No sooner had we unpacked from Lake Placid than OfficeMouse and I packed again. Yesterday we traveled to Amherst, MA, home of Theo Black, aka my WebGod, and his talented and fun wife Holly Black. (Yeah, her.) Holly is running a Spiderwick contest on her blog that involves free DVDs and lolcats, so be sure to check it out.

We are here so that the OfficeMouse can learn at the feet of the master (Yeah, Theo) the arcane magic involved with updated my website with things like book tour dates. I have never had an assistant before and I am astounded at what a difference she has made in my life in just a couple of weeks. I've been pretty good at staying on top of my writing responsibilities (though not as good as I'd like), but in order to do so, I let everything else go to hell.

Office assistants clear up the hell part.

Yesterday she had me working on fan mail in the car while she drove.

We're leaving soon on another adventure, then the journey home, but there are two more photos from the race I want to show you.

Underneath the brims of those caps are John Connolly (the great English teacher I told you about yesterday) and me.

BH and I stretching our tender calves at a gas station on the way home from the race. We're not hurting as much as I thought we would, but we're definitely moving slower.

::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: )

The Big Day is almost here: time for our race. Thanks to your generous donations, BH and I have raised $5,652 for cancer research. We are sort of in shape, but in no danger of being plucked from the crowd and offered a spot on the Olympic team (whew!). We've had a lot of fun getting ready for tomorrow.

This is a good time to review the status of my New Year's resolutions:

2008 Resolution Tracker
Week 24 - Miles Run: 12, YTD: 425
Week 24 - Days Written: 7, YTD: 166

I have stuck to my plan of writing every day (good thing, too, these deadlines are piling up faster and faster), but I've only averaged 17 miles a week, which is a little short of my New Year's goal of 20 miles a week. Getting sick in February slowed me down, as did some foot and ankle problems in the last month. BH battled back from a hip injury with lots of physical therapy and much gritting of the teeth.

We are as ready as we can be to run 13.1 hilly miles.

Thanks for all the great comments about the contest announcement and garden tour. Yesterday I harvested the first batch of broccoli and basil.

We ate this minutes after it was picked.

I really dislike 3:30 am wake-up calls.

But sometimes, they're necessary. I'm at the Syracuse airport, waiting for the flight that will take me to the flight that will take me to San Jose, CA. I'll be speaking in the area thanks to the San Jose Writing Project.

If you live around San Jose, please gather up everyone you know and join me at 4 pm, Friday, May 2nd (i.e. tomorrow) at Hicklebee's bookstore.

A question came up in the Comments this week about what music I listen to when I'm running. They're about to call my plane, so I can't give you my playlist right now - I will as soon as I get a chance.

But I'd love to know about you. What are your favorite songs to listen to when you run or exercise?

Yes! I ran outside yesterday! The wind chill was about 20 degrees, but there was no ice on the side of the road and I saw robins. ROBINS! Granted, they had wrapped their wings around themselves and were hopping up and down to keep warm. And, granted, they were accusing each other of making a big mistake flying north so soon. But they were ROBINS.

My daffodils are still sleeping under the snow, but I bet they are starting to think about doing something green.

Here is your quote for the day, from photographer Dorothea Lange: "“The secret places of the heart are the real mainsprings of one's actions.”

She was quoted by my friend, Elizabeth Partridge, in a wonderful Horn Book article about the spirit that fuels all us artists, and what makes life worth living.

What do you think about this article?

When you suspect you are a little crazy, it's nice to have company.

Yesterday BH & I ran in the 4th Annual Chilly Chili 5K Race in Cazenovia, NY. When we started running 18 months ago, 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) seemed an impossible distance to cover. Now that we're training for the half-marathon (13.1 miles) it's a piece of cake.

Usually.

A snowstorm blew in at the beginning of the race yesterday. A wicked storm. The temperature was around 18 degrees, but the winds were gusting 20 - 30 mph, which made for a wind chill just below zero degrees(F). It was snowing sideways. The road was covered with slippery, scary snow and ice.

And nearly 1,000 people ran, shuffled, and walked the distance. Finishing a race under those conditions is a lot like completing a book on deadline: it's not very pretty, but the sense of accomplishment is huge.

