save the date for the Starry River of the Sky Booklaunch!

As I may have mentioned, I am getting very excited about the release of Starry River of the Sky! I'm so excited that I decided I must have another book launch, even though I had thought the Dumpling Days launch would be my last. But with Rain Dragon proving herself to be a nice baby and this book being so important to me, I thought I'd risk it. Also, this might very well really be the last book launch, at least at my beloved Porter Square Books, as we're thinking of moving out of the area...

 SO, save the date for the Starry River of the Sky Book Launch:

 Sunday, September 30th at 3pm
Porter Square Books
25 White Street, Cambridge MA
 617-491-2220 (reserve your copy today, which automatically reserves your goodie bag, by the way)


 As usual, I will plan the most awesomest goodie bags I can (I am thinking star-shaped cookies!) with many prizes (perhaps special edition pocket pacys?). Stay tuned for next month when I reveal all the details.

 Not local? As usual, you can pre-order you book from Porter Square and I will sign it for you on launch day plus send along some extra goodies (probably not the cookies, though). And watch for the online giveaways I'm planning, too!

baby book fail!

Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day? is one of my favorite books so I thought I would take it out to read to the Rain Dragon, though it is a kind of old for her.

 At first she was rather interested:

But she got quickly confused:

She's thinking, "Were those pigs eating bacon?"

I guess I should go and get some baby board  books for her instead! Any suggestions?

the back and forth...

I'm just wondering: for all of you authors out there... how much back and forth do you guys do over little text things or big text things with your editor? Do you think the overall product is better or worse in the end? Was there ever an occasion where you felt that your book came out worse? Okay, okay, if there was you're not going to say anything. Well, maybe you will anonymously! Please do! A lot of times I get really frustrated and I feel that I am right. I'm sure the editor feels that she is right. But in the end what I do is come up with a better solution to the problem that pleases us both.

Our Sixes

Awhile ago, when she was just starting the book that became Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Grace posted about Faulkner's six -- the six things Faulker thought every novel was "about," or should be. Grace then went on to post her own six  -- to me, a much more interesting list, since it was her list about a specific book.

She said she was sure the list would change. And one of the things that makes the list interesting to read now is that one of the main themes in WTMMTM -- gratitude -- isn't on it. I love that -- and what it shows about the aliveness of the story.

I hope this novel I'm writing comes alive in that way (or is alive already, I'm REALLY trying not to judge it as I write; I haven't even read it all the way through). And if it does, maybe my list will change too. Or maybe it will come alive without the list changing -- but anyway, here are my six:

trust
coziness vs. adventure
love
courage
resourcefulness
stewardship

Even if the list changes, it's good to feel, or have the illusion, that the book is about something!

Children's books in the Olympics

As some of you know, I've been on a small Scottish island for the last four months

and for the last four weeks, staying with a family. Last night we had a party to watch the Olympics Opening Ceremony. I think the UK has to be the only country in the world that would read a passage from a children's book (the part in PETER PAN describing the island, as you imagine it just before you fall asleep) during the opening ceremony....and have it read by another children's book author (JK), and include it and other books in the dancing.

What the people I was with enjoyed most about the ceremony, though, were all the funny bits: the Brits do like to laugh, and laugh at themselves! Even the Queen became part of the humor, though Mr.Bean in a spoof of Chariots of Fire was funny, too.

No one mentioned (and I'm not sure if anyone there but me even knew) that the connection between the National Health Service and Peter Pan is that J.M. Barrie gave all the profits, during his lifetime and for as long as the copyright lasted, to the Children's Hospital -- and bought 20 tickets for the opening night and gave them to orphans.

For many years, Peter Pan was my favorite  book and I was glad to see it featured so prominently last night, and inspired by what I remembered of J.M. Barrie, too. His giving tickets to orphans was not totally altruistic: he was known then for his adult plays and was afraid this would bomb with them -- though pretty sure kids would like it.

a married blue rose girl

Alvina got married!

