reblog

Illustrator Yan Nascimbene

2012-01-17T08:18:00.006-05:00

I love this piece of art. It was created by Yan Nascimbene, the cover artist for my new middle-grade novel, Liar & Spy (coming in August). I couldn't be happier.

(Just to be very clear, this is NOT the book cover illustration. It's from another book, called A DAY IN SEPTEMBER. But I hope to post the cover very soon. . .)

Stuff is happening . . .

2012-01-13T07:59:00.010-05:00

Unlike 2010 and 2011, 2012 is a year IN WHICH I WILL ACTUALLY HAVE A NEW BOOK PUBLISHED (in August.).

This book has a title, which is Liar & Spy.

This book has a cover illustration, which I find very beautiful and can't wait to share.

This book has a main character, whose name is Georges. (The S is silent.)

I'm also going to WRITE a book this year. Don't ask me about that one yet.

P.S. I took this photo from my window the other night.

2012

2012-01-13T07:55:00.003-05:00

Oik! I see that my blog fell asleep while I was running around during the holidays.

WAKE UP, Blog!

*Blog mumbles something and pulls the covers up over its head*

Lazy.

. . . going to make french toast to lure blog out of bed . . . .

When You Reach Me: Czech Style

2011-10-04T10:17:00.013-04:00

This morning I found this great surprise in my (e)mailbox: the Czech cover for When You Reach me (Argo). I find it beguiling and beautiful. If you look closely, you will see that it's made to appear drawn on loose-leaf paper, complete with smudges. And look at my name - Steadova! with an accent! (My last name is Welsh, but I am Russian and Hungarian on my mom's side, so I love this mash-up.)

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE.

There's also a series of amazing illustrations inside the book, by the artist Nikkarin. I think this makes the Argo edition my first-ever illustrated novel, something I have dreamed about.

Meanwhile, I'm happy to say that some day I WILL have another novel published by Wendy Lamb Books (next fall, we hope). We are just now hashing out a lot of fun stuff like final edits, the title, and the cover. As lots of you probably know, a book's cover is designed by an art director (in our case, the wonderful Kate Gartner at Random House), not the editor or the author. I haven't yet seen sketches for the new book, but this infusion of art from Argo has me very excited.

NYC Street Art: September 11, 2011

2011-09-11T22:33:00.003-04:00

I took a walk down Broadway tonight with my husband and my eighth-grader, and passed this piece of sidewalk art-in-progress. By Hani Shihada.

We joined the quiet group of admirers for a few moments and then moved on.

happy thing

2011-09-11T22:06:00.000-04:00

This is excellent.

summer vacation: June 28th 11:40am

2011-06-27T10:00:00.014-04:00

Revolution for the Tested

By Kate Messner

Write.

But don’t write what they tell you to.
Don’t write formulaic paragraphs
Counting sentences as you go
Three-four-five-Done.
Put your pencil down.

Don’t write to fill in lines.
For a weary scorer earning minimum wage
Handing out points for main ideas
Supported by examples
From the carefully selected text.

Write for yourself.
Write because until you do,
You will never understand
What it is you mean to say
Or who you want to be.
Write because it makes you whole.

And write for the world.
Because your voice is important.
Write because people are hurting
Because animals are dying
Because there is injustice
That will never change if you don’t.
Write because it matters.

And know this.
They’ll tell you it won’t make a difference,
Not to trouble over grownup things,
Just fill in the lines
And leave it at that.
Tell them you know the truth.
That writing is powerful.
Just one voice on the page
Speaks loudly.
And not only can a chorus of those united change the world.
It is the only thing that ever has.

Read.

But don’t read what they tell you to.
Don’t read excerpts, half-poems,
Carefully selected for lexile content,
Or articles written for the sole purpose
Of testing your comprehension.

Don’t read for trinkets,
For pencils or fast food coupons.
Don’t even read for M&M’s.
And don’t read for points.

Read for yourself.
Read because it will show you who you are,
Who you want to be some day,
And who you need to understand.
Read because it will open doors
To college and opportunity, yes,
And better places still…
Doors to barns where pigs and spiders speak,
To lands where anything is possible.
To Hogwarts and Teribithia,
To Narnia and to Hope.

