Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 82

Looking Closer Can Make Something Beautiful

is my favorite rule in Rules.  In my next book, my main character is a photographer, and my husband took me along on one of his sunrise shoots last week.  He was talking to me about why he was choosing the scenes he was, what he was thinking about, etc.  Suddenly he knelt down, and there in the branches of this bush--


Bailey Island, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

was a small snail.  It was a good reminder there's value in walking slowly.  There's a whole world of tiny beauty you miss when you rush by. 

I love that rule about looking closer, because it's true of people and it's true of things.  I see snails all the time. They are all over the shore in Maine. I like to sit one on my palm and feel his foot push against me so he can peek out from under his shell and see the strange new land of my hand.

But this little, near translucent, courageous one (who must've worked so hard to climb up there) made me look closer and marvel. 

And see he was beautiful. 

A Few Photos from My Week Away

I spent this past week writing at a cottage right near the ocean. Here is the porch where I drank my coffee in the morning and did some of my writing.



And across the street from the porch.




This scene was just down the street from me.



I found a handful of seaglass on this beach.



 And fingers full of lobster bands.

Whenever the wind blew, I heard this bell buoy ringing.



It's such a beautiful sound.

The lady who owns the cottage where I stayed, feeds these two gulls who think the cottage belongs to them. I fed them, too.  I did spoil them a bit, though!  The really liked fried clams and quiche.   



And I got lots of good writing done. 



It was heavenly.

Away for a Week

This afternoon, I'm leaving for a little house by the sea.  This will be my view for the next week:



As a thank you for all the work and events I do during the school year, my husband rented a cottage for me for a week so I could write uninterrupted and make a solid reconnection with my new novel.  It's an amazing gift, and I'm going to do my best to make the most of it. 

The cottage has no internet, which will be a help in getting work done!  And next Saturday when I check out, I have to drive right to the Boothbay Book Festival, where I'll be signing books in the afternoon. 

So I will catch up with everyone next Sunday.  I hope my Canadian friends had a Happy Canada Day yesterday. And Happy Fourth of July to my American friends!  

Five Things I Loved About The French Quarter of New Orleans

1.  The porches.

   

2.  The food.  Julia and I tried all kinds of new foods!  Fried alligator, crawfish chowder, jambalaya, red beans and rice, gumbo, coffee with chicory.  This wonderful little restaurant was next door to our hotel, and we had breakfast there. 

  

And we tried beignets at the Cafe du Monde.  Wow!  So good. They taste a bit like fried dough buried in powdered sugar. 

  

Outside, you can watch the man making the beignets through the window. 

   Those aren't white gloves he's wearing--his hands are drenched in powdered sugar.

3.  The history. 

  Julia and I went through the Voodoo Museum.

  

4. Jazz.  Julia wanted to go to Preservation Hall to hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.  It's a tiny place, so you have to line up well in advance.  We were there an hour early and there was already a line.  While in line, the clouds rolled in and we had a ferocious rain and lightning storm.  So everyone in line got soaked!  I don't think I've ever been that wet without going swimming!

    

But it was worth it.  They were AMAZING.

5. The quirky-ness

  
I smiled at these little cars you can rent!


Thank you, New Orleans for your hospitality.



Louisiana was very good to me--and to make the trip perfect, a Louisiana librarian told me that Touch Blue had made the 2013 Louisiana Young Reader's Choice Award list.  That's it's 9th list, and to find out while in Louisiana, was very special. 

Down in the Bayou

On Tuesday, Julia and I spent the day being tourists in Louisiana.  We started the day with a swamp tour!



The Jean Lafitte Preserve is a beautiful area.  I was hoping to see an alligator, but I didn't need to worry. We saw probably 20 in the canal and in the bayou.  Our tour captain fed this one to bring him closer (which seems like a bad idea to me!).



The herons, the frogs clicking, the marsh mallows and spanish moss and cyprus trees--it was beautiful and strange.







Our tour captain was delightful--funny and knowledgeable, and he obviously loves this area. 

  He brought out a little alligator and taped his mouth so we could pass him around and hold him.  Not everyone wanted to, but most of us did! This is Julia holding him.




We also saw carp jumping!  The captain said the vibrations from the boat make them jump.



I'm so glad we had the chance to do this!  What a great way to start our tourist day!  Tomorrow I'll show you The French Quarter of New Orleans. 

ALA--Monday

At ALA on Monday, I spoke on a panel about autism.  The other participants were:  author Francisco Stork, Dr Ricki Robinson, and librarian Patricia Twarogowski, who has created effective programming for special needs children.  It was very interesting to hear the other panelists, and I talked about the needs of siblings.  

Later,  when we were talking about communicating with people with autism, I said, "You will make some mistakes, and that's okay."  Because I think sometimes people get so afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing that it freezes them into doing nothing.  

