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Saturday in Shelburne

For a while now, Loree Burns (

[info]lgburns

), Linda Urban (

[info]lurban

) and I  have been threatening to get together with our kids. We all love to talk writing, and we all have energetic six-year-old daughters. 

Tanya Lee Stone (

[info]tanyaleestone

) gave us the perfect excuse this past weekend — a book launch at the Flying Pig Bookstore for her  new picture book biography, Elizabeth Leads the  Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote.

Tanya kept us captivated with stories of how she wrote this book, how Rebecca Gibbon’s charming illustrations evolved, and how the early drafts of those illustrations sent Tanya back to the research phase of the project again and again.  The result is a truly spirited book about a woman who deserves to be a household name.  E and I have read our copy five times since Saturday.  Every time, Elizabeth Cady makes us smile with her determination.

The rest of the day passed in a blur.  There was a long pizza lunch.  The girls colored; we talked.  There was a meandering trip through the beautiful Shelburne Museum.  The girls ran through the grass, asked questions, climbed trees, worried the security guards at times (they weren’t going to touch those Monet paintings…they were just pointing…), and made fast friends in the way that only children and people who write for them can.

The day passed so quickly that we barely caught the last ride on the carousel before the museum closed.  There was no music, so we made our own — a rousing version of “Take Me Out to the  Ballgame.”  The lady running the controls sang along.  In other company, it might have felt corny, but with the six of us going up and down and round in circles in the late afternoon sun, it was a perfectly fitting way to end the day.

Friday Five

Here are  five things making me smile this Friday…

1. Burlington’s Discover Jazz Festival – We’re spending tonight on the Church St. Marketplace, enjoying the music (okay…and some Ben & Jerry’s, too). 

2. Saturday plans for a girls’ day with two writer pals and their daughters.

3. The Adirondack Literary Awards this Sunday in Blue Mountain Lake, hosted by The Adirondack Center for Writing.  ACW is a great organization that hosted the first children’s writing conference I ever attended.  I’ve been to some great workshops and other conferences since then, but the ACW World of Children’s Literature Conference will always hold a special place in my heart.  I got my first manuscript critique on the novel that would become Spitfire, listened to Joseph Bruchac tell stories, and sat next to Paula Danziger at dinner.  And I thought, “Maybe I can really do this writing thing.”

4. My kitchen cabinets are white.  They used to be dark, dark brown.  The walls, which used to be a strange gray-brown-mystery 1950s wallpaper color, are a buttery yellow now.  The counter is…a work in progress.  And most of what was sitting on it is now on the floor on the porch.   If I could only find the toaster, I’d be all set…

5.  I’m revising CIRCUIT BOY, the companion book for my MG novel, MAPLE GIRL.  I’m through my second pass of revisions and need to back off and look at the bigger picture now.  Next week, I’ll be shrinking the font to size 8, single spacing, and laying out the pages on the porch (as soon as I move the stuff from the kitchen counter) so I can go nuts with my beloved Post-It notes and figure out where threads are disappearing and where characters need to resurface.  This will be fabulously fun for me in a geeky, writer-girl sort of way.

Why I love Vermont

This winter, I posted with sadness about a group of kids who broke into and trashed Robert Frost’s former home in Ripton, Vermont. 

But I read this story about their sentence with a smile today.

MSNBC called it Poetic Justice.

(Thanks,

[info]writerross

, for the heads-up on this headline!)

Three Cheers for Flying Pig Books!

BIG congratulations are in order for author/bookseller Elizabeth Bluemle and her partner Josie Leavitt this week.  The Flying Pig Bookstore has won the Lucille Micheels Pannell Award, honoring bookstores “that excel in inspiring the interest of young people in books and reading.” If you’ve ever set foot in Flying Pig, you know that describes Josie & Elizabeth’s store perfectly.  Yay!!!

And…if you’re still looking for another reason to visit, you should know that Flying Pig is hosting Tanya Lee Stone’s launch for Elizabeth Leads the Way this Saturday.  Here’s the official Flying Pig blurb…

Store Events – June 7, 11:00 a.m.
 
Time: Saturday, June 7, 2008 11:00 a.m.
Location: THE FLYING PIG BOOKSTORE
Title of Event: Tanya Lee Stone, author of Elizabeth Leads the Way

Join the prolific Tanya Lee Stone as she reads from Elizabeth Leads the Way, her new picture book about pioneering feminist and suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

My daughter and I are really looking forward to this one!

I’m Happy-Dancing…

…because I got the final cover for Champlain and the Silent One today, and Fabulous Zach at North Country Books gave me the okay to share it!

 New book covers make me positively giddy.  I haven’t talked about this one in a while, so I’ll share the blurb, too:

His tribe calls him Silent One.  He hasn’t spoken since his uncle died fighting the Iroquois.  But in the winter of 1609, a new language echoes through the north woods.  Samuel de Champlain and his Frenchmen speak of friendship and promise to help Silent One’s people fight their enemies.  This time, Silent One must join the war party, journey far from home, and find his voice to save his brother and his own spirit.
                     
 ~Champlain and the Silent One, September 2008

New blog readers might not know that my mom, Gail Smith Schirmer, created the paintings for the covers of both Spitfire and this new book.  Her work can be seen in the Pat Rini Rohrer Gallery in Canandaigua, NY and here on her blog – gailschirmer.


best tracker


Four Days in Washington, DC

4 people,
1 small hotel room,
7 museums,
5 monuments & memorials,
1 living history village,
and many miles later… I have some highlights to share.

