I'm off on a totally cool adventure today. In my absence, please tell me any of your writing or publishing questions that I forgot to answer, so I can answer them next week.

Feel free to make up new ones, too.

Do you know anyone who lives around San Francisco? Tell them to check out the "Private Party" that Books Inc. is throwing for me on Sunday, March, 22nd. Tickets need to be purchased ahead of time, so call today.

Let the countdown begin!

WINTERGIRLS goes on sale one month from today!!! In a month, I'll be on my way to the airport to catch a flight out to California for the beginning of the book tour.

The spring will be almost as much of a travel blur as last fall was.

Laurie's Totally Excellent Spring & Summer Roadtrips:
1. Book Tour
2. Visit to Lima, Peru
3. Los Angeles Times Book Festival
4. College graduation of Daughter #3 (YAY!!! ::throws confetti and dances::)
5. International Reading Association conference
6. American Library Association conference

The good news is that I won't be on the road for such long stretches this time. Being able to come home to my husband keeps me sane, even if it's only for a couple of days.

Oh, and I'm going to New York City in a few days for some interviews and meetings. I have no clue what to wear. I always feel like a hick when I go to the Big Apple. Probably because I am a hick. Hicks are the new geeks, don't you know.

My wardrobe issues would all be solved if the rest of the world would join me in my version of sartorial splendor: flannel shirt and jeans, pony tail and sunscreen. What more does a girl need?

I can't believe there is only a month left until the book is out! My stomach is jumpy and nervous and excited and freaking out just a bit.

Gah. That last sentence didn't make much sense, did it?

You wrote: what's it like when on tour, for your writing? Do you have much time/energy left for writing, do you make yourself work on a particular project, or is it only if a deadline's edging close for a contracted project that you would write while on tour? (It sounds like you need to get this one done before the tour - which suggests you don't have much time for writing at all - is that frustrating or are you kept too busy to notice that much?)

I do not know what book tours are like for other authors, so my answer only pertains to me.

I ADORE going on book tour. It's fun and rewarding. I also really, really appreciate the fact that my publisher is willing to spend money putting me on the road, and that booksellers are willing to go to all the trouble and preparations required to set up my visits to their stores and the schools they work with. Because I value what these folks are doing for me so highly, my time and energy while on tour is fully at their disposal.

What does this mean? It means there are days when I have to wake up at 3:30 am, catch a flight to the next city, spend all day signing books and visiting schools and stores, grab veggie wraps from Subway for lunch and dinner, do an evening library presentation and fall into another hotel bed at about 10 pm. Even a relaxed day will start at 9 am and not stop until 9 or 10pm.

But like I said: I love this!! It is energizing to meet readers and I am always honored when people take the time to come out to a bookstore to see me.

The down side? Well, I get sick of the veggie wraps. I rarely have enough time to exercise. And it is very challenging to squeeze in writing time. I try. Usually I can steal half an hour or so while waiting for a plane. And flying time is a wonderful place to jot down ideas, or let my mind drift to new projects. The publicists try to schedule in the occasional day that has some down time - that's always nice - so there are a few extra hours on days like that for the writing. However it's impossible to get consistent blocks of time from day to day.

But I must admit, it's a pretty sweet problem to have, so I'm not whining. I am incredibly fortunate and blessed to have the chance to go on book tour.

Scribblescribblescribble...

If all goes well, I head to Minnesota in a few hours. I promise lots of pictures and tour details for the next month.

Before we get to the schedule, I'd like to puff out my chest and proudly point out that my daughter Bookavore (aka Stephanie) has some great quotes about economic sustainability and getting folks to shop locally.

And.... Brilliance Audio just released a wonderful audio version of CHAINS!! The reader, Madisun Leigh, does a wonderful job - so wonderful that I was in tears by the end of the first chapter. I can't wait until I have time to listen to the whole thing!

And... not only did I buy The Dress for the fancy-pants National Book Award gala, but I took it to Mary Jean's Alterations in Oswego and it will be ready when I get off the plane in a few weeks. BH ordered his tux there, too.

And... my absentee ballot arrived on time and I voted!!!!

And..... the book tour appearances below are my public gigs. On most days, I'll be visiting schools during the day and then doing an evening appearance at most stores. I am really sorry I won't be headed to the West Coast on this tour, but you can't have everything, and my cup is totally overflowing right now, so I'm not going to make a fuss. (FYI - I'll be going back out on tour in March. Keep your fingers crossed.)

CHAINS BOOK TOUR SCHEDULE: FREE YOUR MIND!!

