I’m on the Radio!

This week I was the guest on Suzanne Lieurance’s blog radio interview show, Book Bites for Kids. We talked about writing, illustrating, humor, creating characters, and The Adventures of Beanboy.

It was great fun. Thanks, Suzanne, for inviting me to be on your show!

The Adventures of Beanboy

It’s finally out! My middle-grade novel, The Adventures of Beanboy, came out on Valentine’s Day.

Suzanne Lieurance, The Working Writer’s Coach, has a nice writing tip on voice, using Beanboy as the example, on her website.

The Lawrence Journal-World featured Beanboy in an article last week titled “Gas-Powered Reading.”

Here’s the description of Beanboy from my publisher:

Never underestimate the power of the bean.

Tucker MacBean has been drawing comic books almost as long as he’s been reading them. When his favorite comic has a contest for kids, he hopes he has finally found a way to fix his family—all he has to do is create the winning superhero sidekick . . . Introducing “Beanboy”—the first comic book character to truly harness the power of the bean for good. He is strong, he is relentless, he can double in size overnight (if given enough water).

With thoughtful characterizations and copious comic book illustrations, this laughout-loud novel will have readers rooting for a superhero with true heart.

A Dandy of a Book!

I stayed up way too late last night (or, actually, early this morning) finishing Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains by Catriona McPherson. It was such fun. It takes place in 1926 Edinburgh. Dandy Gilver, a wealthy and spunky married woman, who, to combat the boredom of being a wealthy married woman, has started a detective agency (after successfully solving previous cases she happened to stumble upon) and goes undercover as a lady’s maid for a woman who’s convinced her husband plans to murder her.

It was very well-written and witty and just plain fun (shades of “Upstairs Downstairs” and “Downton Abbey,” and also of Rhys Bowen’s wonderful series, Her Royal Spyness) with surprises and twists and turns, and the good news is, it’s the 5th in a series, so I have more Dandy Gilver books to look forward to. I’m always so pleased when I find a previously unknown-to-me writer and series that I thoroughly enjoy.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, this website—www.DandyGilver.com—tells more about the series.

Book Events

I’ve been invited to participate in a couple of cool upcoming events:

5th Annual Author Extravaganza
Saturday, June 18, 2011
11 a.m. to 1p.m.
Town Crier Bookstore
716 Commercial
Emporia, Kansas 66801
620.343.9649

This is an amazing giant booksigning, this year featuring 37 Kansas authors, including Adam Catlin, Bev Buller, Brian Craig Miller, Carol Russell, Dennis Young, Diane McAdams Gladow, Donovan Harrison, Doris Johnson and Ray Imhoff, Douglas Armstrong, Dr. William L. Smith, Jerilynn Jones Henrikson, Katherine Pritchett, Kelley Hurst, Lenise Eddings, Linda A. Born, Lisa Waterman Gray, Max Terman, M.E. Williams, Meri Rose Shenk, Michael Halleran, Patty Bultman, Phil Brown, Reaona Hemmingway, Robert Collins, Robert Hannigan, Sally Jadlow, S.C. Dixon, Todd Hunter, Bradly Brackenbury, Marilyn Hope Lake and Denton Warn, Ken Ohm, Donald Pady, Greg Hoots, Michelle Spencer, Lisa Harkrader.

Author/Illustrator Panel
Kansas Reading Association Conference
Friday, October 21, 2011
Emporia State University
Emporia, Kansas

Other writers attending the conference include Beverly Buller, Paul Schneider, Andrea Warren, Roy Bird, Roderick Townley, and Brian Lies.

I’ll post more when I find out details about the author/illustrator panel.

Beanboy Cover Art

<—Here is the cover art for The Adventures of Beanboy. Artist Dan Santat has done an amazing job. I couldn’t ask for a better cover. It has just the right style and tone to both complement the story and entice readers to pick up the book. It will really help Beanboy stand out on a bookstore or library shelf.

I was thrilled when my publisher chose Dan to do the cover. He has written and/or illustrated tons of picture books, chapter books, and graphic novels, including The Adventures of Nanny Piggins, Oh No!: Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World, Guild of Geniuses, and the soon-to-be-released Sidekicks. He also created the Disney Channel television program “The Replacements.” To find out more about Dan and see some of his work, click here to visit his website (http://www.dantat.com).

I’m not sure when Beanboy will be out, but I’ll post the date here as soon as I find out.

