and brother: While these girls even had matching shoes: But, I admit, I'm a bit partial to those matching with ME! I hope everyone had a good time at the Ling & Ting Book Party! Thanks so much for coming!
After putting the finishing touches on A Photo for Greta, I am packing up my car and heading out for a week long road trip. I am a. very excited about this book and thrilled to have it finished after many years of developing the project and b. psyched for a long weekend and whirlwind road trip after many months of painting.
My car is packed and the first stop is New York. I'll meet with my publisher, drop off the art, and have a nice lunch. Then its back on the road and heading down to my hometown in Virginia to visit with my folks for a few days. My mom is doing me the very kind favor of looking after my plants next year while we're in California, so my car looks something like a greenhouse with 15 large leafy plants squeezed into the back of my Honda Coupe. I love my plants and couldn't leave them to wither.
Last stop will be DC on Saturday and Sunday, where I will join the BRG and lots of you (I hope) at ALA. If you are walking the floor or doing a signing or will be at the banquet let me know!
Got to hit the road, so I'll leave you with a piece of Greta art, more to come soon!
I'm on vacation at Lake Tahoe right now for a family reunion. Here's the view from my balcony:
No real post today, but thought I'd share a video from the upcoming movie Despicable Me that a friend shared with my brother on Facebook. Apparently, one of the characters is this adorable little girl named Agnes (she looks like she could perhaps be Asian?). There are a few hilariously cute scenes of her from the trailer that people have been focusing on. This video even plays it in slow motion:
It's so fluffy!!!!
Here's the trailer the scenes are cut from if you want to see them in context:
I might have to see the movie for that girl alone.
(Full disclosure: my company happens to be publishing the movie tie-in books.)
If you're going to ALA next weekend, how many hours have you spent trying to decide what to wear? I have spent too many to count, if I include time on ebay trying to find something. Not counting that, though, it's around 8 -- trying on the dress once it arrived, photographing it, getting undergarments for it, and discussing it with various interested parties -- including the BRGs of course and even the mothers of most of the kids I babysit for.
I picked out a black silk Marimekko dress on ebay, partly in consultation with Fiona from last week, her mother, and little brother ("Let's get the man's opinion, too," the mother said). By the time I consulted them, I'd narrowed the ebay choices down to 2:
* a black silk Marimekko cocktail dress
OR *a long emerald green dress (also Marimekko)
I liked the bright green one, for the color, but knew the style (babydoll) would be HIGHLY unflattering. Fiona liked the green one, too -- but her mother and brother both liked the black one, and I remembered Alvina saying that most of the editors would be wearing black. So, I went with that.
Fiona was disappointed, but brightened up when she thought of this idea: "You can spray paint it green!"
The dress came and looked horrible -- the swirly skirt that Fiona's mother,who has a fashion-model figure, described as "skimming the hips" encased mine.
The result: I'm going to a) wear something I had already OR (if he'll do it) get Fiona's father (an artist/furniture maker whom she claims is really good at making clothes) to cut out a pattern for me and make a new dress myself b) stop buying clothes on ebay c) try to remember that it never pays to try to be something you're not, in clothes or writing -- black is NOT my color, cool as it is and smashing as it looks on many people d) stop beating myself up for the time wasted
Every artist and writer I know is at least a little obsessive-some more than others, it's true. The trick is to obsess about writing (or painting, as the case may be). But how do you turn the channel in your brain once another obsession -- or procrastination technique -- has set in???????????
If anyone has the answer to that one, I'd really like to know it....but I'm also curious about how much time other people have spent on the what-to-wear question.
See you next weekend--and really, what I wear doesn't matter. The point is to celebrate Grace and Alvina and WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON and maybe meet some of you, too!
I’ve been really busy with mother matters and with plans for my daughter’s upcoming wedding in July. I didn’t have time to write up a poetry post for today…so I’m sending you over to How Sweet It Is!: A Poetry Tale, my Poetry Friday post at Wild Rose Reader. You can read about a trip Grace and I took to Yummies candy store in Kittery, Maine, in June of 2008. We took a field trip up there so I could get inspiration for a collection of candy poems that I was planning to write. Grace helped me select the subject of candy. Each of us has a serious sweet tooth!
(NOTE: My Wild Rose Reader post includes Salt Water Taffy, one of my candy poems from the collection.
