Newborns

I was going through some old photos yesterday and came across this one.

Grace Lin's lovely Where the Mountain Meets the Moon had just come out - and Ruby was a baby, too! Awwww.

Gifts for book lovers

You MUST visit Grace Lin's Etsy shop!!!

Grace Lin Auctin

Grace Lin's December auction to benefit the Foundation for Children's Books is up now. Go bid.

Grace Lin Auction



This month's Grace Lin painting auctioned to support the Foundation for Children's Books.

Bid here.

Grace Lin

If you're a fan of Grace Lin (and who isn't), you'll enjoy this lovely tribute to a lovely person.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by my friend, Grace Lin, has been chosen as December's book club pick by Al Roker of the Today Show!

Go, Grace...go, Grace....go, Grace.

Grace Lin Auction

The auction is on for this month's Grace Lin painting to benefit The Foundation for Children's Books.

Grace Lin Auction

Grace Lin's painting for August is up for bid on eBay. Proceeds benefit the Foundation for Children's Books.

Grace Lin Auction

Grace Lin's latest offering on eBay to benefit the Foundation for Children's Books.

To market, to market....

I just formed a new company:

By-the-Seat-of-Your-Pants-Book-Promoters, Inc.

The days of staying home in your jammies and writing are over (if they were ever here in the first place).

Nowadays, authors have to get out there and participate with their publishers in book promotion.

But, for me, it's HARD!!! (whine, whine, whine.....)

I'm not very good at it - but I try to learn by watching others.

My two favorite book promoters/marketing mavens are my friends, Mitali Perkins and Grace Lin.

I've decided that I'm going to stalk them.

I'm going to watch their every move.

And then I'm going to copy them.

I'm in awe of Grace's hard work promoting her beautiful (three-starred-reviews so far) new book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

I was fascinated to see that to help prepare for her online book launch, she made a little drawing!!

So I made a little drawing!!


Now I have to go bake sugee cookies.

(But I wish she would stop decorating cupcakes. I hate decorating cupcakes.)

Grace Lin's Auction

Check out Grace Lin's March offering for the Foundation for Children's Books auction.

Starts March 9.

(P.S. I love this one!)

Small Graces

It's auction time again!

Now's your chance to own one of Grace Lin's lovely paintings and benefit the Foundation for Children's Books at the same time.

Such a deal!

Small Graces

Grace Lin is my new hero.

You can bid on this beautiful painting and help a worthy cause: The Foundation for Children's Books.

Community hug

As many of you already know, Robert Mercer, the husband of children's author, Grace Lin, lost his battle with cancer this week.

Robert was the inspiration for Grace's lovely book, Robert's Snow and the wonderful fundraising project for Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

I know Grace more on a professional level than on a personal level - but I know her to be lovely, gracious, sweet, smart, and charming. Her huge circle of friends and supporters is certainly a testament to that.

I never met Robert, but clearly, he was loved.

I know that the children's literature community joins me in sending heartfelt thoughts to one of its own.

Hugs to you, Grace.

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Grace Lin. How fun!

BUT, I'm away on vacation and get about 2 seconds on a computer - so I'll do it later, I promise (if I can possibly think of 8 even slightly interesting things about myself).

Just to let you know how my trip is going, so far I've been to the Coondog Cemetery and the birthplace of Elvis. All the cultural highlights. Ha!

Grace Lin's Book Launch Party Part 1

I went to Grace Lin's book launch party on Saturday. Wow, that girl can plan a party! Here's how it went:

I took the train in to the city (Boston). On the way, I played Mario Brothers on my Nintendo and got irritated by people talking on cellphones (which was everyone but me).

As soon as I arrived at the party, the first person I saw was Grace, looking so pretty and happy and smart and like someone who should definitely be named Grace.

Here we are (we got our glasses at a two-for-one sale):















Okay, so then I headed for the food. But it was so dang pretty, I wasn't about to be the first one to mess it up:

























I guess when you have a book launch party, you get hugged a lot. This is Leo Landry hugging Grace (or Grace hugging Leo Landry).

Grace Lin's Party Part 2

Okay, so now I've gotta mingle. Here I go...

This is Horn Book's designer and production manager, Lolly Robinson (in red, back to camera. Sorry, Lolly) and friend (I can't remember her name but she went to Harvard, so, hey, I remembered something) talking to Blue Rose Girl, Elaine Magliaro.















Lolly and I were convinced we had met before. But we tossed out every conceivable event, from PLA to IRA to ALA to NPA (National Partyers Association) but no luck.

She was recording a podcast for Horn Book and I got to talk a bit about my new book (How to Steal a Dog). Lucky for me, it was just reviewed by Horn Book, so I had something Horn Bookish to say on the podcast.

Here is the same group, joined by Little Brown editor, Alvina Ling. I love her blue rose ponytail.

























Here is Grace with Pat Keogh (Foundation for Children's Books and Creative Arts Coordinator for the town of Weston, Massachusetts). Pat is the world's biggest supporter of children's literature. She's amazing. She's read every children's book and knows every children's author on the planet. I think.

Grace Lin's Party Part 3

This is Alvina with another Blue Rose Girl, Libby Koponen.
















Libby and Alvina selling books and raffle tickets:










Grace preparing to announce the lucky winner of a piece of her original artwork. The proceeds from the raffle sale went to Dana Farber Cancer Institute:















Here, Grace is thinking, "Yikes, how did these chocolate rats get into the raffle bucket?" (I was promised a chocolate rat in my goodie bag, but I got a chocolate seashell. Now seashells are very nice. But how can a seashell compare to a rat? I know, I know, Grace is thinking, "Good grief, Barbara, get over it, wouldya?)














The woman in the background watching Grace's surprise over the chocolate rats in the raffle bucket is Jennifer Cusack (holding blue coat and books), Executive Director of the Foundation for Children's Books in Boston.

Great job, Grace! Everything was perfect.