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?

Not only have I worked on books every single day this year, but I posted to the blog every day in July, too. That's so much blogging, I think it qualifies as blahhhhging. I have no idea how people do this regularly.

I will not be posting as much in August. The new book is whining for more attention and the tomato harvest is beginning to roll in which means I'll be canning. (Yes - photos - I promise!) I welcome any and all salsa and zucchini recipes!

(One food preservation question - has anyone frozen zucchini?)

So blogging will be sporadic this month. Come September I'll revert back to my obsessive ways, I promise. CHAINS will be published on October 21st and there will be lots of tour madness to share.

But now, serenity.

The first sunflower out back just bloomed.



Happy August, all. Good Lammas, too.

The Goddess of YA Literature ventured into picture book territory yesterday and reviewed a number of recent picture books, including INDEPENDENT DAMES. It is an honor and a hoot to have the book compared to the MAGIC SCHOOL BUS books, which I love.

A couple of you have asked for my pesto recipe. I mostly wing it, but here is how I made yesterday's batch:

6 cups basil leaves (I stuff the cups, cram the basil in, so it's a lot) washed and destemmed.
1 generous cup chopped pine nuts
1 and one-fourth cup grated Romano cheese (you can use Parmesan - it's worth buying the good stuff)
10 cloves of garlic. Maybe 12.
Somewhere between three-quarters of a cup and one cup of good olive oil

I don't have a food processor so it takes a while to chop all the basil into a mush, but the smell is worth it. Once the basil is chopped, stir in the other ingredients. Add a dash of salt and two dashes pepper. Make sure everything is well mixed.

Last night I tossed the fresh green beans with pesto. I think I could eat it with anything, including oatmeal. Might experiment with making pesto bread....

Making it fresh in the summer is fun, but I wanted to have some to enjoy when the snow piles up into 15-foot drifts come February.

Step One - freeze small portions of pesto in glass jars.

Thaw slightly to remove from jars.

Stick in vacuum sealer bag.

Suck out all the air and seal (this is really fun to watch).

Voila! Let it snow! Yesterday's batch was enough to fill seven small jars worth of pesto, plus eat at dinner, plus have enough to munch on for a couple day's snacking.

How do you make your pesto?

WFMAD 30

Today's goal: write for 15 minutes.

Today's mindset: fantastical

Today's prompt: Start out with the magic words "Once upon a time...." and write a fairy tale about the upcoming presidential election. Use common devices like villains, enchanted objects, interventions by fairies, etc.

Scribblescribble....

Toni Morrison is one of my heroes for many reasons; she's a gifted, brilliant, powerful author, she lived in Syracuse NY for a while, and now, she's helping our country remember. (Here's a non-NY Times link for those of you who aren't registered with them.)

That bench is now on my Must-Visit list.

I am deep, deep in my research, trying to figure out how to wind the strands of my character's story around historical events. I'm swimming in a sea of correspondence with historians and preparing to meet a couple of them.

One of the more interesting aspects of writing historical fiction is meeting those historians who have made one tiny facet of your story their entire life's work. It's sort of like challenging Kobe Bryant to a game of one-on-one, knowing that he's not going to cut you any slack, but feeling like you've got your game on and you have a chance.

I spent a good hunk of yesterday marshaling my arguments for a historian who doesn't believe that oxen were used to pull the artillery wagons towards a fort under siege. I'm pretty sure I'm right; he's wavering, but he doesn't seem to have any evidence to back up his concerns. If any of you, by chance, have anything to contribute to this conversation, please get in touch with me.

In honor of today's WFMAD session, I present to you.....





... my desk.


WFMAD 28

Today's goal: Write 15 minutes and maybe a little more, because it's Monday.

Today's mindset: organized

Today's prompt: Today is all about the space in which you write. I have written in many, many places (my former writing spaces are an essay waiting to be written) and now I have my own slice of heaven. I work on the third floor of our house, in a loft space tucked under the eaves. I have a giant teacher's desk from the 1920s that I trash-picked from my parents' trailer park. I do not have enough bookshelves, but BH is going to change that when I go away on book tour. This is my creative kingdom.

