Keris Stainton's Blog, page 77

Harry tweets

Since I tweet about Harry A LOT and since the Twitter back-up sites don't seem to be incredibly reliable, I thought I'd start recording his tweets here too. I plan to do a post a week, but since this is the first time I've done it, here are ALL of April's Harry tweets.

Harry, this morning: "When are we going on holiday? I think we need to soon." And "Maybe next year you can give up the computer for Lent…"

Woken this morning by Harry saying, "I'm having a little internet trouble…" #6yearoldgeek

I've just heard Harry tell David: "I'm afraid we eatened all your cheese…"

Harry ran down the canal this morning. When I told him off for going out of my sight, he said, "Er. But you haven't GOT any sight." True.

Harry was telling me about boy in his class who's really good at football. He said, "He's quite famous as well." AS WELL!

Harry's left the following comment on my blog: "on angry birds ham en high 13-7 is tricky" #6yearoldgeek

Harry and Joe are duetting to the 20th Century Fox ident. Harry does the dramatic bits and Joe the inbetween bits.

Harry: "When Joe starts at my school I will be so absolutely proud." *sniffles*

Have just told Harry it's bedtime (he's knackered) and he said, "WHAT? I only just got up!" Yeah, just 13 short hours ago…

Harry: "I spy with my little eye something beginning with cuh. Curly cuh. I'll give you a clue: Jesus died on one…"

Joe's just broken Harry's favourite cup. Harry: "I've never been so sad in all my life!"

Harry just asked me to put Firework on. I asked, "By Katy Perry?" and he said, "It's not KATY Perry! It's STEVE Perry!" #dontstopbelieving

Harry's just been looking at my Jessie edits over my shoulder. He said, "You need a capital G for 'god'."

Harry's making his own breakfast, talking to himself. Have just heard "If you eat CHEERIOS you get wi-fi in your own BODY?!" #6yearoldgeek

Think Harry just said "Oh crap" (though it may have been "clap". Asked him where he'd heard it and he said, "Joe said it." Hmmm.

Harry's just told me about a song called "I'm gonna miss my nougat." It's You'll Never Find by Lou Rawls. (i.e. You're gonna miss my lovin')

Harry's on the phone to his grandma: "I've been cleaning up all day! Even Middy's desktop." Blatant lie!

Harry, through the monitor: "Middy! Come on up! It's party time!" Really? At 8.20am. *puts kettle on*

Harry, through the baby monitor, "Middy! Joe's learned a new word! Underpants!" Joe: "nn… da… panz"

Now Harry's making a collage. I asked him what pictures he wanted and he said "Angry Birds,… and Jesus." Obviously.

Me: "What are you going to see tomorrow? Rio? In 3D?" Harry: "Yes. In eye-poppin' 3D."

Harry: "Is aliens extinct or real?"

Harry's just run in with an orange stuck on his thumb, closely followed by Joe, balancing a DVD on a banana #fruitfun

Joe just said Angry Birds – "Aaaa Birrrr" – that's Harry's work, that is.

Harry's trying to get into my password-protected Kindle. He's just tried "dellasaysomg" That's not it. Smart kid though.

Harry shouted "I spelled Angry Birds wrong" in his sleep. Twice!

Dellaversary Giveaway (or… Win Biscuits!)

So this time last year my first book came out.

I can't really believe it's been a whole year…

I also feel a bit like I've abandoned poor Della because I've been focussing so much on Jessie. Feel like I should be saying, "Of course Mummy still loves you. But Jessie's only young and needs more attention…" But that would be mad, obviously. Ahem.

So, with that in mind, I'm celebrating the anniversary of Della's publication with a Jessie ♥ NYC giveaway. Baaaad book Mummy…

If you'd like the chance to win a hot-off-the-press first edition of Jessie ♥ NYC with shiny gold cover* along with a box of Biscuiteers New York mini collection biscuits, just leave your name and email in the comments. {Comp closes 25 May, midnight GMT. UK only, I'm afraid.}

* Photo is not of hot-of-the-press book because it hasn't been printed yet. Photo is off lovely shiny cover, wrapped around copy of Della. Poor Della.

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Favourite place

So I'm posting this one here because I actually quite like it, even though the Empire State Building looks more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa…

And when I saw that Day 4 was Favourite Place, I thought "Favourite place? How am I supposed to draw my favourite place?! I don't even know where my fave– Oh."

Writing Wednesday: Cliché

Basically, I'm writing something about book clichés and would like to pick your brains (because mine's is a bit squishy).

Which writing clichés set your teeth on edge? Love triangles? Bad boys? Fat girls losing weight? I'm particularly looking for YA books, but happy to hear about any, cos I'm nosy.