Read for the world.
Read to solve its problems.
Read to separate reality from ranting,
Possibility from false promise.
And leaders from snake oil peddlers.
Read so you can tell the difference.
Because an educated person is so much harder
To enslave.

And know this.
They’ll say they want what’s best for you,
That data doesn’t lie.
Tell them you know the truth.
Ideas can’t be trapped in tiny bubbles.
It’s not about points
On a chart or a test or points anywhere.
And it never will be.

Copyright 2010 ~ Kate Messner

Happy summer to the kids of New York City.

Read for joy.

Write for yourselves.

Melbourne street art

2011-06-03T18:13:00.002-04:00

I'm guessing you have realized by now that I love street art. If YOU love street art, go to Melbourne, Australia. The street art is beautiful and a big part of the urban culture. Melbourne also has terrific coffee and some of the nicest residents imaginable. I'm still pretty lagged from the trip and therefore inarticulate, but here are just a few of the photos I took while walking around the city.

2011-05-03T08:30:00.003-04:00

Spring in NYC.

Highlight of the week: Meeting Katherine Paterson at the Children's Choice Book Awards last night.

I also got to spend a few minutes with the fabulous Philip and Erin Stead, co-creators of A SICK DAY FOR AMOS MCGEE: He wrote it, she illustrated it, and then she won the Caldecott Medal.

(We're not related, but I kind of wish we were.)

Australia!

2011-03-31T14:52:00.004-04:00

Have I mentioned that I'm going to Australia in May?

I'm getting excited.

This is the just-published Australian edition of my first novel, FIRST LIGHT, sitting on the desk of Steph, the book's lovely Australian publicist. (I know she's lovely because we had lunch a few months ago in New York. You can also tell she's lovely because she wrote that cute post-it note, took the picture, and sent it to me.)

Rain and snow

2011-02-25T21:38:00.004-05:00

It rained all day here in New York City, washing everything clean.

Now that the snow is gone, I miss it.

From Paul Octavious:

http://vimeo.com/18000409

Snow Hill from Paul Octavious on Vimeo.

Special thing

2011-02-24T21:38:00.004-05:00

A little while ago, one of my readers wrote to tell me that she really wanted her mom to read When You Reach Me so that they could talk about it. Was it by any chance published in Korean, she wondered?

Yes! Maybe. I knew that a Korean translation was underway somewhere because I had written an introduction for it. But I had no details - I had never seen a copy of the translated book, and I wasn't sure it had ever actually been published. I looked up the name of the publisher, CharlieBook, and sent it to her.

Today she wrote to tell me that she and her mom have found the book. She attached a copy of the cover in case I was curious about it (I was! I can't enlarge it enough to see all of the details, but I like what I see. . .).

I love the thought of this fabulous girl and her mom sharing the book across two languages.

Speaking of London

2011-02-22T19:50:00.008-05:00

When I was 8 years old, I went to London for a month with my dad, who enrolled me in a public school around the
corner from the apartment we stayed in. (In London, they say "state school" for what we call a public school. And what they call a "public school" is a fancy private school. When I was 8, this confused me.)

My third-grade teacher in New York, Ms. Rosenfeld, asked me to keep a diary while I was away. I liked Ms. Rosenfeld, but I did not want to write in a diary.

I did, though. Here is a picture of my London diary, along with a sample page. (While there may be such a thing as a "born writer," I am clearly not one of them.)

2011-02-19T20:06:00.004-05:00

I was in London last week, meeting kids, booksellers, teachers, librarians, and bloggers - and getting to know my wonderful UK publisher, Andersen Press. I didn't have time for sightseeing, but I did get to ride the Underground. I thought it was downright cozy.

2011-01-19T12:59:00.001-05:00

Christmas present from my mom: Shrinky Dinks book covers.

Winter light

2011-01-08T23:10:00.000-05:00

Took this tonight while walking by the main walk at Columbia.