If you are taking your writing seriously enough to try and do it every day, then it's time to examine your writing space. What else besides writing happens there? Does it say "Dedicated Writer at Work" or "Sure, Go Ahead, Interrupt Me, I Don't Really Want to Finish This Novel"?

The Guardian has a regular feature on writers' rooms. I hope they do more.

If you can't think of anything else to write about, today I'd like you to sketch out or write about the positive, affirming changes you are going to make to your writing space. Do you need to tidy it up? Get rid of visual clutter? Pay the stack of bills? Add flowers or a candle? Is there music in your space?

Extra-super bonus points will be awarded to those folks who actually act on their palns for their writing nook.

Scribblescribble....

My weekend was a quick research trip, lots of library time, weeding the garden when the rain stopped, and - last night while hanging out with the family - cracking open dried cherry pits so the meat inside the pit could be added to the dark cherry liqueur I am brewing up for Christmas time.



This dog was the funniest thing I saw while researching.

I think his owner was reenacting a soldier from the British 24th Regiment of Foot. Which means the dog belongs to the 24th Regiment of Paw, of course.


WFMAD Day 21

The headshrinkers say it takes 21 days to form a new habit. If you have written every day for the last 21 days, then congratulations. Poof! You made it. You have a new writing habit! Like all habits, this one needs constant watering and attention, so please remember to write tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that, etc., etc.

If you haven't been able to write for 21 days in a row, write down the reasons why - what interfered? I know for a lot of you the answer is "vacation." Nothing wrong with that. But if you couldn't make the time to write when your time was truly your own, what's it going to be like when you're back in your work routine?

I'm not scolding here. This is all about helping you reprioritize a little so you can make the time to follow your writing dream. We have ten days left in the Challenge. Imagine that from now until the end of the month, each one of your waking hours represents $1,000. Think of your choices about spending your time as money-spending choices. Be mindful where you spend your everything.


Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes.

Today's mindset: fresh-start

Today's prompt: if you fall off a horse, you have to get back on again or else, what's the point? Start fresh today by choosing a different place to write in. Putting your body in a different space to write can help your mind be open to new ideas and perspectives.

Today I'd like you to write about your writing dream - what are you trying to accomplish? Be specific and detailed. If you are a calender-based person, what do you want to accomplish by January 1st? If you are a season-based person (like me), what do you want to have done by the Winter Solstice (December 21st)?


Scribblescribble...

My head hurts. I overstuffed it with facts and dead bodies and ghosts yesterday.



BH and I drove out to a couple of Revolutionary War sites and met with a man who has been studied the events that happened there his entire life. I took a million photos and asked half a million questions.

I've already done the background research for this novel and I have a pretty good sense of how the events in the character's life unfold in conjunction with the historical events he's caught up in. Now I'm doing the "boots on the ground" research: visiting sites and bugging the experts for the small details; the real-life stuff that many academic historians don't put in their books, but that make scenes come to life for readers.

As always, going on location helped me see my story with new focus. We stood on the site of a ferocious battle. Cattails and grape vines are growing out of the dirt that was soaked with blood 231 years ago. Despite the heat, I shivered and had to fight back the tears.

The sense of time evaporates in places like that. It feels like the battle happened yesterday, or it's about to happen in the next hour, or in the next five minutes. The enemy is ready to explode out of the woods without warning, tearing across the cattails and marsh grass. Musket balls will rain across the field, dropping horse and ox, biting into the trunks of the beech and ash trees that line the road. We and They will fight hand-to hand with bayonet blades and hunting knives and axes. Our muskets are used as clubs because there isn't enough time to load and shoot. Fathers and sons and husbands and brothers will die in this forgotten bit of woods. The survivors will weep and dig shallow graves for the dead before hurrying away, knowing that the enemy is hiding in the shadows.

Then the cattails will start to grow again.

Right now it feels so close to me, I can feel the weight of this coat on my shoulders.

I'll spend today putting my notes from the trip into the proper scenes. But if you're looking for a WFMAD prompt, here it comes.


Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes.

Today's mindset: daring.

Today's prompt: I'm calling this one Fork in the Road. List three significant choices you've made in your life, then list the alternative to that choice. Choose one of the paths you didn't take, and write abut what might have happened if you had chosen that instead.

