Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 52

It's a Book Baby!

 Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby!

Name: Capture the Flag
Date: July 1, 2012
Weight: 240 pages
Proud Parent: Kate Messner ( kmessner )
Godparents: Scholastic Press

Home from Florida

I had such an inspiring trip to Belle Glade, Florida. I did a program on Hot Rod Hamster for the PreK -2nd graders and Rules for the 3rd to 8th graders who participate in the Summer Reading Program.








Photos by Carrie Pena
 
Thank you to librarian Carrie Pena and to all the staff and kids of the Summer Reading Program!

Rules on TV

While I was in Florida, some friends sent me messages that Rules had made a cameo appearance on the Today Show!  Al Roker interviewed Newbery Medalist Rebecca Stead for Al's Book Club, and behind him was a copy of Rules. 

So this morning, I looked it up on the web to see if I could watch it.  :-) 

http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/toda...

Hello From Florida!

I made it here without any trouble from Tropical Storm Debby.  It's so fun to be here! 



My hotel has this beautiful gazebo out back.



I sat here and enjoyed the sound of birds that I don't hear at home.  And then I looked over and saw this little guy sunbathing.



My son LOVES lizards, so I took some photos for him.



Now I'll finish up my coffee and head out to see the kids in Belle Glade. :-) 

Wordless Wednesday

I love my mail.  :-)

Tropical Storm Debby : 5 Day Forecast Map | Weather Underground

[image error]

I'm flying to Palm Beach tomorrow for a book event on Thursday.  

Touch Blue

A girl with her grandpa going lobstering. New Harbor, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

My husband took these photos about a year ago (with the family's permission). When he showed them to me, I knew what he would say, before he even said it. 

"It's Tess." 

I have a special place in my heart for the characters in the books I've written, and I often do have that moment where I see a real person and there's something about that person that makes me think, "There she is." 



A character who feels real transcends physical time and place, though.  I've been honored to see that Touch Blue, which is so firmly set in place and people, has been embraced by readers who've never seen the ocean.  Never eaten a lobster.  Never driven a boat.

Sometimes that "There she is," isn't about physical things.  It's from the inside out. 

I was reminded of that by this review from South Carolina.

If you’re looking for a super-fast, moving, and heart-warming summer read, I highly recommend Touch Blue. At its core, it is a story about what it means to truly belong and how a person creates his or her own luck. This book is perfect for anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider–and who hasn’t?

Six on a Saturday

1.  My husband's photograph is July's "Where in Maine?" photo in DownEast Magazine.

2.  It's been so hot this week. Yesterday when John turned on the sprinkler, our backyard chipmunk ran out of his burrow and right through it! He's hot, too. 

3. I've seen a couple pages of finished art for our next Hamster book, and they are exciting and adorable! It's always a thrill to see those characters brought to life in Derek Anderson's hands. 

4  I'm off to Florida on Wednesday for a school event. I fly into the Palm Beach airport, and the school is in Belle Glade. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone, and it'll be so fun to be in places I've heard of, but never been!

5.  John is going to help me make a video tomorrow. I agreed to be an author spokesperson for a book drive sponsored by VSP Vision to benefit Bess the Book Bus. It's for such a good cause, I would've said yes no matter what. But they offered to give me 100 free exams/glasses to donate to the charity of my choice for my participation.  The chance to give new glasses to 100 kids in Maine whose families can't afford them is a huge prize. 

6.  There was a very nice review of Touch Blue in the Lexington SC Patch this week.   Touch Blue is on the South Carolina Children's Book Award list for next year, and all those state lists are such a help in giving a book a wider window of attention.

Deep Not Wide

This has been such a nice writing week. My novel revision is going well.  My editor was right that taking out a whole thread is making me focus on smaller things, which is good for this book. I'm being reminded of my favorite quote during revision.  

Go deep, not wide. --Andrew Wyeth


Bailey Island, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

Andrew Wyeth was talking about art, but it really speaks to me about revision. Writing with depth takes time and it comes through revision for me. It also takes a courage that I don't often have in early drafts.  I throw way too much into those early drafts, because I don't have the confidence to say, "This small, intimate story about these people in this moment is enough."

There's a whole world in those small, intimate moments, though.  And as Catherine says at the end of Rules, I need to "let that be enough." 

Because it is. 

Wordless Wednesday

Upstate, New York. Photo by my husband, John