Book celebration & roof research

THE BOOKS ARE HERE!! THE BOOKS ARE HERE!!!

Honestly, I think my UPS man loves me best. Not many of his other deliveries jump up and down and scream when he shows up.

Here they are! Drum roll…….

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So much work all wrapped up in a drop-dead gorgeous cover.

If you’re interesting in hearing me talk about my work for teens in general and WINTERGIRLS in particular, head over to this audio interview of me. The interview was conducted by Jennifer Buehler of ReadWriteThink.org. If you’re an educator, you will love the resources on their website.

Cottage update: BH is working hard on the magic window. Right now he’s sanding it. Next step is to strengthen the entire structure so that it can stand up to the eventual weight of the glass. The plan is to put clear glass in all of the panes now, and replace a couple with stained glass when we can afford it.

We have run into a quandary about the roof. We did not want to use traditional roofing shingles because they are made with a petroleum byproduct. If we were to use traditional asphalt shingles, it would cost about $800 for the roof (for comparison, I’m only giving the cost of the shingles).

A slate roof was my first choice; it would last 100 years, is a natural product, and looks great. But the slate alone would cost about $3000 and have a much, much higher labor cost on top of that. Next up; shingles made from recycled rubber and plastic. The shingles alone would cost almost $4500.

Photovoltaic cells won’t work because the cottage is being built in the woods. (We are going to generate solar energy to power the building, but it will come solar panels that are a distance from the cottage.) Eco-shakes cost about the same as slate.

We’re still exploring options. If you have any tips or advice, please leave it in the comments.

Theo the Web God almost has the WINTERGIRLS pages ready to go live. Can’t wait for you to see them. In celebration, we’re going to hold a contest. The winners will receive a laptop skin printed with the cover image of WINTERGIRLS. We only have one thing to figure out.

How to structure the contest? What do you think? What is a fast and fair contest? Again, please leave your advice in the comment section.

WINTERGIRLS comes out in two weeks.

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.

Hot Summer Twisted/Speak Book Trailer Contest!

Thank you so much everyone for all the enthusiastic comments and emails yesterday about the ALAN Award announcement. My feet didn’t touch the ground all day.

The Office Mouse has been scurrying around getting me caught up on technology and preparing for the books coming out in the next year. One of the things we’d like to do is have more contests. That’s where you come in.

Librarians! Do you have summer reading groups?

Get them involved in the Hot Summer Twisted/Speak Book Trailer Contest!

Details! Details!

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.

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 the 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.

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.

And the TWISTED teacher winner is…..

Julia Borgisi of Kenmore East High School in Tonawanda, NY!!!

::stands and applauds wildly::

Here are Julia’s correct answers:

What is the significance of the name of the game Tyler plays on his computer?

” Tophet, to summarize, means child sacrifice and/or hell. As Tyler is playing the game, he is living through his own personal hell as his “real” world crumbles around him. As he is conquering more levels (and advancing through hell) his personal life seems to get more and more convoluted. When he becomes stuck in the game, it seems to be at times where he is reevaluating his options in life (sacrificing himself through suicide being one very real choice). When he does “beat” the game at the end, he has also beaten the odds and survived his own twisted past; he is finally able to look beyond both the game and high school to see a real future.”
  
Which classic American play, often taught in high schools, helped inspire TWISTED?

“I think Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is a perfect match- I could easily see a significant connection here. Tyler’s dad can be compared to Willy Loman- a man who is slowly losing it all career-wise and demands nothing but perfection from his children (especially his eldest son). Mr. Miller sees Tyler as a major disappointment, and Tyler’s imperfections fuel Bill’s anger and resentment towards his family. In both works we have deaths, whether literal or figurative. Willy commits suicide, while Tyler contemplates it and almost does the deed. We have the death of dreams- Willy’s dream for a successful career again and a successful son, Tyler’s dream of a relationship with Bethany and enjoying popularity. However, at the end of TWISTED we see new doors opening for Tyler and the Miller family; Tyler and his dad are both able to take charge of their lives, thus creating the possibility of a new life for the family as a whole.”

Pretty much everyone who wrote in got the first question correct. It was the second one that threw so many of you off. Most teachers thought I was referring to Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. In fact, several wrote in with very convincing arguments about the connection between The Crucible and Twisted.