My top one is the main character describing themselves looking in a mirror. Drives. Me. Nuts. (Which doesn't mean I haven't written it myself, you know…)

This and that

Firstly, you'll find me blogging over at Girls Heart Books today. Please pop along and say hello.

Secondly, you can find my feeble 30 Day Drawing Challenge efforts here. If you click on the picture you can read the background to each drawing (which, if the first three days are anything to go by, will be along the lines of 'I can't draw as well as I thought…').

Reading… If You Knew Suzy by Katherine Rosman

After my mum died in 1999, I found myself wanting to contact her friends – I wanted photographs and maybe to talk about her a bit – but I didn't do it. I wrote down memories whenever they popped into my head, but that's all I did. I've been thinking about it a lot more since my dad died last year. A friend of his gave me a bunch of letters Dad sent him from Germany (where he did his National Service) and then from Canada where he and Mum lived and I was born. The fascinating thing about them is they sound exactly like Dad (even the letters written in his early 20s sound like him), but also not like Dad – there's stuff a 20-year-old will write to his best male friend that he probably would never have said to his daughter!

I've had the same urge for photographs and stories as I did after Mum, but this time it's been a bit different. Firstly, we've got boxes and boxes of slides, most of which I haven't seen since I was a child, so the prospect of going through them (once I've had them converted) is meeting the photo need and of course I've got the letters for stories, but I mainly felt that I'd left it too late: they're both gone.

So when – on Twitter, natch – I saw a passing mention of Katherine Rosman's memoir If You Knew Suzy I knew I had to read it and ordered it immediately (I almost never do this). Katherine is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and, five years after her mother's death from lung cancer, decided to report on her mother as she would any other story. She interviewed strangers (strangers to Katherine, that is) and examined her mother's interests and obsessions: from golf to Pilates to collecting Steuben glass.

Inevitably bittersweet and surprisingly honest – Rosman doesn't shy away from the less pleasant aspects of her mother's personality – it made me smile, it made me cry and it made me realise it's not too late to find out more about my parents. It also made me realise what I was looking for when I thought about asking people for stories and photos: more of my parents. Does that make sense? Obviously I don't get any more time with them, but other people have stories that I've never heard and I want 'em. I don't know that I would even have realised that if I hadn't read this book. It's wonderful – read it.

Happy Birthday, ESB

I know, I know, I've gone post crazy today – so sorry – but I just saw this a minute ago and couldn't let it pass.

The Empire State Building is 80 today!

Taken by me, from Top of the Rock

As you may surmise from the cover, the Empire State Building plays quite a large part in Jessie ♥ NYC. In fact, I wanted this quote from An Affair to Remember as an epigraph – "The Empire State Building is the closest thing to heaven in this city" - but I didn't get a chance to look into the copyright issues.

{via Inga's Angle – beautiful photographs of New York City}

So I'm going to try and do this…

{via Show & Tell}

On the tip of my… brain

You know when you have a memory of something, but it's so fleeting that you can't seem to grab it? Like when a word's on the tip of your tongue, but, you know, not a word… and not your tongue…? No? Oh.

Well a novel popped into my head earlier and now it's driving me mad. It's a teen novel from the 80s (I assume) and I think (though I'm not certain) it was called Apple of My Eye*. I have a vague sense that it may have been free with a magazine (although I'm not even sure they did that back then) and the cover I'm picturing was lilac (maybe) with (perhaps) a pencil drawing of a teenage girl (or, you know, something else…).

Anyone? Bueller? Or – more likely – Luisa?

* It's not the Apple of My Eye by Helene Hanff or Carla Neggers.

Girls Heart Books

So excited to announce the launch of a new group blog, Girls Heart Books. The brainchild (weird word, "brainchild", no?) of author Jo Cotterill who thought it was high time there was a group blog dedicated to books aimed* at girls.

The line-up is just wonderful and I'm slightly freaked out that it includes, you know, me. In full – and in alphabetical order by first name – they are:

Anna Carey, Anne-Marie Conway, Cathy Cassidy, Cathy Hopkins, Diane Messidoro, Fiona Dunbar, Griselda Gifford, Hilary Freeman, Jo Cotterill, Joan Lennon, Joanna Nadin, Judi Curtin, Julie Sykes, Karen King, Karen McCombie, Kate Maryon, Kay Woodward, Keris Stainton, Leila Rasheed, Linda Chapman, Lisa Clark, Liz Kessler, Luisa Plaja, Maggi Gibson, Sarah Webb, Sheila Glasbey, Sophia Bennett, Sue Mongredien, Susie Day, Tamsyn Murray, Wendy Meddour.

Please pop along and say hello. It's going to be fabulous.

* primarily – boys can read them too, of course