Here we are on the steps of the National Gallery.

I’m that one… in the pink shirt. On that top step.   

Now do you see?

By the pillar… No, the other pillar.

I actually squealed (and got a slightly dirty look from a National Gallery guard) when I saw this painting…

I loved Blue Balliett’s Chasing Vermeer and have always wanted to see “A Lady Writing” in person, but I had actually forgotten that the painting was here until I turned a corner and saw her.  Stunning.

The Smithsonian is simply amazing.  We spent time in the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Museum of the American Indian, Museum of Air & Space, and Museum of Natural History, where the gems and minerals were just incredible.  (I thought of you and Samantha,

[info]nancy_v

!)

We also checked out the International Spy Museum, which not only has cool spy stuff like a lipstick pistol but also tons of fascinating history on espionage and its role in world events. 

Ford’s Theater was closed, but we toured the house across the street where Lincoln died after being shot.  I was impressed with the small historic site  but even more impressed with this man…

…a National Park Service guide who told the story of Lincoln’s assassination to a different group of visitors every ten minutes with the animation and enthusiasm of someone reporting it for the very first time.  I love people who do their work with passion.  And yes…it was neat to stand in the room, too.

Did you happen to see the National Memorial Day Concert on PBS over the weekend?  I was there.

Okay, technically, I was at the dress rehearsal on Saturday night and not the actual concert.  We packed a picnic and joined the crowd on the Capitol lawn for an evening of music from the National Philharmonic, United States Army Band, Sarah Brightman, Idina Menzel, Rodney Atkins, and Gladys Knight. 

It was a gorgeous night, so sitting out on the grass with the kids, listening to music was just perfect.

We also drove down to Colonial Williamsburg for a day, toured the Governor’s Palace, and checked out the historic park. 

My favorite stop was the apothecary, who had an authentic 18th century amputation kit. 

(If you’ve read Spitfire, you know why I was excited  to actually see the tools.)

Monday was our monument and memorials day, appropriately enough.  I especially liked seeing the World War II Memorial, which is new since my last trip to D.C. 


Looking back at the Washington Monument…

All along the memorials, we saw flowers, photos, letters, and other tributes to people’s loved ones.  So very many stories that we won’t soon forget.

A Rainbow Kind of Day

Really.

First, an ARC of Laurie Halse Anderson’s CHAINS showed up in the mail, just in time for a plane trip I’m taking tomorrow.

Then the phone call I’ve been waiting for happened.  An over-the-rainbow sort of phone call.  More on that soon.  :^)

And tonight, this…the first of the year over Lake Champlain.

Thankful Thursday, indeed.

Raise the Spitfire?

The debate over what to do with the wreck of the Spitfire, the Revolutionary War gunboat featured in my first historical novel, seems to be resurfacing.

Librarian Cally Flickinger alerted me to this article in the Burlington Free Press.  I expect it will reinvigorate our conversations about the value of historical resources.

What do you think should happen?

Awaiting an Illustrator

There are so many exciting steps along the way in a writer’s journey.  Some of them, like getting books in the mail or doing a first book signing, you’ve heard about and expect to be amazing experiences.  But some of the other milestones have taken me by surprise.  Like when my editor emailed me last year with the ISBN number for Spitfire, my first regional historical novel. 

ISBN number???  I have an ISBN number?  I have an ISBN number!!! 

I was so giddy that a slightly snarky friend suggested I have the number tattooed on my forehead.

Today was another one of those memorable milestones.  I got an email from Melissa, my editor at Chronicle Books, which is publishing my first picture book, Over and Under the Snow.  She’d just come from a meeting with Chronicle’s design department,  and she wanted to share the short list of illustrators under consideration.  They are all amazing.  I spent half the night online, looking at websites and portfolios and requesting picture books from the library.  Obviously, it’s way too early in the process for me to share much.  But I can share this…

Wow.  Just wow.   It’s humbling to think that someone with such incredible talent will create art to tell a story with my words. 

I’d love to hear thoughts from those of you who have been through this process.  I can’t begin to imagine how exciting it will be to see the final illustrations.

I know there’s more work to do with this manuscript.  There’s editing.  I still have to fill out that long author questionnaire (I’m working on it, really…).  And I’m sure there will be bumps in the road before my picture book is a book.  But for now, what a gift  – to be able to look at the work of such amazing artists and imagine what each of them might bring to SNOW with their unique styles and moods. 

Tonight, I’ll be dreaming in pen and ink, watercolor, mixed media, and everything in between.

So long, salmon…

I said goodbye to some old friends on Friday.

It was time for these little guys — salmon that my students raised from fertilized eggs in their science classroom — to make their way out into the river.  Our 7th graders spent a gorgeous Friday on the river bank, releasing the fish, conducting a watershed survey, and relaxing in the sunshine to do some journaling and reading.

They loved the hip waders we used to collect temperature readings and macroinvertebrate specimens.

Here I am, releasing the stragglers after all the students let their own fish go from paper cups.

They seemed happy to be free, but I can’t help but worry.  It’s been three days, and I haven’t heard from any of them.  They don’t write… They don’t call…  I’m guessing some of you who have had kids go off to college can relate.