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Monday morning listmaking

It’s Monday morning, but my head is already focused on Friday, when I fly to Michigan for their SCBWI Fall Conference. I’ll spend Sunday on airplanes and in airports hopscotching across to Portland, Oregon.

You can catch me a week from today kicking off Teen Read Week by delivering the 2007 Teen Author Lecture, courtesy of the Multnomah County Library System in Portland. Tuesday I will be speaking at Parkrose High School (event closed to the public, sorry), and Wednesday will be spent knitting and/or scribbling on airplanes as I head back to the East Coast.

Along with the finishing touches on those speeches, I need to get a big hunk of the revised historical off to my editor, finish going through the copyedited manuscript of next year’s non-fiction historical picture book (I can’t WAIT to show you the art!!!) and answer a bunch of email relating to NCTE that piled up when our computers were sick. Oh, and work on my new YA.

I am already tired.

If you are interested in writing and publishing books for kids and teens, go to WGTD and poke around until you find the archive interview from this morning with Putnam editor Tim Travaglini. Be patient when you listen. The first gentleman interviewed, John Stewig, talks for a bit about the upcoming workshop at the Carthage Center for Children’s Literature in Kenosha, WI. John’s voice reminded me so much of Mr. Rogers (I miss him!) that I found myself reaching for graham crackers and milk.

Tim talks about the requirements of being an editor (“take a vow of poverty… be a masochist”) as well as many of the practical business aspects of publishing. After the interview with John and Tim, the station replays an interview from 2005 with Jonathan Stroud, author of The Bartimaeus Trilogy.

If you need a boost of inspiration after listening to that dose of reality, read about Christopher Paul Curtis talking about his new book.

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Random Saturday thoughts, head start on Sunday’s

I have figured out why our computer system, cable, Internet and phone have been messed up for two weeks. My Muse has transformed herself into the Ghost in the Machine and is haunting all of the electronic communication devices in our house so I have more time to write. I love her. We have had guys with trucks from the cable company out nearly every day, with more coming on Monday.

::musecackles::

But email waits for no Muse, which is why I am typing this at the Oswego Tea Company in Oswego, NY. (They are working on the redesign of their page. Anybody from SUNY Oswego want to lend a hand? Maybe they could pay you in cookies or coffee.) Seriously, this is one of my favorite places around and they have free Wifi. Thank you, Lisa who own the Tea Company.

I have recently had many requests to speak at schools. I am still turning all of these down and will be doing so for the foreseeable future, though I do hope to get back to school visits eventually. Teachers, I have name for you, for professional development purposes you want to invite Dr. Joan Kaywell to speak to you. Trust me on this.

We went to the hometown homecoming football game last night: our Mexico Tigers vs. the Fulton Red Raiders. I swear EVERYBODY in our community was there, from new babies to great-grandparents. Mexico lost, but it was a hard fought game and lots of fun to watch. And we beat ESM at their homecoming last week, so the karma is balanced now.

This morning BH and I got up early and headed for the Syracuse Regional Market in search of the season’s last tomatoes (yes, I am roasting them again), fresh cauliflower, enough garlic braids to get us through the winter, fresh bread, and other goodies. One of my favorite local blogs told us about Wake Robin Farm, so we bought heavenly yogurt from them. We also picked up pasture-fed, traditionally raised beef, pork, chicken, eggs and butter from Wendy at Sweet Grass Farm. I swear I will never eat corporate-farmed butter again.

I have been wrestling Chapter Eight of my revision of the historical novel for two and a half days. The dang thing almost had me in a choke-hold, but I finally figure out how to take it down. Kevin, if you are reading this, Chapter Eight just split into two chapters. So yeah, the book is a little longer. Sorry about that.

My alma mater is the coolest.

Great quote heard on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me today: “Blackwater is Enron, but with sub-machine guns.” If you don’t know what that means, please do some investigating into the affairs of Blackwater.

That’s enough now. Back to work.

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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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Um, attention, body clock?

I keep waking up really early. Part of it is the story in my head, my new WIP. I don’t know what else to blame it on. I have been a perky early riser for decades. My normal alarm was set for 6am and I could get up with no problems. But since I’ve been working on the new draft? I wake up several times in the night and then I get up for good way before the alarm. This morning, it was 4am. Go figure. Maybe I will wind up hibernating and sleeping through the winter. This puzzles me.

Spent the day running errands and putting the finishing touches on my keynote speech for the SCBWI Fall Philly conference this weekend. Must remember to adjust my fantasy football team before I leave.

There are still ghosts and gremlins in our Internet, but I hope the hotel I’m staying at this weekend has wifi. I have a bunch of stuff to send to Theo and it has been pretty much impossible with our cobbled system.

Are you brave enough to love your body? Let’s all get ready to celebrate on October 18th.

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Looking for answers

I want a magazine that refuses advertisements that use these deceptive dollbaby images.
I want models who don’t look like lollipops.
I want Hannah Montana to stop grinding her hips when she dances in front of an audience of 9-year-olds.

What do you want from the worlds of fashion and entertainment?

To balance out my anger, I went in search of goodness and found it: read about today’s hero, Karen Gaffney, who swam across Lake Tahoe yesterday. Read the article. I guarantee you’ll feel better. Then check out Karen’s website.

Our Internet has been taken over by poltergeists, so I have limited email and web time this week. I am deep, deep in my rough draft, walking around in a fog. It’s a good thing that BH is a patient man. Daughter Meredith sent me a giant vat of popcorn to feed the muse. If this keeps up, I might even meet my deadline!