Author: DWDLLC

I’m waiting, waiting, waiting… waiting to see if school is canceled in the Spring-Ford school district today on account of the snowstorm blowing its way up the coast. I am supposed to speak at every elementary school in the district this week. Right now, I’d say there is a 75% chance I’m staying home today.

Yesterday wound up being a family day instead of a writing day. Mer, Stef, Greg (their dad) and I met for brunch at Billy’s diner in Bethlehem. It’s been a long time since just the four of us sat down for a meal and it was very nice. After brunch, Mer and I tried to squeeze in some power-shopping, but my hunting skills are rusty and we did not find our prey. Next stop was Moravian College, where Stef and her friend Amy were directors of that school’s performance of The Vagina Monologues. Great job, ladies! After the drive home, we tried hunting again and bagged the white shirts Mer needs for her new job. And then we went to the grocery store. We hung out, ate dinner, and I talked to the BH on the phone for almost an hour before crashing. I tried to watch the Oscars but since I haven’t seen any of the nominated movies it was boring. Pretty dresses, though. I lasted ten minutes.

So if they call a snow day, I have plenty of work to do. My historical non-fiction picture book is as bloated as humanly possible. I am embarrassed to admit how long it is. I need to take a period-appropriate broadsword to the pages. If school is canceled, that’s what I’ll do.

(later) The witching hour of 5:30am has come and gone and still no call on the bat phone. I’ll get ready for the visit and call the reading specialist at today’s school before I head out the door.

Although PROM does not officially arrive in stores until Wednesday, some people have been able to buy it. Last night I received the first true fan email from a real live reader (as opposed to a friend, relative, or reviewer). I’ll post it here later.

I dreamed last night I was back in Denmark. (I lived there for a year when I was 16.) I love having Denmark dreams. They are like cheap vacations. I get to hear the language, try to speak it, buy Danish newspapers, see old friends, and eat all my favorite foods. In the past couple of weeks I have run across a couple Danes at school visits (Dav, Anne, hvordan gaar det?) and that probably triggered the dream. It was kind of a bummer to wake up.

I stayed up too late watching the first part of the original Rocky movie. It is the perfect Philly film. I want it on DVD for Mother’s Day.

In other Philadelphia news, the first camera installed at a notoriously bad intersection caught 525 drivers running red lights in the first 48 hours. You read that right: 525 morons who thought they were more important than anyone else on the road blazed through a red light in ONE intersection in 48 hours. Stupid, dangerous, pig-headed, criminal, selfish morons. Running red lights is an epidemic in this area. Do not do this. It gives you bad karma and will bring evil deeds to the next four generations of your family. Red means stop.

Yesterday I finally got in touch with a historian I’ve been calling for a month. She was very nice, but did not say what I wanted her to say. A crucial piece of historical information that I really, really, really wanted to use in the book I’m finishing up cannot be verified. (Insert temper tantrum here.) I am broken-hearted about this. I have one more person to call, another researcher, but chances are slim and none that she’ll have a miraculous primary source that no one else knows about.

The rest of today will be devoted to rewrites and verifying historical things. Not a bad way to spend a cold Saturday.

This morning’s mood score:
Happy stuff – Danish dream, Rocky movie, red-lighted-running jerks busted, working on history = +4
Sad stuff – having to cut out favorite section of book due to lack of primary sources = -2
Score = +2 It’s going to be a good day.

I am working my way through the 7 steps of losing your radio station. Today is numb acceptance.

No more whining. I promise.

Today I write.

Attention all Philly-area lovers of rock and roll:

Y100 is dead. They killed one of the best radio stations ever. Y100 goes off the air tonight.

ARGH!!!!! How can do this? What are they thinking?? And who are THEY??? I want their numbers. I want them to call me up and sing to me when I am writing. No, I want them to pay Dave Matthews to sing to me when I’m writing. OMG – how am I going to write without Y100???

(off to sob uncontrollably)

Go here to vent and mourn and sign the petition to bring THEM to their senses!

Rally, troops, rally. We will beat the corporate fiends back into their holes! I want my Y100!!

OK, here is how it happened. The lady who does my hair (with my permission) told these families when I would next be getting the white stripe down the middle of my head removed. But I thought they’d be coming AFTER I looked human, not when I was in full-alien get-up, complete with foil. It turned out to be a lot of fun. It also turned out to be a “unique” experience.

Had a blast at Murray Ave. The snow did close school early, which meant I gave four presentations in a row. You’d think that the impending early release would have made the place a madhouse, but it was all good. There was a moment of exuberance when the official announcement was made (understandably), but the kids were terrific. They had extremely good questions and positive energy which made my job easy. Many thanks to Julie Antoni for the juggling necessary to squeeze an author visit into a snow-shortened day. Thanks for the pretzel, too, Julie!

I think soft pretzels are a Philly-area thing. We didn’t have them in Syracuse. Lots of the schools in SE Pennsylvania have a Pretzel Day once a week, when kids can buy a big soft pretzel for a quarter. When my daughters were in elementary school, Fridays were always Pretzel Day. Around here, us civilized folks put mustard on these pretzels. Yummmmmm….

Snow days call for soup, so I thawed out my leftover turkey stock and made turkey soup for dinner. I don’t have any school visits tomorrow so it can snow all it wants. My job for the next three days is to hammer on the revised text for the historical picture book. I’d like to turn it in to my editor on Monday.

I’m glad you liked PROM, Barry! I believe that Hodder is set to publish PROM in the UK this July.