Even if your face is frozen. I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but the ice on my face is frozen sweat. The rest of me was toasty warm, thanks so several layers of warm running gear, but the face was a little ouchy.

( The whole point to completing this race is the party afterwards. )

Quick thoughts:

A 6am diner breakfast with my dad is a nice way to start the day.

Sarah Dessen's North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team is still dominating. Sadly. But my Hoyas don't completely suck.

Yesterday's run was long, slow, and lovely. And I woke up with a sore right knee. I checked the mileage and sure enough, I've put in 325 miles in this pair of running shoes. The last time I had knee trouble, it was when the previous pair of shoes got to 325. You are supposed to only have to get new shoes every 400 miles, but I think I have a snobby knee. (Think Princess and the Pea. Or Knee.) So it's off to the store we go. Thank you, darling children, for the gift certificate at Christmas!

Along with working on my book and keeping various family plates spinning in the air, I am preparing for my workshops at Kindling Words next week. Are any of you going to be there? If you are, help me out: this is my first KW (I've been wanting to go for years). What is your favorite part of KW?

Writing note - I keep circling around the description of a character's room, putting stuff in, taking stuff out, walking into it, walking out of it, etc. Why am I struggling with this? Because I am still trying to understand this (secondary) character. Hmmmmmm.

Thank you, thank you American Library Association committee members!!!!

I am very proud that TWISTED made both the 2008 Best Books for Young Adults and the 2008 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers lists!!!!

This feels awesome. Excuse me while I take a moment to bask.

::baskingbaskingbaskingbaskingbaskingbaskingbaskingbaskingbaskingbaskingbaskingbaskingbaskingbasking::
Ahhh. So, so sweet.

OK, back to work. I have spent the day rewriting Chapter 19, because the same thing happened to that chapter as happened to 17 on Sunday. But it's all good.

_heartsong_ nudged me about answering a question she posted to my Facebook a while back. She wrote: Do you think that running/excersize helps your creativity/creative process?

(Truth in blogging disclosure: I just finished a carb-heavy lunch and am staring at my clothes that are laid out for this afternoon's long run. It promises to be a chilly one.)

Does my running help my writing? Yes. Absolutely. No doubt. Ja. Si. Absolutement.

If I ever write a book about writing (do you think I should do that, BTW??), it will contain long passages about how moving your body fires up your imagination. For now, here are my top five reasons why my running helps my writing:

1. Running makes me happy, thus, it is a very good reward and incentive to do my work.

2. When I write, I am a) sitting still and b) dangerously close to my kitchen. If I didn't exercise regularly (and trust me, there have been times in my life when I didn't) I eat more than my body needs. This slows down my brain and expands my rear end.

3. Running is a meditative exercise - it helps me process my stress in a healthy way.

4. My travel schedule is often grueling. Running (and weight lifting, which I don't talk about much, but I do, too) keeps me physically stronger and better able to fight off the germs that try to attack unsuspecting travelers.

5. Running has helped me develop mental discipline, which allows me to stay immersed in my stories longer. I have several writing/running mantras that I repeat in my head when I am tempted to stop writing or hit the Stop button on the treadmill.

6. Yes, this is a bonus reason. The human body was designed to move. If we want our minds and spirits to produce their best, we have to help our bodies be the best they can be, too. It's all connected.

(Thank you for the nudge, _heartsong_)

Now, I have three more pages and a long stretch of road ahead of me.

Yesterday was a very, very intense day. Wonderful, every single minute of it, but wicked intense. I feel like an apple that was peeled with a dull knife and left on the counter overnight.

It's weird because I used to be a profoundly shy person, and then I learned how to be brave and extroverted, and now I actually love hanging out at conferences and meeting hundreds of people, but then I have moments like this when I feel shy again. Balance, I guess, is the key.

The highlight of yesterday was booksignings, an hour at Anderson's Bookstores booth, and then an hour at the PermaBound booth, where the line stretched forfreakingever.

I was thrilled when Ms. J. from Hawaii showed up! I met her on my MySpace page when she wrote asking some questions her students had about the symbolism in SPEAK. Her MySpace photo has her sticking her tongue out, so it seemed appropriate.