Here are a few pictures from our trip up to Yummies:
So...Ling and Ting has received 3 starred reviews!!! It's true--Kirkus, Booklist and the Horn Book (my first star ever from them) have given Ling & Ting the elusive star! I am (happily) amazed. Truthfully, I'm telling you this not to brag but because I want you to think that the book is SOOOOOO good that you HAVE to come to the book party on Sat. C'mon, it's 3 stars of goodness!
Speaking of goodness, you can see the "original twins," the ones who first inspired Ling and Ting at this blog post HERE.
And, along the same lines of amazing strange things, I am only 7 (yes, 7) fans away from reaching 1000 on my facebook fan page. When I first started the page, I said that if I ever reached 1000 I'd give everyone a cupcake. I didn't think it would happen so I wasn't too worried about it. But now I am going to have to seriously consider the possibility. Do you think I can wheedle my publisher into sending me on the 1,000 cupcake book tour? Hmm, say 40 cupcakes at each event...that would be like a 25 city tour! Eeks! And where would I bake them in each city? Okay, will have to start thinking of a plan B...
But, in the meantime, you CAN get a real home-baked cupcake from me if you come to my book party on Sat. (It's at 3 pm at Porter Square Books). I'm thinking chocolate with vanilla frosting this time. Anyway, there won't be 1000, but there will be one for you!
So I have decided my dress! Which one is it? Well, you'll just have to wait until I post about my Newbery Banquet Experience! It's happening REALLY soon, June 27th, so you really don't have to wait that long.
In the meantime, thank you all who commented on my dress choices. I chose randomly (meaning I closed my eyes and randomly scrolled down) and these are the winners of the Where the Mountain Meets the Moon audio book:
One week til my deadline for A Photo for Greta! I'm at the stage where I go back over all the paintings and touch up little things, make sure the colors match, and make any last minute changes... there is much to be done so I will make my post short today.
Just yesterday I got a sweet little package on my doorstep, the first bound books for Disappearing Desmond. The book will be on shelves in August, more soon on festivities planned!
Amber Appleton lives in a bus. Ever since her mom’s boyfriend kicked them out, Amber, her mom, and her totally loyal dog, Bobby Big Boy (aka Thrice B) have been camped out in the back of Hello Yellow (the school bus her mom drives). But Amber, the self-proclaimed princess of hope and girl of unyielding optimism, refuses to sweat the bad stuff. Instead, she focuses on bettering the lives of her alcoholic mother and her quirky circle of friends: a glass-ceiling-breaking single mother raising a son diagnosed with autism; Father Chee and The Korean Divas for Christ (soul-singing ESL students); a nihilist octogenarian; a video-game-playing gang of outcasts; and a haiku-writing war vet. But then a fatal tragedy threatens Amber’s optimism—and her way of life. Can Amber continue to be the princess of hope?
With his zany cast of characters and a heartwarming, inspiring story, debut YA author Matthew Quick builds a beautifully beaten-up world of laughs, loyalty, and hard-earned hope. This world is Amber’s stage, and Amber is, well…she’s sorta like a rock star.
I've mentioned this on the blog before before: the first time I read the manuscript for this novel, I was on the subway, and I had just reached a very tragic, very emotional part in the story and found myself suddenly with tears streaming down my face, actually sobbing, tears mixing with snot (no, not a pretty picture). And it was at that very unattractive moment that I realized, I must have this book. I couldn't wait to get off the subway and finish reading.
There's more to the story, though. I was on the subway on the way to visit my boyfriend in Brooklyn, and as when I got to my stop, I was completely lost in thought, caught up in the world of Amber Appleton. As I walked down the street I mptoced there were a bunch of people walking towards me, and I moved out of the way. But then I got caught in one of those situations with one guy where we both move in the same direction over and over and end up in an awkward street dance. But I finally dodge to one side and get around the guy, annoyed to be taken out of my reverie, when he reaches over and grabs my arm, scaring the sh*t out of me, and says...
"Alvina?"
It was my boyfriend. Yes, I was so lost in thought that I didn't even recognize my own boyfriend. Well, he was off to get pizza so I turned around with him apologizing and explaining why I wasn't paying attention, still flustered and emotional from reading the tragic scene, when all of a sudden I hear another male voice say,
"Alvina!"
