Child #3's Book Talk

Notice the stylish laces.


So, Child #3 did a book talk at school. For his 7th grade language arts class.

But it wasn't just any old book talk; it was on I So Don't Do Mysteries!!!

He would not let me help him with his speech. Despite the fact that I happen to know ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING about that book.

Anyway, he trundled off to school with his speech on little recipe cards. In his backpack, he has bookmarks and miniature Hershey chocolates with my cover on them. He's happy to hand these goodies out to the class.

I'm on pins and needles all day. As you can well imagine.

Then, finally, it's just the two of us, driving to the allergist for his venom shots. Natch, I play it ultra cool and ask him a couple of intro questions like "How was your day?" and "How'd the math test go?" before I began MILDLY interrogating him. Here's the convo:

Me: So, about the book talk?

Child #3: (stuffing a chocolate chip cookie into his mouth.) It went fine.

Me: Well, did the class ask any questions? Or the teacher?

Child #3: (opening water bottle) Yeah.

Me: Like what?

Child #3: (swigs water) Just questions. I don't remember.

Me: What do you mean you don't remember? It just happened today.

Child #3: Well, everyone asked questions. About 300 each.

Me: Wow. Can you tell me five of them?

Child #3: Not really. I don't remember any of them.

Me: Whaaat? Out of 9,600 questions about MY book, you can't even remember five? How about one? Can you remember one?

Child #3: (shrugs shoulders) Sorry.

Me: (hands tightly gripping the steering wheel) Honey, give me something. Anything.

Child #3: (takes another longer drink) Well, I forgot to say the author's name.

Me: (practically swerving off the road into the weeds) WHAAAAT? YOU FORGOT WHAT? THE AUTHOR'S NAME? YOU FORGOT YOUR OWN MOTHER'S NAME? WHAT KIND OF A BOOK TALK IS THAT WHERE YOU DON'T GIVE THE AUTHOR'S NAME?

Child #3: Kidding.

Kids. Yeesh.

I'll obviously have to resort to the tactics of all self-respecting author-mothers ... and email the teacher for the scoop.

Here's Child #4. She couldn't bear to see her brother have his picture taken for the blog without grabbing a piece of the action for herself.

My Town Monday: Sand Castle Competition

For a weekend each July, hundreds of people flock to Imperial Beach in San Diego County for the U.S. Open Sand Castle Competition. This is a huge affair, and contestants come from all over the country. And, just so you're up on local lingo, we call Imperial Beach I.B. for short. (Useless trivia: Actor Matthew Modine went to high school in IB.)

Okay, back to the sand castles. It's a whole weekend festival with a parade and street music and a couple of sound stages and vendors and a pancake breakfast on the beach and fireworks. Seacoast Drive is closed to traffic. There's an Annual Kids 'N Kastles competition for youngsters 12 and under.

This past summer (July 14-18), the competition behind the competition was the big battle between a local team (Team I.B. Posse) and an Orange County team (Team Archisand). Ooooh. Team Archisand had taken first place six out of the last eight years.

BUT NOT IN 2008, when our local team wowed judged with their sand sculpture of "a gas tank that's actually attacking patrons, and we got an electric car that's coming to the rescue." (This description is from Leonard Gonzales, enthusiastic I.B. Posse team member.)

Teams at the Masters Level take take sand sculpting seriously. Not that they aren't having fun as well. But, for example, they choose a design weeks in advance, then divide the design into sections and assign different team members to sections. Next, they hold practice sessions. When it comes to the big day, teams have from 8:30 am when the air horn blasts to 1:30 pm to build their masterpiece. They're racing against time and the sun and the tide. (Odd trivia: Something I never thought of, but builders are working so fast and furiously that there have been shovel injury incidents where people have actually had to drop out of the competition.)

The building takes place on Imperial Beach near Seacoast Drive and the pier. Spectator tickets are free. Parking is tough. But for a donation to the football team, you can park at Mar Vista High School on Coronado Avenue near Fifth Street.

For more info: 619-424-6663 and here's the website (which is currently under construction):
US Open Sandcastles


Oh, I forgot to mention that there are cash prizes. So, you could go play with a trowel and plastic straws and makeup brushes in your kid's sandbox. A win could pay for your trip out here.

Now, you should all trot off to Travis Erwin, the guy who spearheads My Town Mondays. He'll have a list of links to other Mondayers.

I'm leaving you with a shot of an amazing sand sculpture.

Sources:
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/16878188/detail.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080710/news_1w10castles.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Beach,_California
http://www.aroundandaboutsandiego.com/imperialbeach.html

Friday's Forgotten Books

It is with great delight that I join Pattinase's blog roundup this week for Friday's Forgotten Books.

Moving right along:

The Last of the Crazy People by Timothy Findley
1967

This was Timothy Findley's (1930-2002) first book. He is one of my very favorite Canadian writers. The Last of the Crazy People was not even published in Canada, only in Britain and the U.S. His second novel, The Butterfly Plague, (1969), was also rejected by Canadian publishers. His third novel, however, The Wars, (1977), won a Governor General's Award. Findley won several writing awards from both Canada and France.