( Old friends, strikers, and desserts )

I am packing again - this time for a trip to New York City for the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention and the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents. These are the conferences organized and attended by the best of the best English/Language Arts/Literature/Reading teachers *** in the country. They are the smart ones - the passionate ones, the ones who get to school early and stay wicked late to help their students. I love them.

*** note: some of the best of the best can't make it to this critically important professional development conference because their school districts won't pay for it. Some folks pay out-of-pocket (on a teacher's salary!) because that's how important this conference is.

Will any of youse guys be there? Here is where you will find me:

Thursday, November 15th
Spending the day in comfort riding the train and writing instead of suffering the hassles of the airport.

Dinner with a group of teachers.

Friday, November 16th
9:30–10:45 a.m. Panel: “Adolescent Literacy at the Crossroads: Redefining Sex and Sexuality in YA Fiction”. Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 West 34th Street (at 11th Avenue) | Room TBA

This panel has a YA killer line-up: me, Brent Hartinger, E. Lockhart, Laura Ruby, Tanya Lee Stone & Lara Zeises, and will be chaired by She Who Knows Most Everything, Teri Lesesne. You really, really, really want to come to this one. I imagine the conversation will continue in the hall long after the session is over.

2:00–3:00 p.m. Book signing at Penguin Young Readers Group, Booth #202, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 West 34th Street (at 11th Avenue) | Hall C, Level 1

3:00–4:00 p.m. Book signing at Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Booth #442, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 West 34th Street (at 11th Avenue) | Hall C, Level 1

Dinner with a group of teachers.

Saturday, November 17th
9:00–10:00 a.m. Book signing at Anderson’s Bookshop, Booth #479, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 West 34th Street (at 11th Avenue) | Hall C, Level 1

10:00–11:30 a.m. Book signing at PermaBound, Booth #357, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 West 34th Street (at 11th Avenue) | Hall C, Level 1

12:30–2:15 p.m. Books for Children Luncheon at the Marriott Marquis Times Square, 1535 Broadway | Westside Ballroom Salon ½. Andrea & Brian Pinkney will be speaking - this should be awesome.

Afternoon - I might hang at the convention or I might run in Central Park (if the weather is decent). Anybody want to join me? I'll run 6-7 miles, probably at a 10-minute mile pace. You are welcome to join me for some or all of it. If you're interested, let me know in the comments section and I'll get more details to you.

Evening - I need to write.

Sunday, November 18th
Daytime - holed up in hotel, writing. Might sneak out to attend a few sessions. We'll see.

6:00–7:30 p.m. ALAN Reception, Marriott Marquis Times Square , 1535 Broadway (at 45th Street) | Astor Ballroom, 7th Floor - I think I am going to wear my new shoes, so I will be the one limping.

Dinner with my publishers.

Monday, November 19th

Breakfast with my agent.

Daytime - hanging out at ALAN and meeting with an editor

Evening - a party and dinner

Tuesday, November 20th
10:30–11:05 a.m. ALAN Program: “Brown-Bagging It with Mattie and Hank: What does Testing have to do with lunch?” Marriott Marquis Times Square, 1535 Broadway | West Side Ballroom, Salon 1, 5th Floor

This should be really interesting. Professor Denise Ousley will demonstrate a fascinating classroom technique - giving students brown paper bags that are filled with objects that relate to a historical novel, and allowing students to respond to the objects. L.M. Elliott will talk about how this technique works with her book, UNDER A WAR-TORN SKY. I will be talking about it in relation to FEVER 1793. I'll also be talking about the research for my new historical CHAINS (it will be published September, 2008). Please join us!

11:15–11:45 a.m. “Silent book” signing (as other authors will still be speaking) Marriot Marquis Times Square, 1535 Broadway | Room TK

Afternoon - fight the mid-town crowds trying to escape the city for Thanksgiving. If the Turkey God smiles on me, I will make my train and I will get a seat and I will trundle on home where our brood and all of their beloveds and the dog and my husband, who is the bestest Thanksgiving cook ever, will be waiting.

