slwhitman is trying to get a new publishing house, Tu Publishing off the ground. Focus is going to be multi-cultural children's fantasy and science fiction. As Stacy was the editor of my first book, Bronze Dragon Codex, I'm honored to have a chance to help her and Tu Publishing.

I'm auctioning an Alice in Wonderland doll, crocheted by yours truly. The doll is about 5" in height and one I made can be pictured here.



Now, once the winner is announced, there will be a delay in delivery. This is because I need to make the doll. Why am I not making the doll beforehand? Well, in the spirit of Tu Publishing's multi-cultural bent, this Alice will be made to YOUR specification. So if you ever wanted an Alice of another color, here's your chance! You can specify eye, hair, and skin color (dress too, if you don't care for Alice in blue). I am, of course, limited by the color availability of crochet thread, but I'll come as close as possible.

Bidding starts at $10 and closes at Midnight PST December 9, 2009. Go here and comment to bid (NOT on this journal, it will be too hard to keep track of).

And if you don't want a doll but want to help Tu get off the ground, check out the Kickstarter site:



cross posted to kickstart_tu

So, I've been absent from LJ for a while because things have been nutty with finishing up the book and all the fall conferences. Two weekends ago I went to SCBWI Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. My mom and I stayed in the hotel overnight and had a wonderful time. Also got to see lizjonesbooks briefly, as well as Pat Easton, my very first writing teacher and the regional adviser.

Keynote speaker Bruce Coville was absolutely amazing! He gave a very fun speech over lunch, and also a smaller breakout session on children's fantasy. Got to hear him telling (not reading, telling) the story of "The Monster's Ring" and it was enthralling! Funniest moment was when the phone in the conference room rang and he asked someone to answer it. Alas, the person on the other end hung up before they got to talk to Bruce Coville, a shame for both them and us.

Also got to hear Michael Stearns of Upstart Crow Literary (agent of the amazing jeffsampson talk about query letters and submissions, which is always good. There were some interesting sessions that aren't always part of SCBWI conferences, such as a session on professional grants and one on school visits, which I REALLY took notes on. One of these days I should start doing that. Probably be good when the 2nd book comes out, as there's crafts and activities I can do with the kids.

Then SCBWI Mid-Atlantic this past weekend. I must admit, that conference is my least favorite, mainly because I hate driving into DC. It wasn't as bad this weekend, though, because I stayed downtown with one of the women in my writing group, so I wasn't tired and ticked off when I walked through the door. Keynote speaker Patricia Reilly Giff was also amazing, especially all the stories she told about going to Ireland for research. Heard some other good speakers too, including one on book packaging which was quite interesting.

Best of all, I got to see Valerie Patterson talk about her debut novel, "The Other Side of Blue" and I got signed copies for both melissajoyadams and myself. I'm reading that very slowly, unusual for me. Main reason is I'm savoring Val's words and enjoying the first book written by a friend. I've read plenty by acquaintances and plenty by authors who then became friends, but this is the first book published by someone already a friend. I also got to hear Val's editor read her letter to her higher-ups about the book, saying it was "a pretty perfect novel!" Go Val!

Went out to lunch with a friend from Hollins and some other writers. Saw annemariepace for about a split second, and another friend from Hollins. Problem with going to Mid-Atlantic is while I know a lot of people there, all of them volunteer so not a large group to go to lunch with! Driving home was an adventure as I missed the turn off 66 for 495 and had to drive all the way to Dulles airport and back to get back on track (seriously 15 miles without an exit? Really?). Other than that, though, a really good day.

OH! And it looks like I might be speaking at the summer conference for SCBWI MD/DE/WV! They want me to both talk about fantasy and appear on a panel about MFA programs (I'll be singing Hollins' praises, of course!). More details to follow. I'm really, really flattered by this!

And now, back to marketing "Tapestry Threads." I'm currently working on a synopsis, the bane of pretty much every writer. Critique group went over it yesterday and it needs a LOT of work. So off I go to synopsize!

Way behind on listing the books read, but this week was insane with book deadline and reading proposals and emailing people about ICFA. But here it is!

Sweetwater by Lawrence Yep
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlain Harris
The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker
Dragon's Breath by E.D. Baker
Midnight in the Dollhouse by Marjorie Stover
When the Dolls Woke by Margorie Stover
The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff
Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson & Kathryn Hewitt

I also just started reading "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" by Carrie Ryan last night. Wow. I'm completely blown away. I read lots of books I like, but that's one I wish I'd written myself. It's so well-constructed and gorgeously written.