Findley grew up in a wealthy section of Toronto (Rosedale) and attended private school, then Jarvis Collegiate, although he did not finish grade ten. I actually have a nephew who goes to that same high school!

Findley was briefly married. The marriage was annulled and Findley spent the rest of his life with his partner, screenwriter William Whitehead. Findley turned to dancing and acting. He was one of the originals at the Stratford Festival which opened in Southern Ontario in 1953 and where he worked with Alec Guinness. He wrote for television and radio and adapted Mazo de la Roche's The Whiteoaks of Jalna for CBC television. My entire family watched this show and I HAD NO IDEA, until I did a bit of research for this post, that Timothy Findley (Tiff for short) was one of the writers!

About The Last of the Crazy People: It's 1964 and the protagonist, Hooker Winslow, 11 years old, lives with his dysfunctional family. The family includes his crazy mother (who recently gave birth to a stillborn), his Aunt Rosetta (who caters totally to her brother/Hooker's dad), Nicholas (Hooker's dad and a man who can't connect with anyone and who talks whether he has a listener or not), his drunken brother, Gilbert.

From the back of the book: One brilliant, summer morning, an eleven year old boy commits a shocking and unpredictable crime. What drove Hooker Winslow to his act of insanity?

From an article written by Laura Moss: Although the stories differ dramatically in plot and form, the symbolic content of Findley's work is often predictable. His writing proliferates with scenes of violence, loneliness, animal rights, abuses of power, madness, and apocalyptic visions. Indeed, Findley himself jokingly points to his own recurring images and themes: "It came as something of a shock…to discover that for over thirty years of writing my attention has turned again and again to the same unvarying gamut of sounds and images…. I wish I hadn't noticed this. In fact, it became an embarrassment and I began to wonder if I should file A CATALOGUE OF PERSONAL OBSESSIONS.

Go see pattinase's blog for links to other posts for Friday's Forgotten Books.

P.S. Timothy Findley is the guy who wrote The Piano Man's Daughter. He hated the film.

P.P.S. Sorry. Got way too wordy on this post. But I do love this writer.

(Sources: Wikipedia, http://www.athabascau.ca/writers/findley.html, http://www.cbc.ca/news/obit/findley/)

mini-interview on the Class of 2k8's blog

If you've got a sec, come see me over at the Class of 2k8's blog.

There's a mini-mini-mini-interview about I So Don't Do Spooky (Book #2)! I swear, it's short. But cute.

Click here.

What I Was by Meg Rosoff

What I Was by Meg Rosoff
The author has written Young Adult, but this book, I believe, is marketed as adult. 209 pages
2007, Doubleday Canada

The Way I Was is one of the best books I read this summer. It takes place in 1962 when a 16 year old boy (whose name you only discover near the end of the story) is dropped off at a third-rate boarding school in East Anglia, England. He meets another adolescent, Finn, who lives completely alone in a hut by the sea. Our hero winds up leading a double life where he's sneaking off to meet up with Finn and awkardly learning about himself and life (not sexual).

From the flap: The two become friends, the boy risking scandalous rumour and expulsion from school. But they can't hide forever. Disaster invades from all sides, and the boy discovers that nothing has been what he believed.

There's a wonderful and huge plot twist about 3/4 of the way in. A twist which totally knocked me for a loop. One review I read called the twist predictable. But, uh, not for me.

This is a link to that review, but be careful as there are lots of spoilers.

In her own life, Meg has known difficult and vulnerable times. She's one of four sisters. Three of them have had cancer. At only 39, her youngest sister died from it. Meg was in hospital with the disease when her first book, How I Live Now, was released (2004).

Here's how Meg described her mindset: Every day a piano doesn't fall on my head is good luck. So I am terribly worried now because things seem to be going awfully well. I spend a lot of time planning my funeral.
That's from this interview

Here's the link to Meg's website.

I have already ordered How I Live Now and Just In Case. I do love that feeling. When I know I have a couple of really good books waiting in the future for me.

My Town Monday: Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library, Oklahoma City

The Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library in Oklahoma City is one of the coolest library you'll ever step foot in. In general, I'm partial to old libraries with heavy oak bannisters and high ceilings and mysterious lighting. This library is an exception.

It's a four-story, 112,000-square-foot white, gleaming library and learning center named for former Mayor Ronald J. Norick.

Odd facts:

As part of the opening ceremonies, staff and supporters passed books BY HAND from the old to the new library.

Mayor Ron's dad (James Norick) was also mayor of OKC, once upon a time.

The stacks and other library services are located on the first two floors. There's a business information center and small meeting rooms on the third floor. On the fourth floor, there's a conference center and auditorium.

