Six Things for a Signing

Six things from my book signing at Hooray for Books!, a wonderful independent children's book store in Alexandria, Virginia:

1) People showed up!  You may laugh at my anxiety, but authors fear the unattended book signing like they used to fear searching for a friendly lunch table on the first day of a new middle school. I was grateful to see tons of familiar faces, friends who waved and hugged and bought books and laughed at the right places during the reading. Thank you, thank you.

2) The people who couldn't show up still ordered books!  Yup. I had a large basket of pre-ordered copies to sign, and as I went through them, I kept breaking into a big, goofy smile at the sight of each name. What fun that faraway friends went the extra mile to support the signing. Big hugs to each of you.

3) I did a craft project for the signing! (Those of you who know me are fainting.) It could hardly be featured on Etsy, but I made a collage of pictures of military families.

You can see it beside me in this picture. Having who I wrote the book for next to me helped me focus. How could I be nervous when military kids are kind and brave each day?

4) I brought props! Here's a close up of my table:

---little green army men, of course, guarding the book of LGM photos that my agent, Tina Wexler, gave me as a publication gift

---a REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT tag

---a container of folded paper stars like the ones Gari makes in the book (My daughter made these particular ones. They were passed from hand to hand and oohed and ahhhed over.)

---the fabulous teacher's guide written for me by Natalie Lorenzi, who was in attendance. (Yay, Natalie!)

---other books about military families, including Rosanne Parry's Heart of a Shepherd and Jimmy Gownley's fourth volume of Amelia Rules! graphic novel series.  I also held up Jon Scieszka's Knucklehead because the book is hilarious and features little green army men!

---my YES wristband given to me by my husband, which I'm wearing, as well as the As You Like It necklace that was a tribute to my theater background in high school.

---the yellow roses are courtesy of dedicated OPERATION YES supporter and fabulous friend, Jama Rattigan of Alphabet Soup.

5)  For the reading itself, I chose the scene where Miss Loupe pretends to be rowing a boat and leads her class in a jody call from atop the Ugly, Ugly Couch.  I recruited young actors from the audience to shout out the responses to the jody call as the students in Room 208 do, and when it came time for Miss Loupe to obey St. Peter's command to "drop down, granny, and give me ten!"  I complied with pushups as my lovely friends counted. (You can see a picture of my pushups here at Jama's blog, along with other pictures from the signing, including one of my husband with Cornelius Bear!)

6)  Hooray for Books! owners Trish and Ellen, plus helper Kristy, were unfailingly gracious, helping me set up and providing brownies for everyone. At the end of the signing, they extended an author discount to me on the copy of Robin Brande's FAT CAT that I had called ahead to reserve. And they also gave me a check with a matching donation to Musicorps!  Thank you so, so much.

P.S. If you still want a signed copy of OPERATION YES, Hooray for Books is standing by.  Call them at  (703) 548-4092. I live close to the store, so I can personalize your request.

Poetry Friday: Rick Barot

This one has been in my files since it was first posted at How a Poem Happens. I'm choosing it today because whatever else the poem may evoke---love or stories---it describes the writing process, too: from the initial moment you are roused by details like "hearts penknifed" on windows through the long creative metamorphosis of drafts that are "questions on the floor" until the day "you begin to sense a use for them."  As writers, this is what salvation looks like.

READING PLATO
by Rick Barot

I think about the mornings it saved me
to look at the hearts penknifed on the windows
of the bus, or at the initials scratched

into the plastic partition, in front of which
a cabbie went on about bread his father
would make, so hard you broke teeth on it,

or told one more story about the plumbing
in New Delhi buildings, villages to each floor,
his whole childhood in a building, nothing to

love but how much now he missed it, even
Read the rest here

I also like the interview accompanying the poem, in which Barot gives this answer to a question about inspiration:

I do believe in “inspiration,” but not in the struck-by-lightning, perhaps facile connotation that surrounds the word these days. I realize that the etymology of the word comes from a spiritual register: that one is breathed on by a sort of influence, and one is then moved. But I want to imagine that one isn’t given the gift of that breath without having prepared for it, even if inadvertently.

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Elaine at Wild Rose Reader. Thanks for stepping up, Elaine!

NaNoWriMo Fuel: Throw Your Body at the Mark

Hey NaNoWriMo-ers! (And Lindsay, who's doing NaPlayWriMo!) Here's another quote for you: 

"The way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent." - Ralph Waldo Emerson


That quote is courtesy of my friend, Amber Lough, who is NaNoing at the airport as I type this. Go, Amber!

Also, if you need a juicy article on the craft of writing to inspire you, I heartily recommend Mary Pearson's recent post, The Sexy Unsung Hero. Guaranteed to get your writing heart revved up and ready to rock your writing goal for the day.

P.S. Teachers: if you ever think for one minute that what you do is not worth it, go read the comments on this post at Alphabet Soup, where Jama asked people to name their favorite teacher and why. (You can win a copy of OPERATION YES by commenting, but I would love the post anyway, for all the sincere tributes. I keep going back to see who has left a new dang-what-a-kicking teacher! story.)

NaNoWriMo Fuel: The Battle of Resistance

For all my friends who've taken on the challenge of National Novel Writing Month, I salute you!  More than that, I'd like to scream for you until I'm hoarse, hand you Gatorade, and wave a huge banner with your name on it.

But we know the Internet has not progressed as far as that. The cupcakes laced with inspiration that I keep trying to send you through the broadband connection keep getting stuck in the transfigulator. And the assassin I dispatched to quiet your internal critic keeps missing his target and dropping his cone of silence over those random popup ads that blast techno dance music. 

So, to cheer you on in your word battle, I can only offer more words. How about a quote for you, as often as I'm able? Today's is from Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art. I found it via this inspiring post, The Battle of Resistance, at the blog, There Are No Rules.

Maybe it's too early in the month to talk of resistance. You're probably flying along, feeling the rush of words. But one day, this month, you're going to face a wall. All the more reason to stockpile now the encouragement you'll need to get through it.  And think about it: isn't this act of overcoming just what you're asking your characters to do?

Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance, the good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.

The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you—and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.

Go, NaNoWriMo-ers! Go!

Poetry Friday: Houdini

Happy early Halloween!  I wanted something other than pumpkins or vampires to feature today, and was lucky enough to have my book club friend, children's author Jacqueline Jules, offer me the chance to feature her poem about Harry Houdini.

Houdini, if you don't know, DIED on Halloween. (Cue the spooky music.) More than that, in this poem, Jackie manages to illuminate a little-known side of the great escape artist:  he loved books. Yup. Carted hundreds of them around with him everywhere, in a special traveling bookcase.

You can visit Jackie's web site to find out more about Houdini and her process in writing this poem, including pictures and links to original Houdini letters at the Library of Congress.

And, now, the main event!


ENCHANTED BY BOOKS
by Jacqueline Jules

A teenager nicknamed “Ehrie,”
raised by a scholar skilled at Torah,
but not English or earning a living,
and a mother, who more often
than not, had only love
to serve her son at the table,
opened a book one day
and pulled a new persona
from its pages.

He became “Harry Houdini,”
borrowing his idol’s name
the way a ravenous child
swipes an apple,
and taught himself to
escape handcuffs, hunger,
and homelessness,
with books collected by the hundreds
and kept as close as the buttons on his shirt
through years of traveling from stage to stage.

The Great Houdini,
who freed himself from locked trunks,
milk cans, straitjackets, and jails,
never tried to escape
the charm of a book.

(© Jacqueline Jules, 2009, all rights reserved

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jennie at BiblioFile