Five Things on a Friday

Harpswell, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

1.  Thank you to the State of Illinois for putting Touch Blue on next year's Bluestem Award List!  This makes an even dozen state lists for Touch Blue, and this one is extra special because kids nominate the books. 


2.  I have a newspaper interview next week about my trip to Belarus.  I hope it's less intense than the TV interviews I did in Belarus!  :-)  The Belarusan TV interviewers were very nice, but they interviewed me as I was waiting to speak at the Minsk Book Fair.  Anyone who has done a conference speech knows how stressful those last few moments are when you're standing outside the room waiting for the previous speaker to finish and poised to rush in as soon as the door opens and start switching over equipment. 

I was chatting with some lovely middle-school-aged students who had come to meet me and had brought me a beautiful present: a traditional little set of shoes made of straw, when Olga touched my arm. "Belarusian TV would like to interview you."

"NOW?" I asked. 

But media is very important and plays a big part in creating goodwill, so I certainly wasn't going to say no.  We did the interview right there in the hallway!  The first question the interviewer asked was why did I choose such a crazy title.  In Russian, my book is called: Rules. Don't Take Your Pants Off in the Aquarium. 

So I explained what my book is about and that my Russian publisher had combined two rules from the book. And I had been very surprised by the title, but the goal of a cover and a title is to get a reader to wonder what the book is about and to open the book.  So on that level, it was very successful! 

He asked me more questions about autism and my impressions of Belarus.  And then when I got into the conference room, another TV crew was waiting for me!  So I passed off my flashdrive to my tech person and did another quick interview right there.

The next day, my translator, Olga told me she had seen me on TV that night, and they had used my clip about the title.  

I sighed. "Do you know the American expression to 'throw someone under the bus?'"

Olga said yes, she had heard that expression.

"I threw my Russian publisher under the bus," I said.  


3.  When I came home from my trip, Milo started whimpering and calling to me before I was even in the house.   He knows the sound of my car, so I could hear him as I stood in the driveway, getting my suitcase out of the trunk.  He was very excited to have me home.


4.  I get to pick up my daughter from college today for a week!  Milo will be very excited to see Julia, too!


5.  I saw sketches for our next Hamster book!  Very, very, very cute!  This one is bursting with kid appeal.  :-)