Final draft of the book is due November 11. As I'm leaving tomorrow to go to PA to attend the SCBWI conference in Pittsburgh, I wanted to get it done today. Here's a day in the life of a work-for-hire writer.

Wake up, shower, dress, breakfast, turn on computer

Re-pot plant that somehow seemed to snap at stem when I watered it this morning. Weird.

Do some werk (as kathleenfoucart calls it)

Give thanks that there's no werk emergencies today, leaving me free to revise

Check email regarding ICFA

Give thanks that there's no emails to answer regarding ICFA today, leaving me free to revise

Check out Facebook (oooh, Farmville has limited edition space cows and crop circles!)

Realize that I can't revise while watching Hostel on Fear.net. Mute TV.

Read aloud about 20 pages, revising as I go and shredding each page as I finish

Email editor to ask if they want me to put page #s in where we previously put ??s (since we kept shuffling the order). Get answer yes, as we're mapped the book so carefully it's unlikely to change. Yay!

Look out window. Notice that our leaf-obsessed neighbor has now created a ten foot wide leaf-free zone between our properties. As it's fall in the mountains of Maryland, that will last, oh, about 5 minutes. Which is why he's been running the leaf blower all day without pause. Sigh.

Read aloud about 10 more pages

Have lunch (2 mini-boxes of Frosted Flakes left over from this weekend's party)

Check to see if the dog needs to go out. She's still passed out on the sofa.

Facebook. Why does Happy Aquarium make you go back about 5 times a day to keep your fishies healthy?

Play with new Scent Bug, mixing Baker's Spice and Peppermint oils. Yummy!

Realize that TV is now showing the Bernie Mac show, still muted. Switch to Batman on AMC, still muted (why this makes a difference to me I have no idea, but it does, ok??)

Email editor to ask if she really meant to remove those oh-so-clever captions I gave some of the artwork. Yes. Ah well.

Read aloud rest of book and revise

Check out Hack and Slash Christmas Show video sent by friend who just bought us tickets. Can't wait! And melissajoyadams will be joining us this year too!

Answer werk emails and other werk items. Werk werk werk.

Give thanks that there still is no ICFA communication required (today anyway)

Print out index page because I shredded it earlier today. Oops.

Curse at printer that printed out over 80 pages, illustrations included, yesterday without a hiccup but now thinks a 2 page index with no pictures is just too much to handle

Using index page when it finally prints, do a search on ??s and replace with appropriate page number

Save as a .doc file and email editor

Decide that it's time for Lego Star Wars and leftover Halloween candy to celebrate!

Wonder what I can sacrifice to the writing gods that will land me another contract like this because I LOVE THIS JOB!!!!!

10 Black Bears in the Quiet Zone Cabin (according to soniaamiller)

9 Amazing Writers (including mja700, kathleenfoucart, and soniaamiller)

8 X 10 Fish Sighted in the Very Clear River

7 Too Many Dairy Products Purchased (5 sticks of butter, 1 gallon of milk, one container of cream cheese)

6 People Twittering and Facebooking

5 Relative Sightings (4 cousins, one aunt)

4 Ooey Gooey and/or Chocolate Dishes (Brian's Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Treats, Brian's Cream Cheese Marble Brownies, Mialie's Oreo Truffles, Mialie's Breakfast Cheesecake Squares)

3 People Resisting the Twittering and Facebooking Time Suck

2 Literary inspired meals (Anne Shirley's dinner for Mrs. Morgan from "Anne of Avonlea" and a Expats' 1920s luncheon)

1 Manuscript revised with art directions for editor

I'm sure some of you have noticed the icon here, which I use for birthdays. Yes, that is a real cake, made by my husband a few years ago. He really isn't that bad a speller, but he is that bad a decorator (fortunately, his skill with the cake itself is absolutely amazing, which is partly why I'm now about 20 pounds heavier than when we first met). He made this cake for a good friend of ours a few years ago. Since in the past he's run out of room at the end of a word, this time he decided to begin at either end and work his way in. Well, as you can see, by the time he got to the middle there was no room for the "H." He put it out, curious to see if anyone noticed. I think we all did.

However, after a friend posted this on Facebook yesterday, I realized the hubby's decorating isn't that bad. And he isn't even a professional!

