Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in cynthialord's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, December 26th, 2009
5:48 am	Christmas Hope your holidays were filled with treats, Leftover lobster! people who love you,  my daughter made this to go on the wall of my writing house (everything she wrote or drew has to do with TOUCH BLUE). toys, Thank you to my parents, Holly, and Liz for my son's new friends! and peace. Ahhhhhhh. Current Mood: peaceful (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 25th, 2009
6:12 am	Merry Christmas! Wishing you all a wonderful day! Current Mood: happy (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
6:27 am	If It Fits, It Ships! You know those new Priority Shipping boxes at the post office?  The ones where you pay a flat rate, no matter what's in the box?  Well, I tested that out yesterday by filling the littlest size box with 3 lbs 4 oz of. . . .ROCKS!   Our art director at Scholastic is creating the cover for TOUCH BLUE, and there are some rocks in the foreground of the cover. The book is firmly set in Maine, but to be honest, the rocks didn't look convincing to me. They kindly agreed to rephotograph the rocks. And they took me up on my offer to send some actual beach stones from Maine.  I went through the basket of popplestones I have in my kitchen and found ones that were the right size (very small!). But I tend to bring home beautiful rocks, never the more ordinary ones that are around them.  So I wanted some plainer beach stones to balance the beautiful ones and to give the art director more options to create contrast, etc. The book comes out in September, though. They need those rocks now.     So in between cooking and getting ready for our family party, my daughter and I drove to the ocean yesterday. The tide was not in my favor, but what can you do?  Time and tide and post office hours wait for no man!       My daughter is such a good sport.  It was freezing outside and we had about 3 feet of beach--because that's all you get within an hour of high tide--looking for rocks that were the right size and in a range of colors.     I'm afraid the art director may find a little sand in the box, too.  Though we wiped the rocks, I couldn't bring myself to plunge my hand in that frigid ocean to wash them.  And we wrapped a few stands of dried seaweed in the bubble wrap that filled the top of the box to keep the rocks from rolling around inside.  She can just throw that away if she doesn't want it, but it was right there mixed in the rocks, so we sent it.   The "possible pile" The kids in Maine will like the story of me mailing rocks to New York City, so we took some photos for my Maine Island visits next fall.    Have a great time in NYC, guys! The postmaster didn't even raise an eyebrow when that package thumped POW! on his scale. :-) Current Mood: cheerful (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
8:45 pm	Oh no! I made the Boston Massacre Cream Pie! ! ! ! It looks positively tragic   but it smells good.  Current Mood: Oh noooo! (11 Comments |Comment on this)
7:52 am	The State of Desserts     It's seriously sugary at my house.  Yesterday, my daughter and I made sugar cookies. We have a funny tradition with those.  A few years ago, my daughter decorated them in a way that they looked like they were from the movie, "Flashdance."  So now we make "Flashdance Bears" every year in addition to the stars, angels, trees, etc.  "I'll make some bears, too," I told her yesterday. "Ones that we can. . . um." "Admit to?" she asked, grinning. "Yes, exactly!"  Tomorrow my sister, her family, and my parents are coming to my house for a Christmas Eve party. We always got together at my parents' house, but since they moved this year, we're shaking up our traditions. They're all coming to us in Maine. We're having many of the foods that we've always had, but every year my mom made a Boston Cream Pie. I've never made one of those. So I was going to make pies and cookies. But then yesterday, I was buying a present for my sister's pug, Pete (because Pete always buys Milo something! Pugs are thoughtful that way). . .and I saw this. It won't be Mom's. But today, I'm going to bake my first Our Family's Christmas Eve Boston Cream Pie. Wish me luck :-) And Stonewall Kitchen, don't you dare let me down! Did you know that Boston Cream Pie is the official dessert for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts? I don't think Maine has an official dessert (Do we?). If we did, it might be blueberry pie. But if I were in charge of the Maine State Dessert committee, I'd be lobbying for what my best friend from high school mailed us yesterday. ( Let's OPEN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! ) Current Mood: hopeful (12 Comments |Comment on this)
