Several Small (and Sometimes Snowy) Adventures
This is what I did last night.
(This is the Before picture. The After picture is much sadder.)
Last night was the Minnesota Book Awards Gala Celebration (or, as the MC described it, the Oscars for Minnesotan book nerds), and besides a plateful of desserts, it meant that I got to meet or re-meet some very nice people, sign books for lots of enthusiastic readers, and see the cover of The Shadows glowing on huge screens all around a massive, sparkly ballroom. Pete Hautman took home the award in the Young People's Literature category, which I think was no surprise to anyone but him. I felt flattered just to be sitting at the same signing table with Pete, Swati Avasthi, and Lynne Jonell. The Minnesotan literary community is both quite large and quite tightly knit, and almost everyone seemed to know almost everyone else, and to either have taught or have been taught at the Loft Literary Center. (Case in point: Julie Schumacher, who presented the award in our category, mentioned that three of the four nominees were her former writing students. Guess which one of us wasn't.) So I felt a bit like the new kid at school, but it was a friendlier school than most. And it was a school with cheesecake.
Leading up to that adventure was a nine-day trip to Oregon and back, during which we encountered floods, icy mountains, rising gas prices, mid-April blizzards, and the sad news that our friend George's 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham d'Elegance (which, besides having the longest name, was also the longest car ever mass-produced in the U.S.) would not be up to the trip from Portland back to Minnesota. On the advice of an un-encouraging mechanic, we ended up in a much less visually stunning rented Mazda hatchback. Sigh. Oregon, however, was lovely. I made a brief school visit (Thanks, Parrish MS!), spent time with the wonderful west coast Wests, and even got to play on the beach with a wet dog, which is the very best way to visit any beach, anywhere.
[image error]
(With Ryan and said wet dog, who is creating the illusion of having only two legs.)
I've let far too much material pile up since my last entry, but for now I'll just make brief mentions of other fantastic school visits, and of filming a promotional trailer/preview/interview for Spellbound, and of weaving my way through a round of Volume Three revisions, and of spending a week as writer-in-residence at Glacier Hills Elementary School of Arts and Science...in large part because this will just give me more material to gush about later.
(This is the Before picture. The After picture is much sadder.)
Last night was the Minnesota Book Awards Gala Celebration (or, as the MC described it, the Oscars for Minnesotan book nerds), and besides a plateful of desserts, it meant that I got to meet or re-meet some very nice people, sign books for lots of enthusiastic readers, and see the cover of The Shadows glowing on huge screens all around a massive, sparkly ballroom. Pete Hautman took home the award in the Young People's Literature category, which I think was no surprise to anyone but him. I felt flattered just to be sitting at the same signing table with Pete, Swati Avasthi, and Lynne Jonell. The Minnesotan literary community is both quite large and quite tightly knit, and almost everyone seemed to know almost everyone else, and to either have taught or have been taught at the Loft Literary Center. (Case in point: Julie Schumacher, who presented the award in our category, mentioned that three of the four nominees were her former writing students. Guess which one of us wasn't.) So I felt a bit like the new kid at school, but it was a friendlier school than most. And it was a school with cheesecake.
Leading up to that adventure was a nine-day trip to Oregon and back, during which we encountered floods, icy mountains, rising gas prices, mid-April blizzards, and the sad news that our friend George's 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham d'Elegance (which, besides having the longest name, was also the longest car ever mass-produced in the U.S.) would not be up to the trip from Portland back to Minnesota. On the advice of an un-encouraging mechanic, we ended up in a much less visually stunning rented Mazda hatchback. Sigh. Oregon, however, was lovely. I made a brief school visit (Thanks, Parrish MS!), spent time with the wonderful west coast Wests, and even got to play on the beach with a wet dog, which is the very best way to visit any beach, anywhere.
[image error]
(With Ryan and said wet dog, who is creating the illusion of having only two legs.)
I've let far too much material pile up since my last entry, but for now I'll just make brief mentions of other fantastic school visits, and of filming a promotional trailer/preview/interview for Spellbound, and of weaving my way through a round of Volume Three revisions, and of spending a week as writer-in-residence at Glacier Hills Elementary School of Arts and Science...in large part because this will just give me more material to gush about later.
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Brenda
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Apr 18, 2011 01:31PM
Dessert certainly looks yummy and definitely would send someone into sugar overload, hope the rest of the meal was as nice!
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hi jacqueline, I stopped writing a little, because with the death of my brother, did not enter the Good Reads, was walking when he was in Vancouver, in my sweet vacation, I looked for a book eslsewhere, what I did as well as the croissant from the bakery. here in Brazil, back got a call Macinha Din Clay, I thought what you could do, and then came Olive Dunwoody, I'm ending my details, got to make the glasses of Mrs. McMartin, and more details. and when terminhar like to send a photo of the sculpture of 30cm for you to post on your Good Reads, this sculpture has made me even more eager for me to grow. I really want to make a film with her sweet Olive adoraveris Dunwoody and her kittens. But I dreaming all this, did not ask if you would like me to take her wonderful story in a 3D movie in theaters. In my dreams, I created sketches of the characters and concept art, they were spectacular, send pictures to you, but do not know if you can put photos on GOOD READS, so do not know, I have to learn about the books, you have to provide online the first chapter of Spellbound illustrated in the first chapter (if any) why I think the first film created as an epilogue, which shows a little about the book Spellbound spellbound. Looking forward for your reply, even if with small words, I'm always reading your new stories, and I loved the photo of the dog on the beach with two legs (laughs). kisses
I hope to answer
Gabriel, Brazil
Hi Gabriel,I'm so sorry to hear about your brother. I'll be sending good thoughts to you and your family.
If you'd like to send images of the sculptures and sketches you've been working on, you can reach me at the email address on my website (jacqueline@jacquelinewest.com), and I may be able to post some of them on my blog (which would also appear on Goodreads). Once SPELLBOUND is released on July 12th, you should have some more material to work with, too!
Best wishes,
Jacqueline