I've finally organized the writer's retreat I've wanted to organize for years. It's at some cabins my cousins own and will be attended by some wonderful writers I know, including mja700, kathleenfoucart, and soniaamiller. We're heading there this weekend and I can't wait!

Because I'm deep into the final polish of the book, I was thinking I didn't want to get my work critiqued, although I was going to critique others. But then I realized that I was going to be spending almost 3 days with some wonderful writers and I wasn't going to get their input? What sense does THAT make?? So I sent the manuscript to them and hopefully I'll be able to integrate their comments by early next week, when we need to get art directions in.

In other news, I'm having a horrible time focusing today. There was a bit of drama that I won't go into here (maybe later in a locked post), I don't know if that threw me off or if it's all the things that need to be done before I leave. So what am I doing? I'm sewing my Halloween costume. This is the first complicated costume I've done in years but so far it's going all right, despite some confusion over pattern sizes. Apparently in Misses sizes I'm 16 (and that's tight!) and Misses is different than Women's. Wha? I normally run 12/14 depending on how things are cut.

I should be critiquing manuscripts, reading the latter half of my own work aloud to catch typos and play with style (did first half this weekend), packing, making lists. But brain can't get out of neutral. So sewing it is, maybe that will help me get brain in gear.

My very, very, very good friend mja700!!! Happy birtday, and we'll celebrate in style this weekend! Miss you!!!

A very happy birtday to ayelle!!!

I'll be signing "Bronze Dragon Codex" and the Maryland Renaissance Faire this Saturday, October 10, all day. Come on by!

My former professor now friend, Alexandria LaFaye (recently interviewed by kathleenfoucart is trying to get funding to aid publishing her book on writing, "The Primed Mind." I've read it and it really is an amazing book, not just on the craft of writing but also creative thinking. It's funny too and has lots of good writing exercises.

She's funding through Kickstarter, which slwhitman lead me too (thanks!). You donate money and only if the required amount is met by a certain date do you pay. There's also various items/services you can get for different pledge amounts. I'm echoing kathleenfoucart sentiment that this is most assuredly NOT a scam, this is a book by a real live person (who's won the Scott O'Dell award, I'd like to add) that I've read and is really, really good. I'd like to encourage all of you who know Alexandria to re-post this on your journals, Facebooks, Twitters, etc...

Click here to Prime "The Primed Mind"

Saw three movies within the past week that I thought were worth mini-reviews. They will be mini because, while they inspired reviews, they didn't inspire BIG reviews. Also, I'm sick and don't think I could do mega-reviews. All of these movies have a common theme, at least in my reaction, and that theme is expectations.

As the power went out Thursday night, seemed like a good idea to head to the movies. As Zombieland wasn't out yet, we decided to see Pandorum. That movie was slightly better than I expected it would be, not spectacular. Two spaceship pilots (Bower, played by Ben Foster, and Payton, played by Dennis Quaid) awake from deep sleep on board a spacecraft with few memories beyond technical operation of the craft. Trapped in a chamber, Payton remains behind to help guide Bower through the ship. Bower worms his way through the inner bowels of the craft to find that the craft has been taken over by monsters that bear a striking resemblance to those from "The Descent" (if you just add clothes and weapons). Bower meets a few survivors on the ship and tries to find his way to the core, which he needs to fix before the craft goes into complete shutdown. As the movie progresses, Bower and Payton regain their memories slowly, realizing that they are on a ship designed to colonize another Earth-like planet. While entirely predictable, there were a few scares (and I tend not to scare easily at science fiction movies) and some halfway-decent psychological drama. The bad movie physics was especially entertaining, as always (but still not quite as bad as "Sunshine.") As one of my friends from Hollins would say, "Good cheesy fun."

Saturday we saw the movie I'd been waiting for, "Zombieland." The previews made it look like an American "Shaun of the Dead." This is one movie where my expectations were met exactly. Not off by one hair, but dead on what I expected from the previews. A guy (no real names are ever given) played by Jesse Eisenberg ("The Village," "Cursed") in a very amusing performance has managed to stay alive in a world overrun by zombies largely because of his phobias and his rules. The rules, amusingly, appear from time to time in type over the scene that illustrations them ("Wear seat belts," "Beware of Bathrooms," "Double tap"). He meets up with Woody Harrelson's character (brilliantly portrayed; I've always wished Harrelson got more roles. Saw him on stage in London with Kyle MacLaughlin in "An Average Day" and they both were amazing) and they decide to travel together. Referring to each other by where they want to go (Eisenberg is Columbus, Harrelson is Tallahassee), they begin road-tripping across the US. They meet up with two sisters (Emma Stone and the adorable Abigail Breslin) who give new meaning to the phrase "Trust no one." The girls want to go to an amusement park because it has no zombies. Why they heard that I have no idea and, of course, there are zombies aplenty once they get there. They also meet up with a Hollywood icon played by himself (won't say who and please don't go to IMDB to check out the cast, the surprise is SO worth it!). Much mayhem and gore and good cheesy zombie fun ensues!

