Crazy Love

(Announcement: I am preparing another vlog. What questions do you want answered? End of announcement)

(And now we return to our regularly scheduled blog)
 

Seriously? Sarah Hale is the answer to your Women’s History month needs.
 

Ask Bonnie Jacobs.

What else do we have in here,….. ::rummages:: ah, yes! A lovely WINTERGIRLS review from Norway.

And much appreciated nods from state award lists:

Wintergirls is on the Rhode Island Teen Book Award and the Georgia Peach Book Award lists and the New York Public LIbrary Stuff for the Teen Age list.

And……

CHAINS is ALSO on the Rhode Island Teen Book Award list, as well as the Beehive Young Adult list from Utah, and the Pacific Northwest Young Reader’s Choice Award, in the intermediate category.

And……

And if that weren’t enough, THE HAIR OF ZOE FLEEFENBACHER GOES TO SCHOOL is a 2010 National Horace Mann Upstanders Children’s Literature Award Honor Book. Wow!

THANK YOU!

DAY 11 OF THE ZOE VOTE & MY HERO, SARAH JOSEPHA HALE

Thank you all so very much for the lovely birthday wishes. It was a delightful and merry day and I loved hearing from all of youse guys.

Yesterday was also important birthday in the Forest: the 221st birthday of one of my all-time favorite Americans: Sarah Josepha Hale.

Yes, THAT Sarah Josepha Hale; the woman whom I wrote about in Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving!

We’ve just updated the website to share new material with you about Sarah, including a birthday essay written about her by Queen Louise and a game. Check out the updates and tell me what you think!

UPDATE ON THE ZOE VOTE:

Thank you so much for voting once a day, every day! Last I heard, Zoe had moved back into fourth place. Fourth is a lovely place, indeed. But there are still seven days left in the voting, so this contest is not over, not by a long shot.

I am spending today in my writing cottage, working on this draft of my next historical, FORGE. If you want to cheer me on and encourage me to keep the words dripping from my fingertips, the best way you can do that is to vote. Please!

HOW TO VOTE:

1. Go to the voting page.

2. In the bottom right corner, click on MORE BOOKS twice. (Yes, this is the tricky part. No, I don’t know why Zoe is buried at the absolute back of the pack. Kind of makes you feel sorry for her, huh?) That will take you to ZOE.

3. Click on the yellow box that says VOTE!

4. Notify all of your friends, neighbors, family members, the folks at church or temple or mosque or other house of faith, the rest of the PTA, the people at the firehouse, everyone in your classroom, and tell them all pretty, pretty please with a headful of unruly red hair, PLEASE VOTE FOR ZOE.

5. Do this every day until the end of October.


COMING THIS WEEK: I MIGHT JUST DO SOMETHING EXTREMELY SILLY. PLUS, I THINK I’M GOING TO BE IN NEW JERSEY ON THURSDAY. BUT THE TWO THINGS ARE NOT RELATED. I THINK.

My New Team: Meet Mr. Cat

Thank you very much for all the comments yesterday. I fasted, I slept, I looked to the stars for guidance and I have decided to support….

Davidson College: “Where Hoops and Books Coexist”. Even though they are located in you-know-where.

And if, by some strange chance, they get beat, I’ll support whoever beats them, and whoever beats them, etc.

(Really I just want to make muffins for my Hoyas. Maybe some chicken soup, too.)

One question: the Davidson mascot is a guy named Mr. Cat. (I did not make that up.) So am I supposed to yell “Go, you Mr. Cats!”? Are they Hep Cats? Ferocious Felines? They sure as heck beat the tar out of the Georgetown bulldog. Here is my first official taunt as a Davidson Cat: Hey, Barry! Your Jayhawks? Going down, man! Kitties rule over birdies every time!

(OK, that was a little lame, but I’m new at this.)

Wait – we have to get past Wisconsin before we sink our fangs into Kansas. Do kitties rule over badgers?

Tab closing time: check out author Anne Bustard’s Anneographies blog which highlights picture book biographies by the birthday of the central character. My hero, Sarah Josepha Hale is there on October 24th – so is the book I wrote about her! (I’m pretty sure I got the link from Cynthia Leitich Smith, another great Austinite.)

Want to know why people go into the high-paying, glamorous world of bookselling? Check out the ABA’s March Carnival of Bookselling.

I am officially back in the Cave of Revision (have been all week), so pardon me if the posts for the next couple of weeks get a little weird.