photos – Page 9 – Laurie Halse Anderson

October 16, 2007

Portland teen Author Lecture

My run along the Willamette River yesterday was gorgeous. I didn’t look at the clock when I left so I don’t know how fast I ran. This allows me to fantasize that I was churning out 8-minute miles; a total fabrication, of course, but one I am sticking to.

On my lunch break I walked a couple of blocks to the one of the greatest bookstores in the world: Powell’s. I was a good girl. I did not drool on any of the books. I did pet a couple of the shelves, but it was a restrained display of affection, nothing vulgar. If this store held sleepovers, it would become a serious place of pilgrimage for book lovers from all over. Be sure to check out their online author interviews.

Meet Adam who was manning the kids & teens section when I visited. Adam helped me find all of the copies of my books they had in stock so I could sign them. He was wicked sweet. He’s holding his favorite book of mine, CATALYST. He said he really liked all of the science and math references. He also liked all the math in John Green’s ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES. Has anyone put together a list of YA fiction with strong math and science elements?

I spent the afternoon revising and talking to my editor Kevin about potential directions for the cover design of my historical. Super-librarian and author Sara Ryan, author of EMPRESS OF THE WORLD and THE RULES FOR HEARTS, picked me up at the hotel. We got silly in the lobby before we left.

My presentation was held in the Old Church in Portland. (These picture show only part of the audience.) I was stoked about the number of teens in the audience. A couple of teachers brought groups of students and lots more kids came with a parent or two. I was very excited and honored to see a group of teachers from a Washington state high school that successfuly fought a challenge to remove SPEAK from their curriculum. They are my heroes.

People had to buy tickets to hear me speak which had me convinced no one would come, but I was delightfully wrong. More than 250 people came out on a blustery night. Thank you very, very much for a great time.

After the speech I signed books, programs, journals, scraps of paper and I wrote a half dozen notes to English teachers begging them to give extra credit to the students who came to hear me speak. Best item signed was this shoe, which belonged to a lovely future author named Fatema.

Today is a visit to Parkrose High School. Today is more revision. Today might be another run on the river if I am a very, very good girl.

October 15, 2007

Portland dinner

I was lucky enough last night to have dinner with a group of people from the Multnomah County Library system (the nice folks who brought me out here) at a lovely Italian restaurant a couple of blocks from my hotel. (I had a fra diablo spaghetti studded with shrimp, clams, and fish.)

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s back up to the conversation before we ordered. They were all telling me what a wonderful place Portland is: artsy, eco-friendly, mellow, and affordable (compared to Los Angeles, not Mexico, NY). Just as they were listing the authors who live in the region, Ellen, the last person in our group to arrive, walked in with a friend. This friend was on her way to dinner at another restaurant, but wanted to drop in to say hello.

Who was the friend?

Virginia Euwer Wolff, amazing YA author of Make Lemonade, True Believer, Bat 6, The Mozart Season, and many others. I had met her before, but it is always a thrill. She said her hellos to everyone and left for her own dinner.

Happy Teen Read Week, indeed!

I sat between Jenn and Lindsey, who will be introducing me at my events tonight and tomorrow. We had a blast, especially when it came time for dessert.

I had tiramisu. (Loved the bottom layer. Top layer was a little rich.)

Jenn had the lemoncake with berry sauce

and Lindsey had this almond thingie.

I woke up a lot last night, confused about time zones and sunrises and whatnot, but I got enough sleep. It’s finally light out, so I’m going for a run. I wish I could explore a little today, but I really need to work on my revision, so that’s what I’ll be doing until it’s time to leave to give my speech.

October 14, 2007

Michiganextravaganza

I’m in Oregon now, free wifi at my hotel – wa-hoo!

I need to catch you up on my Michigan adventure. First the Detroit airport. Which I love

because they have one of those cool colorful tunnels that connects the consourses

and it changes color

a lot!

Connecting through Detroit always means a trip to Sora, in terminal A, near gate 36

for sushi and miso soup.

The Michigan SCBWI conference was wonderful; extremely friendly (God, I love Midwesterners) and upbeat. Big thanks to (aka She Who Helped With the Myspace Mess In August) for making the drive from Canada, and the conference organizers, and all of the attenders who made me feel right at home.