OR! List some of the life choices your character makes and change one of them. Write out how it affects the rest of the story; what are the unfolding series of consequences from that decision?


Scribblescribble...

I am deep in 18th-century research and writing again, but it's summer, which means other things are calling my name.

Like basil.

And cherries.

I've been getting up wicked early (5ish), working in the garden, and then sitting down at my desk by 6:30 am most days. I work until the late afternoon, then turn my attention to things like

basil. This was my experiment with freezing basil. It was very simple; pick basil, trim stems,

chop up with olive oil,

and freeze. In a couple weeks, the late planting of the basil crop should give me enough leaves to make a big batch of pesto.

And now the cherries are ripe, too.

BH and I (that's him on the ladder) picked 15 pounds of cherries late yesterday. There was an Amish family at the farm doing the same thing. They picked waaaaaaay more than we did. I'll make a couple of batches of jam when it cools down tonight. By this time next year, I'd love to have a solar dehydrator - dried cherries are loverly.

On nights I'm not canning or gardening after dinner, I crawl back inside my book until bedtime.

Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes.

Today's mindset: yummy.

Today's prompt: focus on taste; anticipating it, describing it, watching how it affects behavior. Write about a taste that represents love to you. If nothing comes to mind, write about a taste that represents anger. If that doesn't work, freewrite about a breakfast in an exotic location.

Scribblescribble...

Lest you think I'm only going to blog about writing this month, I thought I'd give you a peek in the garden, my other summer passion.

The hollyhocks have started to bloom.

I wish I could crawl inside one.

Here is one of the stone planters, filled with a combination of vegetables and flowers. The broccoli are done for the season, though I might try a late crop this fall. The lettuce hasn't bolted yet, which I appreciate. The tomatoes are insane - no other word for it. (Yes, they are the crazy monster plants in the middle.) I am experimenting with two sweet potato plants and cabbages in these beds, too. So far, so good.

This is what we call the corner garden. It's planted with Roma tomatoes, hot peppers, marigolds, zinnias, and out of range of this camera, green beans.

It is snow pea season; we're eating them every day.

They are so yummy that next year I think I'll plant three times as many.

I also picked a bunch of basil today that I'm about to mush up and freeze. Photos tomorrow maybe.

We'll start tonight's picture show with the gorgeous smiles of Kevin Lewis and Holly Black.

Yes, he's Holly's editor, too.

If you're a teacher or librarian, you want to know the good people of TeachingBooks.net. TeachingBooks " is a time-saving portal to thousands of online resources you can use to explore children's and young adult books and their authors." It has loads of terrific material about authors and their books. I particularly adore the Author Name Pronunciation Guide.

But the absolute highlight of the conference was an unexpected, serendipitous meeting with an author whose books are among my very favorites. As I walked on the conference floor, the loud speaker announced that this Incredible Author was about to give a reading from her new book. I sprinted, sending librarians and publicists scattering like bowling pins. (I do apologize for an injury or loss of dignity I may have caused.)

The new book?

Quakeland (for grown-ups, this time).

( That's right folks, I met Francesca Lia Block! )

Before I start with the photos, I want to make sure that you know that on today, JULY 2ND!, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was actually signed.

John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, the next day, saying "The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

So why do we wait until the 4th to celebrate? There was a little editing done, and the final, final version was completed on the 4th. Writers everywhere will understand.

Onto the second round of photos from ALA. We'll start with this glam shot:

Me and my Simon & Schuster editor, Kevin Lewis. I do all my historical books with him.

( Want to see more? )

Whew! I spent an hour in the garden this morning (harvested some sugar snap peas, weeded, weeded, weeded, and admired my just-about-to-bloom hollyhocks), then started the post-conference paperwork and email,...

....and then I wrote - for an hour. 'Twas heavenly.

( And now it's time to start showing you the ALA coolness! )

This was where I worked until the sun chased me inside. Notice the toe peeking just above the screen of the laptop.

Yesterday was a loooooooong day that stretched into the night, and I still didn't get everything done that I had hoped. So my post about The Very Nearly Perfect Thing will be a little delayed. I think I'll make a video to explain it and hope to put it up late today or tomorrow.