This time it was illustrator Christopher Myers walking a dog with a friend. Still flustered, I say hi and try to be normal, but at this point I wonder who else I'm going to run into on the street. And I really just want to go up to the apartment and read the rest of the novel!
Anyway, the latter part of this experience doesn't really have anything to do with the book itself, except that I always remember these encounters when I think of falling in love with the novel.
And so, the book. Oh, the book. The second half of the book lived up to the first half, and the next morning I immediately called the agent to tell him how much I loved it. My editorial readers all loved it, too--in fact, we were all speaking like Amber Appleton for week's after reading the book. True? True. Sucka!
So, let me confess something to you. Sometimes editors can get jaded. And sometimes we guard ourselves for defeat. It's only natural--you get burned, you get hurt, and so you guard your heart. I had gotten used to having books I loved get turned down by our acquisitions committee, and so I had adopted the "hope for the best, but prepare for the worst" attitude. But this time I decided I was going to go all out, I was going to put my heart on the line. I was not going to take no for an answer.
And so as I prepared my presentation for the committee, I decided to compare falling in love with the book with falling in love with a person. I started off with something like, "Although in real life it takes me four to six months to say 'I love you,' in this case it was love at first read." I went on to say that I wanted to marry the book. I also said that whereas in real life you can't really expect the person you fall in love with to change, the great thing about falling in love with a book is that it CAN change, with the help of editing. And on and on. It was a well-received presentation, but then I had to brace myself for the committee's reaction.
Well, there isn't much suspense here, because you all know that we published the book, but I will say that I had to fight off some other members who also wanted to marry the book. Then again, publishing is a polygamist business, so it's all good.
I generally pitch Sorta Like a Rock Star as Juno meets Stargirl. Juno because of the sharp, distinct voice (although truth be told, I like Amber's voice better than Juno's), and Stargirl for its uplifting message of optimism and hope.
Why do I love Sorta Like a Rock Star so much? Let me count the ways. I love it for the character and voice of Amber Appleton, who truly makes the world a better place. I love it for the fantastic cast of characters, from the Korean Divas for Christ, to the haiku-writing Private Jackson. I love it for touching me to the soul. For making me cry my eyes out, and then leaving me rejuvenated and exhilarated at the end.
I think Justina Chen said it best in her blurb:
“Every sentence in SORTA LIKE A ROCK STAR beats with hope and heart. If there ever was a manifesto for living with your heart wide open, for embracing exuberance, for choosing YES and WHY NOT, this book is it. And Amber Appleton? She is the ambassador of sassy optimism. This is a must-read, must-quote, must-hug kind of book, the best kind of book there is.” Justina Chen—author of NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL, and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (AND A FEW WHITE LIES)
Matthew (aka "Q") and his wife, author Alecia Bessette, have started a beautiful new blog called Quest for Kindness, which ties into the message of Sorta Like a Rock Star perfectly.
Seriously: read this book. You'll be better for it. It is "voice-y," for those of you who have trouble with that, but I urge you to stick with it. You won't regret it. Just make sure you have lots of tissues handy. True.
This is doll's food: the sandwiches are broken up chips, the salad is cabbage with the threadlike tops from a bulb of fennel, and the cake is a slice of banana with toothpaste squirted on for frosting. The four-year old brother thought of that one; his sister was I think a little distressed when he straightened out the doll's candy canes for candles.
Maybe you can see it better here:
The refreshments were in preparation for the ball - Fiona (one of the children I babysit) had plotted it all out before I arrived. It was not going to be much fun for Cissette (blond below) since her daughter Alice (lying on floor above) was going to eat all the food and do other naughty things. Before the ball, Alice was well-behaved, because she wanted a new dress. We made Cissette's outfit first: Fiona designed it and I spent most of the afternoon sewing it while the dolls talked: Fiona loved it and I have to admit, I was rather proud of it, too. It even has two buttons on the back.
There is something about these afternoons that's inspiring. Fiona and Ethan are both really creative, and just hearing what they say and getting in touch with that side of myself is really fun. And I think (do you agree?) that having ANY kind of fun is inspiring. It puts you in a playful state of mind, and when I've really had fun, I'm willing to work/write. When ALL I do is work/write, I don't want to do it. But sometimes the inspiration is more specific: when I told them an incident from my new novel, Fiona smiled and said, "That sounds like something Alice would do."