MINNEAPOLIS
Tues, October 21 at 7:00 pm : Barnes & Noble, Roseville, MN 651-639-9256

Wed., October 22 at 6:00 pm: Wild Rumpus, Minneapolis, MN 612-920-5005


DENVER
Thursday, October 23 (AKA MY BIRTHDAY) at 5:00 pm: Bookies, Denver, CO 303-759-1117

Friday, October 24 at 7:00 pm: Tattered Cover, Denver, East Colfax store 303-436-9219


CHICAGO area
Saturday, October 25 at 1:00 pm: The Bookstall of Chestnut Court, Winnetka 847-446-0882

Sunday, October 26 at 2:00 pm: Center for Teaching through Children’s Books, National-Louis University, Skokie. This is at 5202 Old Orchard Road - 3rd Floor Public Forum Room. Sorry, I don't have a contact phone number, but I do know that lots of teachers and grad students are expected to attend. At least, I hope they do.

Monday, October 27: Barnes & Noble, Skokie (no public event, but will have signed books available) 847-676-2230


OMAHA
Tuesday, October 28 at 7:00 pm: Omaha Public Library, An all-city event in Centennial Hall at the Alumni House on the UNO Campus, 6705 Dodge St. 402-444-4800


BACK TO CHICAGO area
Wednesday, October 29 at 7:00 pm: Anderson’s, Naperville 630-355-2665


MILWAUKEE
Thursday, October 30 at 7:00 pm: Harry Schwartz Bookshop (Mequon store) 262-241-6220


DOVER, DE
Saturday, November 1: several appearances during the day: Delaware Book Festival


BALTIMORE
Monday, November 3: The Children’s Bookstore (no public event, but will have signed books available)


WASHINGTON, DC area
Monday, November 3 at 7:00 pm: Barnes & Noble, McLean, VA 703-506-2937


Tuesday, November 4: Politics & Prose, Wash. DC (drop-in booksigning at 12:30) 202-364-1919


NEW JERSEY
Wednesday, November 5: BookEnds, Ridgewood (no public event, but will have signed books available) 201-445-0726


NEW YORK
Thursday, November 6 at 6:45 pm: Merritt Bookstore, Millbrook, NY 845-677-5857


WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Friday, November 7: Odyssey Bookstore, South Hadley, MA (no public event, but will have signed books available) 413-534-7307


ATLANTA area
Monday, November 10 at 7:00 pm: Little Shop of Stories, Decatur 404-373-6300

Tuesday, November 11: The Reading Tree, Alpharetta (no public event, but will have signed books available) 770-740-7171


MIAMI
Wednesday, November 12 and Thursday, November 13: Miami Book Fair (school events only)


NEW ORLEANS
Friday, November 14 at 4:30 pm: Octavia Books 504-899-7323

Saturday, November 14 -- Special school event only, sponsored by Octavia Books


NEW YORK CITY - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FESTIVITIES
Tuesday, November 18 - Teen Press Conference

Tuesday, November 18, 7pm - All twenty of this year's National Book Award Finalists will read from their books at New York City’ s New School

Wednesday, November 19, National Book Foundation Awards Dinner and Ceremony


SAN ANTONIO, TX
Friday, November 21 – Tuesday, November 25: National Council of Teachers of English annual conference and ALAN Workshop


CENTRAL NEW YORK
Thursday, December 4 at 6:00 pm: The River’s End Bookstore, Oswego 315-342-0077 (followed by a fundraising dinner for the Oswego Public Library!)

SE PENNSYLVANIA
Saturday, December 6 at 6pm: Moravian Bookshop, Bethlehem, PA 610-866-5481


And now I should probably try to sleep.
Yeah, right.

Click on the video below and push the time bar to the 50 second mark.



Ready? Push play and sing along with me as loud as you can:

"AN-TI-CI-PAAA-TION!!!"

That's my life right now. CHAINS will be released officially on October 21st, the day my book tour begins, two days before my birthday. The nice people at S&S have posted a CHAINS excerpt for you to read while you are waiting for the book.

The details of the book tour are in the last stages of being firmed up, but it looks like I'll be visiting:
36 schools (these presentations are not open to the public)
19 bookstores (this includes 2 stores in December after the official tour is over)
3 presentations to groups of librarians and teachers. Maybe 4.

At the end of the tour, I head for San Antonio, TX for the NCTE/ALAN Conference. And then I go home, turn off the phone, and take a nap.

Right now I feel like a basketball player after the warm-ups are over and before the National Anthem has been sung. My stomach is a little jumpy, my hands are sweaty, and I can't wait until the referee blows her whistle and throws up the ball to start the game.

