photos – Page 10 – Laurie Halse Anderson

September 4, 2007

Back to work!

So far, so good. My break from writing ended at 7am this morning as I went back to my story. A secondary character has grown significantly since I went on vacation so I spent all morning reconsidering the opening chapters in light of her changed position. It was not the kind of writing day you can measure in page production, but I think the story has more depth now, which is every bit as important.

I kept canning through the weekend…. and have more pantry adventures lined up for the weeks ahead.

If you can stand to see more pictures of preserved food, here they are.

I wound up making another batch of pickles. This is what pickles look like when they are called “cucumbers.”

You chop them into messes and boil yourself a batch of pickle water.

The day’s production – pickles and homemade salsa (red stuff in the back)

Ummmmm… pickle love.

I also froze a bunch more peaches and green beans (not together in the same container, though) and I made plum jam and dilled green beans (in the back)

And today I made another batch of spaghetti. For those of you who care, one-half a bushel of Roma tomatoes with a bunch of garlic, onion and herbs thrown into it cooks down to six pint jars of sauce.

I’ll post about the TWISTED teacher contest tomorrow. Be sure to drop by Sarah Dessen’s blog and congratulate her on the birth of her baby girl, Sasha!!

August 30, 2007

What I’ve Been Doing on my Summer Vacation

Bliss. Bliss. Bliss.

We’ve been taking a “home” vacation the last week and a half. (Well, I have. BH has been working.) That means avoiding the computer, reading for fun, not research, and doing all the little projects around the house I’ve been wanting to do, but haven’t made the time for.

Like becoming a domestic goddess.

I went through this phase before, when I was a stay-at-home mom with a toddler and an infant. I had a garden, fruit trees, and a woodpile. I baked and canned and sewed. And then life got complicated for about twenty years. BH and I have taken vows to simplify, simplify, simplify our lives, and spend our energies doing the things that have meaning for us; trying our very best to avoid the rat-race that life often seems to becomes.

So… my vacation! (so far, I am still taking this weekend off, too.)

It has mostly been spent in the kitchen, playing pioneer. I turned a bushel of peaches into…

… a dozen quarts of canned peaches, a dozen tiny jars of peach chutney and a whole bunch of peach preserves.

Then I turned a pot of tomatoes and boxes of blackberries into

spaghetti sauce base and blackberry jam.

Once I got started, I couldn’t stop.

I made deviled eggs and froze massive amounts of blueberries.

I knit a warm vest that will go to a child who could really use it, thanks to the amazing people at Warm Woolies. (Thanks to my friend Martha, and our friend Elvira, for telling me about Warm Woolies.)

I went back to the farmer’s market for more tomatoes and brought home fresh dill and cucumbers.

The tomatoes are in the process of becoming chili base.

And the cucumbers are being fermented into old-school fermented dill pickles. They went in this crock with a bunch of spices and garlic and dill and vinegar. For the next three weeks, I am supposed to scoop off the foam from the top of the crock and make sure the dog doesn’t stick her nose in it. If the crock doesn’t explode or catch fire, in three weeks, I’ll be canning the pickles.

Our wood arrived!!! (Winter is never far from our thoughts up here.)

BH ran the splitter for a day until all the hunks were of manageable size. (We received nearly nine cord.) If it cools down a little this weekend, we’ll stack it.

That’s all for now. My stuff on the stove is getting ready to bubble over. What have you been up to?

July 27, 2007

Taking stock, answering questions, counting to 100

I am feeling an enormous, cranky rant coming on, but I was raised to believe that before you complain about something, you should take stock about what is working in your life. So today, I am digging for the good stuff. (But I swear I will rant tomorrow.)

To start with, the ALAN online chat was a blast. It was like a giant IM session with everyone able to see all posts. At one point, so many people were trying to get on the board, the server crashed and we were all booted off. That was a pain, but also kind of cool. Thank-you to everyone who participated, and David Gill and CJ Bott who set it up. I think there will be a transcript of the discussion at some point. When I hear about it, I’ll let you know.

One of the participants kindly sent me a few of his questions about TWISTED that I didn’t have time to answer.

Q: did you intend the eroticism that i and my friends found pretty prevelant in the first part of the book? (mostly in repeatedly describing how well built tyler is, and ongoing comments about his erections) my gay/bi friends and i loved it on that level and on the deeper more significant levels as well.

A: Wow, I never thought of it as eroticism; I felt it was an accurate reflection of the kinds of things teenage guys think about. If anything, I toned it down. I don’t see how anyone can write about older teens without working in some mention of sexuality. It’s a core component of their existence. They don’t have to act on it, but they think about making themselves attractive to people that they find attractive. A lot. That’s part of being 17 going on 18.

Q: this may make me sound stupid, but what was the point of the duct tape on yoda’s ass? just to pull hairs when he had to remove it?