Over at Wild Rose Reader, I have some poems about grass--an original acrostic, an original "things to do" list poem, and a poem by the great Valerie Worth. I've taken over the chore of mowing and trimming our lawn recently--so I've had grass on my mind. That's why I selected the following poem by Robert Wrigley to post today. If you read the entire poem, you'll see that it's about more than mowing a lawn.
Mowing by Robert Wrigley
Sleepy and suburban at dusk, I learn again the yard’s geometry, edging around the garden and the weedy knots of flowers, circling trees and shrubs, giving a wide berth to the berry patch, heavy and sprawled out of its bounds. Shoving such a machine around a fairway of dandelions, it is easy to feel absurd. The average lawn, left alone one hundred years, could become a hardwood forest. An admirable project. Still I carry on, following week on week the same mowing pattern, cutting edges, almost sprinting the last narrow swaths. And tonight, as I mow over the bushels of fallen peaches, sending pits soaring over the neighbors’ fences, seems hardly any different. But on one crooked march I walk across the thin hidden hole to a yellowjacket hive. The blade pulls them up from their deep sweet chamber just as my bare legs go by.
The Foundation for Children's Books in Boston is one of my very favorite organizations. They hold a series of lectures with various children's book writers and illustrators at Boston College, give workshops for book lovers of all kinds, and do the very good work of bringing authors into schools that cannot afford them.
Last year, Grace began donating paintings to the Foundation to be auctioned on eBay as a benefit for their programs in under-served schools. This year, 12 different illustrators will contribute to the "Small Graces" auction (I'll be donating a piece this fall). Each month a small, unpublished, original painting will be auctioned on eBay with 100% of the proceeds to support the FCB's author/illustrator visits and residencies in urban schools.
This month's painting (below), a gorgeous, signed watercolor by Leo Landry with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, is on auction now through through Friday, June 11. Leo is a friend and incredibly talented, I especially adore his book The Snow Ghosts.
Click here to bid on his beautiful piece. This is a really great chance to get affordable original children's book art for a great cause!
Alert! I now have TWO dresses in my hot hands to decide between for the Newbery Banquet! Both are beautiful (to me, anyway). Both have fun stories. Both need alteration badly (you might have to use your imagination a bit, picture the dresses actually fitting on me). Which do you think I should wear?
Dress #1, The Forgotten Dress
Before Robert's illness took a turn for the worst, one of the things I did to get my mind off of things was to surf the internet for pretty things (ok, I still do that now). One day, on Ebay, I saw this gorgeous, Chinese-embroidered pink silk dress. It was way too large for me and I had no place to wear it to, but it was so eye-catching and going for so low that I put a bid on it...and won!
After Robert passed, I went through a great purging period. Somehow, I thought if I got rid of my things, I could get rid of my sadness and grief too. Clothes, shoes, shampoo, curtains...all sorts of random things were piled and pushed straight to the goodwill. The pink dress landed at the top of one of those piles, but the bright color caught my friend Libby's eye.
"This is gorgeous," she said, "Are you sure you don't want it?" "Take it!" I said, airily, waving my hand at it in disdain. So, she did.
And now, 2 and half years later, she's given it back. "It's perfect for the Newbery Banquet," she said, "You bought it for someday. This is the day!"
Maybe, with alteration, she could be right. What do you think?
Dress #2, The Dress of Destiny?
So, if you remember from my last dress post, I had for a while been hoping to wear the "Painted Lotus" dress from Anthropologie but had continually struck out in my search for it. I had about given up, but after posting, I decided to try once again. I scoured the internet...and found a size 0. A friend's daughter had the dress...also in a size 0. For a moment, I considered dieting and going to the gym like a maniac to try to fit into a size 0, but realized that was a bit excessive (and unlikely).
Then, following the lead of some of my lovely readers, I contacted Anthropologie. They gave me a list of stores that, according to their database, might have the dress in a size larger than a 0. I called all of them--the store in Michigan, the store in CA, the store in New York. None had it.
At that point, I realized I had spent WAY too much time trying to find this dress. I really had to stop thinking about clothes and write my novel! So, with great effort of will, I attempted to switch gears.
Now, in the book I am writing now, "Dumpling Days" the main character takes Chinese brush painting lessons. This is based on my childhood experience of Chinese painting class, but I have to admit my memory of it is a bit fuzzy. There were so many little details about Chinese painting that I knew I was forgetting. I needed to do some research. I remembered fellow author and artist Cindy Pon (whom I am on the Enchanted Inkpot blog with)did brush painting so I went to her website and blog and nosed around and then there on her blog I saw....