There are some wonderful comments in reply to yesterday's post about if writers should consider watching television as a way to improve their craft. You might enjoy reading them - please chime in with your opinion!

I'm still in need of teachers using SPEAK in the classroom so I can connect them with an Australian teacher looking for examples of how that book words with students. If you want to help, please email me at laurie AT writerlady DOT com and I'll hook you up.

Busy day. If I get everything done, I plan on watching the NOVA special about training for the Boston marathon tonight.

Sending out prayers to you, Uncle Jim and Aunt Barb, and wishes for for a speedy recovery and return to strength!

This is going to be a quick entry to start the week. I feel like I have one hundred bazillion things to do and not enough hours in which to do them. That's the bad news. The good news is I had a fantastic, energizing weekend and I am chomping at the bit.

The Mexico Cider Run 5K was a blast; perfect weather and BH and I had a great time. And, drum roll please, I won my age group. Yes! That's right! Me - the one who has never won anything sports-related. I was so happy with my time (which was a personal best) it never occurred to me that I might have won. And they gave me a little plaque which is now sitting on the mantel. Suddenly all those soccer trophies my kids lugged home made sense.

Here we are, the happy, sweaty runners. (BH is wearing the shirt we had made up for last Thanksgiving, when all of our kids ran in a 5K with us.)

When I started getting back in shape 15 months ago, I could barely shuffle two miles on the treadmill. In running, as in writing, persistence is everything.

Yesterday was a writing and canning day. I used a bushel and half of Roma tomatoes to make chili base. Thanks to a well-timed email from my friend Hope Vestergaard (who is a great writer and a lover of all things Danish, like me, and who I will get to see at the SCBWI Michigan conference next month) I roasted half a bushel and froze them. Thank you, Hope - they turned out great!

It was a packed day, so I woke up at 4am and hopped right to it. My reward was a gorgeous sunrise. The photos I took don't come close to capturing the glory, but I thought I'd share a couple with you.

The colors peeked out just after the hoot owls went to sleep (they sang to me when I first got up).

See why I live out here?

I have insane writing goals this week. I would like to add 40 pages to the rough draft by Friday afternoon, if possible. That's a lot, but I figure you never accomplish much if you don't aim high. Plus I have speeches to write and piles of mail to get through. Wish me luck and focus... I am going to need it!

How was your weekend?

Yep, I did it. Wrote Chapter One of my new WIP yesterday. Now if I could just have about two hundred days in a row like that, I'll be in good shape. (No, it won't have two hundred chapters, but I need lots of time for revision.)

It's almost 7am which is when I get to work, but before I dive into Chapter Two, I thought I'd leave you with a Five Ways to Procrastinate on Friday:

1. My father, Rev. Frank Halse, was in the newspaper yesterday. I'm bummed that the photo isn't online, too. He is rather distinguished. Go, Dad!

2. In other family news, daughter Meredith recommends Our Voice 2008; a site for people under the age of 30 who want their voices and concerns heard int he next election. Please, please, please take a look at this. Our country needs you to be involved in the next election.

3. Want to combine your passion for knitting and respect for the work of Neil Gaiman? Check out this sweater.

4. The censors and defilers of our Constitution have been at it again. Read about the latest challenges to Ellen Wittlinger's Sandpiper, J. L. Powers' The Confessional, and Stephen Chbosky's Perks of Being a Wallflower on the AS IF! blog.

5. You can join us in Mexico, NY tomorrow morning and help support our library, which is a vital part of our community. The Mexico 5K Cider Run is a 3.1 mile run through the streets of the village. The people are very kind and the money goes to a great cause. Plenty of people run slowly or walk, so don't worry if you move at less than blazing speed. Hope to see you there.

I am finally beginning to feel the burn-out that dogged me all summer begin to fade away. This is officially a Good Thing. That balanced life of awareness, intention, hard work, and fun is on the horizon!

I am almost through the brainstorming draft of my new YA. This is the fast and dirty draft: very fast, very dirty. It's about 35 pages long, with another 40 pages of notes in a different file. The actual writing of the first draft begins tomorrow morning. And that's all I want to say about that.

