Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 80

Happy Birthday, Hamster!

I had a wonderful first signing for Happy Birthday, Hamster yesterday.  Kennebooks is a beautiful independent bookstore in Kennebunk, Maine, and Ann, the owner, told me she was planning a birthday party for Hamster with hats and cupcakes and blowers. 

When I arrived, Ann greeted me with, "You have a full room upstairs, and I don't know if I've bought enough HATS!" 

Sure enough, I had a very full room of about 50 kids and adults, Here are a few of the party-goers:

  Aren't they adorable? And by not giving hats to the adults or the infants, we squeaked by with just enough hats!  

It was so much fun! Thank you to everyone who came. I felt a lot of happy goodwill coming back to me from the audience.  I saw some teachers I've done events with and some friends came, including Tami Wight and her daughter! It was awesome to see you, Tami!  

I even had a few teachers come by who were on vacation in Maine and saw the event advertised and wanted to tell me about their classes reading my books.  It was a bundle of fun!. 

Backyard Wildlife

  The chipmunk likes the sprinkler. :-) 

  I saw my first monarch of the season yesterday.  Poor thing has a ripped wing, but it didn't seem to slow him down any.

And this wildlife keeps all the rest in check:


 "Don't make me come over there, squirrel!"    

Thank you all for the good wishes yesterday on my new book. It's exciting to have a new book! Four books sounds like a real author, doesn't it?! 

   
And if you live in Maine, I have my first book signing tomorrow for Happy Birthday, Hamster  from 10:30-11:30 at Kennebooks in Kennebunk, Maine.  

It's a Book Baby!

 Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby!

Name: Happy Birthday, Hamster

Date of Birth: August 1, 2011

Weight: 40 pages

Proud Parents: Me( cynthialord ) and Derek Anderson

Godparents: Scholastic Press

End of July

I feel bittersweet about it being the last day of July. Summer is going by so fast.  Last night I said to John, "We wait all winter for this weather. We should get out and enjoy it.".



So we went out to supper and then for a walk along the water.

Five Things on a Friday

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"It's you, Milo!"

1. LiveJournal has been having problems due to a hacker.  So that's why it's been quiet around here. 

2.  So You Think You Can Dance is having a great season!  Sasha and Melanie are my two favorite dancers, but I really loved Lady Gaga as a judge this week. 

3.  My author copies for Happy Birthday, Hamster arrived yesterday. And they've come just in time! I wanted to make a book donation at my event next week with "Bess the Book Bus" (she gives free books to children), and I can give her some of these copies to put on the bus.   

Here's a video about how Bess the Book Bus was awarded a Citgo Grant this past year.



4.  Apparently this is a bad year for allergies, because I'm really fighting mine. 



 19 / 25 chapters. 76% done!


5.  The end is in sight.  In early July, I started over on my new novel, because I needed to make it simpler. I tend to take on too much.

But now I'm over 3/4 of the way through the draft.  I'm near the climax of the book, so I'm walking around with a sense of panic, but it's not really mine--it's the emotions of the book.  I have to keep reminding myself of that!

Wordless Wednesday

Elephant Head,  Crawford Notch, New Hampshire

At the Lake

On Sunday, my daughter, Julia, and I went to visit my friend, Holly. Holly is an amazing school media specialist in Texas, and I did a school visit at her school back in 2008.  It was a very special school visit, and we've stayed in touch ever since then. 

Holly spends the summer at her camp in New Hampshire. So Julia and I drove to Holly's camp and the four of us went kayaking.  Yes, four of us.  Me, Julia, Holly . . .



and Zoe, Holly's sweet Bichon-Poodle mix pup.  Zoe has her own pink life jacket!  It was so fun to see kids and adults react to her.  I heard one group of children say to their dad, "Look! It's a dog!" 

Zoe took all the attention in stride :-) 

There is a fair amount of wildlife on the lake, including a family of loons: two adults and twin babies. Here's one of the adults with the two little ones.

 

And then as I was kayaking, suddenly one of the adults surfaced right near my kayak!  It surprised both of us!



Very cool!



My new novel takes place in New Hampshire and includes some scenes on a lake, so I took some notes and wrote some details and took lots of photos--this is the best kind of research there is!!!

Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors Magazine

  bought one of my husband's photos to use on their August-September cover.  :-)  It's not on their website yet, but a copy came in the mail yesterday!

I've been working on my novel every day, but my assistant thinks yesterday's chapter was a bit of a snoozer!


"Put in more of the main character's DOG," Milo suggests.

To Cool Off This Morning. . . .

I looked at photos from my trip to Colorado last February!

Five Things on a Friday

Stonington, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

1.  It's very hot.  Yesterday the birdbath was the happening place to be!  The birds were lined up on the branches above it, waiting for a turn.  Then when I watered the garden, the chickadees had a wonderful time flying through the sprinkler.  They're hot, too!

2.  I crossed the halfway point in my draft.  Yay!  I told my editor I'd send it to her by the end of the summer, and I should be able to do that.

3.  I will have to go hiking for this novel. . . but not today. 

4.  Milo went to the groomer yesterday. He always looks so small without all his fluff.  I bet he's cooler, though!

5.  A big congratulations to my friend, Mona Pease, for receiving a Letter of Merit in the Barbara Karlin Grant from SCBWI for her picture book!  Well done, Mona!!!