A: You are describing the very ugly locker room scene in which a secondary male character is attacked. I don’t know that there a deep significance other than the removal of the duct tape will cause more pain and shame. This kind of assault is way too common. I want to help make it go away.

Q: will bethany’s family ever level out? will bethany become more selfconfident/less slutastic as time goes on? will chip realize that he doesnt have to be an ass to have “friends?”

A: There would have to be a massive internal earthquake to change anything in that family. They are very unhappy people, despite all the expensive trimmings in their life, and they have no clue how to change things. My heart goes out to them. (“Slutastic” is a wonderful word, btw.)

OK, what else am I grateful for today? That local libraries have air conditioning (we don’t and fans can only do so much). Our kids are all healthy; that is a blessing. My knee, which has been acting up so much I’ve had to take a break from running, is responding to time on the elliptical machine. Blueberries still in season. I have eaten so many my mouth might be permanently stained. JK Rowling seems to be getting her life back; that’s nice. (Thanks for the link, Shelf Life.) That I finished HP Book 7 without being exposed to any spoilers. That people are talking about Robert Heinlein, whom I still grok.

And I got these drawings from fans of THANK YOU, SARAH in the mail.

July 24, 2007

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.

June 27, 2007

ALA was the bestest conference EVAH!

Dang, that was good. ALA was absofreakinglutley astounding. How to best describe this???

Imagine the thing you care about most in the world (besides the people that you love). In my case, this is books. Specifically, books for kids and teenagers. OK, now, take thousands of people who work in the field that you love. These people have devoted their lives to your passion and care about it every bit as much as you do. Maybe even more. And get this – they are nice people; not jerks or chuckleheads. They are smart and funny and it lifts up your heart to be in their presence.

That’s what this year’s ALA conference was like for me. My only regret is that it did not last for an entire month.

I took some pictures.

The first big event was a reunion of the Printz Class of 2000. From the left: Ellen Wittlinger, Walter Dean Myers, me, and David Almond.

Ellen and me hamming it up. She has a new book coming out next month, Parrotfish, that sounds amazing. David looks a little nonplussed here. He is a very sweet man with an adorable accent. I overheard librarians begging him to read the phone book.

A standing-room-only crowd came out to hear us talk about the impact the Printz has had on our work and on YA literature. It was an incredible evening for me, especially listening to Walter’s comments.

At the party afterwards, I ran into old friend Toni Buzzeo and new friend, Gail Giles, who needs to move to Central New York so we can hang out because she is a very funny lady.

The boys were back in town: Terry Trueman, Sweet Author Whose Name Has Completely Flown My Mind And I Feel Like A Jerk About It, and Chris Crutcher. (edited to add, thanks to input from David Lubar) The guy in the middle is Roland Smith.

Me fangeeking about Sherman Alexie, who was at the party, too.

Here I have somewhat recovered by composure. Somewhat.

The next night, I lost my composure again, because Eileen Kreit (from Penguin) and I got to have our picture taken with JUDY BLUME!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Sherman and I spoke on a panel with Cecily von Ziegesar (she writes the Gossip Girl series) and Alyson Noel (Kiss & Blog ) The room was small and crowded but my voice was powered by a venti coffee with a double-shot of espresso so it all worked out.

The next morning started with the YALSA breakfast. Think speeddating – 25 or so authors, 400 librarians. Many, many thanks to all the nice folks I met. I just wish we would have had more time!!! After the breakfast, they lined up the authors so the librarians could get photos of us all. This is what the wall of paparazzi librarians looked like to us. Ellen W and I called them the Bookarazzi.

Me and my little brother, aka M. T. Anderson. I was born first, and the first letter of my first name comes before his in the alphabet, so make sure my books are in front of his on the shelf. But also make sure that his books are faced out, because they rock the universe. Yes, Mom and Dad are proud.

And I have just realized I am an idiot. Because John Green and I hung out several times at the conference. We chilled in the hotel lobby, we shared cabs, we even spoke to a bunch of teens at lunch ::waves to all the teens who ate pizza with us and asked great questions:: And we talked a lot about YA literature and life, and I really, really like him. And he signed nice things in my books. But did I remember to take photos of any of this??? No, because I am an idiot. Sometimes. Maybe he has one. John? Anyone?

Catch more ALA stories and photos courtesy of Edwards Award winner Lois Lowry, Linda Sue Park (great Newbery dinner shots), David Lubar, Paul Acampora was there, thanks to Yum-Yum, and Miss Cecil Castellucci (who has pictures of Holly and Theo – more friends I forgot to photograph!. You can also listen to all kinds of cool people on YALSA podcasts (scroll down to find them.

Know of any other ALA blogs/photos out there? Tell me in Comments!