Jane Yolen's Blog, page 28

Interstitial Moment:

Today (March 22nd) is the fourth anniversary of my husband's death. David and I met when we were both out of college, he a year, me a newly-minted alum. We had both gone to New York City, he after a year of teaching math at Wheeling College in West Virginia, come to the city to get a job with IBM in the first group of programmers to work on Fortran. I to get a job in publishing.

We met cute (as they say in the movies), in the summer of 1960, and two years later were married. September 2...

March 15-March 20, 2010:

Ah spring. Well not exactly. It's March which, as often as not here in New England, means lots of snow still, winds, gusty, chill. So why have we been running a temperature? Really–we have had a week in the high 60's and low 70's? The flowers are thrusting forward. I keep running outside to shout at them: "Stop! Be careful! Don't trust this!" But do they listen? No.

In fact it has been so warm, the maple syrup guys are saying they have gotten only 20% of last year's crop. They needed another m...

March 3-March 14, 2010:

Apologies. Really, life just got away from me. Or ran away with me! Here is a round-up with a boatload of observations. Mostly, though, I have been gallivanting around giving speeches, fulminating, potificating, and any other gerund that means I have been standing on soap boxes and lecturing folks.

Books:

Along the way I have been doing a bit of writing. Mostly revising CURSES, FOILED AGAIN. It is a slow process, with a lot of retrofitting and rethinking how the characters can–in my editor's...

February 21-March 2, 2010:

Sometimes life gets away from me, and I do not get to this journal. So a quick catch up of life, books, and the interstices.

Books: About five rejections from various publishers, but this balanced by the joy of selling two small (novella-sized) fairy tale novels to be elegantly published by Philomel. Titles later on when I have thought about the some more. With great thanks to editor Jill Santopolo. These will be our first books together, and she took the lead in getting them through the...

Interstitial Moments:

Sometimes old friends are all but invisible as we chase the new. We expect them to be around always, like old beloved toys stashed in the cupboard, which we take out once and awhile, admire, remember, then put away again.

Note to self: do not let this keep happening.

February 19-20, 2010:

Have you ever noticed that certain people's time is more valuable than others? Doctors–who can keep you waiting for an hour before bringing you in for a quick meeting; lawyers who charge more per hour than anyone else; editors who obviously don't need to get back to you when they say they will because what else do you have to do but wait.

On the other hand, there are marvelous exceptions to all time rules. I am still waiting. . .

These two days were used up in a doctor's waiting office, and...

February 15-18, 2010:

A lot of book stuff twirling around:

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You is on the New York Times bestseller list again, this time at #8, as well as on the PW Bestseller list at #13. Heidi wondered aloud why they should be such different numbers and I explained that they probably had different stores on their list of respondents.

All-Star received its second starred review, this one from School Library Journal. (The first was from PW.) Interestingly enough, both a bad review in (I think) Booklist

February 12-14, 2010:

Boskone weekend–the Boston Science Fiction/Fantasy weekend run by NESFA (New England Science Fiction Association–which fifteen years ago had thousands of people attending but has fragmented down to around 700.

I have been a Guest of Honor, a past winner of their Skylark Award (which ended up setting my good coat on fire), and have gone almost every February for the past–oh–twenty or more years. I know most of the folk on the board, enjoy seeing old friends, usually am on too many panels, sell ...

February 11, 2010, BIRTHDAY:

So what does a writer do on her birthday?

Glad you asked.

A writer writes. Something.

Here is how the day played out:

5:30 Up, answered email

6:35: Exercises.

7: Shower, wash hair.

7:30 Dressed (including new earrings made by Maddison for my birthday, and necklace bought by Glen ditto), and take laundry downstairs.

8: Breakfast, tea, pills, clean kitchen.

8:30: Work on A Kite for Moon with input from Heidi. It is now a book by both of us. I began it, but she has added lovely touches and restructured t...

February 2-10, 2010:

My wheels have been spinning and I have sadly neglected this journal. So here is my catch-up.

Book stuff: Received the lovely first proofs for Elsie's Bird, the picture book with David Small. Went over them carefully. Sent in email three of the first finishes for Sleeping Monsters with absolutely stunningly funny pictures by Kelly Murphy. (I see board game, stuffed animals, maybe even a movie.) Rebecca Guay is still sending us the gorgeous finishes for the graphic novel The Last Dragon...