I’m heading off to teach this morning after a fantastic, fun book signing in the Finger Lakes this weekend.  Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the Pat Rini Rohrer Gallery in Canandaigua, where we signed books and where my mom is one of the featured artists this month.  In-laws, cousins, and my parents’ neighbors and church friends all showed up — even my piano teacher from when I was nine years old!  (Thanks, Mrs. Webster… You look just the same and are still just as nice. And I really am sorry I didn’t practice more.)

Here we are signing…Don’t we look like we’re concentrating very hard?  (Thanks to my sister-in-law Linda for sharing her pictures!)


Here are Mom & Dad, visiting with friends. They are at the healthy snack table. I was over at the other table, eating candy corn.

Here I am signing a book, with Dad making sure that I’m doing it right.  Some things never change, huh?
That’s the original cover art for Champlain and the Silent One on the table easel!

And speaking of Champlain and the Silent One…I have a signed copy to give away this morning!  I had written all the names of the people who entered on little slips of paper, but I forgot to have my kids draw a winner before they went to bed, so instead, I called on the online Random Integer Generator, which never sleeps.  And it chose…. (drum roll, please…)

Congratulations, Number 19!!!

Oh wait…you don’t know who that is, do you?   Here.

jbknowles , please email me with your mailing address and I’ll get your book in the mail.

Thanks for entering, everyone!  Have a fantastic week!

I’ve gotten a few emails lately – most from friends but one from a writer-mom I don’t know who read my blog – asking how I manage to balance family, teaching, and writing.  The answer: like one of those circus jugglers who have to toss up and catch six flaming tiki torches at once, riding a unicycle on a tightrope and eating cotton candy the whole time. 

Sometimes it works. And sometimes I fall off, and the torches fall and catch my unicycle on fire and turn my cotton candy into a gooey, burned mess.  Today’s Friday Five and a half (because there’s always more than you can fit in a day, really) is about the balance…or not.

1. My  middle-grade-novel-that-used-to-be-called-MAPLE-GIRL (Walker Books, 2009) is going to copy edits and might even have a real title soon. 

2. I have lost my cell phone.  Have you seen it?  I’d call it, but the battery is dead because I also lost the charger.

3. I managed 2000 words on my new project last night – a novel that was brewing while I worked on revisions for middle-grade-novel-that-used-to-be-called-MAPLE-GIRL.   This new book has a title right now.  I’m enjoying that while it lasts.

4. I have lost my marbles. Seriously.  I have a jar of marbles in my classroom that I use for a voting activity in election years.  I cannot find them (they are clear marbles that are hard to see – I should have gotten bright red ones).  We are voting with paper clips instead right now.  Juggling flaming tiki torches is all about flexibility.

5. I’m heading to the Finger Lakes this weekend to visit family and sign books at the Pat Rini Rohrer Gallery (71 South Main St.) in Canandaigua from 2-4 on Saturday. You’re invited, too!

5 1/2.  If you see my marbles or my cell phone, would you please drop me a note?  You can’t call because…well…you know…

One more thing…

CONTEST DEADLINE:

If you’d like to enter the drawing to win a signed copy of Champlain and the Silent One, click here to see the contest entry and leave a comment.  The deadline is midnight, EST tonight, and winners will be announced on my blog on Monday!

I’m thankful for bees and butterflies today — thankful that lgburns ‘ stunning photographs on  her blog lately have inspired me to slow down and look more closely at my own backyard. Here’s what I  found…

My daughter is convinced this Monarch we spotted yesterday is one of those that we raised from caterpillars and released a couple weeks ago, come back to visit.

I’m also thankful — and downright excited — that I get to sign books with my mom in the Finger Lakes this weekend.  When I sold Spitfire, I didn’t really understand how book covers worked and suggested to my editor that my mother, who’s an artist, do a painting for the cover.  

"Well, we generally take care of finding an illustrator," he said.

"Can she send you something and you can see what you think?"

Happily, they thought good things, and Mom’s art appears on the covers of both Spitfire and my new book, Champlain and the Silent One.  My mom has always been a terrifically talented artist but didn’t often make time for her own art when she was teaching and taking care of four kids as we grew up.  I’m not only in awe of her talent now; I’m proud of the time and work she’s put into her painting, and sharing the creative process with her has been an absolute joy. 

You can see some of her latest work on her blog – she’s gailschirmer  – and if you live in Rochester or the Finger Lakes, I hope you’ll stop by to say hello to us this weekend!  From 2-4 pm on Saturday, we’ll be at the Pat Rini Rohrer Gallery, where Mom is one of the featured artists this month. It’s at 71 South Main St. in Canandaigua.

And one more thankfulness… I’m glad so many of you have stopped by to enter my drawing for a signed copy of Champlain and the Silent One. If you haven’t entered and would like to, click here for the details.

1.  I just finished reading an ARC of Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass and am now determined to see a total solar eclipse before I die. (Funny how a free book can end up costing thousands in travel expenses, huh? But I digress…)   I’ll post a more detailed review later, but for now, know that I loved it, and it’s one you’ll want to look for when it comes out next month.

2. Currently, I’m reading the first book in Scholastic’s 39 Clues series, Rick Riordan’s The Maze of Bones.  My 12-year-old read it in a day and loved it but was surprised that it wasn’t more like Rick’s Percy Jackson series.  I’m halfway through Maze of Bones, enjoying the historical references to Benjamin Franklin as well as the diverse settings.  I’m interested to see how the whole book, trading card, online game component works out.  Has anyone else read this?  Thoughts?

3. It’s always interesting to me how people end up at my website.  The counter that keeps track of visits to my site also shows me how people found their way there, what terms they typed into a search engine, for example.  This one is my all-time favorite. Someone googled…

"love life of Samuel de Champlain"

…and ended up at my site.  (Don’t tell my husband!)

4. There was a haze of ice fog over Lake Champlain today — the first of many cold fall mornings I’ll wake to see those cold weather "ghosts" over the water.

5.  Who wants to win a copy of Champlain and the Silent One?  I’ll be announcing a contest on Monday, so be sure to stop by!  All you have to do to be entered is promise to use your voice in November.  More to come…