I am doing something new on this tour. I am bringing a portable digital projector so I can show a visual presentation to everyone. The "show" gives a little background about me and my writing, then focuses on my research and writing of CHAINS. If you live in Central NY, you can see a sneak preview of this show next Tuesday at 7pm at the Barnes & Noble in Dewitt, NY, where I'll be speaking at their Educators' Appreciation Night.

While we were running this morning, BH and I saw a gorgeous red-tailed hawk sweeping over a meadow. When we got home (he cooked an awesome ham and egg breakfast), a second hawk about twice the size of the first one perched on the edge of our forest and allowed us to admire him.

It's been quite a day.

I will be using today's subject line a lot in the next four months!

Life is busy - good busy. I am so incredibly blessed to have all this fun stuff to do! Right now most of my time is spent working on the new book (it's a historical that continues the adventures of the characters introduced in CHAINS). My goal is to get the first readable next to my editor my early next month. The tentative publication date is the Spring of 2010.

I'm also gearing up for the crazy CHAINS book tour that starts on 10/21. I'll be posting more details about that soon. Counting a few events before and after the actual tour (NCTE/ALAN and a couple of bookseller trade shows), I'll be spending 40 days on the road, and visiting 27 cities (in several places, I'll be in town for two days). I am a little overwhelmed by the thought of this, but mostly am so excited that I am giving off sparks.

And there is the very advance publicity work I need to do for WINTERGIRLS, my YA that will be published in May, 2009. I hope that the WINTERGIRLS book tour will cover some of the regions of the country (i.e. West Coast) that I won't be seeing on the CHAINS tour.

Oh - and the other thing about next year? Next year is the tenth anniversary of the publication of SPEAK. More details about any festivities later.

This afternoon is the big meeting with the folks at my mother's rehab facility spa to discuss her discharge date, and that is the most exciting news of all. She had gotten back much of her strength and is beginning to walk with a walker. If they leave her there much longer, she'll reorganize the facility, so I suspect she'll be home soon. Thank you everyone for the prayers and warm wishes. They have meant a great deal to our family.

The sad thing is that I've been so busy that I haven't been able to can as much food as I had hoped, and my garden is showing signs of neglect.

But my pumpkins are comfortably resting on their cozy beds of shredded manuscript draft.

And my Beloved Husband has finished splitting and stacking almost 25 cords of wood to heat the house this winter. (You can't see it from the photo, but the stack extends to the far wall of the garage.)

What have you been up to?

No, the firewood isn't here yet. Yes, it's going up to 80+ degrees so we are unlikely to need it tonight. But OfficeMouse and her Faithful Companion are leaving soon which means it will be BH and me on stacking duty. Maybe I should invite everyone in Blogland to come help. I could feed you all snap peas and jam.

Happy Birthday today to my friends Ashley Kauffmann, Tanya Lee Stone, and Ed Spicer!! Ed does terrific work with teen readers out in Michigan.

My good friend Elizabeth Partridge suggested that I alert all of you to Lois Lowery's blog. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Elizabeth has a blog, too.

I am starting to get early information about the CHAINS booktour this fall. I will be in these regions. (Most places I am slated to be around for two days somewhere from late October to late November. All details as soon as I get them, I promise!)

Minneapolis, MN
Denver, CO
Chicago, IL
Omaha, NE
Milwaukee, WI
Dover, DE (Delaware Book Festival)
McLean, VA
Ridgewood, NJ
Millbrook, NY (near Poughkeepsie)
Boston, MA
Rochester, NY
Atlanta, GA
Miami FL (Miami Book Festival)
New Orleans, LA
Oxford, MS
Jackson, MS
Bethlehem, PA (right, Stef?)
Oswego, NY


In addition, I'll be speaking at the New England Independent Bookseller's Association (Boston, MA), and the Great Lakes Booksellers Association (Dearborn, MI) tradeshows before the tour starts, and I'll be in San Antonio, TX for the NCTE/ALAN conference.

After the last event, I will go home, burn my suitcase, and turn off the telephone for a few weeks. But, really, I am extremely excited about this tour.

Booktours don't happen without writing, so let's focus on that!

WFMAD 25

Today's goal: Write 15 minutes. Be shocked at how fast the time flies.

Today's mindset: melancholy

Today's prompt: It's Friday so it's time to bathe in poetry. Do the exercises in poet Kate Clanchy's workshop today. Feel free to share your poem in the Comments section!

Scribblescribble....