2011-01-07T09:43:00.002-05:00

My sixth-grade signature. No, I was not officially cool, but I didn't want to be. (That's the whole secret of cool, it turns out.)

Window by my desk

2011-01-06T15:42:00.003-05:00

Taken from my desk chair. That tiny bump at the bottom of the sky is a watertower.

New year, new blog thought

2011-01-06T14:44:00.005-05:00

So it turns out that I'm a completely unreliable blogger. I'm also a mediocre tweeter and a cruddy citizen of Facebook. I think I'm saving the writing energy for the next book, which has finally started to move forward again, and I've also had some trouble trying to decide what having a blog is all about. (You may have noticed.)

I've decided to try something new: a pictureblog. I'll post a picture, with a caption, as often as I can.

The caption may or may not have anything to do with the picture.

Happy New Year!

DUMBO

2010-10-24T12:55:00.000-04:00

DUMBO is a Brooklyn neighborhood along the East River between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges (DUMBO stands for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Underpass.")

My husband and I took the boys to walk around there last weekend. We discovered chocolate "spoons" (best consumed with hot chocolate), a beautiful waterfront park, and some very cool graffiti.

Subway-as-inspiration

2010-10-22T14:41:00.007-04:00

I like to write on the subway. There's something wonderfully unpressured about sitting on the train, writing longhand. And, for me, being around a bunch of strangers who somehow don't feel like complete strangers is conducive to work.

Earlier today, on The New York Times website, I learned about a guy named Eric Molinsky who sketches people on the subway (on his iphone). He keeps a blog where he uploads his drawings, along with short notes about where he discovered his models.

It's fun to scroll through:

http://iphonesketchbookdrawings.blogspot.com/

Events . . .

2010-09-20T15:32:00.003-04:00

I had a terrific afternoon at Children's Book Day at Washington Irving's Sunnyside estate yesterday, sitting on a gorgeous lawn between James Preller and Eric Velasquez. James is funny (read his blog), and Eric gave me a valuable piece of advice: If you're going to be sitting on a gorgeous lawn all afternoon, you might want to wear socks (there were some very curious and hungry bugs). I was not wearing socks, as you have probably gathered.

I met lots of terrific kids and voracious readers (thankfully none of them were biting), and got to check in with friends including Elise Broach, Judy Blundell, Wendy Mass, Katie Davis, and Tony Abbott. And it was a very pretty drive home. (I don't drive often, so I like to brag about it when I do). All around, a wonderful event - put it on your calendar for next year.

Now gearing up for the National Book Festival next weekend.

Non sequitur alert: Wondering about the photo? My family has gotten curious about Swedish food lately. We decided to splurge on a fancy Swedish meal at Smorgas Chef in the west village. (It was delicious. More on this later if I have time.) I took pictures of the food while my loved ones made fun of me for doing so. This fork-spoon-knife light was hanging above us in the dining room. It was fun to look at, and I wanted better pictures, but my husband wouldn't let me stand on my chair.

2010-09-08T16:37:00.003-04:00

I'll be at the Brooklyn Book Festival this Sunday!!

To learn all about this pretty-incredible gathering of writers, click here.

For the fabulous kid-lit events, click here.

My panel, moderated by my wonderful editor, is at the "Youth Stoop" at noon.
Here's the official panel description:

Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made:
Laura Toffler-Corrie (The Life and Opinions of Amy Finawitz), Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (8th Grade Superzero), and 2009 Newbery Award winner Rebecca Stead (When You Reach Me)bring us relatable, inspiring characters embracing challenges with friendships and popularity—while trying to solve a mystery or two—set against very different New York landscapes. Moderated by Wendy Lamb.

Hope to see you there! even if it rains.

field trip

2010-06-16T15:48:00.011-04:00

My older son, Jack, is in that sweet spot between school and camp. Today, we took a field trip to the east side of Manhattan to check out . . . a world-class museum? um, no. a beautiful garden? nope. Those are absolutely places to see, if ever you decide to visit the east side of Manhattan. But we went for tacos and snow cones.

