Kate Messner's Blog, page 36

THE HIVE DETECTIVES in Vermont

When my daughter and I learned that Loree Griffin Burns was giving a presentation about her new book, THE HIVE DETECTIVES: CHRONICLE OF A HONEY BEE CATASTROPHE, in Vermont, we planned a spur-of-the-moment road trip to go see her.  We're big Loree fans and besides, we'd never been to  Manchester before.  The event was at Hildene, the Lincoln family home, which is one of the most gorgeous properties I've ever seen.



The gardens were stunning, full of bees and butterflies.





We spotted a Monarch cate...

Friday Five from a Mountaintop

Truth in blogging requires that I tell you I'm not on the mountain any more, but I spent a good part of the afternoon here...



I had a million things on my to-do list but decided that the weather was too perfect and loaded up the kids to go hiking on Poke-o-Moonshine instead. (When I mentioned this on Twitter, several helpful people suggested that I add "climb mountain" to said list and cross it off upon my return, which I thought was brilliant.) So we went. Kids hike fast, especially on the wa...

THE MERMAID'S MIRROR by L.K. Madigan

I was up until 3am reading last night, and it is all L.K. Madigan's fault.  L.K. Madigan and her darn mermaids...



I've been reading this gorgeous book for a couple weeks, little by little, because a) I've been really busy and b) I was so in love with the California Coastal setting that I wanted to savor every scene.  But last night, I hit a spot in the book that made it impossible to stop reading until I turned the last page in the wee hours of the morning. And I'm not even a tiny bit sorry. I...

Camping in the Adirondacks

So I went camping this week.  Which might not seem like a big deal, but it is.

Because the last time we camped in the Adirondacks, I woke up at 4 am, floating on the air mattress in what can only be described as a small pond inside our tent.  There were words spoken between my husband and me.  I believe "but it's waterproof" and "never again" were among them.

Either I have a short memory, or I'm a pushover for the kids, because I found myself in the same tent, in the same mountains this week. ...

Friday Five: Things I cut out of my novel this week

I've spent my afternoons this week at a great little coffee shop in Boston, doing another revision pass on my upper-MG dystopian novel.  Early in the week, I made a plot map showing where things move along nicely and where they slow down, and I decided that cutting some fat would really help the book's pacing.  Here's what got the axe:

1. Dr. William Noyes.  He was a secondary character whose job was already being done by another, more interesting secondary character. Goodbye, Dr. Noyes.

2. A w...

Thankful Thursday: Cambridge Edition

As we wind down our week in Cambridge, MA, I'm feeling thankful for all the opportunities, expected and unexpected, these six days in the city have brought.
Son's iPhone application programming day camp at MIT. Their days, interestingly enough, sound a lot like our days at my writers' retreat last week -- write quietly for a few hours, eat and talk, play a little, write quietly for a few more hours -- only with programming instead of writing. But with that same sense of being around "your...

Boating, Biking, Barbecue, and Buttons: An Update from Boston

A tiny apartment in Cambridge, MA is my home base for the next few days - I'm in Boston this week, doing research for a future book and getting some writing done while my kids are in day camp. This weekend, my husband was here, too, so we met up with some friends and took a ferry ride out to the Harbor Islands.  I would have been happy with the boat ride alone.



But there was also a fascinating beach on the other side.



This is Spectacle Island, which used to be a landfill, so the rocky beach is ...

What Happens at a Writers' Retreat

The first time my friend Marjorie and I cobbled together a group of children's writers for a short retreat, my husband was fascinated. "Really? What are you going to do all day?"

"Write."

He looked at me for a few minutes. "That's it?"

"Pretty much. We'll also take breaks to eat and talk about writing."

He nodded skeptically, the same way you might nod at a kid who promises she won't use that flashlight to read under the covers. Once the retreat started, he came out for a quick visit. "Wow," he s...

PENNY DREADFUL by Laurel Snyder

It's another hot, sit-on-the-dock, read, swim, and eat-watermelon day, and there is both good news and bad news to report.

The bad news is that my ARC of Laurel Snyder's PENNY DREADFUL got dripped on a little and is the tiniest bit soggy.

The good news is that I finished reading, and...wait...that's bad news, too.  Because I'm going to miss this book a lot.  It's one of those stories that feels like cold lemonade in summer or steaming hot chocolate in winter -- timeless and comfortable and home...

Thankful Almost-Thursday - Special Rocks

I think I mentioned that we're reworking a storage room in our basement into a writing room -- a quiet place where I'll be able to get work done, even when the rest of the house is full and noisy.  It's almost done...and it's given birth to a related project.  There is an empty, dirt-filled area right outside the window by my writing room desk where I'd like to plant a small rock garden.

About a mile offshore from my house, there is an awesome island with really cool rocks. They are better tha...