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Back at it

Chris Crutcher was wonderful last night, so inspiring when talking about his commitment to writing realistic stories of courage for teens, funny, and passionate about our freedom of expression. I took pictures, but the Internet and computer problems continue here at the Forest, so I can’t post them yet.

Chris also read from DEADLINE, which sounds like a book I should go buy in hardback today. Watch Crutcher reading from his new book, courtesy of .

Am happy to report I got a clean bill of health from the doc. Some of you know this, but for those who don’t here’s the story. In the summer of 2002, I was diagnosed with two spots of malignant melanoma, the often fatal form of skin cancer. Thankfully, it was caught early. The docs cut away the offending spots and left me with a couple of long scars that cry out to be decorated with tattoos.

I have since had a dozen other lesions removed – none of them were cancerous. I avoid the sun like a vampire. That’s why I am so pale. I am proudly, purposely pale. I was never a sun worshiper, other than summer afternoons by Green Lakes as a teenager. I did have a couple of horrific sunburns as a kid. After 18, I pretty much stopped laying out for a tan. But I developed cancer.

Yes, my ancestors came from Ireland and England, but anybody can get melanoma. African-Americans die from melanoma. It killed Bob Marley. Just because your family came from Italy or China, or Nigeria does not mean you are safe. Now that summer is over, this is the perfect time to check your body for spots. Skin cancer is highly curable if caught early, so go look in the mirror.

Two questions: why is Jan Brett having her Syracuse signing in a Wegman’s? We have wonderful bookstores here, what are they – chopped liver?

And what do you think of depressing reading lists?

Back to writing…..

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Dr. Freud need not apply

Yesterday was a perfect writing day.

I woke up at 4:45am, an hour before my alarm clock was scheduled to go off, thinking of my story. I ate my breakfast, wrote yesterday’s blog entry, spent 15 minutes reading and then I went to work.

5:45am – 11:30am – worked on the rough draft of my new YA novel. Took quick breaks for fresh cups of tea, and, of course, trips to the bathroom.

11:30am – noon – Lunch with my husband, discussed plans for the rest of the day.

noon – 4:45pm – worked on the revisions of my historical novel.

4:45pm – 6:30pm – worked out at gym; elliptical and weight lifting.

6:30 pm – dinner.

In the evening I talked to the birthday girl, read, knitted, watched the rest of a movie we had from Netflix, and finished signing several hundred bookplates for the Multnomah County Library system, which I will be visiting in a few weeks. (They go in the mail today, Sara.)

I did no “author work” at all, except for the bookplates. The Internet problems we’re having make dealing with email very time-consuming, so I am triaging all email that comes in. I did not deal with anything related to publicity. I just wrote. Got to bed at 10pm, which is a little late for me.

Last night I had one of my recurring baby dreams. In the old version of this dream, I am given an infant to take care of. I am so busy that I neglect the baby, and realize – with bonechilling horror – that I haven’t changed her diaper or fed her for days, and she is close to death. (I always wake up from this one in a cold sweat, heart racing.) I don’t need to pay a shrink to understand that the baby is my book, my writing, and I neglect it way too much.

Last night, the baby was in my dreams again, only this time, she was fat and healthy and happy and clean. Hmmmmm…….

Having duly noted that, I won’t be able to get in quite as many writing hours today because I have my annual skin cancer check-up and then I’m headed into the city because….

Chris Crutcher Alert Award-winning author, Chris Crutcher, will be the keynote speaker TODAY from 6:00-6:30 p.m. for the Banned Books Discussion in Curtin Auditorium at the Onondaga County Central Library located at The Galleries of Syracuse, NY. Many of Crutcher’s books have been banned. An author signing will follow the discussion. Call 315-435-1900 for more information.

Scribble, scribble, friends.

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“You can have my book when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers”

The subject line comes from an awesome PR campaign by the public libraries of Wyoming. It is the perfect kick-off for this week because……

HAPPY BANNED BOOKS WEEK!!! Celebrate that most treasured of our freedoms – the freedom to think and read what you want – by reading a banned book. Choose one of mine. Or one of Chris Crutcher’s or one that made the Top Ten List last year.

Do you think we have come so far in America we don’t have to worry about banned books? Then read this gay-bashing, librarian loathing, freedom crushing article.

Speaking of Crutcher….. we have an Amazing Author Alert: Chris Crutcher is coming to Syracuse. THIS WEEK! Come out on Wednesday night to hear Crutcher talk about “Turning Real Life into Fiction” at the Onondaga County Public Library. BH and I will be there. If you see us, please say hello. Chris is one of the most important YA writers of our generation and a great speaker – this is a terrific opportunity. He will also be signing books and reading from his newest book, Deadline, at the Dewitt Barnes & Noble on Tuesday night at 7:30pm (thanks for the heads-up, ShelfLife.)

Many thanks to all the conference-goers who came out to the SCBWI Fall Philly on Saturday. Special thanks to for driving me to and fro (w/ great tunes playing) and former regional RA Laurie Krause Kiernan for passing on five boxes of unloved canning jars that I will now attempt to fill with applesauce. I really appreciated all of the kind things and the stories that people told me over the course of the day. Allow me to reiterate what I said in my speech – turn off the Internet and go work on your book now. Then go for a walk or a run!

Had a great time with two of our daughters, their beloveds, and various friends at the PA Renaissance Festival on Sunday. We got to hear the Tartan Terrors again. I think I might have to become a groupie. Photos of all the festivities as soon as we get our Internet and server problems solved. At the rate it’s going, it may be a month or so.

I have SO MUCH WRITING to do it isn’t even funny, but it doesn’t matter because it is October and October is the best month.

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Winning weekend

This is going to be a quick entry to start the week. I feel like I have one hundred bazillion things to do and not enough hours in which to do them. That’s the bad news. The good news is I had a fantastic, energizing weekend and I am chomping at the bit.

The Mexico Cider Run 5K was a blast; perfect weather and BH and I had a great time. And, drum roll please, I won my age group. Yes! That’s right! Me – the one who has never won anything sports-related. I was so happy with my time (which was a personal best) it never occurred to me that I might have won. And they gave me a little plaque which is now sitting on the mantel. Suddenly all those soccer trophies my kids lugged home made sense.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic Here we are, the happy, sweaty runners. (BH is wearing the shirt we had made up for last Thanksgiving, when all of our kids ran in a 5K with us.)

When I started getting back in shape 15 months ago, I could barely shuffle two miles on the treadmill. In running, as in writing, persistence is everything.

Yesterday was a writing and canning day. I used a bushel and half of Roma tomatoes to make chili base. Thanks to a well-timed email from my friend Hope Vestergaard (who is a great writer and a lover of all things Danish, like me, and who I will get to see at the SCBWI Michigan conference next month) I roasted half a bushel and froze them. Thank you, Hope – they turned out great!

It was a packed day, so I woke up at 4am and hopped right to it. My reward was a gorgeous sunrise. The photos I took don’t come close to capturing the glory, but I thought I’d share a couple with you.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic The colors peeked out just after the hoot owls went to sleep (they sang to me when I first got up).

Image and video hosting by TinyPic See why I live out here?

I have insane writing goals this week. I would like to add 40 pages to the rough draft by Friday afternoon, if possible. That’s a lot, but I figure you never accomplish much if you don’t aim high. Plus I have speeches to write and piles of mail to get through. Wish me luck and focus… I am going to need it!

How was your weekend?