Kate DiCamillo's Blog, page 25

This fabulous pig picture is by Eliza who is six years old.Eliza wrote me a le...

This fabulous pig picture is by Eliza who is six years old.
Eliza wrote me a letter saying that she loves to read Mercy Watson stories.
She also said that she hopes I will write more Mercy stories.
There is no return address on Eliza’s letter, so I will answer her here:

Dear Eliza, Thank you for your wonderful artwork. I am so glad that you like the Mercy Watson stories. I am working on a few new stories that take place on Deckawoo Drive. Stay tuned!
Your friend,
Kate

Grand Central Station, on a Friday afternoon in May. This is how the beginnin...

Grand Central Station, on a Friday afternoon in May.
This is how the beginning of a story feels to me.
It is like a doorway, lit and waiting.
I have to remind myself again and again that it is just a matter of being brave enough to walk through, to begin.

From the Candlewick team: here's Kate with Flora and Ulysses illustrator K. G. C...

From the Candlewick team: here's Kate with Flora and Ulysses illustrator K. G. Campbell starting their signing at Book Expo America!

From the Candlewick Team: If you're traveling to Book Expo America this week, lo...

From the Candlewick Team: If you're traveling to Book Expo America this week, look for Kate!

Thursday at 11am, she'll be in the autographing area, signing galleys of Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures with illustrator K.G. Campbell. This is a ticketed signing; don't miss out!

Friday at 4pm, Kate will appear on the BEA Uptown Stage with Cynthia Voigt in conversation with Jenny Brown. Two Newbery medalists! One stage! Holy bagumba!

This guy was a Christmas gift from my mother. He has lived in my yard for five...

This guy was a Christmas gift from my mother. He has lived in my yard for five years now and is smaller than my hand. Every spring, I unearth him from a tangle of branches and leaves and set him up on the trellis and he looks at me the same way: head cocked, eyes expectant.
I think that he is a kind and patient gnome.
I think that some day I might tell him a story, or maybe he will tell one to me.

A few mornings ago, I was standing in the backyard with Henry and I thought: wha...

A few mornings ago, I was standing in the backyard with Henry and I thought: what in the world is that incredible ball of redness over there?
My brain registered it as a small planet--otherworldly, bright--and I thought: oh boy, it’s a superball!
What it turned out to be, however, was a tulip.
I did not plant it; I have lived in this house for six and a half years and I have never seen this tulip before.
But here he was: poking his head up between the slats of my morning glory trellis . . . j...

Here is some Bink-inspired poetry by Charles, who is seven years old. I have...

Here is some Bink-inspired poetry by Charles, who is seven years old.
I have read this poem so often that I now have it memorized and I walk around the house saying it out loud.
It cheers me considerably.
You should try it.

Peanut butter,
Peanut butter,
sitting in a chair,
who was eating that?
Who was there?
Bink was eating that,
Bink was there!
Bink loves peanut
butter sitting in
a chair.

Thank you, Charles.

The older I get, the more impossible spring seems, and the more it surprises me....

The older I get, the more impossible spring seems, and the more it surprises me. My brother sent me this photo of a cherry tree in Brookline, Massachusetts. Look at that carpet of blossoms! Like icing on a cake.
The definition of “icing on the cake” in the idiom dictionary is: something good that is added to another good thing.
Yep. Spring.

On Sunday morning, I was in a hotel shuttle on the way to the airport in Portlan...

On Sunday morning, I was in a hotel shuttle on the way to the airport in Portland, Oregon. It was 5:30 and still dark. There were several other people in the van and as we pulled away from the hotel, and out onto the highway, I caught sight of the moon—an incandescent crescent in the sky.
I said, “Oh, look at the moon.”
And the older man sitting next to me, “Yes, there she is.”
We drove the rest of the way to the airport in silence.
But I kept those words with me for the whole trip home. For...

There is something about doughnuts that cheers me up. I’m not sure what it is...

There is something about doughnuts that cheers me up.
I’m not sure what it is. The sweetness? The roundness?
It could have something to do with Homer Price and his doughnut-making machine.
Or maybe it is just the inherent frivolity of doughnuts that cheers me so.
In any case, when I was in Seattle over the weekend, I was told I had to go and check out Top Pot Doughnuts.
In this new book of mine (Flora and Ulysses, The Illuminated Adventures (which comes out in the fall)), there is a squir...