Or maybe not....

Wish me luck!!!!

From U S Airways website (I'm flying from Providence thru Philadelphia):

Travel advisory

East Coast Flooding

Last Updated: 9/30/2010 12:41 PM ET

Cities Affected
Hartford/Springfield, CT ; New Haven, CT ; Washington, DC (Reagan) ; Augusta, ME ; Bangor, ME ; Bar Harbor, ME ; Portland, ME ; Baltimore, MD ; Salisbury, MD ; Boston, MA ; Manchester, NH ; Newark, NJ ; Islip, NY ; New York, NY (Laguardia) ; New York, NY (JFK) ; White Plains, NY ; Fayetteville, NC ; Greenville, NC ; New Bern, NC ; Raleigh/Durham, NC ; Wilmington, NC ; Philadelphia, PA ; Providence, RI ; Myrtle Beach, SC ; Newport News, VA ; Norfolk, VA ; Richmond, VA


Date Range
9/30/2010 11:00 AM ET through 10/2/2010 11:30 PM ET

Off to Kansas

I'm headed to Kansas to proudly accept the William Allen White Award for How to Steal a Dog.

Lisa Graff is on the way

Lisa Graff stops by Greetings from Nowhere on her blog tour tomorrow.

Be sure to come by and check it out!

A terrific blog review

I love this review of The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester!

Murder your darlings

One of the hardest things to do during the process of writing is to murder your darlings, i.e., erase, eliminate, annihilate words that you like and that you think sound good - but that:

1. Do not move the story forward.
2. Do not reveal any new information.
3. Contribute nothing to the story but words that sound good.

I hate that.

But I did it.

I like this!

A great way to hide your STUFF.

Barbara O'Connor's Dog Obedience School

Lesson #412:

You must never allow your dogs to beg for food.

Fall has fallen

You know it's officially Fall when you see THIS on your daily walk: CRANBERRIES!

My office today

A Crack in the Sky

Sunday was the book launch party for A Crack in the Sky, the new YA novel by my good pal, Mark Peter Hughes.

Isn't that cover great?

I just bought my copy and can't wait to read it.











The party was at Mark's lovely home in Wayland, Massachusetts and was filled with proud neighbors, friends, and family.

(l to r) me, Mark, his wife, Karen, Janet Zade (of Zade Educational Partners)

Here I am with my fabulous booking agent and dear friend, Janet Zade of Zade Educational Partners:

(l to r) Janet Zade and me

Somebody said something funny:

(l to r) me, Mark, Karen



Mark is astounded by my cleverness:

(l to r) me, Mark, Karen


The fabulous Lemonade Mouth-Mobile:

Two more starred reviews for Owen Jester!

That makes THREE (but who's counting?).

School Library Journal; starred review:
This well-crafted novel creates a charming mix of the commonplace and the extraordinary….Appealing and authentic, this tale of summertime adventure will be a hit with readers year round.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books; starred review:
O’Connor masterfully twists the two plot threads….[and] fashions a geography of childhood freedom.

Two nice blog reviews for Owen Jester

Fizzwhizzing Flushbunker

Read, Write, Believe

Thanks, y'all!!

Stay, Summer, stay

I'm really, really trying to get in the mood for Fall.

I'm trying....

Really, trying...

But it's not working.

Stay, Summer, stay.

Small Graces Auction

The Small Graces auction has started over on eBay, featuring the amazing art of Brian Lies.

This is a wonderful cause, benefiting the Foundation for Children's Books.

Check it out!

A glimmer of hope

Okay, so I'm back on the subject of Cafe Francais.

Some of you know I was hooked on it for many years and then those bums at General Foods went and changed the recipe on me.

So I had to stash up on a gazillion cans of the old "original" version.

And then I finally ran out.

But lucky for me there are others out there who are also hooked on the original Cafe Francais.

One of them contacted me and told me this:

Hi Friend! I know I am such a nerd about it and there are better things to protest - but I guess our buying power and complaints have worked. Something very close to the original is now available. See my review on Amazon and in that review, there's a link for where to write to complain, suggest, etc to the makers to really return to the one we really love!!

A nerd???

No way.

I think this person has earned the Fake Coffee Lovers Lifetime Good Person Award.

Whoever you are, wherever you live, thank you!!!!!

And yes, I will write to them (even though last time they only sent me a lousy $5 check)

Fake Coffee Lovers Unite!!!!!

I'm off to the grocery store right now to look for a red, violet and white can.

Wish me luck.


[Note: This blog post is dedicated to Monika Schroder.]

Looking for stuff

My husband and I love to shop for stuff. We have a lot of stuff. We always think we need more stuff.

So we went to the Brimfield Antique Show in Brimfield, MA last weekend.

A few years ago, we went to the Bouckville Antique Fair in Bouckville, NY and scored lots of stuff.

But we failed at acquiring stuff this time.

The show was huge.

It went on for miles.

Lots and lots of stuff:

I found myself attracted to frog stuff (because of my new book, The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester):
[I kinda wish I'd bought this]

But none of it really said, "Buy me."

I could have bought this for a mere $6000. (He came with a change of clothes.)

I tried on a chicken hat made from recycled sweaters:

I probably should have bought this:

My husband found this on the ground:

I could have bought a Democrat Doll:

I found this amusing:

But in the end,
all we came home with was
an enamel pot

And these little forks for eating clams on the grill:

NY Times Book Review

The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester reviewed in New York Times.

Puppy love

I love kids

From a student:

I'm really glad that you took time out of your busy days and nights to come to an ordinary school like ours.


I love kids.

Barbara O'Connor's Dog Obedience School

Kirby's Note to Self

An interesting blog post from my pal, Kirby Larson.

Isn't it ironic?

You know how I keep missing the word "edit" in that Word Warp game? (which, by the way, now has a high score of 22,030. Somebody beat me.)

I did it again!

The letters were: DTEIDE

I got:

did
die
ted
tee
tie
deed
died
diet
teed
tide
tied
dieted

But not:

edit
edited

Some shrink would have something to say about that.

Clam it

What better way to celebrate Labor Day than with fresh New England clams on the grill:

Hurricane Schmurricane

Earl was a wimp.

Ready for Hurricane Earl

Work in Progress Check-In

On the Road to Mr. Mineo's so far.

ReaderKidz

I was honored to be asked to be the author-in-residence over at ReaderKidz this month.