(Hold on to your red pencils, friends, we are about to have an interesting lit-crit moment.)

You see, I have never read The Crucible, nor have I have seen it performed. So while the parallels may be there, they are coincidental. Or maybe not so much, if you want to take the approach that both Miller and I concern ourselves with the emotional wasteland that lies behind the curtain called The American Dream, and the devastation visited upon families that lose their centers of love and integrity. (I offer that free of charge to anyone who is looking for a good thesis topic.)

I have, however, always been a huge fan of Death of a Salesman. When I saw it performed in New York with Brian Dennehy as Willy Loman, it left me so devastated that I sobbed for blocks and blocks as we walked uptown from the theater. My earliest thoughts about Tyler, the main character in TWISTED, were that he could have been the grandson of a man like Willy Loman. Tyler has to pay the price for the crushed, misshapen dreams of both his father and grandfather; men who thought that by earning a lot of money, they would be successful, and whose children paid the price for their ambition, confusion, and rage.

I hadn’t planned to do this, but one of the entries had such an amazing analysis of the Tophet question, I am awarding it an Honorable Mention and will be sending something off in the mail. The winner of the Surprise! Prize is Cheryl Maxian, of Fabius-Pompey High School.

Here is Cheryl’s explanation of the significance of Tyler’s computer game: “The significance of the game of Tophet is two fold: The main character describes the game as the player makes himself as powerful a demon as possible to survive the 66 levels of torment. Obviously our character Tyler has survived and is surviving all kinds of torment. At the beginning of the novel he’s at level 42 which would represent him already getting through 2/3 of his life’s goal (he has almost completed his community service and has become buff and stronger because of it). As the book comes to an end, Tyler completes the game and must choose his destiny – either that of good or evil. He has come so far and survived so much that it is clear that he will choose a path of good.

On a second level, Tophet is an ancient place where Phoenicians sacrificed their children to appease the gods. I think this is metaphorical for the various parents in the novel who “sacrifice” their children’s well-being by either ignoring them or by spoiling them, as they only pay attention to their own needs.”

Clearly, Cheryl has found her calling!

Any thoughts about these answers or anything else related to this? I heard from a number of you who want a contest for the brave souls studying to be English teachers. What would be a useful/fun prize?

In other news, the kids in our area went back to school today. I am SO GLAD I was not one of them.

Attention Teachers!!! & Pondering in the Forest

First thing first. THE TWISTED TEACHER’S CONTEST!!!

I made it too hard. For this, I will not apologize. I consider it payback. But I am not heartless, and I really want TO GIVE AWAY A CLASSROOM SET (30 ARCS) OF TWISTED to the smart teacher who breaks my code.

So. Revised rules.
1. Read the book. (Sorry, no Cliff notes yet. No Spark notes, either.)
2. Answer these questions:
a. What is the significance of the name of the game Tyler plays on his computer?
b. Which classic American play, often taught in high schools, helped inspire TWISTED?

It’s the second one that is causing the problems. I gave the answer in the ALAN chat last month, but the transcript isn’t up yet. So here is your Big Hint: I always plant clues in the main character’s name. Get it? His name????

3. Email your answers to laurie AT writerlady DOT com. Put “TWISTED contest” in the Subject line.

4. The deadline has been extended because y’all are so busy. Deadline is now midnight, EST, Wednesday, Sept. 5th.

Second thing, next. The Child With Stitches in now the Healing Child With Stitches and is back at college. So I am home. And I’m beat. Whooped. Totally drained. This has been a busy year, hasn’t it? I’ve been trying to brainstorm the new book, but then my head starts smoking like it’s burning oil and I am overwhelmed by the need to take a nap.

My Muse is trying to send me a message. I need a break.

So from now until Labor Day, I’m chilling. I’ve spent the last two days pulling weeds. Tomorrow I’ll can peaches. There is wood to be stacked, sticks to be picked up, tomato sauce to simmer, mittens to knit. I have three doors that need to be sanded and coated along with a couple of window frames, and that chair in the front hall I’ve been promising to refinish for approximately ten months. While my hands are busy with all of this, my Muse will be at a spa somewhere, resting up for the writing marathon that this autumn promises to be.

I don’t think I’ll be posting much, but I promise to come back in two weeks, with pictures of my funness.

How are you going to spend your last days of summer?