Month: February 2005

I’m halfway through today’s to-do list. Here are some recent reader questions.

Stacy writes: this is a request from my daughter who loves your wild at heart series! She would like to know if some of the books could be reprinted. We are having a really hard time locating number 12 End of the Race. We did find it but they wanted 50.00 $ for it and that was the cheap one As much as we love your books thats a little more than we can afford. thank you for all the great books that you wright I know your new book Prom will be a great success.

I am really sorry that people are having a hard time finding copies of the Wild at Heart books. As of this minute, Pleasant Company Publications (aka American Girl) has taken the series out of print. I am not happy about this, but it is out of my hands. I hope we can get them to change their minds.

Emma writes: I am a young reader, hoping to contact Ms. Anderson. I live in Philadelphia, PA, and was hoping that someone could tell me her address, or phone number. I am doing a report on her, and I was hoping to get a response from her sometime.

Sorry, Emma. I do keep a couple of things private and one of those is my phone number. You can find all kinds of information about me and my books on the Writerlady website’s About Me page. Good luck.

Mrs. Doolin writes: I’m not sure if this is what you are interested in -but I always use Fever 1793 as a literature circle selection and this year one group of eighth grade girls really got into it.  As a class assignment, they were required to choose a favorite scene for a Reader’s Theatre project, but in addition to the Readers Theatre assignment these girls wanted to do more.  They volunteered to write and perform a song-version of the scene!  I agreed to give them extra credit after they presented the idea to me, but I suggested that they dress in period clothes and allow me to video the performance.  They loved that even more!  Needless to say it was an entertaining piece! If you are interested in further details let me know.  I’d be happy to share and they would love it!  They adore Laurie’s books!  Speak and Fever 1793 “ROCK!” to put it in their language.

Do you have any still photos we could post to the site? If so, email them to comments@writerlady.com, with a note giving the required permissions, and we’ll put them up. Thanks for writing.

Note to Renee – I don’t want to post your email here because of some of the personal details. But know that it really touched me. Thank you so much for sending it to me. I’m glad the book helped.

The drive back to PA was cake. Instead of going straight back to the apartment, I drove to North Penn High School to watch Mer’s drum line corps, Innovations (Hatboro-Horsham High School) play in their first competition of the year. They gave a stunning performance and won second place. Here’s photo that just happens to have my kid front and center:

Here’s my to-do list for the day:
1. Go over family calendars with Beloved Husband (on phone)
2. Grocery shopping with Mer
3. Catch up on e-mail
4. Catch up on old-fashioned mail
5. Make a bunch of plane reservations
6. Write a bunch of thank yous
7. Put EVERYTHING away from last week’s road trip
8. Prepare for this week’s school visits
9. Prepare for this week’s writing
10. Post recent reader questions to LJ

Such an exciting life I lead…

The above list is so deadly boring, I must hop on to the 10 Things I’ve Done That Others Might Not Have bandwagon. (This is a fun meme running around LJ)
1. Eaten blood sausage.
2. Milked cows (hundreds of them).
3. Written fan mail to singer Marian Anderson.
4. Been scared witless by TV show Dark Shadows (I was in second grade).
5. Rowed a Viking ship in the Baltic Sea.
6. Given a speech to three thousand people.
7. Eaten gorp on top an Adirondack mountain in a snowstorm with my dad and sister.
8. Run a half-marathon.
9. Hugged JRR Tolkien’s favorite tree in Oxford.
10. Been chased by an angry bull.
10a. Escaped angry bull by sliding under electric fence.

Sigh. And so my trip to snowy Central New York comes to an end. I almost had to borrow a team of sled dogs for part of the drive to Southern Cayuga C.S. yesterday, but my trusty Outback plowed through thedrifts and I made it, only one minute late. My voice held out all day long and I had a blast meeting all the kids there. Thank you very much Dawn and everybody at SCCS – it was a terrific day, lots of fun and very comfortable. And yes, we ate muffins!! Oh, and I got to meet illustrator/author David Kirk, because he lives down the road from SCCS. That was very, very cool.

I only have two school visits (PA and DE) next week, so I’ll be able to get back to the non-fiction revisions I am desperate to finish.

The sun is shining on the snow. Out my window the bare maples throw strong, stark shadows. To find beauty up here you just have to open your eyes. It is sad to leave the CWF and the BH, but I miss the PA branch of the family.

Time to pack.

It’s snowing; fat, lazy lake effect snowflakes. There is nothing more beautiful than Central New York in the winter. Especially when the Beloved Husband has built a roaring fire in the fireplace.

I spent the day talking with 11th graders at Solvay High School. They had done a terrific job exploring the themes and plots of SPEAK, and my visit was the last part of that unit. It was a great set-up in the library – very, very nice librarian and English teachers, too. My voice, which was sounding creaky and monstrous last night, survived nicely. I can feel an upper respiratory infection trying to brew in my lungs (we asthmatics are disgustingly intimate with our breathing apparatus) so I’m back on all the requisite meds. I’ll get a good night’s sleep tonight and that should take care of it.

Not quite sure if my planned visit to Southern Cayuga High School is going to happen tomorrow. It depends on how much snow Lake Ontario decides to cough up.

Chris Crutcher has posted the panel from the Teen Titans comic that contains STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BYRNES and SPEAK in it. Here is the text from Chris’ page “Check out this cool panel from writer Geoff Johns and illustrators Mike McKone and Mario Alquiza, from TEEN TITANS #21, released February 16. Clearly, Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy (blond) has great taste in books. Cyborg (non-blond) was cool to stack up her favorite books…”

Thank you, Kelly, for the link!

Also, with a nod to Jenna and Kelly at Solvay HS, here is the Muffanalia link again.

Chittenango Middle School was a blast, but my voice is wicked tired. Tomorrow is Solvay High School. Friday is supposed to be Southern Cayuga HS, but the weather looks dicey. Stay tuned.

But am I bummed? Distressed? Worried?

No way. Because the Wonderful Kevin King, Teen Services Director at Kalamazoo Public Library (MI), wrote to me today that both SPEAK and STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BYRNES (by my hero Chris Crutcher) are both mentioned in issue #21 of Teen Titans!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s right, folks. A comic book superhero likes my book.

I am here to tell you that it doesn’t get any better than that. I am loving life, even with this sore throat.

Off to gargle with salt water…