Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 24

Five Things on a Friday

1.  My husband took this photo last week of the lighthouse on the cover of Touch Blue. It's Ram Island Light in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

2.  The 90+ degree days have disappeared and left rain and 60 degree days in their place. Which is fine with me!  I have a lot of work to do and the rain makes it easier!

3.  I'm finishing up my First Pass pages for Half a Chance, my April 2014 novel. Also, this week, I received editorial notes on my first chapter book in my "Shelter Pet Squad" series (Jelly Bean) and on our first Hot Rod Hamster early reader (Hot Rod Hamster and The Wacky Whatever Race).  So the expression of "It never rains but it pours" is happening outside the window and inside, too! 

4.  My daughter is bringing a friend home with her to visit next week. Her friend is from Arizona, so we're going on a whale watch. That'll be fun!  I haven't done that in a few years and it's always exciting. 

5.  I volunteer on Saturday mornings at my local humane society. I volunteer with the dogs, but look at this bunny we have available right now--she doesn't even look real.  She looks like she should have a "GUND" stuffed animal tag. :) 

Whew, it's been hot out!

"Ahhhh."

My guinea pig, Cookie, loved the fan!

Greenwood, Maine

Greenwood, Maine gave me a beautiful sunrise on my last day there.

Finding Details

As an author, I have to make choices in a story that are important to me, but I also have to make a lot of simple choices that don't matter very much.

I needed a teacher's last name in the chapter-book draft I was working on and nothing that I liked came quickly to mind. There's a small cemetery down the road from the cottage where I'm staying, and when I had driven by, I had noticed a mass of irises in front of two small graves. I thought of someone kneeling there with a trowel years ago, putting in bulbs. Plants that would come back every year, that would multiply on their own, that would last.



Teachers are a bit like that, nurturing children and hoping they continue to bloom and grow beyond them. So I decided if the last name on those stones was phonetically regular enough for a chapter book, I would choose their last name. When I walked down to see, the name was Cole, so that was perfect.

But I was glad I wasn't choosing first names.



The teacher's first name never comes up in the story. But in my own mind, I think her first name will be Iris.

Writing Away

For the past several days, I've been away with my critique partners doing some writing at a lake cottage in Greenwood, Maine.  It's been a wonderful experience to have all that time to work, go hiking, and think.

I sold a chapter book series early this year and my goal was to have a working first draft of the third book done this week.  Today, I'm working on the last chapter of that book.  So it's been a fun, beautiful time, but also a productive one. 

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Dads everywhere, and especially to my wonderful husband, John!

Having lost my own dad this spring, I wondered if this day would be hard. But I don't feel sad this morning. I am reminded of him so often that it still feels like he's there in my life even if I can't see him or visit him.

Rhubarb reminds me of him now, and I see it everywhere. It makes sense to see rhubarb in people's yards and gardens, but sometimes I come upon it in places where it is totally unexpected, in a place it has no reason to be, like this patch growing at the edge of a sidewalk and a parking lot with no houses around.



Whether by accident or design, the result is the same. I stop and think of him and say, "I love you, Daddy" in my mind.

A Surprise Trip to Nashua

I came home to find some delphiniums blooming

Yesterday, I was looking at a set of letters that had come the day before from a fourth-grade book group in Nashua, NH. After reading Rules, this group had paired up with students in their school special needs room and gone to art and music class with them and wrote books about their partners to present to both sets of parents (and later, they presented to the school board). Their project was written up in the local paper.

It was an amazing project and the letters were beautiful. I wanted to send each student a signed copy of Rules, but when I counted up the mail days before their last day of school, I wasn't sure if they'd arrive in time.

So I looked at my to-do list and decided nothing on that list was more important to me than being able to tell those kids how proud I was of them. I wrote to the librarian and said, "If I get there at 1:30 could you pull those kids out of class for a few minutes so they can show me their books and I can sign them a copy of Rules?" She wrote back, "Absolutely yes!"

It was a surprise to the kids, so when I stepped into the room and they read my nametag, they all had their mounths open. I sat between one of the book group members and a little girl who used a wheelchair and couldn't talk, and she was so tiny. In the middle of our chatting together, I felt something, and I looked down to see that she had her hand on the crook of my arm to touch me, and she was smiling the biggest, proudest, happiest smile

I reached over with my other hand and covered hers. She latched onto a couple of my fingers, and we held hands for the rest of the talk.

I don't think I will ever forget that.

From My Mail

I love this drawing that came in my mail.  It's the last scene in Rules.

Back to Work

Yesterday morning, Milo (my dog) and I went out there in the dark before everyone else was awake. I opened a manuscript file and got to work. It felt good to be writing again.



This is a photo that my husband took of one of the lakes I used for Half A Chance, the novel I have coming in April 2014.

Thank you, Lenoir Rhyne Playmakers!

My writing shed has something new.



A week ago I picked up a package at the post office and was so touched to find it was from The Playmakers at Lenoir Rhyne University. Inside was the script for their production of Rules, a beautifully-framed photo of me with the cast, and a big rubber duckie signed by everyone. I have hung the photo with the play poster in my writing shed where I will see them every time I come to work.



Thank you, Playmakers!