I try not to worry about things I cannot control. For the most part, I'm almost too good at it. But there has been something that's been worrying me for many months now. It's the movie version of Where The Wild Things Are. Why do we need that? Why would we want it? Now I understand why. And I am totally counting the days till it gets here!

I wasn't sure how I was going to start my observation of this year's DLAW -- DAVID LUBAR APPRECIATION WEEK -- until I read David's thoughtful "Surivivor, Cancer Island" note this morning.

Cancer has been a member of my family for many years. We know it well. We don't like it. But the fact that so many of us are able to stand around grinning like fools these days is evidence that regular check-ups, quality healthcare and medical research really works. I'm very glad that cancer is no longer a part of David's life. And not just because I want more weenies books and can't wait to read more about the boys from Edgeview Alternative School.

So, with no further ado, it gives me great pleasure to kick-off my personal celebration of DLAW 2009 by dedicating my recently completed colonscopy to David. Three cheers for being cancer free! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

In case you're interested, my results were clean. Very clean. Let the celebration continue!

Check out this wonderful, well-deserved Washington Post book review of "In Hovering Flight," a quietly powerful and beautiful novel by my friend, former teacher and current writing group partner, Joyce Hinnefeld. And then go buy her book!

Update:  I see that one of my very favorite book reviewers, Colleen Mondor, loved it too!

So it looks like somebody went ahead and made the fantasy biography film of me and my old high school friends.  Here's the synopsis of FANBOYS:

I am going to find my Mom's old Buick Electra, gather up the guys from the 1980 St. Paul Catholic High School A.V. club , and we are totally going to sneak into this movie!

“Sometimes a manuscript is like bread dough. You have to abuse it.”
-- Carolyn Chute, whose fourth novel, “The School on Heart’s Content Road,” comes out on Friday, November 7.

Click here to read the whole article (New York Times)

Samuel Johnson once said that nothing focuses the mind like a deadline. Or maybe it was a hanging. In any case, I was facing a bit of a deadline recently and found myself totally and utterly unfocused. I considered just forcing myself through the work, but writing is what I do for pleasure. So I did some other stuff first.

I taught my son how to repair a screen...


I gave some deep thought to the phrases "dog's life" and "dog days of summer..."


I built a "kid wash" out of pvc and then installed it within the confines of our backyard inflatable pool so that kids from far and wide could come over to get cleaned up...


I added a picture to my facebook profile (I'm still a little frightened by facebook)...


I discovered whether or not it's possible for me to write kid's stories while surrounded by kids who are taste-testing jelly beans (it's not)...


I took a picture of a crayfish...


I got some more pvc so my son and I could build a storage unit for our guitar hero guitars (email me if you want instructions)...


I joined my son in perpetrating a science experiment...


I watched my son stalk a blue heron. (that kid becomes really busy when I have a deadline!)...


When I finally finished with all that stuff, THE DEADLINE WAS EVEN CLOSER! And suddenly, my mind got REALLY focused. So I went forth, applied my backside to a chair, and finally finished the story. And I like it a lot!

It has a science experiment (see above), a boy named Milo, a couple characters named after Mexican professional wrestlers, and will appear in national publication this fall.

More on all that soon!

I spent almost an hour not writing this morning while I poured over these 100 useful tips for writers. Hmmm...

I just received a cardboard box filled with paperback Defining Dulcie's! The Puffin paperback just came out this week. There's a note in the back of the new edition listing my website so I figure I better get blogging a bit more in case anybody comes by to visit.

Regarding the journal, it's not that I haven't meant to write. In fact, the reason that I haven't been LiveJournaling more is because lately, my days are chock full of writing. I work on novels and stories during lunch hours, before the sun is up, and often after it goes down. During my day job, I'm mostly a talker, but I prepare by writing things down. My day job also requires me to be a letter writer, a proposal writer, a prolific email writer, a magazine article writer, and lot's more. It's fair to say that writing = thinking = working for me during the day.

Once I shift gears to fiction, however, writing has almost nothing to do with thinking. It's all make believe and usually fun, a big adventure to see where I might go today. It's hard to do it "wrong." It's even harder to do it well. But then a box of books arrives with my name on them. It's a nice reminder that the hours of practice can add up to something notable. And getting published is very cool (as are royalty checks!). Published or not published, the rewards of of sitting down to do the work remain about the same, however. There's discovery, surprise, the chance to work very hard at something when nobody is looking, and it's all there for the cost of cheap pen and an old notebook. I do like the royalty checks though!

If books could hold videos, then this one should be in Baseball Crazy.