Oh my! What were the chances? It felt like some sort of weird fate and I felt obligated to e-mail her. As it was NOT a size 0, she very, very kindly offered to loan it to me: and here it is!
Unfortunately, this dress too needs a bit of alteration as I don't have the cleavage to hold it up and nor have I any desire to make a scandal at the banquet. But the dress is just as gorgeous in person as I thought it would be.
So, #1 or #2? Let me know what you think ASAP (the tailor must begin soon)! Leave a comment here with your choice and your reason why! To one random commenter I will send an audio book (4 cds!) of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (it's a really great recording!). Thanks!
This is a belated post (I'm always playing catch-up, I feel...), but wanted to do a quick wrap-up of the Book Expo America (BEA) festivities of two weeks ago. This year, BEA was during the work week, which I rather liked--it was nice not to have to give up a precious weekend (especially since I was moving), but being away from the office was tough, too. This year was also shorter than previous BEAs--two days to the usual three. So events were really crammed in there! At any rate, BEA was kicked off for me with the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC) Not-a-Dinner and (Mostly) Silent Auction. This year was especially exciting, because two of the books I edited were up for the E.B. White Read Aloud Awards: The Curious Garden by Peter Brown, and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin.
Little, Brown was one of the sponsors of the event, and we had a a big banner announcing our author guests. Here's Grace with the banner:
Michael Buckley emceed, and David Weisner gave a wonderful keynote speech. And then they announced the awards. First up was the picture book category. And the winner was...
Yay! After taking home the Children's Choice a few weeks ago, Peter picked up another lovely glass award:
Next up was the Older Readers category. And the nominees...
Alas, Grace did not win this time, but the very lovely and deserving Kate Messner won for The Brilliant Gall of Gianna Z. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!
The next morning, a little too bright and early, was the Children's breakfast. Camera crews were everywhere capturing the newly-scandalized emcee of the event, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, who was lovely and funny:
Then it was off to the booth for some fun--here's a standee to promote Peter's Fall picture book Children Make Terrible Pets:
Next was the speed dating. Bryan Collier and I sat with twenty-three or so different tables of librarians to introduce another Fall picture book, Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier. It was a whirlwind event--only three minutes with each table! And it was exhausting, but fun and worthwhile.
After lunch were some books signings. Peter and Bryan were signing at the same time in the autographing area:
And then in the afternoon, Wendy Mass signed ARCs of her Fall middle grade novel, The Candymakers.
And that was the end of the first full day! Later that night was the Kidlit Drinks Night--a huge, lovely turnout, and lots of fun was had.
The next afternoon, Peter participated in a tea with more booksellers:
Cornelia Funke was at the next table talking about her new book, Reckless:
And that was the end of the show! We headed back to the Hachette booth to say hello to an old friend:
And then were off to blow off some steam at Karaoke:
And, if that doesn't amuse you, another side of Mr.Mainstay, aka Dan Ackroyd:
So how would you make either of these funny if all you had were the words on the page? Do you think books can EVER be as funny as things that are acted out?
I've laughed at books, quite often, but I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at anything in a book that I started to cry, and that used to happen quite a lot when I watched the old SNL. And in fact, the Julia child one -- which I hadn't seen since then -- had the same effect. I realize that not everyone will find either of these skits as funny as I do -- maybe no one will!
Grace often shows us dresses and outfits that she's considering wearing to special events. I thought I'd show you a picture of the mother-of-the bride dress I bought to wear at my daughter's wedding in July. I got my dress in purple.
One of the things I like best about this dress
is that it is lightweight and comfortable.
Here are the shoes I bought to wear.
I think I'm going to have to practice
walking in them.
I almost never wear high heels.
I don't want to wobble when I walk down the aisle!
Since I'll be wearing purple at my daughter's wedding--I selected the following poem by Jenny Joseph to post today:
Warning
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells And run my stick along the public railings And make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in the slippers in the rain And pick the flowers in other people's gardens And learn to spit.
After mailing in the jacket painting for A Photo for Greta a few weeks ago, I just got the layout back from the designer. I love the pink type! Its so exciting to see the book coming together. A few more weeks on the art and all will be done...