In the mornings, I like to sit next to my kitchen window, drink coffee, listen to WNYC (Yes, Ira Glass, I am a member), and look at the newspaper. This is pretty much right on top of Broadway traffic, so it isn't all that peaceful, but it makes me happy. This morning, I saw this article about shave ice.

I called Jack over to read it, because I had just recently confessed to him that, should all my other work-related plans fall by the wayside, I have a back-up: An ice-cream truck. (My truck will have special slushy-ice-and-frozen-custard concoctions that people will line up for blocks to eat. No college-tuition worries here!)

One of the spots featured in the article was Cascabel Taqueria, on Second Avenue. We decided to go. If you are curious, we walked about a mile south from our apartment and then took the 86th street crosstown bus. Here is our joint review:

Food: Okay, we both ordered the same thing: Chicken tacos. We realize that, had we been more adventurous, we would have a little more to say here. I suppose that professional reviewers order one of everything, but they have food budgets to work with. And here's the thing - the waiter told us the chicken tacos were the best. Which of us would NOT want to eat "the best"? And they were delicious chicken tacos! In Jack's words, "they have a kick, but not too much of a kick." Also, see the fresh limes! Added great dimension. And the double-walled construction made for relatively easy-to-handle tacos.

Decor:

Jack liked the "masked wrestler" theme. It was, in his words, "interesting." Rebecca wanted a bit more space and a napkin dispenser that didn't take up half of the tiny table.

Service:

Rebecca thought everyone was lovely and seemed to be in a great mood. Jack agreed. And at one point, we were given little brown bags that held a treat - a crispy cinnamon-curry smelling tortilla. We are saving them for later.

Snow cones: Jack ordered "the Mexican" (vanilla, nutmeg, chocolate). Rebecca had the blueberry-pomelo. One disappointment: They did not come in the pretty cups pictured in the article. And there was a conspicuous lack of sprinkles. But they were very delicious - fresh and crunchy, great flavor, nothing artificial-tasting. Next time we want to try the flan. Because there will be a next time!

What we forget

2010-05-27T11:05:00.003-04:00

At SLJ's "Day of Dialog" this week, I was part of a panel about so-called "tweens" - who they are, how we can serve them as librarians, and why and how we write books for them. (By the way, "tweens" is a word I don't much like, now that I know it was invented by the advertising industry to identify a new target group.)

Our moderator, Vicky Smith of Kirkus, and my terrific co-panelists, authors Gennifer Choldenko, Tim Green, Robie Harris, and the children's librarian Lisa von Drasek, gave me much to think about. At one point Lisa nudged me and showed me a poem by Billy Collins that she'd marked in a book. It's wonderfully true (in my experience), and I thought I'd share it here.

On Turning Ten

The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light--
a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.

Billy Collins

NYC: look down

2010-04-21T10:39:00.008-04:00

I was wandering around downtown on Sunday and took some iphone pictures of sidewalk art. It isn't really art, but these random manhole covers and grates always make me feel happy. New York City changes so much that it feels as if my hometown is constantly disappearing on me, but these shapes and patterns have been a part of my life from day one. I hope they don't go away anytime soon.

2010-04-18T18:38:00.004-04:00

What's been happening:

1. I took a vacation with my family. Despite plane delays, it was a great vacation.

2. I wrote a speech. It's 99% done.

3. I've visited schools, celebrated friends' new books, written a lot of email, and filed my taxes.

4. I haven't been working on the new book. That's the plan for this week.

Pizza night

2010-03-15T20:27:00.004-04:00

Made pizza last night with the cousins (my cousin, B., her husband (a chef), and their daughter, who has serious culinary skills).

This is my nine-year-old's pie (it's a face with horns).

I am inspired by people who cook.

I am inspired by the happiness food brings.

I'd like to cook more.

That kind of friend

2010-03-04T09:55:00.007-05:00

I have this friend. She is my friend from forever, pretty much. We grew up a few blocks apart, went to the same elementary school and junior high, became friends with each other's friends in high school and college, and were roommates for a year after graduation. That kind of friend.