First, sad news: Tasha Tudor has died. I have long admired her work and really appreciate how she chose to live her extraordinary life. The linked article refers to her need to make money from her art to support her children after a divorce. She said "the wolf at the door is very good for people" because she felt she would not have developed her talents without the need to pay bills. That is a very healthy perspective.

Thank you very much to everyone who turned out for last night's Readergirlz chat! Mitali Perkins will be posting excerpts on her blog very soon. I'll link to it as soon as it's up.

We had a little rain yesterday and were given a beautiful gift at the end.

Breathtaking.

Especially because the rainbow ended (or began?) in our garden. (Photo credit: BH aka Scot Larrabee)

Good Solstice, everyone.

::cue theme song from Rocky::

There are two version to the story of this weekend's adventure. Here is the short version:

Office Mouse is great! Here is the video of BH and I crossing the finish line. Can you hear them say our names?



In a nutshell: we ran the Lake Placid Half-Marathon, we had a blast, we finished.

( The long version provides more details: )

Remember how I moved up here because I love ice and snow? I'll be crawling inside the freezer shortly. This will be the third day with sticky temperatures in the 90s. Ack. I hate heat. Ack. Ack. Ack.

I have a couple of freshly-chilled links to distract you, if you are sticking to your chair the way I am sticking to mine this morning.

My local newspaper, the Post Standard, has a nice article about our upcoming half-marathon and how I became a runner. You can see photos of BH and I running, plus additional bits from the interview on Shelf Life , the newspaper's book blog.(Yes, I am very proud to live in a region where the newspaper has a reporter who covers books AND a book blog!)

Richie Partington has written a wonderful and moving review of CHAINS.

The Mad Woman in the Forest Writing Challenge starts July 1. If you'll be joining us, it's time to sharpen your pencils. In preparation, I'm going to recommend you check out a few books about the business of writing and the artistic process. If you want to publish a book for kids or teenagers, I really think you should buy Harold Underdown's Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books, 3rd Edition. Seriously. You'll read it until the covers fall off.

Office Mouse got the camera talking to the computer yesterday! (I am still learning how to size the photos correctly. Another obvious fact.) What do you want me to put on a video?

Here is the Creature With Fangs all dressed up for our anniversary last week.


Oh! And I can show you ( pictures from last weekend's book signing, too! )

Having your new book - the book you've worked on for years, dreamed about, fussed about, cried over, danced with, bored your relatives to tears with ("aren't you done with that thing yet?") - having that book arrive is the closest thing possible to the moment when you give birth to a child.

Without the mess and a room full of strangers wearing latex gloves and face masks.

Without further ado, meet INDEPENDENT DAMES: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution.

::wipes tears from eyes::


DAMES is a 40-page non-fiction historical picture book that highlights the revolutionary activity of 80 women and girls you've probably never heard of.

( When you spend more than a decade on a project, you want to show it off. )

The Forest is decorated with streamers and margaritas today. Yes, it is Cinco de Mayo (and take it from me: San Jose is where you want to be on Cinco de Mayo weekend). But it is also the birthday of Stephanie, my oldest daughter. You can leave birthday greetings on Bookavore, her blog, if you want. AND it is the 50th birthday of my most very Beloved Husband, Scot. All he wants for his birthday are a few more donations to his charity run.

So, yeah. This is Party Central today.

It's also Catching Up from the Weekend Day. Friday morning I ran along the Guadalupe River Park Trail - it reminded me a lot of the trail that runs through the middle of Austin. After a long shower and lunch, my intrepid hosts, Dr. Mary Warner and Dr. Jonathan Lovell, drove me to Yerba Buena High School. Thanks you very, very much to Ms. Goltzer and her students for making the afternoon so much fun! After we left the school, we went to Hicklebee's, an amazing independent bookstore run by Valerie Lewis, who ought to be called She Who Knows Everything. I would love to take her out to dinner with Teri Lesesne. The two of them in the same room at the same time might be enough to fix everything that is wrong with our world.

This should be a Destination Bookstore; the kind you plan an entire vacation around.

