Book Tour

Tour schedule for The Great Unexpected

September 19     Wellesley, MA: school and library

September 20     Dedham, MA:    Blue Bunny Books

September 21     Dedham, MA:    school 

September 30     Downers Grove, IL: Anderson's

October 1           Naperville, IL:    school event

October 2           San Jose, CA:     Hicklebees
                                               + school event

October 3           Petaluma, CA:    Copperfield's
                                                        2 schools

October 4           Irvine, CA:          Whale of a Tale 
                                                         + school event

October 5           Los Angeles:       Children's 
                                                         Book World 
                                                         2 school events

October 12         Nashville, TN:     Parnassus Books 
                                                          school event

October 13         Nashville, TN:     Southern Festival 
                                                 of Books

December 9       Pittsburgh, PA:     Black, White 
                                                           and Read

Maine!

So:

it looks like we are

moving

to

Maine

!

xx

Judy Blume

A pause today

to salute

the one and only

Judy Blume

xx

Step Into My Garden . . .

Step into the garden

of the book

and see what lies within . . .

I really love looking at the beginnings of books (and this is not the first time on this blog), fascinated by the variety of styles and tones that greet you there. Some entice, some frighten, some bore, some beckon, some puzzle . . .

Here are a few beginnings pulled from books at hand, chosen randomly:

"I thought I'd been to Africa. Told all my class I had."

     --Small Island, Andrea Levy

"Our house is old, and noisy, and full."

     --Life Among the Savages, Shirley Jackson

"When the MS Irish Oak sailed from Cork in October 1949, we expected to be in New York City in a week."

     --'Tis, Frank McCourt

"On a time there lived a king and a queen in Erin, and they had an only son."

     --Myths and Folk Tales of Ireland, Jeremiah Curtin

"The candleflame and the image of the candleflame caught in the pierglass twisted and righted when he entered the hall and again when he shut the door."

    --All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy

"The old bus is a city reject. After shaking in it for twelve hours on the potholed highway since early morning, you arrive in this mountain county town in the South."

     --Soul Mountain, Gao Xingjian

Would any of these entice you in? Are you able to choose a favorite and a least-favorite among them?

xx

Other Writers Websites

On this Thursday late in August, I offer you the inspiration of two other writers.  (Clicking on their names takes you to their websites.) 

Lois Lowry:
Her newest book, Son, extends The Giver trilogy to a quartet.

Eoin Colfer:
Colfer's latest book is Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian. Although I have not yet read Colfer's books, I've been on two panels with him and am completely charmed by his wit.

Any author websites you particularly enjoy?

xx

Connections

I am fascinated by connections

by seeming coincidences

by intricate design

and serendipity

You pass a window and see

two silhouetted figures

You don't know that they grew up in

the house you now live in

You watch a young girl climb a tower

and admire her dexterity

You don't know that she is the daughter

of the woman who will be your boss

In a diner you see four men on stools

You don't know that

one was  your high school math teacher

who advised you to hang out with

a better crowd

You see boats bobbing in a harbor

You don't know that one of them

belongs to the boy (or girl)

you had a crush on in third grade

You stop and photograph a jewel box of a house

You don't know that the owner is

the grandson of a famous painter

and that one day

he will marry your granddaughter

As the narrator of The Great Unexpected asks:

"Did a delicate cobweb link us all, 

silky lines trailing through the air?"

xx

Real or Not Real?

Usually a book begs to be written when several ideas clump together. Yes, I wanted to write a story about how the unexpected could be great (see earlier post), but also I'd been thinking a lot about the importance of story and imagination and the beautiful wildness and freedom of children's imaginations.

I thought about two conversations I'd overheard between my grandchildren and their parents (these are also reprinted in the preface to The Great Unexpected):

Father:  Did you brush your teeth?

Son:  Yes.

Father:  Really?

Son:  Yes.

Father: Tell me the truth.

Son:  What is 'truth'?

-and -

Daughter:  I'm going to be a dolphin.

Mother:  Is that so?

Daughter:  Yes. I will live in the ocean.

Mother:  For real?

Daughter:  What is 'real'?

I loved those conversations. I loved being reminded that 'truth' and 'reality' are learned labels.  When we are young – or when we are writing a story – characters are as vivid as 'real' people. Reality and fantasy, past and present and future all dwell easily together. 

I wanted to explore those blurred regions.  Maybe I dance around the edges of these regions in many of my books (Fishing in the Air and  Replay come first to mind here), but in The Great Unexpected, I took these notions up (or down?) one more level.

(One young reader diving in . . .)

xx