I have now tagged all of my 2007 entries in my LiveJournal. I hope to get to 2006 and 2005 very soon. This will be useful for people who are looking for specific information (writing process, Twisted, Speak) or who just want to see all my pictures of Poland or snow. Do you use tags when looking for info?

BH and I ran in the Salmon River 5K last Saturday, despite the heat and humidity. Much to our surprise, we ran a decently fast race. (He could have run much faster, but he was a gentleman and ran with me the whole way.) Even more to our surprise, we each placed third in our age-groups and won a medal. That was very cool. Our knee trouble over the summer has prevented us from entering the half-marathon in Philly later this month, but we'll be running in our hometown Mexico 5K Cider Run this Saturday. Come join us! You'll support our local library and have a blast.

I had an Animal, Vegetable, Miracle moment (you must read that book) in the grocery store yesterday. I had this fancy-pants fish recipe I wanted to make that called for a salsa made for fresh oranges. The problem? Not only were the oranges four for three dollars, they had been imported from Peru. We have been making a real effort to reduce our carbon footprint and support local farmers. Oranges from Peru do not meet those goals. So I drove past an orchard on the way home, bought near ten pounds of peaches for nine dollars, and made peach salsa. And yes, I am feeling rather smug about this, thank you.

I have speeches to work on this afternoon, and thirty pounds of fresh green beans to blanche and freeze. And you don't even want to know how many tomatoes are waiting in my kitchen. They snicker as I walk by. We'll see who has the last laugh....

Happy Birthday, Penni! Happy Birthday, Alex!!!

Note to Danielle I'll be emailing you within the next couple of days. Thank you so much for what you sent!

So we saw The Movie last night and I loved it (particularly the most dramatic scene which I think plays out better onscreen than in the text), and I am going to a party Friday night and might stay up reading The Book.

But I want to be surprised so I am hereby boycotting news and blogs until Saturday. Shhh! Don't tell me. I want to find out for myself!

In other news, I thought I'd point out that I am a real estate genius. (They should give me an infomercial, I swear.) I have lived in two of the recently designated top small towns to live in: #15 - Horsham, PA and #17 - Olney, MD. I hereby predict that Mexico, NY will soon rocket to the top.

Back to work.

The Syracuse Susan Komen 5K race on Saturday was uplifting, inspiring, and a really good time. More than 7,500 people were there; 700 kids under the age of 12 ran in the Kids 1-Mile Race (BH and I cheered and whistled for them), several thousand did the 5K walk, and the rest of us ran the 5K proper. BH was very sweet and ran with me, even though he is much faster than I am. It felt so, so good to be with a crowd of people who were all there for one of the best causes in America.

::author blisses out for a moment::

Got up early this morning for a long, slow run. Normally I don't run two days in a row (old knees), but I am going away again tomorrow and don't think I'll be able to get an exercise until Friday. My long-term goal is to run the Philadelphia Distance Run this year. It's a half-marathon, aka 13.1 miles. If I want to run it without dying (I do not worry about running fast - I can't - I just try to complete races without needing to be rushed to a hospital) I have to start logging more miles ASAP.

On my run I saw one sunrise, one Baltimore Oriole, and three red-winged blackbirds. Then I came home and ate a bagel and fried eggs. ::more bliss::

I am off to NYC tomorrow to chat with my agent and meet with my editors and talk about the next books I want to write. I am not bringing the computer with me (shocking, I know), but I will take pictures. I'll be back Friday.

Yesterday was a near perfect day. It was cold and snowy so I wrote by the fireplace all day, a mug of coffee in reach. I got in about 7 hours of writing, went to the gym with BH, ran on the treadmill at a decent pace (3.25 miles at a 1% incline in 30:18 minutes, for those of you who care about these things) , stretched, showered, visited my parents, ate leftover turkey soup for dinner, watched half a movie, and was asleep by 10 pm. Seriously - I adore days like that.

Let me tell you how the writing went. I am currently turning Part 2, Draft 3 of my WIP into Part 2, Draft 4. (Draft 4 of Part 1 is finished. It is 163 pages long, so I figure the total book might come in between 300-325 manuscript pages.)