Child #4 and I walked into the library to the sound of live music and the aroma of decent java. We took the elevator up to the fourth floor where (in alpha order by last name) PJ Hoover, author of The Emerald Tablet; Jenny Meyerhoff, author of Third Grade Baby; Stacy Nyikos, author of Dragon Wishes and I

WERE EACH INTERVIEWED FOR TV!!!

Sorry, I had to shout this out.

BJ Williams is the producer of Read About It. She and Doug Benton do the interviews. They interview 48 authors each year.

Doug Benton and me just before the start of the interview. He'd read the Advance Reader Copy of I So Don't Do Mysteries and prepared enough questions to fill up our 8 minutes.

Gulp. Deep breath. Sorry to report that I don't think I gave that great an interview. Sad but true. It's like I just couldn't relax or something. It all felt too weird. It wasn't the people; they were super nice. There was BJ Williams and Doug Benton, the inteviewers I already mentioned; Jon and John, the camera guys; and Lesli the makeup person. I don't really know what my problem was. I mean, I'm generally a pretty chatty Cathy. The cameras, the having to look in a certain direction, the little coffee table that didn't actually live anywhere? I don't know.

And guess what was in the back of mind for the entire 8 minutes (which is actually an eternity when you're ill at ease)? I hope I don't cough. Because a cough would've been so loud with the mic attached near the collar of my sweater. Well, the second I thought about not coughing, I got a tickle in my throat.

Anyway, it's a done deal. I guess I'll know more after I see the DVD. The show only airs in the metro Oklahoma City area. On the upside, if I ever do something like this again, I think I'll be better at at.


On the upperside, I did learn about a couple of great makeup products from Lesli. Which I'll gladly share: Eye Bright by Benefit is whitish eyestick which, when applied to the inside corner of your eye, totally opens the sucker up. You immediately look bright-eyed and alert. Then there's Sally Hansen's Skin Firming Line Minimizing Liquid Powder makeup. Leslie used "beach" on me. This product obliterates the circles under your eyes. Obliterates. With these two products, you could pull an all-nighter and look none the worse for the wear and tear.

Please visit Travis Erwin, the guy who spearheads My Town Mondays. He'll have a list of links to other Mondayers. I bet everyone, unlike me, got their posts up in a timely fashion.

(Oh yeah, and sources and where you can get more info too:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_/ai_n28000114
http://www.eventective.com/USA/Oklahoma/Oklahoma+City/)

Encyclo-Media or Adrenalin Rush in Oklahoma City

In the last two days, I've met FIVE of my classmates from the Class of 2k8! Life is very excellent.

WEDNESDAY: Oklahoma roadtrip with PJ Hoover, debut middle grade author of The Emerald Tablet. Also along for the ride is Child #4 (who's escaping from a house with a throwing-up cousin to hang out with authors and an author's kids). What can I tell you about PJ? High energy. Helpful. Entertaining. The type of girlfriend you def invite to your slumber party because she'll keep it all lively.

We stay with Stacy Nyikos, hostess extraordinaire and debut middle grade author of Dragon Wishes. She is ultra generous. With her exquisite guac. And her strawberry margaritas that defy description. And her oodles of info on school visits and public speaking. And her incredible organizational skills. Thank you, Stacy.

Jenny Meyerhoff, debut middle grade author of Third Grade Baby, flies in to chill with us. Jenny is sincere and thoughtful. She makes you think. I'm guessing if you have Jenny as a friend, you have a friend for life. Plus, she has stupendous black leather boots.

Jenny, PJ, Stacy with strawberry margaritas

THURSDAY: Jenny, PJ, Stacy and yours truly do a panel at Encyclo-Media, the annual librarian-educator event in Oklahoma City.

Are you sitting down? Take a look at the next photo.


THERE WERE ONE HUNDRED FIFTY (150!!!) PEOPLE AT OUR PANEL! That is THREE HUNDRED eyeballs.

Luckily, this was an extremely nice and welcoming mob who loved all four of us. I bet they ask us back next year.

I couldn't help but notice this crowd had a sophisticated sense of humor. They laughed at all my jokes.

AND seemed genuinely interested in meeting Sherry come December 9th.

Does my heart look like it's hammering a million beats a minute like I'm on the elliptical at the gym?


Then....that evening...

I met up with the amazingly creative Brooke Taylor, author of Undone, and another member from the Class of 2k8.

There are many many things I liked about Brooke. She's witty, fun, smart, loves to talk books, drinks diet coke AND she's way shorter than me. It's not often I tower over someone, and I enjoyed the experience. Yes, yes, I insisted we stand up for the picture. Just messing with you, Brooke. I LOVED having dinner together.

EVEN THOUGH you requested an interview with KELLY Couric (Katie's trashy twin) and NOT me. So, that's down the pike, folks. An interview with Brooke by Kelly and a giveaway of Undone. It'll be after Kelly reads the book so she can ask pertinent questions. (snort)

Quite the day! (well-deserved yawn)