And there was a real-live reader there! Meet my new friend, Eliza Webb, whose mom was at the conference and who totally made my day by coming over to talk to me.

Along with giving speeches and critiquing manuscripts and meeting kindred spirits, I snuck in a run on a beautiful autumn day. But truly, the highlight of the visit for me was this: Jello salad with Mystery Bits in it. This is a staple at United Methodist dinners, which were a staple of my childhood. If you read CATALYST and wondered about the Jello salad, this is what I was talking about. It’s green, it wiggles, and it might be an ingredient in embalming fluid. But damn, it tastes good.

So now I am in Oregon and I have been awake for a million hours. I am at the coolest hotel I have ever stayed at, and I had a great dinner with librarians, and a Famous Author wandered by, and I even worked for a couple hours on my revisions, but all those details will have to wait until after I get some sleep!

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

October 11, 2007

Checking off to-do list items

Copyedited manuscript of Independent Dames sent off. check.
Critiques printed out out and packed. check.
Opening conference speech written & printed. check.
Revision speech written & printed. check.
Revision hand-outs assembled. check.
Revision hand-outs copied – not yet! Must drop off on the way to the hairdressers!
Portland speeches written. check.
Portland speeches printed – not yet! Need to look over one more time.
First half of revision of historical submitted. le grand sigh. Nope.
All tomatoes roasted. check!!!

So – things are a little busy ’round here today. I leave veeeeeeery early tomorrow for an SCBWI conference in Michigan. From there I fly to sunny Portland Oregon for Teen Read Week festivities.

Last night BH came up with a great addition to our Life Is Too Short List: “Life is too short to eat burnt popcorn.” Which I was about to do because I am obsessively frugal sometimes. He threw it out and popped me another bag.

Rest of today’s to-do list:
Empty email box.
Go to bank.
Pay bills.
Hang out with my parents and help them with a couple of things.
Get hair cut.
Pack suitcase and backpack.
…sneak in a little revision time…
Read.
Chill with husband and dog.

I leave you with some photos from the last couple of weeks.

SCBWI Fall Philly Phriends.

Speaking of fall, this is outside the living room window.

My Beloved Husband interacting with Chris Crutcher.

Me, acting much more civilized with His Chrisness.

September 7, 2007

Late Night Critter Adventures in the Forest

So yesterday was the worst allergy day of the year, hands down. I sneezed and sneezed and sneezed (terrifying the dog) and then my asthma flared up and I coughed and coughed and coughed (alarming my Beloved Husband). I sneezed and coughed so much that I messed up my back, and started walking around the house like a mummy whose bandages were coming loose. Not fun.

Somehow I made it to bedtime. I felt so crappy, I didn’t even care that the Colts were playing the Saints. I took enough medication to knock out an elephant and fell very deeply asleep.

Which explains why BH had a hard time waking me up at 3:30am.

Apparently, he spent at least five minutes doing the gentle-nudge-sweetie?sweetie? thing. Then he said, “Honey, you need to wake up, but don’t be afraid.”

My eyes snapped open. Adrenaline surged.

BH explained that we had another critter in the house. (Critters adore us so much, they are always trying to move in. But they never pay the rent on time and they hold loud parties and let their friends smoke, so we’ve had to adopt a firm “No Critter” rule.)

At first I thought he was saying the critter was somehow poised above my head, preparing to drop on me. Second adrenaline surge. But, no. This one was wedged between a window and the window screen. There was a hole in the screen, and BH couldn’t tell if the critter made the hole in order to escape out of the house, or in an attempt to break in.

In any event, BH couldn’t find the camera.

I was so grateful that nothing with claws was about to drop on my face, I staggered out of bed and found the camera. And then I fell back into my coma. BH took pictures of the critter.

It was a flying squirrel.

A flying squirrel is basically a small rat with a hot cape, a fear of owls, and a banzai attitude.

But as far as rats go, flying squirrels are cuter than most. And I will forever love this one because it did not jump on my head. After taking the pictures, BH opened the window and the little guy sprung off into the darkness.

Now I am going to lay flat on the couch and moan about my back, all the while I try not to sneeze or cough. The snow cannot get here fast enough, I swear. Ragweed is the devil’s handmaiden.