5:21 am	It's a Book Baby!  Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby! Name: Magic Under Glass Date of Birth: December 22, 2009 Weight: 240 pages Proud Parent: Jaclyn Dolamore (fabulousfrock) Godparents: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books Current Mood: good (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
4:53 am	Middle Grade Fiction     This young girl has a brother with autism and she came to NCTE with her mom a couple years ago, because she wanted to meet me. She told me she didn't think she'd get a chance to talk to me so she passed me the envelope that's on the table in front of us.  I asked her if she'd like a photo of us together, and she said yes. So I had her sit in my chair and I let my whole signing line wait.  This child is a middle grade reader to me: funny, thoughtful, willing to risk, aware and troubled by the unfairness of the world, but still hopeful--a believer. I still have her beautiful letter. Yesterday in between talking to my lovely editor, doing yet another run to the Post Office, and wrapping presents, I did an interview with Valerie at Something to Write About. On Valerie's book blog, she takes on a different genre every month and for December, she's featuring middle grade fiction. Here's a preview of what we talked about: Why Middle Grade Fiction? Me:  I remember being 8-12 years old. It's a hopeful time of big plans and imagination, but it's also when a child begins to look outward and see the world's flaws and challenges. As a writer, I love the humor of that age, the sensitivity, and the belief in a million possibilities. What is one thing people often misunderstand about middle grade fiction? Me: I think people lump it together with YA too quickly. Middle-grade has a very different sensibility than YA. If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring middle grade fiction writers, what would it be? Me:  I actually did a survey with middle-grade readers about books awhile ago. One of the cloze statements I asked children to answer was: I give up on a book when __________. It was very interesting to me that the vast majority of kids' answers fell into three categories: pacing ("The book is taking forever!"), action ("Not much is happening"), and clarity ("I didn't understand what was happening"). Those were the primary reasons kids told me they stopped reading a book. So as a middle-grade writer, I always seek to improve in my skills in conflict, pacing, and clarity. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ And for my own blog readers. . .I did that survey for a SCBWI workshop I gave called "Marvelous Middle Grade.," I don't plan to give that workshop again. So if you'd like a peek at my slides and a sample of the answers kids gave to my questions, here they are on SlideShare.  In the talk, I expounded on every one of these ideas, but the kids' quotes are definitely worth reading if you write middle grade or if you are choosing middle grade books for your students.       Current Mood: working (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 21st, 2009
5:46 am	Ho Ho Hamster!      Oh look what I bought at Target!!!  I've already mailed out my holiday cards, but I couldn't resist these. They make me want to be ten years old again and plaster them all over my notebook!  And here's some hamster holiday cheer! Current Mood: chipper (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
9:03 am	Everyone's Home     Milo and Julia, photo by Julia My daughter's home!  I haven't even seen her yet because she came in so late and she's not awake yet.  We had planned to drive down to get her today, but with the snowstorm coming, we had to change our minds.  My husband started off for Massachusetts yesterday late afternoon, and they didn't get home until early this morning.   They beat the snow, and she left me a note on my desk. The note ends:  "Milo went nuts. He could barely walk straight, his tail was wagging so hard."   No wonder he's so tired this morning! The middle of the night is not usually very exciting at my house. I am used to her being away at school now. But when she's home, I feel the difference in every room, around every corner. There's no feeling quite like a full house. Current Mood: happy (24 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 18th, 2009