I've already blogged about my eraser-stamp bookplates -- I'm not tremendously artistic, so I get pretty excited when I'm able to make something I actually like. So after I made the bookplates for WHEN YOU REACH ME, my friend said she thought I should make some eraser stamps for FIRST LIGHT. "Yeah," I said, "I should." But I never did.

People, she made some for me (with help from her wonderful and talented daughter, S.)!

And they are so, so beautiful!!

2010-02-27T07:43:00.018-05:00

I am about to run out of February. Time is flying by in a blur while I watch helplessly. For instance, I have no time to figure out how to make this post look like normal people's blog posts, with text that wraps around the pictures. But here goes.

This month's tour was incredible. I met the most amazing kids. And the most amazing librarians. And the most amazing booksellers. And the most amazing teachers, parents, writers . . . . I'm not exaggerating. These people were thoughtful, kind, and unbelieveably generous. (And had they not been so incredible, I surely would have collapsed, because book tours are weirdly tiring.) A few photos and highlights:

Breathtaking book display at University Bookstore in Seattle. This is where I got to meet Nancy Pearl, who interviewed me for her Booklust show. Other Seattle highlights: talking with kids at Bush School and Denny Middle School; an amazing lunch with local independent booksellers from Third Place Books, Secret Garden Bookstore, Elliot Bay Books, Queen Anne Ave Books, Liberty Bay Books, and University Bookstore; a memorable night at B&N; and lunch with some of the editors at Amazon (say what you will about corporate policy, this is a truly wonderful group of individual humans).

Here's a bouquet of flowers given to me by students at Willard Middle School in Berkeley (And look at the t-shirts they made for the visit! Can you believe it??). Did I mention that they GREW these flowers themselves? (I love California.) Other SF-area highlights: A visit with the joyful, soulful, and whip-smart girls at Girls' Middle School, where I was hosted by the awesome Walter Mayes, a.k.a. Walter the Giant Storyteller, and a truly great, warm and fun-filled visit with Books, Inc., where I FINALLY got to meet the intensely terrific Jennifer Laughran, a.k.a. Literaticat. (Lots of aliases on the West Coast . . .)

When I visited 57th Street Books in Chicago, there was a Tootsie Pop and a category laid out on every chair. . . also, cookies! This was a wonderful snowy night with bookseller extraordinaire Angela Sherrill, members of the local SCBWI chapter, and an assortment of kids and readers. It was here I met the extraordinary and stupendous James Kennedy, whose writing makes me laugh and laugh (scroll down in his blog for a story about a pretty darn insightful question he asked me -- plus a picture of us!). After the event, I got to have dinner with local bookfolks, one of whom was author Blue Balliett, with whom I instantly fell in love. (At the restaurant, all the servers wore t-shirts that said "Obama Eats Here" on the back). Other Chicago-area highlights included visits to the University of Chicago Lab School, Glenview's Glen Grove School, and the Latin School of Chicago, as well as a terrific evening at Anderson's Bookshop, where the staff and crowd were equally amazing. I was reminded once again that independent-bookstore communities are absolutely vital. I mean it. (That said, I also have to wave at Elaine H. at the B&N in Skokie, where I had my last Chicago event. Elaine is the GM at the store, and she talked to me about growing up in Chicago. Her lead children's bookseller is also pretty special. I remember his passion for books, but not his name.)

Cincinnati!! My visit to Joseph-Beth Booksellers was a memorable evening because it started with a blackout. As in - no lights. Did this stop us? No! We went right ahead with the event, and people actually showed up, driving up to the dark store through snowy streets with no functional traffic lights. I read with one of the booksellers holding a flashlight for me. It felt like an adventure, with lots of talking and laughing in the dark, and when the lights came on an hour or so later, I was almost disappointed. But when they DID come on, I could see these amazing "Try not to land in the broccoli" stickers the staff had made up for my visit, along with all kinds of other special things, such as my broccoli bouquet (above, you see the store mascot, Bob, in attack mode . . .). Other really nice Cincinnati things: meeting booksellers from the Blue Marble and Blue Manatee bookstores, and my visits with the excellent, smart, insightful kids at Nagel Middle School and Summit Country Day School.

