Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 59

Turning Toward Spring

I took this photo last night on my way home from Freeport.   There was a flock of these black and white ducks swimming at the landing. 



I think they're Eiders. Though I'm not sure. 

When I let Milo out first thing in the morning, I hear our summer birds now. In New England we're always a bit skeptical about spring, because it comes with two parts sunshine and one part snow.  But there's a certain point where it turns for sure, and it's nice to know the birds have faith it's here. 

Five Things on a Friday

From the top of Cherry Mountain, Jefferson, New Hampshire. My daughter and I climbed this last summer.

1.  The end is in sight (and it needs a lot of work!).  I'm back to the last chapters of my draft of my new novel and now I have to make them work. Crunch time!

2.  My daughter applied to four graduate schools for library science, and she heard from the final school this week. . . she got into all four programs! So now she gets to choose. I'm excited for her! She's a smart, creative, thoughtful, and kind person. She'll make a great librarian.

3.  I've really enjoyed this eagle webcam from Iowa.  It's a wonderful chance to see an eagle's nest and babies up close. 

4.  I have a school visit next Wednesday at Mountain Valley Middle School in Mexico, Maine, and they have an amazing day planned. The students have all read Rules, so they will hear me speak, but they'll also cycle through programs related to differences in their area of Maine.  They'll meet people who work at Hope Association who work with children and adults with developmental disabilities, The Iris Network who do programming and education for the Blind. A group of therapy dogs and their handlers who visit local hospitals, a group of high school students who have learned sign language, as well as other activities.  It'll be an awesome day for everyone--including me!  I love that this school has involved their local organizations, because the kids may never see me again, but these people are their neighbors.

5.  Speaking of sign language, I came upon this cool Youtube of a high school student who is deaf signing the story of Hot Rod Hamster for deaf children.  Sometimes I can tell where she is in the story, and other times I have no idea!  But what really struck me was that she's storytelling our book.  Sign language is not a literal translation, so it's not about the rhymes or the fancy word choices I made. It's not about Derek's beautiful art.  It's all about the *story.* 

Home

I have a week and a half at home in Maine now to work on the draft of my new novel and get it to my editor. I was out running errands a couple nights ago, just as the sun was going down.

I love all the places I get to travel. 

But there's no place like here.

Another Book Baby!

 Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby!

Name: Bawk and Roll

Date: April 3, 2012
Weight: 36 pages
Proud Parent: Tammi Sauer( tamarak ), illustrated by Dan Santat
Godparents: Sterling Children's Books

Home from Connecticut

  
Yesterday was World Autism Day, and I spent the day with a wonderful group of sixth graders in Brookfield, Connecticut. The whole sixth grade reads Rules every year, and I was very impressed with how deeply they had thought about the book.

One of the teachers had allowed her high-school-aged son to come to school with her and join us for the morning. He has autism, and it was lovely to meet him and talk to him. In one of his classes, he'd had an assignment to choose six words to describe his life.  Here are the six he chose:

I live my life with autism.

He is now writing a memoir about his life for that class. He's a remarkable young man, and I was so happy to have the chance to meet him and talk to him. He told me that I'm lucky to a son with autism who will live at home with me for a long time. "You won't have to miss him the way you will miss your daughter," he said. 

In another month, Julia graduates from college. She's already thinking about graduate school and apartments and everything that comes with being an adult.  It's both so exciting and a little hard for me. I will miss her, and it reminds me that my son won't ever have that same experience.  I grieve that for him.

But the truth is that he doesn't miss it the way I miss it for him.  And hearing that young man with autism yesterday tell me that not only do I not need to grieve it--I am lucky for it, somehow the world opened up in a small way that it never has before.  It is one of the gifts my own son brings me.  He'll say something and suddenly the world shifts ever so slightly, and I see the world is really so much bigger, more complicated, and beautiful than I imagined. 

It's a Book Baby!

 Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby!

Name: Marty McGuire Digs Worms

Date: April 1, 2012
Weight: 176 pages
Proud Parent: Kate Messner ( kmessner )
Godparents: Scholastic Press

April Rules Day!

 


"Cynthia has composed various books that have touched voluminous people." --Hannah, Grade 5

Today is Rules' sixth birthday. It was published April Fool's Day 2006. I am so grateful to all those "voluminous people" who've read it in the years since.

I had to renew my permissions with HarperCollins for the usage of lines from two of the "Frog and Toad" books in Rules last month, and talking to ...the HC person (who could not have been nicer), it was really moving to look at my first contract with them and see the original sales projection for Rules was 5,000 copies. A year ago, it eclipsed a million copies sold.

So April Fool's Day, a day of unexpected surprises, was the perfect day for it to begin.

April Events

 
 
Maine. Photo by my husband, John

Monday, April 2, School visit, Whisconier Middle School, Brookfield, Connecticut

Wednesday, April 11, School visit, Mountain Valley Middle School, Mexico, Maine

Tuesday, April 17, School visit, Englewood Elementary School, Rocky Mount, North Carolina

Thursday, April 19, Library visit for Hot Rod Hamster and Happy Birthday, Hamster, Wells Public Library, Wells, Maine. Open to the public. 1:00 pm.

Saturday, April 21, New England Society of Children's Book Authors and Illustrators Conference, Springfield, Massachusetts

Wednesday, April 25, School visit, Washburn Elementary School, Washburn, Maine

Saturday, April 28, The Foundation for Children's Books Conference, Pine Manor College, Newton, Massachusetts

Five Things on a Friday

1. There were so many fun things in my mailbox this week from schools I've visited.  Newsletters, thank you notes, drawings--even a puzzle! 


Milo, lend a paw! 



When I visited Woolwich Central School a few weeks ago, the fourth graders had surprised me by singing a song that I wrote with my sister when I was 4 years old and she was 6 years old.  I have the lyrics on my website and the song is called, "Ding Dong the Cherries Sing!"


2.  I'm working hard on my next novel.  The chapters all seem to get shorter as the book goes along, so I'm trying to fix that!

 
3.  Thank you to the librarians of Virginia for including Touch Blue on next year's Virginia Young Readers' Choice list!  I'm thrilled!


4.  I usually love American Idol, but this season I simply haven't been able to get into it.  I'm not sure why.  I'm watching Survivor and America's Next Top Model, instead.


5.   A week ago Wednesday, it was 86 degrees in Maine, and this past Wednesday it was 34 degrees! I bought some soup at our local market for lunch, and Milo licked out the bottom.


Oops!

YUMMY!  Soup is fun to eat and fun to wear on your face!

What could be better than this?

From a child's note about Happy Birthday, Hamster