Speaking of Baseball Crazy (Nancy Mercado, SuperEditor/Dial 2008), Publisher's Weekly gave it a starred review and Kirkus calls it "a winner through and through."

Full reviews below. Enjoy! Then go outside and play catch with somebody.

Thanks to Warren Truitt for  featuring Justin Roberts at Children's Music that Rocks!

Publishers Weekly

There's no shortage of great writing in this collection of 10 stories. Baseball unifies the entries, but there the similarities end. From Jerry Spinelli's offbeat story about a "wiseacre wet-the-bed stinky-footed " orphan experiencing his first-ever major league game to Frank Portman's amusing two-and-a-half second journey inside the mind of ill-fated fielder Mark Pang, these entries present an impressive array of voices and styles, not to mention memorable young characters. John H. Ritter introduces Frankie Alvarez, a larger-than-life pitcher who saves his team's championship victory, a sharp contrast to Paul Acampora's Jeffrey, who earns his mother's disgust when he fails to strike out a crucial batter; meanwhile, Sue Corbett's Kirby, neither the worst nor the best, learns from the only girl on the team: "Don't think. Just react." Whether "baseball born and baseball raised" or tepid fans of America's pastime, readers will be drawn in by the masterful storytelling. Ages 8-up. (Mar.)

Kirkus Reviews

All the bases are truly covered in this uncommon collection of stories that are a cut above the usual baseball fare. The authors vary considerably in their approaches and choices, and that's what makes the collection interesting. The young players and spectators who are the narrators are also dealing with family problems, growing pains, relationships and self esteem. Some stories are set in the present, some in the past. Characters are children, adults, Asian, Native American, male and female. Two of the stories involve female players who will have to give up the game they love because there are no teams for them as they reach their teens. Koertge presents a play in two acts with the team statistician as hero. Testa tells her story via a series of poems. The format of the collection is unique as well. The title page is a diagram of a baseball field with each of the authors assigned a position. The table of contents looks like a scorecard lineup. Preceding each story a baseball card gives the author's "stats," including number of books published, career highlights, favorite team and more, all in the author's own voice. A winner through and through. (Short stories. 8-14)

In a flurry of mixed kidlet metaphors, here is a young lady all dressed up to meet a gaggle of authors and illustrators at the Harleysville Bookstore the other night:



We got to meet Judy Schachner, creator of the totally fantastito SkippyJon Jones (thus the sombrero, mask and kitty whiskers).



Despite the fact that Judy Schachner did not have her own tour bus, I think she and SkippyJon may be approaching Jan Brett levels of popularity. In other words, Ms. Schachner and her little friskito peskito kitty-dog could settle the Democratic primary question if they were to endorse a candidate. Of course, if Jan Brett were to run for President, the current slate of candidates would not have a chance. I'm serious. If you doubt it, try attending a Jan Brett book signing. It's like being inside a Michael's Craft Store convention and having somebody yell FREE GLUE GUNS.

Speaking of Michaels, I see that they have some new program for kids there called "The Knack." So now I am compelled to sing "My Sharonna" every time I drive by the place.




But back to... where was I? Oh yes... mixed metaphors...

In that first photo, my child is holding (Yup, the doggone girl is mine, a phrase which reminds me of 60's Walruses (walrusae?) and 80's Moonwalkers and today's Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine) , an alien that she made for the most excellent Meghan McCarthy who was not anywhere near the Harleysville Bookstore, but we love her anyway and hope she has recovered from a bout with influenza. Back in Harleysville, we got to laugh and gab with Catherine Gilbert Murdoch who is even more fun in real life than she is on the internets (and that's saying something). And besides all that, super talented friends and neighbors, Lisa and Rob Papp and Joe Kulka were there. We all live just a few miles apart. They have me thinking that our small Pennsylvania town is quickly becoming the total center of the children's book universe. I hear many of the major publishers are considering a relocation to Lake Nockamixon. That would be intrepid indeed which makes me think: if I could just get Jan Brett to lend us that bus...

I am trying to decide whether this photo should make me laugh or cry. Probably both. I bet I could make a good short story out of it.

Unscientific but interesting study here reveals how "real" writers write:

1. The writers work in the morning. They often start very early in the morning.
2. Five out of ten of the writers described a little ritual before starting their morning writing. A surprising number of these rituals focused on The New York Times.
3. The writers drink coffee. Lots of coffee.
4. The writers write in isolation. If they didn’t have families they would push this even farther. Many discussed having no e-mail or phone in their workspace. One purposefully used a “shitty old laptop” to avoid temptations like solitaire. Gay Talese rigged his home office so it could only be entered through a separate outside door.

Thanks Study Hacks!

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