Last stop: Boston. This was the only schedule-snafu in the whole trip -- it snowed a lot during my last night in Cincinnati, and my flight to Boston the next morning was delayed. I missed an interview with a literary Bostonian named Smoki Bacon, about whom I'd heard great things. Plus, Smoki and I were going to have lunch together, and I was going to have a chicken-salad sandwich (I'd been asked to place my order two weeks in advance, so this sandwich was really on my mind). I hope to meet Smoki and have that sandwich another time (but not, you know, the same sandwich). Happily, I made it to Boston in time to get to Sprague Elementary School in Wellesley, a beautiful school full of lovely kids, and then to the Wellesley Free Library, for an event sponsored by Wellesley Booksmith and organized by the phenomenal Alison Morris. Alison arranged for me to spend my last morning of the tour at the Tenacre Country Day School, where outstanding librarian Esther Frazee led me to a gorgeous seat by the library fireplace (!). After our discussion (lot of intense talk about writing), the kids presented me with gifts, including a bag lunch for the train ride home. The paper-wrapped sandwich was marked "Jimmy's," and the kids explained that it was just cheese, lettuce and tomato, because Jimmy hadn't let them have any meat (these are book references - sorry!). It was the loveliest possible send-off.

I caught the last Acela out of Boston (the rest were canceled because of a storm), unwrapped my sandwich (which, to my delight, turned out to be a delicious mozzarella-prosciutto-and-basil-on-baguette), and sped through a dreamlike, snowy Connecticut, back to my slushy, beloved New York.

Goodbye, New York.

2010-01-29T23:16:00.006-05:00

Have I mentioned that I don't travel much? I don't.

But next week (actually, February 1st through Feb 10th) I will be on a real, old-fashioned book tour, visiting schools, bookstores, libraries, and readers of all ages in five great American cities.

Details about the public events are here. Please come if you can!

I'll miss you, man-who-yells-hallelujah-all-night-under-my-bedroom-window. I'll miss you, crumbly-broken-wall-in-the-bathroom-that-probably-will-never-get-fixed-because-there-is-a- big-leak-somewhere-and-nobody-can-find-it. I'll miss you, ipod-guy-who-leans-his-whole-six-foot-frame-against-the-subway-pole-so-that-nobody-else-can-hold-on.

I'll miss you, New York.

Next things next

2010-01-26T22:19:00.005-05:00

So I've been very quiet here about what happened last Monday morning, which was when librarian Kate O'Dell called from ALA at dawn to tell me that she and her gorgeous committee had awarded the John Newbery Medal to WHEN YOU REACH ME.

I've been quiet for a few reasons:

First, I've been running around talking about it all week. Lots of interviews, and meetings, and even a radio show where I got to wear big fat cool headphones and talk into a microphone the size of my head. So part of me is just talked out and guessing that people are sick of me.

Second, I'm leaving for my first-ever book tour on Sunday, which means a lot of getting ready and setting things up so that the kids get fed while I'm gone.

(Note: A lot of the tour will be visits to schools, but I'm also doing at least one public bookstore-or-library event in each city. For the exciting details, see www.whenyoureachme.com).

Third, I'm so full of this paralyzing joy that I can't seem to accomplish things in the normal way. I assume that I will eventually pull myself together. Until then, just think of me smiling. Inarticulate and disorganized, but smiling.

New year, new things

2010-01-07T09:45:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!

I've been spending less time online lately, but just came across this on Neil Gaiman's blog -- I love his wish for the New Year:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2010/01/what-i-said-at-3-minutes-after-midnight.html

I'm heading off for a three-day poetry retreat today. Poetry is mostly new to me, and I'm hoping this experience will tap another side of my writing brain, if that makes any sense. I'm bringing my own pillow and a print-out of my work-in-progress, which I've been reading aloud to myself (very quickly -- I can't seem to read aloud slowly when I'm the only person in the room. Maybe if I had Neil's accent . . .).

