Feeling the love in Korea

How to Steal a Dog has been on the bestseller list in Korea for three months!

Dasan Books (the Korean publisher) created this lovely ad. They also came up with some pretty creative marketing ideas - like a puppy giveaway promotion from an online bookstore!

Who knew?

(Note: I confess that I wrote this blog post back in November when I was doing school visits in Iowa City. I never got around to posting it....so since I have nothing else to report...here it is. That's what we call "a slow news day." Ha!)

Until my trip to Iowa, I had never been to the Midwest at all.

It was interesting to see things I'd never seen before.

Like hedge apples!

These were all over the ground in the yard of the B&B I stayed at.

They are big - about the size of a grapefruit.

They come from a big beautful tree called a sage orange.
They supposedly keep spiders away.
Who knew?

Dear Uncle Sam

Yes, I am spending this SNOWY day (arrrgh) doing taxes.

Can I write off a trip to Aruba?

Trust me, it's a necessary expense.

In a pickle

I don't know about y'all, but I have plenty of other things to do besides clean out my refrigerator.

But eventually, there comes a time when it just has to be done.

This activity can be a little shocking.

You know....those things you discover in there....

The bottle of mint sauce that expired 2 years ago.

The 8 bottles of nonfat salad dressing that nobody likes.

The mystery thing wrapped in foil.

And then, there's the stuck pickle jar.


That's right....that jar of pickles was stuck to the shelf...

AND I MEAN STUCK!

It would NOT budge.

Stuck like CEE-ment (as they say down South).

I had to pour boiling water on it to get it off.

My husband bought those pickles last summer at a flea market in Maine.

All I've got to say is, if he's planning on eating them, I hope his life insurance policy is paid up.

Mutual Admiration Society

I imagine most of y'all are too young to remember a song called "Mutual Admiration Society."

Alas, I am not.

I used to sing it a lot as a child.

And now I always feel like singing it when I see the name Kirby Larson.

We definitely have a Mutual Admiration Society going on.

I mean, how can I not adore a gal who writes books like Hattie Big Sky and says things like THIS. (You have to click on the podcast. You should certainly listen to the whole thing, but if you've got mashed potatoes on the stove that need to be tended to, you can jump to 7 minutes and 13 seconds, when the good stuff really starts.)


Oh, Kirby, Kirby....if I could send you money, champagne, roundtrip tickets to Europe, or my only son, I would. Instead, I send you a mere hug.)

Saying goodbye

My beloved dog, Phoebe, passed away.

Sigh....

She will be missed a lot.

Only five years old, but she had a full and happy life.

She loved the beach (as witnessed in the video).

She loved her toys.

She was suspicious of African drums.

She liked to go to work with me.

She sometimes had pollen nose.

She loved to swim.

She most definitely will be missed.

Gone, baby, gone

Off to my editor and agent.....

Dublin Literacy Conference

What a great weekend - immersed in children's literature - surrounded by folks who share a common passion!

The BEST part was meeting all the children's lit bloggers who have become my cyber friends and who are now my REAL friends! I felt like I knew them all before I even met them, but to give them all a real life hug was great.

Mary Lee Hahn took such good care of me - attending to my every need; not falling asleep while sitting through both my programs; being patient with my neurotic worry over technical equipment; being my taxi service; and laughing at at least one of my redneck jokes.

All of the committee members were so friendly and efficient - Franki Sibberson, Bill Prosser, Laura Douce (the other taxi service), Patty Whose-Husband-Is-a-Pilot, Karen Terlecky (thank you so much, Karen, for coming by to meet me!), Megan Germano (my cyber-bud!) and all the others. (Forgive me for leaving out so many!!!!! I left my handout with all the committee members in my hotel room. Duh!)

I got to spend time with authors. What's more fun than that? It was great to hang with Grace Lin. We had fun talking shop and sharing stories - and I'm sure I'll never forget seeing that little bitty girl eat the world's largest cream puff. (Well, okay, she only ate half of the world's largest cream puff, but still....). I also got to see an ARC of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which looks fabulous.

I enjoyed meeting newly published author, Amjed Qamar, whose YA book, Beneath My Mother's Feet has been receiving lots of notice.

I also had a blast with Pat Johnson, author of One Child at a Time: Making the Most of Your Time with Struggling Readers.

(l to r) Bill Prosser (Literate Lives), me, Mary Lee Hahn (A Year of Reading)

Me (left) and Megan Germano of Read, Read, Read

Karen Terlecky (Literate Lives) and me

(l to r) Bill, me, Karen

Grace Lin and me

My brilliant editor

A lovely little piece in Publishers Weekly about my amazing editor, Frances Foster (FSG), among others.

Dublin Literacy Conference

I'm at the Columbus, Ohio airport on my way home from the Dublin Literacy Conference.

SO much fun!

I finally got to meet so many of my blogger friends - amazing teachers and reading specialists. Honestly, I felt like I'd known them forever.

Got to spend time (finally) and share bread pudding with the lovely Grace Lin and others.

Pics and details to come.

Thank you, Dublin!

Checking out and heading off

I'm checking out for a few days.....

....and heading to Dublin, Ohio for a literacy conference.

I'll finally get to meet so many online friends....

....and reconnect with friend and fellow author, Grace Lin.

See you later!

Finally

I got this for Christmas and it finally bloomed.

So pretty - worth the wait.

Good in bed

Remember when I told you I was writing in bed?


Well, it seems I'm not the only one with that decadent writing process! Yay! Thanks, Kimberly Willis Holt!

Die! Die! Die!

You know how I decided to save this dead matter from Greetings from Nowhere?

Well, then I had to make room for that dead matter.


So I went through dead matter that was deader than dead.

I mean, D.E.A.D.

And I did it....

I threw it away!


But I see a new project coming if I ever have the luxury of time: Organizing this closet.


I know to some of you, this looks organized.

But to me, you can NEVER be too organized.

I want it to be all color coordinated, like this:

Writing Tip Tuesday

I've been reading Nobles' Book of Writing Blunders by William Noble and making a list of all the blunders I make.

Here's one:

Blunder #13: Don't add adverbs and adjective to prettify your prose.

My first thought was: Oh, I never do that.

But then I read this:

The key is, adjectives should be used only when they highlight something the noun can't highlight.
For example: He slipped into the darkened alley.
Not all alleys are dark, so now you know this one will be.

But suppose this had read: He slipped into the narrow alley.
Alleys are usually narrow (if they aren't narrow, they're called streets or road), so the adjective isn't telling any more than is offered by the noun. This is "prettifying" the prose, and it isn't pretty at all.

And that got me to thinking that I am guilty of that blunder from time to time.

Because I'm all about the rhythm of writing, I am guilty of inserting an adjective for the sake of rhythm and maybe doing more "prettifying" than I should.

Oh, how my blunder list continues to grow....

But THEN, the very next thing that happened was that I was reading an article about Emma Thompson in More Magazine.

And guess what?

The second sentence in that article was this:

"I had my heart broken there," she says as she strides down the narrow alley beside the tavern.

Ha! What are the odds?

So, that got me to thinking.....maybe prettifying your writing isn't such a blunder, after all.

I mean, maybe those extra adjectives serve to enhance the image, contribute to the rhythm, or just simply sound nice.

Is that really a blunder?

[Note: I realize that there is not one thing useful about this supposed tip. Consider it merely food for thought.]