7:24 am	My Critique Group Bailey Island, Maine. Photo by my husband, John I had a great meeting last night with my critique partners, Toni Buzzeo and Terry Farish.  We usually meet once a month, but we had our last meeting in September because of H1N1, travel schedules, and family things.  I've missed T & T, and it felt right to be back together.   I had submitted a picture book manuscript to the group back in October, and we finally had the chance to go over it.  T & T had very nice things to say about it. They are both former children's librarians and they immediately started talking about how they would've used the book.  It's another story that includes an interactive element for the reader. The market for picture books is not good, but even so, it was a good learning experience to have written it and gotten feedback from two veteran picture book authors.  And the picture book market won't be down forever, right? Toni said something that I've been thinking about. She said there are narrative picture book writers and conceptual picture book writers, and my mind works in the latter direction.  It was a relief to hear that. When I imagine a new picture book, the story is secondary to the concept. I've been thinking of that as a flaw. But maybe it's simply me.  Current Mood: conceptual (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
7:55 am	Drawn to Books   Portland, Maine. Photo by my husand, John Yesterday, I drove to Augusta to get my ticket for Maya Angelou's talk. The event isn't until April, but I wanted to make sure I got my ticket before they sold out. Author Deva Fagan, her husband, and I are going together--which will be so fun!!! Maine only has ONE Barnes and Noble in the entire state, and it's in Augusta, right across from where I had to buy my ticket. So I went over there to see if I could find a book my son wanted. I was glancing through the children's section, when. . . "Cynthia Lord!" It doesn't happen often that someone recognizes me--so it's always very surprising. It was really windy yesterday and I wasn't in "author mode," so I immediately started wishing that I'd put on lipstick and wondering if my hair was a mess. But, thankfully, people don't seem to expect middle-grade writers to be "cool." Carol from the children's dept. and I chatted awhile, and she asked me what I had coming. "I have two new books next year," I told her. "A picture book in February and a novel in September." She asked the titles and the publisher, and since she seemed genuinely interested and didn't look stressfully busy, I said, "I actually have the picture book in my car. Would you like to see it?" So I went out and got HOT ROD HAMSTER. Carol laid it flat on the Holiday Books display to read it--right there in the middle of the children's dept. What was really wonderful, though, was that as she turned the pages, I saw a little boy, probably four years old come up behind her. He looked at HOT ROD HAMSTER around her arm. He had that wonderful expression, that open-mouth, wide-eyed look of a child watching a story unfold. I was careful not to let him see that I knew, but I don't think he even noticed me. It was all about the race and the hamster and the words Carol was reading. While I was there, I was delighted to see some friends' books. I had my camera in my purse, so Deva Fagan, look at the stack they have of FORTUNE'S FOLLY!!!! And I see Carrie Jones' NEED in that photo, too. Jo Knowles, I'll have you know that JUMPING OFF SWINGS was already face-out. I didn't even have to do it! Carol asked me if I'd come back and do a signing for HRH and later for TOUCH BLUE, and I said yes. So the lesson here is to keep a copy of your new book in your car, I guess. And don't worry too much about your wind-mussed hair. Current Mood: cheerful (23 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
6:01 am	First Drafts Fryeburg, Maine. Photo by my husband, John At school visits, I tell kids these are my rules for a first draft: Dare to be bad. Just get it done. I'm following both. Current Mood: trying (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
8:31 am	Website Searches Every now and then I like to see what phrases and questions people typed into a search engine to end up on my website. In addition to the ones you'd expect, there are always a few that surprise me or make me smile: cynthia lord's dog . . .has lots more fans than me! where did cynthia lord go to collage? Wouldn't that be fun? I would LOVE to go to collage--it's one art form I might be able to do! what year did rules by cynthia lord take place in? My first draft was written in 2000, so it's set right around then. Back in the old days of cassette tapes and VCRs. small object related to rules by cynthia lord In addition to 200+ duckies and a few fish, I have this beautiful pin that was made for me by a little girl in Maine who has a brother with autism. hamster colouring pictures Hey, Derek Anderson. . . ? how many books did cynthia lord wrote? As of today (yay!), I've officially started my fifth. Two picture books, two novels "wrote," and one more to go. stuck at my desk I hear ya. Though I do have a lovely desk to be stuck at. teaching tic tac toe and autism It's amazing how difficult games are to teach sometimes. I've finally simply removed the "skip" and "reverse" from UNO with my son. cynthia lord in new jersey I was just there and I'm going back in April! Can't wait! time-tested secrets for capturing heart of mr.right Pay attention to the small stuff. And a good pizza recipe helps. hot rod hamster . . . is