Don't they look beautiful?

Which is one of the reasons it's been so quiet around here recently! We've been celebrating (as well as working and watching babies):

Anna & Grace (holding baby Hazel) with bride Alvina

But we should all be back soon...

a kid art blog

I'm moving yet another thing to blogger. This is going to be the children's art blog: http://kidsartcreations.blogspot.com/

I think it will be a lot easier for me to maintain. I tried to keep the same look as what I had on my blog. I   am finally figuring out how to use blogger. I never really tried to really use it and make it work for me before. It's just so much easier to have IT resize the images than for me to fiddle around on photoshop for hours!

OLD BLOG - NEW BLOG

I've started up my Fireside Chat again, but this time I've moved it to Blogger. This is so I can write on the couch and when I travel and easily post things without resizing images and worrying about HTML and all of that jazz. But I fear it may need some organization. I really admire the other ladies' blogs. They are very organized and entertaining. I'm not a very organized person. Well, I take that back. I can be VERY organized. Freakishly so. OCD kind of so. I love containers, and things with wheels, and shelves, and labels, and all of that. The problem is that my brain is all over the place. And I have trouble focusing sometimes and I think my blog(s) reflect that. I believe this is why i have ended up with so many blogs all of a sudden. It's some sort of strange attempt to organize. Now I don't know what I"m left with. Probably too many blogs.

Anyway, Fireside chat was always supposed to be about what's going on with me everyday plus some children's book stuff - but not the business - not book reviews - none of that. But I'd still like to organize it somehow. I love how grace has a picture of the week and an on my desk. Anna has a furball friday... So what am I to do? Any suggestions?

This is my blog thus far:
http://meghansfiresidechat.blogspot.com/

West coast book signing with Grace and Anna

Come join Grace and myself in L.A.! We will be reading and signing our books, doing a drawing demonstration, and answering any questions kids have about how to make a book at Pages Bookstore in Manhattan Beach.

Hope to see you there!

Details:
Sunday, July 22nd
1:00 pm
904 Manhattan avenue
Manhattan Beach, ca 90266
pagesabookstore.com
t: 310-318-0900 (if you can't make it, call & order a signed book!)

Dear readers:

As you've probably noticed, posting has been quite sparse this summer. We want you to know that we have not forgotten you and remain devoted to the readers that have inspired us to post for so long. This has been a particularly busy time for all us Blue Rose Girls; I don't think we have ever had a stretch where each and every one of us has been so occupied by other things! Between travel and new babies and wedding planning, I'm afraid blogging has been the last priority on the list. Please bear with us while we soldier on through these next couple months and know that we will be back full force soon. In the meantime, we will post as often as we can.

Below are a few things going on in my world lately.

First plane trip with a toddler:

(she quietly read the in flight magazine for much of our first leg)

First haul of pick-your-own at our CSA:



First visit to a local beach:

Soon we'll be packing up for Alvina's wedding! Can't wait!

more process

More sketch to final paintings for Starry River of the Sky:

small sketch

final painting--sketch on side to show scale!

"The Dirty Cowboy" Banned from Libraries in a School District in Pennsylvania

Yesterday, I wrote a post for Jonathan Turley’s blog about the banning of Amy Timberlake’s book The Dirty Cowboy from elementary school libraries in the Annville-Cleona School District in Pennsylvania. Earlier this year, the parents of a kindergarten child complained about Adam Rex’s illustrations in the book. The parents felt that Adam Rex’s illustrations of the cowboy’s partial nudity in the book were “pornographic” and wanted it banned. After the parents made the complaint, the district’s book review committee voted 5-1 to remove the book. In April, the school board agreed with the parents and voted unanimously to remove the book from school libraries in the district.