Yesterday's task was to smooth out the action in chapters 24 - 28, and to polish chapter 24 until it was so tight and bright I could see my face in it. After much jumping back and forth, I felt the pacing was off in the section. In chapters 21 - 23 there are several Very Dramatic Things that happen. Chapters 24 - 28 are kind of a breather, both for the characters and the readers. A fair amount of time passes and there are some subtle and important developments and the character changes her opinions about a few things. In Chapter 29, we again get a Big Honking plot twist that sends life on another wild ride for our main character.

But every time I read through it, something didn't feel right. The character's motivation was a little off - I figured that out by my second cup of coffee. That could be fixed by clarifying some of her dialog and giving a few more peeks into her head. But that wasn't enough.... what wasn't working?

Revision is a pain in the butt, no question about it. It is also a necessary part of writing. You need that flash of inspiration, sure, but (for me at least) if I don't revise and hone that flash, it is wasted. In early drafts, I often throw in way too many characters, details and (in this case and in the case of FEVER 1793) too much historical research. This tends to make the book bloated and uncomfortable, like eating too much junk food.

I find it helpful to ask myself - at every scene - "what happens to the rest of the story if I throw this out?" If the answer is "Not much" than it is time to reach for the delete key.

After close examination, and a good lunch, I realized that Chapter 27 was a total waste of time. It was a talking-heads chapter in which my Main Character and someone else stand around (in a dynamic location - very cool - I hated cutting that) and talktalktalktalk - no action at all, no true furthering of the plot. So I threw out the entire chapter and renumbered everything else.

By the time we left for the gym, chapter 24 was in really good shape. Getting rid of 27 allowed me to see more clearly what had to happen in 24-26. Today's goal in to rewrite Chapter 25 (minimum goal) and to rewrite 25 & 26 (maximum goal).

That's the way it works in my head.

Ever have an experience that was so amazing on several levels that you don't want to talk about for fear of somehow disturbing or diluting the memory?

That's what the poetry weekend retreat was like for me. That's also why you won't be getting many details, except that it was a much-needed creative and spiritual boost. I will say that I had one of the best runs of my life, thanks to the freakish January weather. And I wrote a lot of poems - none are fit for public consumption.

Today is Christmas #3. The last of our brood is up visiting with a buddy and if they ever wake up, the presents are waiting under the tree. Tomorrow the decorations will come down and the new year will truly begin.

I finally figured out my Resolution. (Back story - I have been working on this for weeks. Instead of writing a resolution, I kept making to-do lists, which is a very different thing.) My resolution this year is to live with kavannah, a Hebrew word that refers to mindfulness, especially in prayer, directing the energies of the heart, and an awareness that I rarely have, and would very much like to cultivate. When I get busy, I tend to let life blur around me, and then I complain about it. I don't want to do that anymore. So I will work on being a little slower and a little more aware this year. Yay! (Thanks, Deb H., for the word I was looking for.)

Last night we celebrated my mom's 76th birthday. The best part was watching her argue with dad because they couldn't agree how old she was. Heh.

Back to deadlining....

This part of the country is quickly becoming a literary hub in the United States. There is already a very long list of authors, poets, and illustrators who live here. Then Suzan-Lori Parks moved here a few months ago.

And the latest news?

Tamora Pierce is moving here, too. Yep. It's the truth.

See, I told you this is the best place in the world.

For those of you lucky enough to live here - I know what you want to do on Saturday. You want to participate in the 10th annual Paige's Butterfly Run. This run is held in the memory of Paige Yeomans Arnold, a strong, gentle, beautiful child who died of leukemia in 1994. The Run raises money for cancer research, to support families who have a child fighting cancer, and for a scholarship in Paige's honor.

You can participate in a certified 5K run, or (if you are out of shape like me) you can enjoy the 3K fun run/walk. BH and I will both be there. I'll probably be bringing up the rear. You have to register by tomorrow, though, so hurry!

Paige's mother, Ellen Yeomans, is a dear friend of mine. Not only is she a terrific author, but she is the area's SCBWI regional adviser, and she teaches courses in children's literature. She is one of the movers and shakers who are defining the area as a literary hub.