Caroline Stevermer's Blog, page 4

Con or Bust continues

but it concludes this weekend.

Thanks to those who have placed bids on my items. I am so grateful!

Here are the links again:

Signed first edition of MAGIC BELOW STAIRS,
http://community.livejournal.com/con_or_bust/79971.html

Hardcover set of the Kate and Cecy books, SORCERY AND CECELIA (first hardcover edition), THE GRAND TOUR (first edition), and THE MISLAID MAGICIAN (first edition), all three signed by me and Patricia C. Wrede,
http://community.livejournal.com/con_or_bust/80134.html

Hardcover set of A COLLEGE OF MAGICS and A SCHOLAR OF MAGICS, also signed first editions,
http://community.livejournal.com/con_or_bust/80442.html

Con or Bust!

Con or Bust now assists persons of color to attend the con of their choice, not just WisCon!

Bidding is now open and ends Sunday, March 6, 2011, at 11:59 p.m. EST (GMT -5).

My auction items are here:

Signed first edition of MAGIC BELOW STAIRS,
http://community.livejournal.com/con_or_bust/79971.html

Hardcover set of the Kate and Cecy books, SORCERY AND CECELIA (first hardcover edition), THE GRAND TOUR (first edition), and THE MISLAID MAGICIAN (first edition), all three signed by me and Patricia C. Wrede,
http://community.livejournal.com/con_or_bust/80134.html


Hardcover set of A COLLEGE OF MAGICS and A SCHOLAR OF MAGICS, also signed first editions,
http://community.livejournal.com/con_or_bust/80442.html

Snow day

Twenty years I've lived in this house, and I never left it, even to take out the trash, without locking the door behind me. Not until this morning, when I went out to shovel snow. At the top step, surveying the task before me, I decided to leave the keys on the porch and go to work. No one is coming down this street who doesn't have to, not until the first plow comes through.

Picture a sky so clear that it's deep sapphire blue, sun sharp in your eyes, and snowy desolation, with a wind like a razor gusting out of the north. Nothing but drifting snow. Nothing but painful cold. I thought, Why do I live here?

The usual answer came. Because I'm stupid.

So I stupidly shoveled my way down to the sidewalk to find that sometime during the night, a good neighbor ran his snowblower the length of the block. Just one snowblower's width across, but it made all the difference when dealing with deep snow and high wind. I kept shoveling.

An SUV got stuck over her axles in snow at the corner. For a while I helped a couple of guys try to shovel her out, but more and more guys kept coming, bringing shovels and snowblowers and tow ropes, and I don't know what all. So instead of getting in their way, I took my shovel to my next door neighbor's steps. (Unasked, she had shoveled my sidewalk for me when I was out of town last weekend, so turn-about is fair play.) Then I started on the steps belonging to my neighbor across the street. She'd done the top set and stopped. I started at the sidewalk and worked my way up. I was nearly there when she called me in to her house and told me she has a snow service. So we had a great little gossip, she thanked me, and I went back out to start the grueling process of shoveling my car out. Quite a discouraging task, that. There was almost no snow on the hood and roof of my car, but the drift in front of it was over my knees and the drift behind it was higher than the car itself. Still, what else did I have to do? I put my head down and shoveled.

But lo!

There is another answer to the question of why I live here, and it arrived with his snowblower. My neighbor across the alley was working his way around the neighborhood again, and he came over to help me extricate my car from the snowbank that had formed around it. It gave me a chance to thank him for his earlier work, and when I came back indoors at last, the true reason I live here is still going strong. People are out there helping each other all over the place.

After all, what else do we have to do? No one's going anywhere until the plow comes through.

Reading and signing this Saturday

More Magic Below Stairs fun coming soon.

I'll be doing a reading and a signing this Saturday, September 11, 2010, at the Target Children's Book Festival at Three Rivers Park District's Hyland Lake Park Reserve, 10145 Bush Lake Road, Bloomington, Minnesota 55438. The free event begins at ten in the morning, but my portion isn't scheduled until 4:30 pm. (Of course, these things tend to shift around as the day goes on.)

If you're there, please say hello.

Caroline

Signal boost: charity benefit for Dan Odegard

Passing along word from Dan's friends:

Dan Odegard, once the owner of Odegard Books, was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in January, stage four, and has suffered kidney failure and bone loss and fractures. He is doing remarkably well, however, and most likely confounding the physicians fortunate enough to come across him!

His friends are planning a party/benefit for him which will be held at the Landmark Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, at 6:30 pm. Tickets are...

Magic Below Stairs signing this Saturday

At Uncle Hugo's, 2864 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55407, on July 10, from one o'clock to two o'clock in the afternoon. I'll be there, and not just because it's air-conditioned, either. Come and say hello if you can.

http://unclehugo-edgar.livejournal.com/149843.html

Here's the link to Uncle Hugo's:
http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.shtml

Magic Below Stairs interview

Here's a link to the Broad Universe interview:

http://community.livejournal.com/broaduniverse/19195.html

MAGIC BELOW STAIRS reviewed by Booklist

Booklist
Issue: June 1, 2010

Magic Below Stairs.
Stevermer, Caroline (Author)
Jun 2010. 208 p. Dial, hardcover, $16.99. (9780803734678).

A few things distinguish 10-year-old Frederick from other boys at the orphanage: he tries to master new skills; the director dislikes him particularly; and (unbeknownst to him until the story begins) he has brownie Billy Bly looking out for him. After entering the employ of wizard Lord Schofield, Frederick rises to the position of assistant valet. With ...

wish granted

I got my wish yesterday. Back in the days before I figured out that I actively enjoy conventions, I used to wish I could stop time at the end of the first day of programming. I wanted to be able to go home and write, to get all the exciting ideas stirred up by panels and bar conversation down on the page. I longed to be able to process things for a few days (and sleep!) and then go back for the second day. (I know, I know. Introvert.)

That was then.

Coyote Con is now. It's a digital convent...

Jubilation

Here's the first review for MAGIC BELOW STAIRS, from the May 1, 2010 edition of Kirkus Reviews.

Stevermer, Caroline

MAGIC BELOW STAIRS

Frederick is an orphan in the kind of institution where boys get locked in the stillroom for minor infractions. But Billy Bly, a small creature with an agenda of his own, looks after Frederick in his way, even following when the boy is taken into the service of a wizard named Lord Schofield, where his uncanny knack for tying a cravat is noticed. He's a plucky b...