School District Bans 'The Dirty Cowboy' Book

Here’s a link to my Turley blog post: “Dirty” Is in the Mind of the Beholder: Children’s Picture Book Banned from Elementary Libraries in Pennsylvania School District

"An exciting time to be an author!"

I've never been to BEA, though I've always wanted to. I really wish I had gone this year because  Alvina spoke about my new book,  Starry River of the Sky at the middle grade "book buzz":
 

Didn't she do a great job? I hope people were excited about the book!

But I also was really interested in BEA because I know that the publishing world is changing. For me, these changes fill me with apprehension and I worry about what the future will bring.

However, my friend Janet Wong, who did go to BEA, has a different viewpoint. When Janet's early poetry collections Good Luck Gold  and Behind the Wheel: Poems about Driving  (originally published by Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster) went out of print, she got the rights back and created e-book and paperback versions. And when I asked Janet about her BEA experience, she said, “This is an exciting time to be an author!”

I was so intrigued that I asked Janet to share some of her "takeaway thoughts" from the conference. I thought they would be interesting for anyone interested in self-publishing e-books (which might be all of us in the future!).

Here are Janet's BEA notes:

 1) Plan an e-book at the same time as your print book. An e-book edition of your print book might be released later; you want your text and illustrations to work without the need for too much tinkering. For poetry, keep the Kindle screen in mind when breaking your lines; for picture books, make illustrations vertical or square. (Design for the “worst machine out there”; lots of kids will have hand-me-down devices.)

 2) Authors need to think about metadata; discoverability is key. When planning a new book, spend a couple of hours at Google Adwords or Market Samurai. (If you don’t know what metadata means, Market Samurai has some short online videos that explain it.) Knowing the most frequently searched keywords might give your book an additional new direction, more structure, and a better title.

 3) Think of an e-book as a “continuing work-in-progress.” One of the great things about e-books is that you can “play” with your book even after it’s published. If you are the publisher, try different prices and try to measure the effects on sales. Insert new links into the back matter to make readers aware of new books or new related blogs or sites. Parts of your text can be reworked at any time. Audio features can be added. E-books are still in an experimental phase; we shouldn’t be afraid to treat them like experiments!

 4) Social Media and Networking Tips: Pinterest is where it’s at. Put up a Pinterest board for each character in your book or post photos related to your book’s setting.

 5) Our business is changing so rapidly . . . this is a very exciting time to be an author. Don’t be afraid of the changes--have fun!

 Thank you, Janet!

Singapore and BEA

I've been MIA again lately--and I apologize, but my posting will be sporadic until August, most likely.

Two weeks ago I was in Singapore for the Asian Festival for Children's Content. I had never been to Singapore, and was excited to go, mainly because I had heard so many incredible things about the food there! I was, of course, also looking forward to the conference, and meeting friends I only knew through blogs and Twitter, like Tarie Sabido, who blogs at Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind, and is a huge fan of Grace Lin's work. Tarie and I arranged to have dinner my first night in Singapore. I had a bit of a hellish trip over--a delayed flight to London resulted in a mixed connection, and I ended up having to hang out at Heathrow for over nine hours. All was not lost, though, as I got a much-needed mani/pedi while I waited, and still made it to Singapore in time to check in, unpack, and meet Tarie for dinner.

I had been told that I HAD to have a dish called "chicken rice" while there, and so Tarie and I walked over to the nearest food centre, Makansutra Glutton's Bay. There are these food centres all over Singapore, and they're basically outdoor food courts with all kinds of food. We found chicken rice, which is basically rice cooked in a special chicken broth with chicken. It's a very simple, tasty dish. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

chicken rice!

Tarie and me

The next morning Tarie and I met to head over to the festival together. Leonard Marcus gave the morning's keynote, and then there were several breakout sessions. I attended one on translation, and one on the Filipino Book Market--I found both to be fascinating.