Not only do they have tons of books, artifacts from writers (like The Pants from Ann Brasheres and an early drawing of Clifford the Big Red Dog), and a terrific staff, but they have wall after wall crowded with signatures and drawings from authors and illustrators who have dropped by.

( What San Jose, Stevie Wonder, and the Shippensburg Women's Rugby team have in common )

Yesterday was a lucky day for me. My tomato plants survived the frost, snug in their little handmade hoodies. My flights were on time, my flights were (relatively) comfortable, and my luggage did not wander off on its own. AND I won a contest. I have never won a contest before in my whole life. And get this - I won ICE CREAM.

Coconut & Lime is my favorite food blog. (You really should check it out and try some of her recipes.) When I was inbetween flights at O'Hare Airport yesterday, I saw the announcement of a contest to win some of the new flavors of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. So I entered. I always enter contests; it's a case of blind optimisim overcoming decades of painful experience. But yesterday, I won! I don't know when the ice cream is coming, or what flavors will be in the box, but I'll let you know.

One of the nice things about jet lag is that it's really easy, as an East-coaster, to wake up wicked early for a sunrise stroll. San Jose is a very walkable and runnable city. I am staying on the campus of San Jose State University and went for a run last night through the surrounding neighborhoods. This morning I wandered through downtown, enjoying all the public art. While looking for an open coffee shop, I came across a cool memorial to Ernesto Galarza, called Man of Fire.

He was a brilliant author, activist, and organizer who fought for decent working conditions for farm laborers and educational opportunities for all.

The piece looks like a long dining room table, with objects that reflect Galarza's passions and accomplishments scattered on it.

See this memorial to his life and work, especially since we just celebrated International Labor Day yesterday and Cinco de Mayo on Monday, was a meaningful way to start the day.

I leave in a while to speak at Yerba Buena High School, then to Hicklebee's for a 4pm event and signing. You're coming, right? Please? Paleeeeezzzz?

So you don't know this about me yet, but I love, love, love the song "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot. It is an excellent running song that gets my feet moving much faster than normal. Picture me dashing down a country road singing the lyrics at the top of my lungs, disturbing wildlife with every mile, and shaking my thang. OK, don't picture that. It's a disturbing image.

Well, this great song just got better. Editor Cheryl Klein has written new lyrics for it, in a literary vein. The new title is "Baby Got Book" and it is hysterical and awesome. (scroll down to the April 26th entry.) Click on the link and read it now, but remember boys and girls: she wrote it, she owns it. Don't go spreading it around without her permission.

I fretted muchly over my tomatoes last night. Here they are, naked in front of the approaching cold front.

And here they are all bundled up for the night. Cozy, no?

Maybe I should be packing them in my suitcase. I leave Thursday for sunny and warm San Jose, CA as the visiting author to the San Jose Area Writing Project. Those events are all sold out, but if you live in the area, please come out and hang out with me at Hicklebee's bookstore, Friday May 2nd, at 4pm.

Two grace notes in my life yesterday; simple things that made me smile. I spent an hour holding my 4-month-old grand nephew Kegan. There is something about the smell of a baby that makes everything right in the world. And for dinner, BH cooked up some locally-caught baked bullhead (it's a fish) and served it with the peach chutney I canned last summer. Yum!

I dashed outside the Cave of Revision this morning and it's true: it is almost Spring up here on the tundra. In fact, I think it will happen today, while I am deeply buried in my story.

I won't be able to haunt the Forest with my camera to pounce on the Absolute Moment, so here is the closest I can come to proving this to you.

Here the Creature With Fangs poses next to one of the last piles of snow we have.

Next: daffodils on the brink of blooming. (Yes, those daffodils, mentioned in '06!) I tried to get the CWF to pose here, too, but she was more interested in crushing the plants with her paws. I threw a stick in the other direction and snapped this shot.

Thank you to everyone who donated to my husband's Race for Cancer. There is still time to help our cause and get some of the free LHA goodies mentioned earlier this week (scroll to bottom of post).

Attention New England SCBWI Conference attenders! Today is Day 5 of my 21-Day Writing Challenge. How's it going for you? I'd love to hear what you're doing - leave a note in the Comments section and pass the word along to the other folks who were there.

OK, back into the Cave I go.