Day 2 - London

Took a bus tour and a river cruise and spent most of the day at the Tower of London.
The clip below shows a demonstration of a trebuchet firing a cabbage in the moat of the Tower--this was the best thing we saw all day!! It was built by a history teacher and his class. The teacher, a thoughtful, soft-spoken man, was also kind enough to explain the design and let us watch the firing up close in the moat. Ravi just built two catapults for a class project before we left and this will definitely be a highlight of the trip for him.

So many books have been set in this city ... but funny which of them came to mind for each of us. Ravi saw St. Paul's Cathedral and thought of Leviathan by Scott Westerfield, Kiki saw Cleopatra's Needle and thought of The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, and I saw the Norman toilet, the suits of armor, and the once stinky moat at the Tower of London and thought of Poop Happened - A history of the world from the bottom up by Sarah Albee!

Don't know it? Here's a book trailer for the book, a hilarious, irreverent, and truly fascinating look at history from the the lowest common denominator of the human race. It's absolutely brilliant. And to think I heard more than one exasperated parent telling their child today that they didn't know their history because their heads were full of "American tripe"!

Day 1 - London

Toast and tea at the Museum of Natural History

Main Lobby

Darwin's journal

You can flip the pages ...
The British Museum

The Rosetta Stone @ British Museum

The Parthenon marbles

South Asian Gallery ...

The Near East Gallery

The Embankment

The London Eye

In the London Eye

Off to India! Balle, balle!

British Airways came through at last. I was really, really, worried for a bit. But we have to leave a day early, which means my revision must be done, printed, and mailed off to my agent by tomorrow. YIKES!! Then we have to pack, clean, transport the dog to my inlaws, have the cat sitter go through her check list, and a zillion other things.

Can I get through all this? Heck, yes. I've got my kala chashmas on for Delhi sunshine!

Check out the Pizza Hut staff in Agra jamming to Kala Chashma (black sunglasses, folks ... it's a song by Amar Arshi). And here I thought the moose in Bugaboo Creek rocked!

NE SCBWI 2010

This weekend I was at the New England SCBWI Conference in Fitchburg Mass. I remember being horribly shy and nervous at my first NESCBWI conference, when I didn’t know single soul, but now it feels like a reunion with old friends. It’s so great to hang out with people who get this whole writing thing. I feel lucky to be part of this community :-).

Some of the finest things about the conference this year …

Cynthia Leitich Smith : This year's keynote speaker was the fabulous Cynthia Leitich Smith. Who among us hasn't learned something from her blog?! I missed the start of her talk (couldn't even find standing room, after getting there late) but the part I did hear about her journey, her dedication to learning her craft, and her reinvention of her writing career was just amazing. Jingle Dancer, her first book, was acquired by one publisher, reacquired and edited by a second publisher, and launched by a third one--talk about a rocky start. I was lucky enough to have a chat with her in the lunch line and was even more impressed by her knowledge, warmth, and generous spirit.

Workshops: John Bell’s workshop on genres was genuinely illuminating (I’ve a post it note with “Stretch, cliché, or classic?” stuck to my laptop as I revise, thanks to John) Lisa Papademetriou ran a spectacularly energizing workshop on Getting Unstuck (Plot people and character people alike, write this down -- Write to your strengths, Revise to your weaknesses) and I also learned how to Skype, thanks to Kate Messner’s Skype author visits workshop. I may not have a book out, but we’ve promised to Skype my son’s 5th grade class from India, and I had better not mess it up when the time comes!

Hanging out: The best part! I didn’t take many pictures, because the lighting didn’t work for my camera, and I was too busy chatting with people to do much clicking, but here are a few I (or someone else) did manage to take. Some awesome people I met but didn’t take pictures with— Anna Staniszewski, Heather Kelly, Paula Kay Mac, Lynda Hunt and lots of friends from Whispering Pines, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Sarah Davis, Natalie Reid … OK there is actually no end to this list so I will stop now.

Sarah Albee and Kate Narita

with Martha Calderaro and Francine Puckly

with Padma Venkatraman

Revision: Weird as it may seem, I managed to do quite a bit of revising around the conference. Maybe it was all that creative energy in one place.Maybe it was because the agent I was driving had a delayed flight and I was stuck in Logan Airport for two hours with nothing but my laptop. Whatever it was, I’m grateful for it.

One thing that wasn’t so fun? All that driving!

I spent five hours on the road between Logan Airport, the SCBWI conference in Fitch-wayoutwest-burg, and home, because I volunteered to transport faculty. Ugh! Five hours may not sound like a lot to you but MY usual beat is a well worn two mile rut between school, supermarket, and after school activities.

I will say though, that the driving was worth it!

One last note--I’m really more of a jeans, tees, and yoga pants (usually covered in dog hair) kind of person, but the upgrading of the Natick Mall to the Natick Collection has done good things for my wardrobe. Even a hermetic writer can wander over and check out the clearance rack at Anthropologie without too much effort or sticker shock, whence the cute dress I wore to the conference. But it gets better. I tried to google my amarena dress to link to it in this post and found a picture of (Shock! Horror!) TAYLOR SWIFT in the same dress. Ladies and Gentlemen, I may have accidentally achieved coolness (however temporary) in the eyes of my ten year old ;-).

Mistwood

Back from revisions this morning to give a shout out to Leah Cypass and her wonderful YA fantasy MISTWOOD. Leah and I are members of the Enchanted Inkpot, an online community of kidlit fantasy writers. Though we'd never met I picked up an ARC of MISTWOOD at ALA Midwinter because her book sounded awesome, and it's fun check out books by people you know (if only "virtually").

I loved the book so much that even though I have only 25 days (insert scream of panic here …) before I leave for India, I felt the need to trek out to Brookline for her launch party. I’m glad I did! Leah is just lovely, and it was a pleasure to share her special day with her. My daughter was so happy to meet Leah and have her book signed! It was also great to catch up with another fellow Inkie, Anna Staniszewski, and meet Heather Kelly whose excellent blog I’ve stopped by often. I still cannot get over the fact that Heather is my neighbor!!
So if you haven’t read MISTWOOD, do! For me it was Un.Put.Downable. Even my 10 year old, a picky reader who doesn’t usually like YA (there isn't much YA I let her read anyway!) , finished the book in a day and is singing the praises of Isabel and Rokan to anyone who will listen.

Need more convincing? Check out the book trailer below ...

And now back to revisions …