"Even I make mistakes with my son, and I've had almost 19 years of experiences with him," I told them and went on to tell a story about being invited to speak at the Asilomar conference last February where David Wiesner was the illustrator keynote speaker. 

"My son loves lizards, and Art and Max is a favorite book.  So I had the idea of bringing my son's copy of Art and Max with me to California and asking David to sign it.  I thought, 'How special would that be?!!'' 

But when I told my son the idea, he grabbed his book away from me and went into this room and slammed the door!  Because here's what he heard:  "Mom is going to take your precious book across the country away from you and she's going to let some guy write in it!"  

I explained to the audience that we were both right, but looking at that situation completely differently. I apologized and told him we'd try again. 

I smiled at the audience. "Hugo Cabret is another of my son's favorite books. And I knew that here in New Orleans, I might see Brian Selznick, but  HUGO STAYED HOME!"  

They all laughed, but I think it's a genuine message.  It's hard for my son to view things through my perspective, but it's also hard for me to view things through his--we both make mistakes and we forgive each other and we try again.   

Then Francisco and I were whisked off to the Scholastic booth for a signing with Jordan Sonnenblick.

  Scholastic gave away F&Gs of Happy Birthday, Hamster!   I signed some of those and lots of copies of Touch Blue and Rules.

  It was very exciting to see Hamster smiling down at me.


 
I'm sitting with Francisco, and Jordan is at the first table signing.

While I was signing, I heard someone come up behind me.  It was Brian Selznick.  Lizette Serrano of Scholastic had been at my panel talk, and she told Brian how much my son loved Hugo Cabret.  He signed a copy of that book and his new one to my son. 

   What a sweet, generous gesture. I was very, very touched. 

I signed steadily for an hour, and then I had a Hot Rod Hamster signing at the Follett booth.  Julia took this photo of my line:

  Thank you to everyone who waited in that line, but a special thank you to one librarian who did so just so she could tell me a story. 

She's a school librarian and she had been going through the hard process of getting all the books back into the library before the end of school.  One little girl had not brought back Rules, and the librarian sent a note to the child's teacher to remind the student to bring it back.  The little girl held off doing so, and at one point the teacher opened the child's backpack and found the book.  She held it up and yelled at the child. The little girl brought Rules back to the library in tears. 

The librarian asked a few questions and found out the girl has a sister with autism and it had been just too hard to give the book up.  That night, that librarian went to Barnes and Noble and using her own money, she bought that child her own copy to keep.
 
The poor Follett people looked so worried when I jumped out of my signing seat and hugged that librarian, both of us crying.  They were good tears, though.  After talking about sibling issues in the morning, it was a powerful affirmation that I'd done the right thing. 



Julia and I went to lunch with Dr. Robinson and the wonderful organizers of our panel, and then to supper with my 2007 Newbery Committee.  It was an emotional and wonderful day. 

ALA--Sunday

I'm drinking my coffee in the lobby of our hotel in New Orleans so I don't wake up my daughter.  We head home to Maine today, but we've had a great trip.  I came for the American Library Association conference and then Julia and I stayed a day on our own to see a little of the city.

The conference began for us with a trip to the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder banquet.  When I saw that on my schedule, I bought Julia a ticket, too. 

When RULES won its Newbery Honor, my family couldn't come with me.  It was five years ago, and at that time, I needed both my husband and my daughter to take care of my son, just so I could go.  So when I saw that on my schedule, I told Julia I owed her a banquet. 

It's fun to get all dressed up for a night. Julia and I took photos of each other at our hotel in our dresses.

  Julia, channeling Scarlett O'Hara on the marble staircase.

  The lobby had these high-backed chairs, so we called it "The Throne Room." 

It's hard to appreciate how huge the banquet is. Over a thousand people were at the banquet, and then several hundred more came in to hear the speeches. These photos don't do it justice. 





We had a great time.  I met lots of nice people, the speeches were heartfelt and lovely, and it was so nice to introduce Julia to everyone. Thank you to Scholastic for inviting me to go.   

Making Friends!

Julia and I had a great time on the swamp tour this morning. We saw lots of alligators in the water, and the boat captain had a little one we could hold.  So cool!

Hello from Louisiana!

Julia and I are having a great time in Louisiana.  Yesterday was so full and busy with conference things that I went straight from 7 am to 10 pm, but I've finished my official events now, and this is our day of being tourists. We're off on a swamp tour in a few minutes and then to explore the French Quarter.  I have lots of photos, but here's one to start.  This is the view from our hotel window.

The Big Easy

I'm packing for my trip to the American Library Association conference in New Orleans.  My daughter and I start off with a 6:30 am flight tomorrow and we get home Wednesday night.  

I have a lot  scheduled while I'm there, but If anyone has a new book and you'd love to see a photo of it at your publisher's booth, give me the title and the publisher, and I'll try to snap a photo for you.  I would need to know today, though. I'm not sure if I'll even bring my computer with me.


I could fit in your carry-on. . . .