Blog – Page 112 – Laurie Halse Anderson

January 7, 2009

On Contest Winners and Technology Gremlins

So………..

Last summer I decided to try a book trailer contest for SPEAK and TWISTED. The plan was to offer it to summer reading groups at libraries. But I didn’t get much response from summer reading groups and I had a lot of email from teachers who wanted to offer the contest to their students.

So……….

I extended the deadline. The contest rules were spread far and wide. Note: I used my writerlady.com email account for all correspondence for this contest. And then I went on book tour. Whilst on tour, gremlins attacked the server that hosted the writerlady email account. It was a nasty vicious ebomb and the company who owns that server had to totally shut down my account. Permanently.

Meanwhile, I was traipsing across the country, merrily handing out my business car with the email address on it. And the Incompetent and/or Lazy Server Company did not contact me to let me know that the Writerlady Email account had been, in effect, blown up. I didn’t find out what had happened until after Thanksgiving. A million gazillion apologies to anyone who tried to contact me from the middle of October to the middle of December. The email is up and running now, so please try again.

(Yes, the Evil Server Company could have contacted me. They have my private email, my phone numbers, and my house address. They managed to get my bills to me on time. Yes, I am beyond annoyed about this. Know any good lawyers?)

So………

Earnest readers and film makers did, in fact, enter the contest. I am sure they were all alarmed when the email they sent to me was bounced back, but the beauty of the contest structure allowed me to find all the entries on YouTube, so everyone was considered.

So…….drum roll

reaches for the envelope

The winners of the 2008 TWISTED book trailer contest are Suki and CJ from Atlanta!!!

The winner of the 2008 SPEAK book trailer contest is Sharpieinkwarpaint from Canada!

And an honorable mention goes to Parmandiriel (I think she’s from Montana), for her SPEAK trailer!

Many thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about the contest and to everyone who entered!!! (And a thousand curses on the heads of the Evil Server Company for messing up my mail!)

January 6, 2009

My friends in Miami

It is a loverly thing when friendly readers take care of my blogging responsibilities.

Instead of creating my own post today, I direct you to a fun interview with me over at YAthenaeum, a YA book community based out of one of my favorite bookstores, Books and Books in Coral Gables. They asked super questions! (Do you understand the movie reference at the end?)

Thank you, good readers of the YAthenaem!!!

Tune in tomorrow for the announcement of the winners of the TWISTED and SPEAK book trailer contests and an explanation of all the email and server problems we’ve been having here in the Forest for months.

PS – I am back in wicked serious writing mode and loving it.

January 3, 2009

Starting the New Year on the Right Foot (or maybe the left…)

THAT was a good, long winter’s nap.

If you don’t remember (it’s been a while since I posted, explanation coming up), by mid-December, I was a wee bit of a mess. The book tour was fun, but long, and I got sick as soon as I unpacked my suitcase. This was my body’s way of forcing me to rest. And then my cousin died and …., well, it was awful. I spent the last two weeks of December not working. I cleaned and decorated and cooked and baked and baked and baked and slept and slept and slept and pondered mortality and the snow falling in the Forest.

I even made a Bûche de Noël (a cake made to look like a Yule Log).

Between Christmas and New Year’s we had waves of relatives and friends visit.

This is the BH side of the clan.

When the Halses came to dinner, we put out Christmas crackers that had crowns inside of them. Dad and Mom sported their crowns regally.

My crown made me look like a dorkoramus, so my sister decided to keep hers on the table, not on her head.

New Year’s Eve was look and full of merry-making. New Year’s Day was sorting and cleaning and preparing new adventures.

I have to come clean on my 2008 Resolutions. They were defeated by the book tour. Specifically, the third week of the book tour. In truth, I rarely averaged running the 20 miles a week I had hoped for. I think it’s going to take a few more years of consistent training until my body can handle that without injury. I was able to write every day up until the first day of book tour that had a 3:30 am wake-up call. Also, I did not win the lottery.

I have learned my lessons.
1. Resolutions need to be reality-based.
2. Book tour is an alternate reality during which resolutions do not apply.

2008 Resolution Tracker Totals
Total Miles Run: 621
Number of Writing Days: 334

So, without further ado, drum roll … LHA’s 2009 Resolutions

I resolve to run 750 miles in 2009. (This is a more realistic goal than last year, but secretly, I really, really, really want to hit the 1,000 mile mark)

I resolve to write every day in 2009. (With the aforementioned altered-reality-during-book-tour clause, above).

I resolve to reduce my use of the word “should.”

On New Year’s Day, BH and I suited up and ran three miles in the snow to start on Resolution #1.

747 miles to go!

What are your resolutions?

December 21, 2008

Good Solstice!

WELCOME THE LIGHT!

December 16, 2008

my season for quiet

At my cousin Darcy’s funeral on Sunday, I read from Ecclesiastes 3. Here’s the King James version of the passage:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Wise words.

This is my time to keep silent; to mourn, to give thanks, to reflect on the bewildering experiences of the last couple of months, and to prepare for the year ahead. I’m taking a vacation from blog writing until January 1st. I will be responding to email and snail mail. But slowly.

I need a season of quiet and healing.

Don’t worry, I’ll soon be speaking out again (at the top of my lungs occasionally), I promise. There will be some very cool website updates to talk about. I have to write FORGE and get to work on a new non-fiction picture book and begin the quest for a new YA idea. Baking season is upon us. Homemade jam must be consumed. By January I’ll have the details of my March book tour and I’ll have to get ready for a trip to Lima, Peru. Before we know it, it will be time for ALA again!

I’m off to hibernate in the Forest, friends. See you in 2009!