that my daughter Meredith, aka adastraperasper, was born.
Yet another reason why October is the best month.
“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
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.
One down, xxxxx to go
Yep, I did it. Wrote Chapter One of my new WIP yesterday. Now if I could just have about two hundred days in a row like that, I’ll be in good shape. (No, it won’t have two hundred chapters, but I need lots of time for revision.)
It’s almost 7am which is when I get to work, but before I dive into Chapter Two, I thought I’d leave you with a Five Ways to Procrastinate on Friday:
1. My father, Rev. Frank Halse, was in the newspaper yesterday. I’m bummed that the photo isn’t online, too. He is rather distinguished. Go, Dad!
2. In other family news, daughter Meredith recommends Our Voice 2008; a site for people under the age of 30 who want their voices and concerns heard int he next election. Please, please, please take a look at this. Our country needs you to be involved in the next election.
3. Want to combine your passion for knitting and respect for the work of Neil Gaiman? Check out this sweater.
4. The censors and defilers of our Constitution have been at it again. Read about the latest challenges to Ellen Wittlinger’s Sandpiper, J. L. Powers’ The Confessional, and Stephen Chbosky’s Perks of Being a Wallflower on the AS IF! blog.
5. You can join us in Mexico, NY tomorrow morning and help support our library, which is a vital part of our community. The Mexico 5K Cider Run is a 3.1 mile run through the streets of the village. The people are very kind and the money goes to a great cause. Plenty of people run slowly or walk, so don’t worry if you move at less than blazing speed. Hope to see you there.
Weekend photos
As promised, here is evidence of what a great weekend I had.
Friday night at the river’s end bookstore (Oswego, NY) Harry Potter party. It was PACKED. My favorite part of the night was listening to the end of Book 6 being read aloud while bouncing up and down on my toes and compulsively checking the time, begging Midnight to hurry along.
And it finally came! Here is happy daughter Meredith holding one of our three copies. (I had to pick up one for my dad, who is one of J.K. Rowling’s biggest 80-year-old fans).
The Nearly-Headless Nick is actually Bill, who owns the store. It was an excellent costume. After we left the store, we met up with BH and friends at a quiet bar. I was the designated driver so I sat under a light and started the book instead of drinking beer.
Didn’t get much sleep Friday night and read most of Saturday. Finished the book Sunday morning, then headed out to the Ren Faire with another wave of our kids and their friends. Here I am with my husband, the hot pirate, and daughter Jessica.
The rest of the week has been/will be pondering the very strange ideas I am having for my next YA. I’m having fun and am terrified at the same time which is usually a good sign.
If you have TWISTED questions, join us in the ALAN chat tomorrow night at 9pm.
Summertime
We have waves of kids coming and going at our house; home from college, breezing through town, happy to crash on a couch, always hungry, full of giggles. It’s awesome. It’s summer.
This makes the writing a little harder to sneak in, but I get in a couple of hours most mornings before anyone wakes up. I am in the earliest stages of finding a new story, so I can’t talk about it yet. Muses are forest creatures. They startle easily and run away if you make too much noise. So shhhhhh…….
We went to the Sterling Renaissance Festival on Sunday, all garbed out and loving life. Will probably go again this weekend. I wish they would hold sleepovers there. I know this is a totally ridiculous idea, but I wish I really could step through a portal into those past worlds. But I am not fond of head lice or tuberculosis or the Black Death, so I want my fantasy world to come with antibiotics and soap. And popcorn; I don’t go much longer than 48 hours without popcorn.
We go to Ren Faires every year, but we have never traveled far afield to do it. We’ve been to the one in Sterling (BH and I went to that one for the first time 27 years ago!), and the one in Pennsylvania, and a long time ago, I went to the one in Maryland. Have you been to any others? Should we plan a vacation around one that is beyond fantastical?
Maybe I like to drift off into pretend versions of the past because the present is so awful and scary.
Here is my nephew, Ryan. (Wave to Ryan, everyone.) He went to Iraq last week. That is a really hard thing to come to terms with.