Caroline Grant's Blog, page 4

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton

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Masha Hamilton's gripping new novel, 31 Hours, tells the story of a young man, Jonas, who is smart and sensitive, worried about the world and wanting to make a difference. He reminds me of someone one of my sons could grow into someday, someone I would want them to grow into someday. Except for this: Jonas falls under the influence of a man named Masoud who convinces him to participate in an act of terrorism.

Jonas' is just one of the storylines in the novel, which introduces us to three fa...

Mama at the Movies: Ponyo and The Secret of Roan Inish

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It was sea-creature month at the movies for me, first taking Eli to see the new Miyazaki film, Ponyo, and then watching The Secret of Roan Inish on my own. Here's an excerpt from my latest Mama at the Movies column:

With all the summer buzz about the new Hayao Miyazaki film, Ponyo (2009), I thought maybe this would be my son Ben's first movie-theater movie. He's been reluctant to go to the theater, cautious of the loud soundtrack and the sense of disappearing into the story (which of course I ...

"The Juggle" -- How Mom Writers Balance Parenthood & Writing/Book Promotion

On September 11th, I'll be one of the guests on Christina Katz's Twitter #platformchat! I'll be talking with author and mother-daughter book club consultant, Cindy Hudson about "'The Juggle' -- How Mom Writers Balance Parenthood & Writing/Book Promotion."

Here are the details from Christina's website:

Time: 11:00 - noon PT (noon - 1:00 MT, 1:00 - 2:00 CT, & 2:00 - 3:00 ET).

Anyone with a Twitter account can participate. I recommend using Tweetchat.com and plugging in our hashtag...

The Writer Mama Back-to-School Giveaway with Mama, PhD!

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My friend and fellow mama-writer, one of the most savvy internet book marketing women I know, Christina Katz, is once again running her Writer Mama Back-to-School Giveaway where she gives away one book or magazine subscription every day in September. On September 25th, I'm delighted that Mama, PhD will be included in a trio of anthologies edited by Literary Mama editors Shari MacDonald Strong and Amy Hudock.

Our books -- Mama, PhD: Women Write About Motherhood and Academic Life; The Maternal Is

31 Hours Contest and Book Giveaway!

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To celebrate the publication of her new book, 31 Hours, novelist and friend of Literary Mama Masha Hamilton is hosting a contest:

Email a paragraph or story (500 words max) about when your intuition has been right about your child.

The top five stories—selected by Masha and guest judges—will get a free hardcover copy of the book and have their stories featured on the 31 Hours site.

Entries accepted until: September 30, 2009
Winners announced: October 16, 2009

Don't send your entries to me; forward t

Camping!

When I was about six months pregnant with Ben, Tony and I went camping up in Mendocino. It was part of our regular routine in those days, a couple weekends a year we would camp in Mendocino or the Anderson Valley, or the Santa Cruz Mountains. As I lay on my stack of thermarests that first night, thinking comfortably of the princess and the pea, I felt the clock ticking down a bit on this life, but I thought for sure we'd be in the tent again the following autumn with our new baby.

Flash forward s

Mama at the Movies: Rivers and Tides

[image error] I have unabashedly, and with great success, manufactured an interest in the artist Andy Goldsworthy's sculpture in my children this summer; soon I'll post pictures of our trips to see Spire, Stone River, and Storm King Wall. But in the meantime, here's my latest Literary Mama column about watching the film about Goldsworthy's work, Rivers and Tides:

My family has spent a lot of time in museums lately; both boys love to draw and paint, so we often take them to see works by other artists. We don't

Hungry?

I know, I have been neglecting this blog terribly of late; the other, younger, blog has been getting all my attention. So if you're interested in what I've been doing with apricots or the various ways we've been eating ice cream, then click on over there. Soon enough I'll be back here with posts about camping & cocktails, artwork and walks in the woods.

Oxford

When I was a junior in college, I spent a year studying at Oxford University. I read (and read, and read), produced two twenty-page essays every week which I then read aloud to my tutors, attended lectures, drank pints of Pimms, ate quantities of curry, rowed on my college crew team, and spent hours around the kitchen table with my four housemates, taste-testing the various grocery store brands of wheatmeal biscuits and chocolate hazelnut spreads.

When we decided to meet Libby and her family duri

Legoland

Some people go to Windsor to visit the castle, but when you have a boy who loves Lego and knows how to use Google Maps, you might just find yourself promising a day at Legoland. And it's a fine place to spend a day, although I have to wonder why, when every ride has a wait of at least fifteen minutes, and you can set out big long Lego tables so that the kids can play while waiting on one of the lines, you wouldn't put them at all of the lines? Just wondering.

We still rode a lot of rides, and we