I’ve been visiting it online at least every few hours, but it probably gets lonely when I’m not there, so you can click on the image below if you’d like to visit it, too.
Fabulous Zach at North Country books emailed on Friday to let me know that SPITFIRE would be available for pre-order on Amazon within a few days. Sure enough, when I checked yesterday morning, there it was. My mom was visiting, so I got to show off like a kid who just finished a new craft project. I haven’t seen her so proud since I made that clay pot in second grade.
SPITFIRE is available for pre-order and will be in stores on September 25th.
Note to friends who don’t live near me…
North Country Books is a regional publisher, so you should find SPITFIRE in your local bookstore if you live in New York or Vermont. Otherwise, you can find it online or ask your local bookseller to order it through North Country Books.
And one more thing…. Don’t forget to send your entry for the SPITFIRE writers & characters contest! If you’ve ever tried Lake Champlain chocolate, you know that it’s well worth 300 words. Thanks for the entries so far — I’ll start featuring some of them later this week!
I just got the final word from my editor that SPITFIRE will be available by the end of September! To celebrate the release and the work of all of us who write for young people, I’m hosting a contest and spitfire-of-the-day feature on my blog…
spitfire: (n) A fiery-tempered, passionate person
My middle grade historical novel is called SPITFIRE for two reasons.
1) On the bottom of Lake Champlain today rests the last remaining gunboat of Benedict Arnold’s Revolutionary War fleet. It sank while American vessels were fleeing from the British during the Battle of Valcour Island in October of 1776. Spitfire is the name of that boat and the setting for much of my novel.
2) My main character, Abigail Smith, is a 12-year-old girl who steals a leaky rowboat and runs away to join the American fleet on Lake Champlain. She is brave, passionate, and more than a little impulsive – a spitfire if ever there was one.
On to the contest…
Are you a SPITFIRE?
The more writers I meet, the more convinced I am that you have to be a real spitfire to survive this career choice. With that in mind, write a very short (300 words or less) essay on what makes you a spitfire in your writing life or in some other way that’s entertaining to read about.
OR… (I’m adding this at the request of modest writers who can’t possibly write about themselves that way) write about your favorite spitfire character in a book — yours or someone else’s.
I’ll feature some of the essays on my blog in the days leading up to SPITFIRE’s release, along with an author photo and/or a picture of your latest book if you’re published.
Send entries with the subject line “SPITFIRE CONTEST” to kmessner at katemessner dot com (no spaces). Please include:
-Your name -A link to your website or blog if you have one -Your essay pasted into the email, with permission to post on my blog -A jpeg photo of you and/or your latest book attached if you’d like me to post it on my blog with your Spitfire Writer essay to promote your book
The deadline is September 25. Everyone who sends an essay will be entered in a drawing…and if you let people know about the contest on your website or blog and post a link to this page, I’ll enter you in the drawing twice. Just drop me a comment letting me know you’ve done so.
A winner will be drawn at random from all entries, and that person will receive a signed copy of SPITFIRE, along with a box of Lake Champlain Chocolates. Because everyone needs chocolate. Being a spitfire is hard work.
My blog’s been quiet for the past week because I was in San Diego on a family vacation. It was an incredible week in so many ways, but this was the highlight…
I was lucky enough to spend last Monday, the night of the total lunar eclipse, camping in the middle of Anzo-Borrego Desert State Park. Before we left, we found California Overland online and learned that they were offering an overnight desert trip with astronomer Dennis Mammana on the night of the eclipse. I took this picture just as the moon was rising over the mountains on our way to the campsite.
This is Joe from California Overland.
Joe is every bit as cool as he looks and is one of my family’s new favorite people. He organized our trip, cooked our meals, set up our tents, and was an amazing tour guide for the stunning alien landscape he calls home. Our tour started with a drive in a refurbished military vehicle to a spectacular spot called Font’s Point, overlooking the Anzo Borrego Badlands. Joe walked us partway up a hill, then said, “Look down at your feet now, and keep walking toward my voice. Don’t look up until I tell you to.” We trusted Joe by then, so we did this. When he told us to look up, we were at the edge of a cliff looking out at this view.
As the sun went down and the moon came up, we headed to our campsite, near an old homestead that’s been swallowed up by sand dunes and tamarack trees. The tents were already set up, and Joe started cooking dinner. Joe, it turns out, is a better cook in the middle of the desert than I am in my own fully-equipped kitchen. Without running water or electricity or anything but an open fire, he whipped up grilled steak, herb-rubbed salmon, roasted corn on the cob, and a beautiful salad with greens and goat cheese. I like food a lot, so Joe was especially my hero then.
Astronomer Dennis Mammana joined us for dinner and then went off to set up his telescope away from the light of the fire. When the lunar eclipse started in the early hours of the morning, we dozed in a circle of camp chairs around the telescope and took turns snapping pictures through its lens.
The full moon lit the desert so completely that we didn’t need flashlights when it first came up, but as the eclipse began, that light faded into a darkness blacker than any sky I’ve ever seen.
And then there were stars. Stars like I’ve never even imagined. Anzo Borrego has been named one of the best star-watching spots in the country, and now I know why. Dennis turned his telescope every few minutes to point out something new. Jupiter with four moons clearly visible. The Andromeda Galaxy. And my favorite… The Orion Nebula, where new stars are born. And of course, all the while, there was the moon…
This was my last eclipse photo…taken after a 4am hike through the sand with Joe and my son, looking for scorpions and sidewinders. We didn’t find any but enjoyed the quiet and the stars all the same. At about 5:30 the need for a little sleep won out over my desire to see the rest of the moon appear.