Tortoise and Hare

I get exhausted by the frenzy of writing advice swirling about the internet on how to write more, faster, and get it out there by building a platform (whatever the heck that is), creating a brand (ditto), and sell-sell-selling. The little voice in my head keeps jumping up and down and squeaking, “But what about the writing? Doesn’t anybody care about what they’re trying to sell?”

How refreshing, then, to read “In Praise of the Tortoise, With All Due Respect to the Hare,” on Gar Anthony Haywood’s blog, Wisdom Mistaken for Lunacy, this morning. Gar, a Shamus and Anthony Award-winning crime novelist, explains the seven things he believes good writers do to get even better.

Now my little voice is jumping up and down, squeaking, “Yes! Yes! That’s what I needed to hear.”

Dr. Naismith’s Original Rules

Hooray! Dr. James Naismith’s original 13 rules of basketball (or basket ball, as he named it), typed by his secretary and tacked up in the gym at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he invented the game, are coming back to the University of Kansas where they belong:

Booths Purchase Basketball Rules

The Naismith International Basketball Foundation, led by Dr. Naismith’s grandson, Ian Naismith, will use proceeds from the sale to help underprivileged kids around the world.

This Kansas history website lists the original 13 rules.

Guest Blogger

Today I have a guest blog post on creating plots that spring from character on Lynne Marie Pisano’s fabuloso writing blog, My Word Playground. Thanks for inviting me, Lynne!

Interview With. . . Moi

My friend Warren Bull has interviewed me about writing middle grade and young adult fiction. The interview is now up at the Writers Who Kill blog.

Thanks, Warren!

Those Briarwood Kids!

I visited Briarwood Elementary in Prairie Village, Kansas, earlier this week and talked to the fourth and fifth graders. They were such great kids—polite, attentive, and smart. They asked great questions and had the answers to any question I managed to throw at them. It was a fun visit.

Thank you, Mrs. Berenson, for inviting me.

Dinner With Authors

I owe a big thank you to Barb Bahm, my local School Librarian Goddess, for inviting me to the Dinner With Authors at the Kansas library, educator, and reading conference in Junction City last night. I had such a great time catching up with Stormy Lee Kennedy, owner of Claflin Books in Manhattan, Kansas, one of my favorite booksellers and all-around people, as well as fellow Kansas writers Bev Buller (I don’t see enough of Bev), Jane Kurtz, and Roderick Townley. I finally got to meet Lois Ruby. Plus I got a free meal—some kind of chicken thing, veggies, and cake.

Not a bad way to spend a Thursday night.

Book Events

Tonight, October 7, 2010, I’ll attend the Dinner With Authors with other Kansas writers and illustrators, including Jane Kurtz, Lois Ruby, Stephen Gilpin, Roderick Townley, Bev Buller, and Cheryl Harness at Partners in Excellence (the annual conference of the Kansas Association of School Librarians, the Kansas State Department of Education, and the Kansas Reading Association) in Junction City and will have a chance to chat with librarians, teachers, and other book people from all over the state. This is always a fun event.

Next Wednesday, October 13, 2010, I’ll visit Briarwood Elementary in Prairie Village, Kansas. A big thank you to Sheila Berenson, language arts teacher at Briarwood, for inviting me and arranging all the details of the visit.

Blog Tour

On Saturday, October 9, 2011, I’ll kick off a six-day blog tour. (Sort of like a three-hour tour, but I won't end up on a deserted island with Gilligan. I don’t think.) I’ll post six different blog entries on six different blogs on six different days. Here are the blogs and bloggers who have generously invited me to be their guest:

Saturday, October 9—Terri Forehand’s blog, Writing to the Heart of the Matter

Sunday, October 10—Kristi Bernard’s blog, The Neophyte Writer

Monday, October 11—Irene Roth's Writing Blog

Tuesday, October 12—Donna McDine’s blog, The Golden Pathway

Wednesday, October 13—blog of Suzanne Lieurance, Children’s Author


Thursday, October 14—Kathy Stemke’s blog, Educationtipster

For more information about blog tours by writers in this month’s Author Spotlight, as well as a chance to win a prize, go to The Writing For Children Center.

Hemingway Cat

When you live out in the sticks like I do, stray cats come and go. We feed them and they usually stick around awhile.

Recently, a sweet little black and white male has been hanging around. I think he divides his time between our house and our neighbor’s horse barn, and he seems to like our other cat—and us. If we’re not outside, he sits on the back porch and whines at the door.

The other night my husband hollered at me to come out and look at something.

“Look at this cat!” he said, holding the little black and white. “His paws looked huge, so I picked him up. He’s got six toes on each of his front paws.”

