Mad Woman in the Garden, take one

As promised, I’ve been playing around with my new camera. Yesterday, I found the On switch and went out to my garden at dawn to record this little tour.

Keep all expectations low and try not to snort coffee out your nose onto your keyboard.

Keep spreading the word about the Summer Twisted/Speak Book Trailer Contest!

After questions from readers who live outside the United States, I have added Rules 5A and 9A below.

1. Create a book trailer for SPEAK or TWISTED. You may not use clips from the SPEAK movie (it is copyrighted, that’s why). Your trailer must qualify for a PG rating. Try to keep it under two minutes long.

2. Post the trailer on YouTube. Include the phrase “TWISTED trailer contest” or “SPEAK trailer contest” in the title. Submissions must be posted by 12:00pm, EST, August 31, 2008.

3. Once the trailer is posted, notify us by emailing the Office Mouse: officemouse AT writerlady DOT com . When you notify us, please provide a link to your trailer and a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. If you are in a Summer Reading group, include the name of your librarian and her (or his) email address.

4. Watch and wait. Winner will be chosen by Laurie Halse Anderson (aka me).

5. NOTE! Contest is only open to people who will be 21 years old or younger on August 31, 2008.

5A. Edited to add: Contest is open to anyone on the Planet Earth. Teens working aboard the space station are welcome too. Entries from other planets and galaxies will be considered, as long as they can be watched on Earth-created technologies.

6. If your trailer is chosen as the winning entry and you are not 18 yet, your parents will have to sign a release form granting me all rights to use your trailer. If you are over 18, you get to sign for yourself. You will be credited as the producer of the trailer, but the only payment you will receive is the prize described below. If you win, be sure to include this on your college or film school application.

7. If you are in a library summer reading group, your library will receive 5 signed copies of my books. The librarian in charge of the group gets to decide which books to receive.

8. There will be two prizes awarded; one for the best SPEAK trailer, one for the best TWISTED trailer.

9. The creator of the winning trailer will be awarded an 8GB iPod Touch. Winner agrees to be responsible for setting up and paying for Internet connection and any warranty protection plan for the device.

9a. Edited to add: If the winners live outside the United States and do not live in a region where the iPod Touch is supported, a substitute prize of equal value will be awarded.

10. Winners will be announced on this blog, Sunday, September 7th, and will be notified by email.

I think that’s everything. Please feel free to post this announcement to library and academic listservs. If you have any questions about the contest, please post them in the Comments section.

15 Replies to “Mad Woman in the Garden, take one”

  1. Your garden looks absolutely beautiful! My mouth is watering over all that fresh goodness. Thanks for sharing that with us; it’s some nice encouragement for us all to start our own gardens if we can. I don’t think anyone can look at tomato plants like that and not be inspired.

    –Brian

  2. I’m definitely interested in making a book trailer with my friends! I’m starting a film camp at the end of June, and I’ll look into it right away.

  3. Thank you for sharing your lovely garden with us. You should be proud of your labor of love. And you have pansies, my favorite flower. They have such happy little faces.

    Your stone wall is absolutely breathtaking! It transported me to a different time. I expected the camera to turn and see you in standing in period costume of the 1800’s, a soft breeze billowing about your petticoats. You are carrying a basket over your arm filled with vegetables ready to be taken in and made into super for Pa and the children.
    Okay, so I read too much Little House on the Prairie growing up, don’t kill me.

    Also, thanks for showing CWF She is such a pretty girl…. (Spoken in that horrible baby voice we do with our beloved pets).

  4. i love it. theres something so nice about you recieving all the acolades and awards and things, (maybe starting to realize hwo amazing you are?) and then you come out with this little video that reminds us all that youre just a real lady from upstate new york. nice juxtaposition. thats exactly how my mom sounds when she talks about her gardens, except she does more flowers with only a few edibles, where youre quite the opposite. we’re all very impressed by the raised beds. every once in a while the idea of terracing the front hill comes up and we just get to feeling completely overwhelmed and never do it. i wish i or my dad had half of your BH’s gumption. and of course the leafy green things inside the raised beds are also very impressive.

  5. wow your garden looks awesome and the sunrise is quite gorgeous. Can I move in with you? Actually, can I just have you life? lol, I guess i have to actually write something first πŸ™‚

  6. I am tremendously jealous of your garden. I used to really dislike most veggies but when I became vegan, I was pretty much forced to try them again and to my amazement, I fell in love. Yours are practically making me salivate.

    Only . . . about a million years until I have a house (and garden) of my own. And your Creature With Fangs is gorgeous, but not quite as gorgeous as my Creatures With Fangs and Fluffy Kitten Tails.

  7. Three-part comment …

    1) A belated congratulations on the ALAN award! It is so well deserved … I really think that your books make a unique and important contribution to the genre.

    2) Thanks for taking us on a tour of your garden! It looks great. Do you have trouble with pests? We currently have earwigs devouring our pansies…

    3) Good luck on the half marathon this weekend!!! I hope that things go well on the day and that you enjoy the run. I am so excited for you; let us know how it goes!

    πŸ™‚ Sarah

  8. Whoa. Now here is a contest that I am actually not too old for. I may just do this, if I finish my homework first. πŸ˜€

    Love the garden video! You should make more. πŸ˜€

  9. I love the stone walls. Very Yorkshire. Fresh tomatoes sound so yummy. I wish I lived somewhere where I could have a garden. I want rhubarb.

    I will email you sometime soon. I had to move twice recently, so I’ve been super bad about keeping in touch with people.

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