This truly is the American "Shaun of the Dead." While Shaun still reigns supreme in my heart, this movie really captured the classic American road trip with classic American zombie fun.

Then came Sunday. Neither of us was feeling well, so we Netflixed it. The only thing that grabbed my attention was "Blindness," which I thought looked very good. How very, very wrong I was.

Now, before I get bombarded with people saying "But the book was great!" (believe me, I heard that a lot when I updated my Facebook status with how horrible the movie was), let me remind you I'm judging it as a movie. Maybe the book is great, I don't know. But the movie was probably the worst I've ever seen, barring "Solaris" (we didn't even make it through that one, that's the only movies I've rented and then didn't finish watching). This also has to do with expectations. I watch a lot of very bad movies and enjoy them because I know they can't be taken seriously. But when I see a movie so obviously done as "high" art and it fails, then I get really annoyed. I do enjoy movies like this (LOVED "Children of Man") and I'm not one to condemn a movie because it has disturbing scenes (which this really, REALLY does, consider yourself warned). My main issues were believability, characters, and the way some scenes were shot.

A man suddenly goes blind while driving his car. He is, from what we see in the movie, patient zero for a plague of blindness. He goes to an eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo) who eventually becomes blind as well. The doctor's wife (played by Juliane Moore) is the only person who retains her sight among the main characters. The government, oddly, rounds up the first people who become bind. This was annoyance number one. If these were the first few people affected, why weren't they studied? I couldn't pinpoint what country this was supposed to be, and that's ok, but I really can't see ANY country that isn't 3rd world rounding up the first few people to get such an odd disease and not study or monitor them at all and just cram them into a building to fend for themselves. What purpose does it serve? Later on in the plague when things are total chaos, sure. First few people? Not buying it. It is possible that they weren't the first few people, but why wasn't an eye doctor aware this was going on, then? They would be the first average citizens to notice something weird was happening.

As time goes on and more people are crammed into quarantine, things begin to fall apart. A dictator who somehow (never explained how) got a hold of a gun begins intercepting the food and demands payment for it. Again, to be expected after a point. However, this is where I really lost it on Juliane Moore's character. SHE CAN SEE! She could do all sorts of things, like trying to get the gun, finding out more about the food and intercepting. Instead, she is one of the most milk-sop characters I think I've ever seen in a post-apocalyptic movie. And don't even get me started on how, when she sees her husband with another woman, she instantly forgives them because "I can see!" UGH! I was pretty ticked off at the helplessness of all the characters in general, actually. I'm not saying that all characters have to be gung-ho or likable, but you have to least WANT to be interested in what happens to them. I didn't care enough about any of these characters to have any feeling other than frustration at all of them.

And seriously? A guy goes blind and needs his wife to actually feed him and wipe his butt? Have none of these people ever had a blackout?

Then there were some shots that were very confusing. A few started from the POV of a blind character, so everything was white. But then the shot would change gradually from white to normal. Not a cut shot, but a gradual shot. This made the viewer wonder if the character's sight was coming back.

I think the most frustrating thing, other than the annoying characters, was this was one instance of a good movie trapped in a bad movie. A few plot changes and make the characters likeable, it might have been decent. Instead, I'm ticked off and am not sure if I should read the book to vindicate it or if the movie completely ruined the book for me.

I'm currently working on the new book. Can't say a whole lot here, but I'm in need of testers for crafts, recipes, and games for 8-12 year olds. Please comment or email me if you or any kids you know would be interested. I'd need feedback by November 1. You don't have to do all the activities; you can specify if you prefer crafts, recipes, or games, or I can send you a variety and you pick. People who participate (trying at least 5 of the activities and giving me feedback) will get either a signed copy of "Bronze Dragon Codex" (available immediately) or this new book when it comes out (sometime next year). Thanks!!!

