"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work." -Gustave Flaubert
*He looks a little bit like Wally Russ, doesn't he?
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"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work." -Gustave Flaubert *He looks a little bit like Wally Russ, doesn't he?  This is a weird picture of us, but I'm sharing it here because how many times in our lives are we going to be presenting to the American Library Association on two huge jumbotron monitors with an ASL interpreter? What a thrill! Thanks to the ALA for inviting us to share some thoughts about why *we* love all librarians at the I Love My Librarian Award ceremony in Philadelphia this weekend. Our newest book was inspired by one of the winners, Cathy Evans, a school librarian in Memphis, Tennessee. It was so much fun to hear Cathy's remarks and all the other winners. Truly inspiring!
It's that time of year again! I'm on the road, meeting young authors in Lawrence, Kansas, and Glendale Heights, Illinois. As always, I am blown away by the enthusiasm, ingenuity, intelligence, wit, kindness, and just plain fabulous-ness of these creative young writers and illustrators. Could these kids and their projects be any cuter? (The old kid is me, posing in front of my heroine, Olive C. Spence, at Glen Hill School this morning.)
Happy to report I didn't fall off the roof of my apartment building in Lisbon, Portugal (see post below). Even happier to report that Sarah and I both have had great summers! Sarah spent time in NYC while I was in Chautauqua, New York. Now I'm back at Queset House, my favorite haunted house/library in North Easton, Massachusetts, where I'm leading fiction workshops for kids and obituary writing workshops for grownups. Can you think of a more perfect place to write than right here? I'm also working on a documentary about one of my new-found heroes, Blanche Ames. Check out the trailer here. Isn't she something?
 Sometimes I really do feel like I'm on top of the world. Like when it's summer, and I'm in Lisbon, and I'm working on two new middle-grade novels with my favorite illustrator, a.k.a. sister Sarah (release dates 2020 and 2021), and my really nice Portuguese neighbor Elisabete invites me up on the roof of our apartment building. What could possibly go wrong here?
Thank you, sister Sarah, for sending me this fantastic article. And thank you, Jan Whitehead, for introducing me to Miss Rumphius when I thought I was too old for picture books. (What was I thinking???)   While I'm in Lisbon, Portugal, this summer, I'm working on a new manuscript. The first chapter is (for now) titled I Hate Stairs. But how could I hate these stairs in the little park by my apartment? Doesn't it look the trees are dropping purple snow? I'd never seen jacaranda trees before, but they're everywhere here. So pretty!
More later. Sarah and I are putting our 2020 book to bed this week. No purple snow in that book, but lots of little green dots. And a rabble-rousing librarian named Rita B. Danjerous. More on that anon. |