coming! Sierra chose the "shiny painted blue car" for Hamster. why does cynthia lord only have one book? She's a sloooow writer. good book covers like captain underpants Dav Pilkey rocks! touch blue what is it about? In the 1960s a small island in Maine was down to only a few children in their island school. The State threatened to close it. The islanders knew if they lost their school, they would lose their whole year-round community within a few generations--because for a remote island, losing a school is the first step to losing it all. So they made a bold choice. Various island families adopted foster children--both to give those children a good home and to provide the island with enough kids to keep their school open. That story fascinates me--the ethics of the decision, the practical aspects, the emotion of it all--what it was like for the kids who came and the kids who were already there. So that is what inspired TOUCH BLUE. The main character is an island girl, the daughter of the school teacher and a lobsterman. As the story opens, a boy is on the ferry coming to live with them for all those reasons. The title comes from a superstition: Touch blue and your wish will come true. I am doing a book tour this fall with Island Readers and Writers, and one of the participating Maine islands is the real island that made that choice all those years ago. It'll be emotional for me to walk into that school--a school that is still open because they once made that complicated decision. Current Mood: busy (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 14th, 2009
5:16 am	Let's Go to Work! My assistant is always happy to join me. Milo doesn't have very good handwriting or filing skills, but his enthusiasm makes it fun to go to work. After our last snowstorm, my husband shoveled our roof and built me this snowman with the extra snow. It makes me smile to see him out the window, though the warmer days and rain have put him on a diet. Inside my little writing house, I am running out of duckie room! I have about 30 more that need a new shelf. Here's what I did yesterday afternoon: I'm all caught up on my author mail now and am taking a few weeks off from answering it. I had some beautifully thoughtful and funny letters in this group, though. If I was drawing someone and I was caught, I would have ran to the bathroom and hid there for hours. --Saylor We went to Maine over the summer and explored Acadia, the Cranberry Isles, and we went on a whale watch--which my father and I LOVED. Unfortunately, my mother threw up 5 times. --Frances Would you go back to being a teacher or will you still be a writer? --Grace Can you put me in your next book? --Sammie In addition to my guinea pigs, Lucky and S'more, I also have two dogs, Flutterby and Mattey, and a cat, Buckley. They are like my best friends. --Sydney How come David likes rules, but then doesn't follow them? --Megan The next book we are going to read in book club is IDA B. Have you heard of it? If you have, is it good? --Pell My brother has neurological disabilities just like David in RULES and it showed me there are people that struggle with the same feelings that I do. --Adam I am sure that if my brother had autism, he would be even more annoying and frustrating than before, but I would still love him. --Dylan Current Mood: good (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
8:59 am	What's in a Name? White Mountains, New Hampshire I've been choosing the name of my next main character this morning. Sometimes character names just pop into my head, but most times, I take a lot of care in choosing them. I look at what the word means, how popular the name was at the time I imagine this character being born. And for a character who is going to show up in the book a lot. . . a short name! I learned my lesson with "Catherine" in RULES. Do you know how long it takes to type C-a-t-h-e-r-i-n-e on all those pages? A long time. Evocative, meaningful, and five letters or less--that's my current name criteria for a major character! In TOUCH BLUE, the main character is Tess. Four letters, and it means "harvester," which is perfect for a girl who lives to be on her dad's lobsterboat. I enjoyed playing around on The Baby Name Wizard this morning. This website shows you all the usual baby name information, but it also gives sibling names that have accompanied a given name (which shows a range of taste parents have who might choose a given name) and it has a series of maps where that name is popular. Here's the current map for the front-running main character name I'm considering: Good thing this book is set in New Hampshire! Last names are even more deliberate for me. They come right from the region where I've set the book--phonebooks, road signs, community cookbooks, gravestones, mailboxes, business names, etc. This photo comes from a slide of where the names came from in TOUCH BLUE to use in my school visits someday. Current Mood: deciding (3 Comments |Comment on this)