September was nuts with travel and wrapping up first draft of the book. But I still had time to read!

The Host by Stephanie Meyer
Strands of Starlight by Gael Baudino (reread)
Practically Perfect by Katie Fforde
Tristan and Isuelt by Rosemary Sutcliff
Captives of Time by Malcome Bosse (reread)
Case of the Firecrackers by Lawrence Yep
Shadow Castle by Marion Cockrell
City of Bones, Ashes, & Glass by Cassandra Clare (which I loved! Enjoyed Glass when I had it to review, but SO much better after reading all of them)
Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

The amazing slwhitman, who edited "Bronze Dragon Codex" and was an absolute joy to work with, is starting a new press, Tu Publishing. If you'd be interested in pledging to help fund this venture, click here.

Last week I bought Lucy a travel kennel. We were staying at my parents and I wanted to be able to crate her when we went out. I ended up buying a canvas and screen travel kennel, thought it would be nice to have a crate for traveling. Lucy's fine with a wire kennel at home, so I didn't think there'd be any problems.

First two times I put her in, no problem. Left her for about 4 hours and 6 hours, came back, she was fine and still in the kennel. The third time, though, we were gone only about 3 hours. I came back, opened the door to my room, and saw Lucy standing in the middle of the floor. The nut had slit the screen in the kennel and wiggled her way out. The amazing part is that she destroyed NOTHING in my room. Carpet: fine. Books: fine. Stuffed animals: fine. Only damage was a rip in my bedspread, as apparently madame thought the bed was more worthy of her delicate hiney than the floor.

So. Am off to Petco to see if I can return it as "defective." We'll see if they refund for things like this.

On the plus side, this incident convinced me that she can be left home safely. I've since left her out twice for about 4-5 hours and not a thing has been disturbed except the mat inside the front door (and that was probably from her running laps through the house, which she does normally). Yay! This might have to re-evaluated if we get a 2nd greyhound (which, now that the fence is finished, we might do), but for now it's nice to know she can be trusted. My husband said it's kind of like how you know a kid is ready to leave the crib when they start climbing out of it.

I've emailed the manuscript of the first draft along with reference pictures to my editor! Wow. I still can't say much publicly about this project, but I have had SO much fun working on it. I dare say this might be the most enjoyable writing I've ever done. It was just FUN, from start to finish. Granted, I still have the revisions for the final draft once the editor has a chance to go over this draft, but I don't foresee any problems. Now, I plan to rot my brain on tv and video games and old book favorites for the next 48 hours. Or more.

You may be seeing more movie reviews here in the future. Warning, while my husband and I watch a lot of children's movies, especially movies based on children's books, we also watch a fair amount of grown-up movies, including some pretty bloody stuff. However, it's what we enjoy, and enjoy so much that we see many movies opening weekend. That got me thinking, after I had such a fun time writing the review of "Repo! The Genetic Opera" that perhaps I should post movie reviews since I tend to see so many of them the weekend they open. I haven't done many reviews (other than haiku) of children's literature here because a) I spend so much time thinking about children's lit and writing reviews for other venues that I don't want to blog about them, b) so many other people I read are doing them and doing them better, and c) I'm finding just how small a world children's literature is and I don't want to have to think about my reviews in terms of "What will I do if I meet that person?" (and yes, that has happened with a negative review). Movie world, however, I'm much less connected to and so can praise or damn as I see fit without fear.

Brian and I went to see "Julie and Julia" on Sunday. It looked fun and, as Brian's really into cooking and likes Julia Child, we thought it might be a good movie (we had free tickets anyway that we haven't been able to use because we see to many things opening weekend). I figured it couldn't be that bad with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, so we went.

THAT was such a fun, fluffy movie. It alternates scenes between the lives of Julia Child (from the time she arrives in Paris to when "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" first appeared in print)and Julie Powel (the year of her life when she blogged about cooking every recipe from Julia Child's cookbook within a year). Julia's storyline was certainly my favorite, but not by much. I'd heard a few people comment that Julie's was a weaker plot and she wasn't a likable character. While I found her a bit annoying at times, I thought Amy Adams did a very good job portraying a very realistic woman. I didn't find myself waiting for Julia's story while involved with Julie's, I think that says a lot.

( Cut for spoilers )

This might be my favorite yet, if only for the "Firefly" bonus reference. :)

Happy belated birtday to my friend from long past, stregamomma! So many changes this year, I know you'll be wonderful with all of them!