In the afternoon, Sarah Odedina, Managing Director of Hot Key Books in the UK, and I spoke together about "Making a Bestseller." (But really, don't ask us how to "make" a bestseller. There's no magic formula.) Author Candy Gourlay has a nice wrap-up at her blog, "Notes from the Slushpile."
She also has a nice summary of the 1st-page critique I participated in on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Sarah and I once again collaborated, this time on an all-day Master Class. I think the official title was "Editing a Bestseller" but we basically focused on craft in the morning--we talked about character, plot, setting, and dialogue, and in the afternoon we talked about point of view and then did a writing exercise and critiqued each of the 30-something participants' writing, and then ended on a discussion about the business of publishing. I thought it was a rewarding, stimulating day (and hope the attendees agree), but I must say, it was also exhausting and by the end of the day my brain was mush.

But I was still itching to see some of Singapore, and so that night an author and I went to the Night Safari at the zoo. We saw lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, and more, but I must say, our favorites were the flying foxes and fruit bats (who flew so close to our heads we had to keep ducking) and these scaly anteaters called pangolins.

It was too dark to take pics of the real animals, but here I am with a pangolin statue!

We then managed to make it to the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel around midnight for a quick Singapore Sling--the drink had been invented there.

The next day I had lunch at Epigram Books with an editor, Sheri Tan, and the CEO and Publisher, Edmund Wee. Sheri Tan had been an editor at Simon Spotlight for 15 years, and although we had never met in the States, she introduced herself to me at the conference and we had some mutual friends. She was originally from Singapore, and had recently moved her family back there.

the open-plan Epigram offices--gorgeous.

In the afternoon, illustrator Isabel Roxas and I met up with a friend of a friend of a friend named Eliza who had attended my masterclass. Isabel lives in Queens, but we had never met before Singapore, although she had visited our offices and met with some other editors. A friend of Eliza's joined us as well, and they took us to see the famous symbol of Singapore, the merlion! Yes, part fish, part lion, and quite cute.

We then went to the famous Orchard Road--an upscale shopping area that reminded me of a cross between Times Square and Fifth Avenue.

Orchard Road is so called because it used to be an orchard. Hence the metal "trees" on the outside of this mall.

We ended the night in the most delicious way possible--famous, Singaporean chilli crab!!! So, so, so, good.

Isabel about to chow down!

This picture makes me salivate.

The next day, another Master Class attendee, Katherine, offered to take me around. We got Thai food for lunch, and then wandered around Little India. Then, she dropped me off at the beautiful Botanic Gardens, where I wandered until dinnertime. After a quick and final last chicken rice, it was off to the airport and home for me. What a whirlwind trip it was!

The street where we had lunch--a nice mix of traditional and modern.

in the orchid garden

I absolutely loved Singapore, and the AFCC was so well organized and invigorating. Thank you to the organizers and the sponsors, and thank you especially to the attendees and my new friends who showed me around! Thank you so much for your warmth and hospitality.

Two days later (after editing Laini Taylor's Days of Blood and Starlight in between), I was back in the thick of work with Book Expo America (BEA). Here are a few pics:

the view from the hotel suite where we hosted meet-and-greets for Chris Colfer in honor of his debut MG, THE LAND OF STORIES

The speakeasy scene for THE DIVINERS party

Erica Perl and Alison Morris

Libba Bray sang a few songs to entertain the crowd. She rocked!

the BEA Children's Breakfast

Chris Colfer, the charming and funny emcee, and author of THE LAND OF STORIES

author Libba Bray with the huge banner for THE DIVINERS

speed dating with Libba Bray

The amazing dessert table at the Lemony Snicket party

Megan Tingley introducing Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket)

I also participated in the Middle Grade buzz panel where I talked about Grace's new book, Starry River of the Sky, coming this Fall. You can view that panel and others at the BEA livestream channel here.

It was an amazing, whirlwind conference, and I'm still catching my breath. Now back to regular life! Next up is the ALA conference in Anaheim in two weeks! And away we go again...