7:30 am	Cybils Sunday art by Elizabeth Dulemba Today I'm featuring another creative and hardworking panel judge in the Easy Reader and Early Chapter Book category of the Cybils Awards. Terry Doherty is a driving force behind two dynamic literacy websites. The Reading Tub is a great book review site, "a volunteer-driven, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting reading and literacy." She also is part of Share A Story--Shape a Future, which hosts a one-week literary blog tour every March. Here's the description of how the tour works from the website: "There are five literacy and/or reading themes for the week. Each day one blogger hosts the theme. Moms, dads, librarians, teachers, reading specialists, literacy advocates, anyone with a (noncommercial) interest in reading and kids share their ideas about that topic." This year's tour on Share a Story--Shape a Future is March 8-14, and the theme is: It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader. I'm sure the panel judges in all the Cybils categories are working hard right now to create their shortlists. And I have no doubt all the final judges are waiting anxiously to see what books come forward. I know I am! Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
7:44 pm	Happy Hanukkah! Happy Hanukkah to everyone! Have you seen those "Elf on the Shelf" book and toy sets? The elf is a spy for Santa and tells him if the children in your family have been naughty or nice. Kenny of DDG Booksellers (with whom I am doing a HOT ROD HAMSTER event next February! Go, Kenny!) has a funny take on that today on PW for Hanukkah: The Fedora on the Menorah. Current Mood: cheerful (1 Comment |Comment on this)
5:44 am	Agent Appreciation Day +1 me, Tracey and Josh Adams of Adams Literary Apparently, yesterday was Agent Appreciation Day. I didn't get the memo! So here I am--a day late, but not an ounce less appeciative. Having had Tracey Adams as my agent for about 8 years now, we've been through it all--everything from a Newbery banquet to a long-ago dark day when she offered to pull a book for me. I've never forgotten how she put me first that awful day, and she didn't hesitate. Here are my favorite things Tracey says: I LOVE THIS! Oh, don't worry about that. They always say that. I can't wait to read it! But what do you want to do? Well, it won't hurt to ask, right? I'm here, anytime. You just write. I'll handle it. I think it says everything about how I feel about Tracey that my second opportunity to dedicate a book (HOT ROD HAMSTER) is dedicated to three little girls, two of whom are Tracey's daughters. (The third little girl is my editor's daughter. I love and admire her mom, too!) Current Mood: grateful
Friday, December 11th, 2009
7:37 am	Five Things on a Friday Lobster Traps, Maine. Photo by my husband, John 1. I'm sorry to see Kirkus Reviews closing. They did review a lot of debut books. It's becoming increasingly difficult to get industry reviews, and I'm sorry to have one more option gone. 2. I signed books yesterday at the University of Southern Maine bookstore. I brought HOT ROD HAMSTER with me and asked Barbara, the tradebook manager, if I could show it to her. She loved it and then said, "We should do an event together next spring for it." When booksellers say that, do you think they really mean it? Or is it simply the polite thing you would say to an author standing in front of you with a new book? 3. I love getting Christmas cards! 4. My husband went to an event last night featuring a man who holds the job of one of the characters in my next novel. I asked John if he'd take some notes for me. He asked what would be helpful, so I said, "Anything about his motives. Why this job is worth it to him. Anything about his family would interest me, too. Oh, and what he's wearing." "What he's wearing?!" I think every choice a person makes tells things about that person. And I think it tells a lot about my husband that I found two pages of notes on my desk this morning, including: "old/scuffed brown shoes, jeans, dark green shirt, not tucked in. . . . " 5. My agent and I have a phone call scheduled this afternoon. It'll be nice to talk to her. Current Mood: busy (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
5:44 pm	From my mail Your book is hilarious, but I'm only on Chapter 2. --Aidan You might know my mom, probably not by name, but she was the one who cried when you visited Scholastic. --Claire I wrote to you because your book means a lot to me. --Bridget I technically like everything--except mushrooms and my sister. --Mercedes I'm actually doing a diorama on your book! --Michael Ms. Lord, this must have been a hard story to write. People can be so mean to other people and writing about it would make you sad.--Hanna Current Mood: touched (7 Comments |Comment on this)