Ingrid Law's Blog

I'm wondering if the lovely bloggers who interviewed me on their site today put the crawling spider in the sidebar just for me... *shudder* Where is Uncle Autry when I need him?

Don't let the spider stop you...

The Secret DMS Files of Fairday Morrow: Author Interview with Ingrid Law: The DMS was lucky enough to interview   I ngrid Law , author of the middle grade novel  Savvy .  Lizzy reviewed this fantastical book and i...

Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone's business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she's been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her "upstream mother," she's found a home with the Colonel--a café owner with a forgotten past of his own--and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking about a murder, Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known.

Full of wisdom, humor, and grit, this timeless yarn will melt the heart of even the sternest Yankee.
Sometimes I lose track of time. Other times, I fear I'm simply lost in time as we know it. When it comes to Sheila Turnage's new middle grade novel, Three Times Lucky, I've been both early and late in my timeliness. Early, because I had the enormous pleasure of getting to read Sheila's utterly delightful debut last August (was that really when it was?) when I received it before it was even an ARC. Late, because the book was released weeks ago (with three starred reviews!) and I'm only now coming out of my hermit-writer cave to sing its praises.
When Three Times Lucky arrived for me to read and blurb, it came as a fully edited and formatted story, but one printed on loose sheets of letter sized paper bound together with a rubber band. But those lovely white pages were filled with the most delicious arrangements of words, describing a bevy of quirky characters--led by the hysterical and stout-hearted Mo LoBeau...
Erm...
To be unabashedly honest, my personal collection of loose Three Times Lucky pages still decorates my bedroom floor, where I left it in a heap of rapidly-turned-and-flung-over-the-arm-of-my-chair papers... and yes, it now becomes painfully obvious that I need a housekeeper--badly--but I prefer to think that I simply love knowing that the story is still right where I left it, in the same whirlwind-jumble of affectionately tossed pages.
In closing, all I have to say is: If the fate of the world rested on a single jaw-slacking simile, I would want Sheila Turnage to craft it.

Huzzah!

****

For more about Sheila and her book, check out Katherine Erskine's interview with this talented new voice in children's literature.

http://kathyerskine.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/sheila-turnage-three-times-lucky/

Or, head on over to Sheila's website: www.sheilaturnage.com

I had a One Shoe Writing Day today.

When I say ‘one shoe,’ that’s a good thing… I think. When I have a One Shoe Writing Day, it means I have sat for hours not realizing that I’m only wearing one shoe.

Now, normally, I kick my shoes off (both of them) at the first moment humanly possible. But today it took me four-and-a-half hours before I looked down and said, “Oh! I forgot something.”

On such one-shoe days, my mind becomes so lost in what I write, I don’t even know if the writing is good. I don’t know if what I'm writing has quality, or worth, but I’m so absorbed in the things I’m writing...

And the words I’m putting together...

And the poetry I’m building...

And the worlds I'm creating...

And the universes I am EXPLODING!...

that I look up and I realize—

Oh! I am sitting in a very small room.

Outside my door is a very big world. But it is not the world I was just in. It is not the world in which people who don’t even exist... cried. Or laughed. Or had dreams of barn owls that were once clocks.

And for a moment, the small-big, big-small real world right in front of me is both mundane and wondrous at the same time. Because it feels almost as fictional as the place I’ve been for the last four hours.

Wearing only one shoe.

I'll be coming out of hiding, briefly, to give the opening speech at the 2012 Association of Independent School Librarians' conference on April 18th. I'm looking forward to taking part in an event celebrating "Mountains of Information!"

For more details: http://aisldenver2012.weebly.com/index.html

I will be going back into hiding immediately after. (At least for a while.) But if you're local (in the Denver Metro area, in Colorado) and longing to meet some other really terrific authors at a book-signing event this spring--my friend (and brilliant, award-winning writer... really, I'm not kidding, I own every one of her books--except for the newest, which is a problem I will soon remedy), Laura Resau, will be at the Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl St. Boulder, CO, on Saturday, May 5th, at 2pm, along with authors Todd Mitchell, and Amy Kathleen Ryan. I plan to go listen to Laura, Todd, and Amy speak, and I can't wait to get my hands on their new books.

You should come, too! Everyone is welcome!

I think one of my favorite things about being an author is my weekly trip to the post office. While I may sometimes be slow in responding to the letters I receive, they never go unread, or unappreciated. Kids, parents, teachers, librarians, booksellers... you all knock my socks off and inspire me to keep working hard to write new books and make them the best they can be.

Take these recent projects that readers shared with me:

First, images from a class project in which SCUMBLE came to life--in LEGOs! Students in a classroom in my home town recreated and presented scenes from the book.

And second, just this week I got to enjoy another awesome SAVVY project--and a very elaborate one at that! Third graders from a book study group run by parent volunteers at Windsor Elementary School in Illinois mailed me a VERY fun package.

After reading SAVVY, the kids compiled a CD that included an original SAVVY song. They created the artwork for the CD case as well as the disc, and even wrote liner notes. Then they made a video of the whole group singing the song, "I've Got a Savvy and I know it!"

Needless to say, I was impressed.

And, I sort of wish I was in 3rd or 4th grade again.

I was pleased as punch to learn today that Savvy is one of the first two books to be featured on the new online Homeschool Literature Book Club.

Homeschool Literature is a site that promotes fictional children's books with homeschoolers as the main or supporting characters.

For more information about the website, go to:

www.homeschoolliterature.com

Sooooo behind in getting snail mail letters from readers answered! Guilt... guilt... guilt. It's easier to keep up with email--fewer steps, I guess.

If you've sent me a letter sometime in the past... er, 2 months? Maybe even (cringe) 3? I still have it and it is staring me in the face right now from a stack on my table. I haven't forgotten you, wonderful readers. I promise!

My friend, Sarah Prineas, award-winning author of the THE MAGIC THIEF series, has a new book out today! It is called WINTERLING. Kirkus calls Sarah's new book "...an atmospheric middle-grade fantasy that ties the coming of age to the turning of the year..." and also says that "readers will find refreshment in a tale as muted and miraculous as the return of spring."

Here is the description of the book from Sarah's website:

With her boundless curiosity and wild spirit, Fer has always felt that she doesn't belong. Not when the forest is calling to her, when the rush of wind through branches feels more real than school or the quiet farms near her house. Then she saves an injured creature—he looks like a boy, but he's really something else. He knows who Fer truly is, and invites her through the Way, a passage to a strange, dangerous land.

Fer feels an instant attachment to this realm, where magic is real and oaths forge bonds stronger than iron. But a powerful huntress named the Mor rules here, and Fer can sense that the land is perilously out of balance. Fer must unlock the secrets about the parents she never knew and claim her true place before the worlds on both sides of the Way descend into endless winter.

Happy Publication Day, Sarah!

Here is the book trailer...

May your days be filled with blessings,
answered prayers,
rewarded hopes,
and dreams that find fruition
this holiday season.
xo
Ingrid

And here's another great drawing from a letter I just opened!
Thank you, Emma from Pennsylvania!