When the sun came up, I took a walk away from the campsite a bit to check out the desert plants and see if I could find that elusive scorpion. Here’s a shot looking back at our tents.
After a breakfast of toast, turkey bacon, and omelets with fresh vegetables, it was time to take down the tents. And guess who scuttled out from underneath our tent when we started folding it up…
My 11-year-old has wanted to see a scorpion ever since he read about desert animals when he was four or five, so this guy’s appearance made his trip complete.
The kids were still itching to do some hiking, so the amazing Joe was kind enough to take us on a bonus trip to one of Anzo Borrego’s incredible slot canyons.
The sandstone walls were just a couple feet apart in places, so this was like no other trail I’ve ever hiked. The temperature had crept up to 113 by the time we made it into the canyon, so we stopped often to find shade and drink water. It gave me a dramatic appreciation for how extreme the desert can be and a true respect for the wildlife and plants that survive in this climate.
As I type this, I’m back home at my desk, getting ready for the start of school in a couple days.
Fall comes early to the Champlain Valley. We woke up to a crisp 42-degrees today, so the desert dust and heat are miles and memories away.
But last night, when I realized I’d forgotten to get the mail, I stepped out into the dark. I looked up at the stars, fighting with our streetlights, and a part of me slipped away, back to my camp chair in Anzo-Borrego, home of the sky and the scorpions, and the stars.
) asked me to, and she’s a very cool writer person.
(My mother, who reads my blog, is now saying, “Well, if this lurban person asked you to jump off a bridge, would you do that, too?”)
Well no. Plus, really, this is all about celebrating Linda’s new book, A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT. I loved this middle grade novel, and if my fuzzy striped feet help her get the word out, then it was worth almost falling off the piano bench while I leaned over to take the photo. You can read my review of the book here.
If you check out my friends list, you’ll see just what kind of power Linda has (or how much people like Neil Diamond…hard to tell) because there are cool socks showing up on blogs as far as the eye can see. (Hey, Linda…does this kind of make you want to ask people to do other crazy things to see if they’ll really do it?)
Linda would like to see your socks, too, and if you post them on your website or blog (or send her a photo), she’ll enter you in a contest to win a signed copy of her book, a pair of toe socks, and Neil Diamond’s Greatest Hits. (If you’ve already read CROOKED, you will NOT roll your eyes at that.)
When I looked out the back door this afternoon, I thought a saw a log in the water.
But it was moving kind of fast. By the time I got out to the deck, the “log” had scurried to shore and hidden behind a rock. It was Miranda — the mink that’s been visiting over the past few weeks. (We named her from THE TEMPEST because she’s not afraid to swim in rough waters…). And she brought a friend for lunch!
Miranda played peekaboo with us around the rock for a while before running off to eat her new friend in one of the pipes where she likes to hang out.
We’ve lived here nine years, and every day, the lake brings something different. Wild lightning and double rainbows. One September, it was a cloud of hundreds of monarch butterflies, flying south along the shore. And one May evening a few years ago, we watched what neighbors swear was Champy, Lake Champlain’s legendary lake monster, swimming back and forth about 40 yards offshore.
What a gift, as a writer, to have new ideas delivered on the waves with every new day.
I know it’s early, but I want to let everyone know about the Burlington Book Festival coming up next month. Burlington, VT hosts an incredible book festival each fall, just as the leaves are changing color in New England. If you live in the Northeast (or even if you don’t but you really, really like autumn leaves and books), it’s worth the trip. Most of the events are being held at Waterfront Theater on the shores of Lake Champlain.
I’ll be presenting on Sunday, September 16th at the Children’s Literature Festival. Here’s my blurb from the festival website:
11:00 AM-12:00 PM
KATE MESSNER
Join Kate Messner for a trip back in time to the American Revolution on Lake Champlain. Kate will read from her middle grade historical novel Spitfire, set during the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776, sign books and present an interactive multimedia slide show about the real 12-year-old who fought in the battle. Kids will be invited to taste the food and try on the clothes of an 18th century sailor, handle artifact replicas and design their own powder horns to take home.
) will read from A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT and talk about the journey of writing and publishing a children’s book. (Even though Linda says it will make her nervous, my kids and I are definitely going to be in the audience!)
And the rest of the Book Festival is nothing to scoff at either, with writers like Chris Bohjalian, Howard Frank Mosher, Russell Banks, and Joyce Carol Oates speaking on Saturday, September 15th. The full schedule is posted at the festival website now. If you’re in the area that weekend, please stop by the Children’s Literature Festival and say hello!
) 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?
‘s entries about the weaselly creature that showed up at her house a few weeks ago and looked a lot like a wolverine. I think this may be a smaller, cuter, distant cousin. He spent the afternoon frolicking up and down the shore, climbing into drainage pipes, and then playing peek-a-boo before jumping out again. We’re trying to think of a name for him (or her). Any suggestions?
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!
Astronomer Dennis Mammana joined us for dinner and then went off to set up his telescope away from the light of the fire. When the lunar eclipse started in the early hours of the morning, we dozed in a circle of camp chairs around the telescope and took turns snapping pictures through its lens.
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