playing catch-up

I will be using today’s subject line a lot in the next four months!

Life is busy – good busy. I am so incredibly blessed to have all this fun stuff to do! Right now most of my time is spent working on the new book (it’s a historical that continues the adventures of the characters introduced in CHAINS). My goal is to get the first readable next to my editor my early next month. The tentative publication date is the Spring of 2010.

I’m also gearing up for the crazy CHAINS book tour that starts on 10/21. I’ll be posting more details about that soon. Counting a few events before and after the actual tour (NCTE/ALAN and a couple of bookseller trade shows), I’ll be spending 40 days on the road, and visiting 27 cities (in several places, I’ll be in town for two days). I am a little overwhelmed by the thought of this, but mostly am so excited that I am giving off sparks.

And there is the very advance publicity work I need to do for WINTERGIRLS, my YA that will be published in May, 2009. I hope that the WINTERGIRLS book tour will cover some of the regions of the country (i.e. West Coast) that I won’t be seeing on the CHAINS tour.

Oh – and the other thing about next year? Next year is the tenth anniversary of the publication of SPEAK. More details about any festivities later.

This afternoon is the big meeting with the folks at my mother’s rehab facility spa to discuss her discharge date, and that is the most exciting news of all. She had gotten back much of her strength and is beginning to walk with a walker. If they leave her there much longer, she’ll reorganize the facility, so I suspect she’ll be home soon. Thank you everyone for the prayers and warm wishes. They have meant a great deal to our family.

The sad thing is that I’ve been so busy that I haven’t been able to can as much food as I had hoped, and my garden is showing signs of neglect.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic But my pumpkins are comfortably resting on their cozy beds of shredded manuscript draft.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic And my Beloved Husband has finished splitting and stacking almost 25 cords of wood to heat the house this winter. (You can’t see it from the photo, but the stack extends to the far wall of the garage.)

What have you been up to?

18 Replies to “playing catch-up”

  1. Oh, so that’s how you use the shredded MS! I’ll definitely keep it in mind for squash next year.

    25 cords! You must have some house! We’re lucky, 4-5 cord heats our little old train station just fine. (The oil is only for back-up if we have to be away overnight.)

    Congratulations on the upcoming 10th of SPEAK! And all the other exciting events in your writer’s life, and on your mom’s soon-to-be exit from the “spa.”

  2. So happy to hear that your mother is doing better. Hopefully she will be leaving the spa soon.

    I love the pumpkin picture. I don’t know about you, but I am so ready for autumn! I can already smell it in the air. Even on a 90+ degree day like today.

    I have a random question for you. I know you are a busy author but I was wondering….. Have you had a chance to read any of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series? If so, did you like them? If not, do you plan on giving them a read?

  3. Speak is 10 years old?!?! *boggles*

    It sounds like you’ve got an exciting couple of years already plotted out from here!

    I’m happy for you that your mom is going home!

  4. I bow to the majesty and grandeur of your Beloved Husband’s labors.
    I’m still rearranging my office, in the middle of helping hubby remodel the bathroom. We’ve been blessed with unusually cooler weather, and it fires me up.

  5. Yay for pumpkins – that pic definitely gets me in the mood for fall, the best season 🙂 It’s good to hear that your mom will be exiting the spa soon. Folks always seem to heal faster when they’re in familiar surroundings. I’m sending good thoughts for her continued improvement.

    As for me … my darling daughter just started 4th grade at YOUR old grade school! Hard to believe that both Molly and Speak are nearly 10. And we have the usual antics ensuing at the Central Library – I so love being a librarian there.

    Congrats on all your authorly good news as well!

  6. Wow, that’s a lot of wood, but you’ll probably need it considering some of the photos you posted from last winter. I’m really looking forward to reading Chains and Wintergirls. I hope you come to somewhere in Canada, or at least somewhere close, for the book tour. I can’t believe that next year is the tenth anniversary of Speak, that must be exciting for you. But of course your mother coming back home from the spa is even better news.

  7. Hey Laurie- I was just wondering if you knew the name of the song that is featured in the movie “Speak”. It plays during the scene right after Melinda is sitting with the Marthas and goes to the art room to eat lunch.

    I have been going nuts trying to find out what it is titled so I can download it.

    Thanks!

  8. A Teachable moment

    There is something that happened last week in my first week of school (when I typically start reading Speak aloud to my ninth graders) that I HAD to share with you.

    In the platinum edition of Speak (a new set ordered by my school last year), you quote Eleanor Roosevelt in the letter you write to your readers. Since I have never taught from that edition before, I took the time to read the letter aloud to the class. I found myself dumbfounded. I use that exact quote as a prompt for a capstone of my Speak unit. I felt a bizarre connection to you at that point, and it made me inspired to teach, to write and to check your blog like I used to incessantly.

    Hope this story inspires you as well.

    Bridgette Gallagher
    Saratoga Springs High School
    Saratoga Springs, NY

    English Department

  9. Re: A Teachable moment

    What a wonderful way to start my week. Thank you so much for this!

    It makes sense that you and I both gravitated to that quote. We are indeed all connected at some level, in the best possible way…. isn’t it wonderful to realize that?

    BTW – Saratoga Springs is one of my favorite places in the whole world.

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