I squealed with delight. “He’s a Hemingway cat!” I said. And then I explained to him about the cat a sea captain gave to Ernest Hemingway. It was a polydactyl cat, and many of the sixty or so cats who still live at the Hemingway Museum in Key West are his descendants. About half of them have extra toes. And I see now why they’re sometimes called “mitten cats.” The extra toe does make our little black and white guy look like he’s wearing mittens.

I’ve been calling the cat Ernie, after Ernest Hemingway (my sister thinks Hemingway would be a more dignified name). If I can get a picture of him, I’ll post it. I keep hoping that having Ernest Hemingway running around my yard will bestow some writerly superpowers on me.

Authorpalooza

I’ll be signing books with dozens of other authors at:

4th Annual Author Extravaganza
11am–1pm
June 26, 2010
Town Crier Bookstore
Emporia, KS

This is a fun event, with authors packed into the store and spilling out onto the street, at a bookstore that supports authors, schools, and literacy programs like a wild machine. Emporia’s a great town, a bastion of literacy on the prairie, with one of those wonderful small city downtowns you usually find only in movies from the fifties, with wide streets, tall old buildings, and local businesses (including a chocolate shop).

Upcoming Events

On Tuesday, April 27, I’ll be speaking to the Lawrence Area Reading Council at Signs of Life Bookstore in Lawrence.

On Saturday, May 1, I’ll be leading a Kansas SCBWI writing workshop, Four-Alarm Novels, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Mardel Bookstore, 119th and Metcalf, Overland Park.

Jenn Bailey!

Yesterday, in my zeal to update my blog, I forgot to mention that the Kansas SCBWI workshop—Catching Fire 2010: Branding Yourself—was taught by the amazing Jenn Bailey, writer, photographer, and social media coach. (She blogs! She tweets! She—in the words of fellow Kansas SCBWIer Lisha Cauthen—wrestles Facebook to the ground and shows it who’s boss!)

It was a terrific workshop, packed with more information than my brain could sort through. One really great tidbit I picked up and want to learn more about is MobileMe, a service of Apple that “keeps everything in sync!” I’m not entirely sure what that means (probably because I’m never entirely in sync), but the cool thing is, if you join ($99 a year), you can create a website using iWeb (which came with my Macs—who knew?), an easy-sneezy (everything Apple is easy-sneezy) site creation software, and your site can be hosted at MobileMe. You can also back up your hard drive online at iDisk, and have the contents of your Mac available to you no matter where you are. Oh, and apparently if you lose your iPhone, it will find it for you. (Wow. If it would just take my dogs potty and get the kids ready for school, life would be perfect.)

(I’m possibly the last Mac user on the planet to hear about MobileMe, but there’s a lot of stuff that came on my Macs that I don’t know about. But oh, hey, look! I just clicked MobileMe in my system preferences and signed up for a free 60-day account. Macs really are easy-sneezy.)

The workshop was great. Thank you, Jenn.

Kansas SCBWI Workshop

At this very moment, I’m sitting in a social media workshop given by Kansas SCBWI (the Kansas chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), and feeling very guilty that I haven’t updated my one sorry attempt at social media—my blog—since August. I’m a little surprised I still remembered my password. (I think it’s pretty clear why I need a workshop.)

Anyway, I have all this stuff I want to write on my blog. I just haven’t written it yet. (And one of them is about my cool new attitude toward New Year’s Resolutions. Yes, I do realize the first month of the new year is over half over. Don’t rub it in. I already feel guilty.) So the one thing I’ve taken away from the workshop is that I need to start by updating my blog.

Which I promise to do.

Soon.

Teleclass!

Today I did an hour-long teleclass on how to study the publishing markets—both magazines and book publishers—for my friend Suzanne Lieurance for her Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club. (You can find a description of the class here.)

It was fun! I didn’t think I could talk for a whole hour, but I forget how long-winded I become once I get going. The hour was up before I knew it, and at the end I had to scramble to squeeze the last bits of information in.

Suzanne recorded the class and will soon be offering it on CD through the National Writing for Children Center.

Franklin County Literature Festival

I’m packing my car at this very moment to drive down to Ottawa, Kansas, for the Franklin County Literature Festival. Tonight I’ve been invited to a dinner for the authors, and tomorrow I’ll be speaking to kids in four different sessions throughout the day.

Fifteen hundred kids + twelve authors (including Jane Kurtz, Brad Sneed, Stephen Johnson, Cheryl Harness) + book-loving librarians and teachers = a great day of books and fun.