There should be more books like Linda Urban’s (

lurban

)  A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT.  When I checked at my local bookstore today, they had one copy.  I snatched it up and read it in one sitting. 

Zoe Elias, a would-be piano prodigy, ends up not with a  baby grand piano at Carnegie Hall but with a sighing, cha-cha, oompa organ at the Perform-O-Rama.  Zoe’s voice is funny and touching and true, as she paints the picture of her ten-year-old life.  A coin-counting mother who works all the time.  A father who’s afraid to leave the house (but makes a mean maple tart).  A best friend who ditches her. And that organ….

This book made me laugh out loud on the couch so many times my son put down THE LIGHTNING THIEF to listen for a while.  It’s a fantastic example of how a great middle grade book can turn the every day trials of a kid into an amazing story, just like Zoe makes music from whatever life dishes out to her.

I teach middle school, and sometimes I find that I have more choices for my readers who like edgy YA stories than I do for those kids who read well but aren’t quite ready for teenager issues.  A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT is a perfect kind of book for those readers, and I’m so happy I’ll have it  for them when school starts in a few weeks.

Okay…I know I shared the cover art for SPITFIRE a couple weeks ago, but today, fabulous Zach at North Country Books emailed me the whole thing…the front cover, the back cover, the spine…even the promotional bookmark.  That’s what they call the whole kit & caboodle.  (Is that how you spell caboodle?)

And here’s the bookmark.  SPITFIRE has its own bookmark!   How about that?

Fabulous Zach says everything is on track for SPITFIRE’S September 10th release date.  Have I mentioned that I’m just a tiny bit excited?

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  What about when your in-box is loaded with spam? 

davidlubar

 used it as an inspiration for his hilarious blog post this morning, and he’s prompted me to come clean with a quirky hobby.  I save subject lines from spam emails and use them as titles for poems.  This is great fun, as you can imagine. Here’s my favorite so far, and yes, the title really was the subject line of an email I received…

WAFFLE BUTT

I have been sitting on the plastic lawnchair
all afternoon
sipping lemonade in the sun
and cannot possibly get up
to make you dinner.

My cool glass needs me.
Beads of condensation roll down its sides
and my book has five more chapters.
The forest green plastic
is woven in and out
like a first grade construction paper placemat
to keep me from falling through the aluminum base
to the warm prickly grass.
The plastic and I are one.

If I stand to get the chicken from the fridge
the chair will come along
stuck to my sweaty thighs for all time
or at least until I get to the door
and it falls off onto the porch.
Then I’d have those little squares on the backs of my legs
     for hours —
maybe even until dinner
and if we sit in these chairs to eat,
well, it would start all over again.

No.
We’d better order a pizza,
and I’ll just stay put.

————————————-
What’s in your email trash today?  If you find inspiration for a poem, I’d love to read it!

I’ve been a bad blogger this week, but I’ll try to make up for  it with an mega-post today.  Here are many things on a Monday…

1. I had coffee this morning with Bonnie Shimko, a marvelous YA writer and, it turns out, a marvelous person.  I’ve read her books but never met her until this morning, even though she lives in my area.  Bonnie wrote the Lambda Award-winning LETTERS IN THE ATTIC and more recently, KAT’S PROMISE.  It was wonderful to talk writing over an iced coffee and  to laugh (and lament) about the agent search with someone who’s been through it.

2.  My parents visited this weekend for E’s birthday, and we enjoyed the sunshine and the lake.  They also brought me an unbelievable early book release gift — an antique powder horn from the 18th century.  The gift came with a note from my main character…

Abigail, my MC in SPITFIRE  carries her father’s powder horn.  It’s an important symbol in the story and a part of my presentation for schools.  Mom and Dad were at an antique show in the Finger Lakes and found this one, from the Kingston, NY area, dated 1787.  Leave it to them to put the icing on the cake of this first book being published.  These are the people who have believed in my writing since I could hold a pencil, and … (secret for LJ readers coming)… my mom is the artist who did the cover painting for SPITFIRE.  You can visit her and see more of her work at her journal,

gailschirmer

3.  It’s finally stopped raining in the Champlain Valley, so we spent a few great days camping in the Adirondacks with family and boating on Lake Champlain.  Spending time outside here makes me so thankful to live in a place where there are still so many special, forgotten places. 

My husband’s brother and his family camp each summer in Wilmington, NY, so we spent a night with them and took a hike to Copperas Pond in the Adirondacks. (It’s one of the stops in Mystery Writer’s journal, but alas, the log book here also failed to go back as far as the date of her hike, so we’ll have to keep waiting to get the older logs we’ve requested from the Department of Environmental Conservation.)

Copperas Pond is a cool blue gem in the shadow of the mountains, perfect for frog-hunting and swimming.  My son made a friend while he was resting on a log in the water…

Temperatures passed 90 degrees this week, so we were thankful for the cool mountain water.  Copperas Pond has some terrific cliffs that drop off into deep water, which means you can do this…

(That’s me, when I finally got up the courage, after the 11-year-old had already done it five or six times.)

Yesterday, we took our little rowboat over to Valcour Island, the setting for SPITFIRE and a place I’ve always loved.  There’s a perfect pebbly beach on the south end of the island where the stones are smooth and warm. 

There’s also a rock wall on one side of the cove with a little cave in it, where we play Messner Rock Challenge. 

Here are the rules, in case you go there some day and want to play.  See those pieces of driftwood on the beach?  You have to stand behind the back stick if you’re an adult and behind the front stick if you’re a kid.  Toss rocks, one at a time, and try to get them to stay in the little cave.  Take turns.  The first person to have three rocks stay in the cave wins.  If someone knocks your rock out of the cave, you don’t get credit for that rock. You have to have three rocks in there at the end to win.  It’s harder than it sounds because they bounce out.  My husband won yesterday’s game after about 15 minutes of rock tossing, and there were only this many rocks in the cave.

The ground next to the cave was another story…

I managed to get just one rock into the cave, which was promptly knocked out by someone (can’t remember who) who laughed a sinister laugh.  Here’s hoping you have better luck if you get a chance to visit Valcour Island some day…

My editor just emailed me the current cover for SPITFIRE to get my feedback, and he gave me permission to share, so…..

I’m thrilled with the way it turned out and have suggested just a few minor tweaks (like a slightly bolder title). 

Comments & suggestions are welcome!

Meanwhile…I keep coming back to my computer to look at it.  My book has a COVER!