Also in the works is my FEBRUARY BOOK TOUR. During the first ten days of February, I'll be visiting schools and bookstores in five cities: Seattle, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Boston. I have never even been to three of those cities, so I'm getting excited . . . details coming soon.

Resolution

2009-12-11T21:46:00.009-05:00

Forget exercise, growing my nails,

and learning how to cook a decent roast chicken.

My goal for 2010 is to learn how to write at home and on a schedule.

It is time.

As some of you know, I just read Stephen King's ON WRITING. King believes that a writing space "really needs only one thing: a door which you are willing to shut."

This is actually a bigger deal than it appears to be. I think one reason I always end up in libraries and coffee shops is that they provide the happy illusion that I am not alone with my work.

I think I have been unwilling to shut the door.

King says:

"I think we're actually talking about creative sleep. Like your bedroom, your writing room should be private, a place where you go to dream. Your schedule -- in at about the same time every day, out when your thousand words are on paper or disk -- exists in order to habituate yourself, to make yourself ready to dream just as you make yourself ready to sleep by going to bed at roughly the same time each night and following the same ritual as you go. In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives."

Everything I know about science, which is about as much as anyone who reads the Science Times and those great New Yorker pieces by Atul Gawande, suggests that this is true.

My family moved this past summer, and for the first time in years, I have a bedroom with enough room for a desk. I don't yet have this desk, but it's on its way. . .

Why do I love this so much?

2009-11-13T12:06:00.004-05:00

I just finished reading A.O. Scott's New York Times review of Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox."

I love this line: "Is it a movie for children? This inevitable question depends on the assumption that children have uniform tastes and expectations. How can that be?"

But my FAVORITE part of the review is this note at the end:

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested).

It has danger, sorrow, and an awareness of mortality.

I'm guessing I will never write a novel for children that doesn't brush up against these same three elements. Kids think about these kinds of things all the time -- more than the rest of us do, probably. I love creative work that recognizes this (Miyazaki's films, for instance).

Okay, must now get back to the crazy business of November.

Breaking promises

2009-11-09T13:05:00.002-05:00

So yesterday was the first day I DIDN'T write in November.

Did I say I would write every day in November? Yes.

Did I do it? No.

Will I blather on about my excuses? No.

November Tally:

Writing days so far : 7

Missed days so far: 1

Nights when I literally fell asleep at the keyboard: 2

National Novel Writing Month

2009-11-01T17:31:00.002-05:00

November is National Novel-writing Month.

A lot of folks over at www.nanowrimo.org are going to write novels this month -- WHOLE novels. 50,000 words. 175 pages. I'm cheering for each and every one of them.

Writing a novel in a month is not something I can do. But I'm going to take advantage of the lets-get-it-done writing karma in my own way. I'm going to write (something) every single day in November.

Now perhaps you are thinking, "Wha?? Don't you write every day anyway? Isn't that kind of your whole JOB?"

The truth is that I don't write every day. But this month, I'm going to try. So if you see me somewhere, feel free to bug me about it. Just don't ask me about my word count.

Doing Art

2009-10-25T21:36:00.006-04:00

All kinds of wonderful things have been happening, including foreign sales of WHEN YOU REACH ME (now 7 countries! woo-hoo!) and lots of visits with school and bookstore communities. This weekend I met with two groups of kids, all of whom had the best, most interesting kinds of questions.

Another thing that has made me happy lately? The discovery that an extremely, um, undeveloped artist like myself is capable of carving erasers into very satisfying ink stamps. I know it seems like a small thing. But it isn't. I went to an evening art class at my 11-year-old's school, where a wonderful teacher/artist taught me (and my friend Randi, and 4 other women) how to carve stamps and use them to print bookcovers. I had this utter determination to create a watertower stamp. I have a thing for watertowers. Yes, there were moments of doubt, but in the end, I accomplished more or less what I set out to do. And that felt surprisingly amazing. So today I want to say -- go make art. (Or, if you are an artist, write something. If you already do both, I don't know -- dance.)

