Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 95

February is coming like a . . . .Polar Bear?!

The bad news is that I want to fly to Denver tomorrow, and this is what's between Maine and Colorado. 



The good news is that my connection is in Charlotte, North Carolina.  So if we can fly over this mess, maybe my flight will go. 

*crossing my fingers*

February Events

photo by my husband, John

Wednesday, February 2, School visit. Governor's Ranch Elementary School, Littleton, Colorado. 

Thursday, February 3--Friday, February 4, Colorado Council of the International Reading Association Conference, Denver, Colorado.

Thursday, February 10, Family Literacy Night, Sherwood Heights School, Auburn, Maine.  

Monday, February 14, School visit. Lincoln Street School, Exeter, New Hampshire. 

Tuesday, February 15, School visit. Swasey Central School, Brentwood, New Hampshire. 

Thursday, February 17, Family Literacy Event, George Mitchell School, Waterville, Maine.

Friday, February 25--Sunday, February 27, SCBWI Golden Gate Conference and Retreat, Asilomar, Pacific Grove, California. 

Brrr.

I'm ready for January to be over!  What a long, snowy month this has been!

This and That

People have been coming up to me in the grocery store to tell me they saw Touch Blue in DownEast Magazine. :-)  It's exciting to see a current children's book given this amount of space in the magazine, too. 

Touch Blue's audiobook received a wonderful review in AudioFile.  I haven't heard the audio version yet, but AudioFile is based in Maine, so the fact they liked the Maine accents means a lot. 

Erin Moon gives a lovely reading of this island tale about the emotional bonds of family and place.  . . Moon's portrayal of Tess is so genuine that it’s almost startling the first time she introduces another voice in the story. She also produces authentic Maine voices as she recounts what that summer brings to light. --AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine



On Tuesday night, I had a fun visit to the University of Maine at Farmington to the "Teen Voices" Book Club. I love how this book group pairs female college students with 7th and 8th grade girls. How great is this?

"Each girl has a female UMF mentor. We read a common novel once a month and meet at UMF's Student Center. The girls and their mentors get supper from the cafeteria and take it to a room reserved for us. The girls are exposed to wonderful books, mentors who love to read, and a college campus."

It was an amazing visit, and the girls were so enthusiastic. There are a lot of writers in this group!  I was very impressed with their questions and thoughts.

We took this photo for the newspaper.  Um, maybe I should have taken off my big LL Bean snowboots for the photo?!  Oh, well, it's winter in Maine.  :-) 

[image error]  My husband made me some Happy Birthday, Hamster calendars to take to my first conference event (which is next week in Denver).  If you'd like to print one for yourself, here they are! 

And finally,

26 / 26 (100%)
I finished my first draft of my next novel.  I have a lot of work ahead on it, and I have 25  events this spring to juggle around it. So I'm not sure when the second draft will be done.  But it's a start.  :-)  
 

Two Bouncing Book Babies!

 Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby!

Name: Mr. Duck Means Business

Date of Birth: January 25, 2011

Weight: 32 pages

Proud Parent: Tammi Sauer ( tamarak ) , illustrated by Jeff Mack

Godparents: Simon & Schuster



 Congratulations! It's another bouncing book-baby!

Name: Blessed

Date of Birth: January 25, 2011

Weight: 480 pages

Proud Parent: Cynthia Leitich Smith

Godparents: Candlewick Press

Worldless Wednesday

Thank you Mothers and Daughters!

I had a fun visit with a local mother-daughter bookgroup last night.  Here I am with the daughters!  Such nice kids!!

Since it was a big group and one of the moms owns the Wild Oats Bakery in town, we met there after hours.  After I spoke and answered questions, we had tacos and make your own sundaes, and they sent me home with bakery gift certificates and a big, gorgeous apple pie (which my husband was delighted to see come through the door!).


Making Tacos!

It was a lovely night and a great first author event of 2011. :-) 

Winter

gray on gray on gray.

Five Things on a Friday

If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn't realize the teacher was saying, "Make it shine. It's worth it."   --Naomi Shihab Nye

 
Scarborough, Maine. Photo by my husband, John


1. I'm almost done creating my revision talk for the Colorado Reading Association conference the first week of February.  I just need to create my handouts and have them printed.

2. And still, it continues to snow here!  I've had to carry Milo out to my writing shed in the backyard lately.

3.  I was pleasantly surprised by Steve Tyler and Jennifer Lopez on American Idol.  They are still finding their strides, but I liked them as judges. 

4.  Thank you to Maggie at Big Apple Book Club for a great video booktalk on Rules!  Rules will be five years old in April. It doesn't seem possible. 

5.  Chocolate-covered cranberries are delicious.  Laura, the media specialist from the elementary school I visited on Nantucket last November. sent me some. I'm making them last as long as possible.    

Down East

  Touch Blue was reviewed in next month's Down East.  Which is especially exciting because they sell that magazine right in the check-out line at my local grocery stores.  :-)