I created this little blue mailbox stamp at home. I plan to use it to make excellent signed bookplates. (want one? email me)

2009-09-18T13:56:00.000-04:00

I wrote an article for TIME OUT NEW YORK KIDS about so-called tweens. The gist of it is that while today's preteens have more purchasing/media influence than their predecessors did, they also have less independence, because the adults in their lives are trying (a little to hard) to keep them "safe". You can read the article here.

The wonderful Sara Zarr has posted a response to it here.

And in related news, here's some news about how kids REALLY get hurt on playground slides (with thanks to the excellent Lenore Skenazy at www.freerangekids.com)

First Day Back

2009-09-14T09:27:00.000-04:00

As of today, both of my kids are in school again, which means that I am officially back at work.

This morning I'm answering email, and contemplating the ever-present question,
"how do real writers structure their work days?"

I'm also finishing the book I'm reading (A SHORT HISTORY OF WOMEN, by Kate Walbert), where I just read the following line:

"I think how long it takes to clear your throat, and by that I mean, to say anything true."

September

2009-09-10T22:27:00.000-04:00

September.

September = lists.

One of the things on my list is "figure out how to blog."
I have trouble letting go of any thought or idea that feels remotely interesting -- I always feel like I should save them for something else. I think this is probably how survivors of the Great Depression feel about their rubber bands and plastic baggies.

Maybe this letting-go is something a person has to learn.

Here is a childhood memory that surfaced this week in the middle of an email conversation with Wendy, my editor:

I have a lot of memories of my dad reading to me before bed. I'm not exactly sure why, but at some point he started recording his readings on a cassette, using one of those recorders where you have to push down hard on the big plastic buttons. When he was done reading, he would rewind the tape for me and say good night, and then I would listen to the whole story again. When it was over, I would press down on the "stop" button and go to sleep. Except sometimes I let the tape play on, listening for what seemed like a long time to whatever was next - music, old stories, or just that empty static-air sound. That's what came back to me this week -- a memory of lying in my bed and listening past the end of the story, feeling slightly guilty that I hadn't stopped the tape.

New with me

2009-08-05T02:04:00.000-04:00

Here's what's new with me:

My second novel, WHEN YOU REACH ME, was officially launched into the world on July 14th. I forget which brilliant writer (anyone?) dubbed the pre-publication months the "season of nausea," but she really nailed it. It's something like that moment on the rollercoaster when the safety bar locks down. The ride is straight ahead, and there is no getting off.

This year's season of nausea has turned out to be the stuff of dreams. Better than my dreams, even. Generous people have held the book up for all to see, reviews have been terrific, and there was one afternoon when I had my picture taken in a real photographer's studio downtown. There was even one of those big fans. Blowing. my. hair. around.

I am stunned by all of this. Have you ever met a writer who just KNEW that many fine people were going to embrace her book? Yeah, me neither. It's just not the way the business works most of the time. So I'm spending a lot of time feeling indescribably grateful to the many amazing people -- bloggers, reps, booksellers, librarians -- who did something extra to help get the book out into the world. (I put indescribably in italics because I tried and failed to think of a better word. I don't want you to think I just dropped it in there casually.)

I'm also remembering one night a couple of years ago when I tried to explain to a friend what this still-unwritten book was going to be about. I didn't have it all figured out, so it was a choppy, stumbling explanation, but I know that I was excited to write it.

I'm holding on to that memory, because I am getting up every day and hoping to capture that kind of excitement for the next book. For me, this capturing-of-excitement is absolutely, positively the most difficult thing about writing. Advice is always appreciated.

Day One (haiku)

2009-07-27T15:00:00.000-04:00

This is my new blog.

Consider the ice broken.

Here is a story:

When I was a little kid, maybe six, I took a modern dance class. At the end of the year, we had a performance for our parents. It began with every child onstage, each covered with a long sheet. The idea was that we were to move beneath our sheets for a minute and then slowly emerge, finally throwing them down to the floor, revealing ourselves to the audience, and dancing on: free, free, free! (This was the seventies.)

People, I never took off my sheet. And I haven't changed all that much since then. I've tried to figure out exactly what this blog will be, but the truth is that I don't know yet.

Welcome!