Writing Retreat at Angel Fire...

Hello dear readers, friends, family!

The day is heating up and so is my trailer... time to hook up the brand spankin new swamp cooler I recently purchased. I had a swamp cooler in Tucson and really liked it. It's better than AC because you have to keep the windows open to let air flow. And I really like hearing birds and wind-through-leaves and even passing car sounds as I write. I love this about summer-- that you can hear the outside sounds and everything feels so much more alive.


So... two weekends ago I had a writing retreat with my lovely writing group called Old Town Writing Group. Actually, only half of the members could come (which made three members-- me, Carrie, and Sarah.) We (along with husbands and babies) drove down to Sarah's parents' cabin in Angel Fire, New Mexico. That's one of my all-time favorite place names-- Angel Fire. Apparently it comes from the bright yellow of aspen leaves covering the mountains in the fall. Here's a pic of the view of the mountains from the deck.

I'd been envisioning three deliciously long days of writing for luxurious hours at a stretch, but alas, as this was my first writing retreat with baby in tow, I ended up lucky to get in a total of one or two hours of writing time per day-- and that in small bits and pieces.

I did manage to find time to soak in the hot tub with Carrie and Sarah, eat good food in good company, go on a little hike, play chase with tireless baby on the deck, see a giant river canyon (see pic below), go to a very cool fabric shop in Taos to get fabric for the cushions and curtains in my trailer. (When it's all decorated I'll give you a virtual tour).

Other news: I emailed my editor my manuscript of my next book, tentatively entitled The Indigo Notebook (formerly tentatively titled The Purple Notebooks). Now I'm going to get ready for the France trip and get these curtains sewn and dive into revisions on two more manuscripts.

Oh, and I've had more time for reading lately! I listened to the teen book FEED (M.T. Anderson) on the way to and from New Mexico. Really great. If I were a high school English teacher, I'd have my students read FEED right along with 1984 and BRAVE NEW WORLD. FEED (a National Book Award Finalist (or maybe Winner?))paints a scary vision of the future-- it's easy to see how we're headed there-- and it's also a wonderful commentary on the rampant consumerism in our society-- how insidious advertising is-- how it shapes our needs and wants and ultimately shapes who we are as people (not a good thing at all.) It's also a fun story-- a great voice, lots of humor, a spectacular futuristic setting.

I also just finished the teen book SKIN HUNGER by Kathleen Duey (a prolific world traveling author with whom I had a fascinating conversation at an SCBWI conference-- about dreams, ghosts, psychic phenomena...). SKIN HUNGER was a National Book Award Finalist, too. It's a dark fantasy, a particularly well-written and intriguing one. Once I got into it, I loved it. The narrators alternate-- their narratives are separated by 200 years-- and their stories start coming together plot-wise toward the end. It's the first in the series, and I'll definitely read the next two once they come out.

I just finished DIVISADERO by Michael Ondaatje yesterday. I really liked The ENGLISH PATIENT and have read his other books, as well. I love the language and imagery and poetry in DIVISADERO-- he expresses stories from such odd, interesting angles. The story lines didn't come together in a complete, satisfying way for me at the end. It sort of felt like he had all these gorgeous scenes and images and wanted to put them all together in a book, but didn't quite end up tying them all together plot-wise. Of course, I'll keep reading his future books because of the amazing language and imagery and ideas.

I just went to the library yesterday and got a giant bag full of new books which I can't wait to delve into. More about them later... thanks for reading!

Slice of Life and CO Author's League Pics...

Hello friends,

Well, it's dusk and my man is putting Baby to bed. I'm here in my trailer, and by this time of day, my brain is too tired to do any more on this revision of my book (which is due to my editor on Monday.) I work best in the mornings, half-decently in the afternoons, and by nightfall I'm hopeless.

One nice thing about spring is that I can have fresh flowers next to me as I write. There's an iris by my side now, and I periodically smell it. And there are a whole slew of irises outside this window, in three distinct shades of purple: indigo, violet, and standard iris color.

In case you were wondering if I was affected by the recent tornadoes in Northern Colorado, I wasn't, except that my irises got a bit battered by hail from that storm.

So, maybe you're wondering how I structure my days. (If so, read on. If not, skim a few paragraphs...) I wake up around 6:45 to Baby's sounds in the next room. My hubbie brings him to me and he hangs out with me drinking milk for a while. (He can say milk in sign language-- it's basically the gesture of milking a cow, which is a little weird.)

Then he plays with my alarm clock for a while, which endlessly fascinates him. Then he gets antsy and whiny and does sign language for please, which is rubbing his chest, which means, please let's get the heck out of bed and start running around. Which is what we do next. Then I have tea and honey and milk and then change his diaper. His latest cute thing is "jumping" which is him squatting down like he's going to do a gigantic jump, and then, anticlimactically, not leaving the ground. But he thinks he's jumping, and he claps and laughs and so do I.

The jumping thing reminds me of dreams in which I'm flying, or trying to fly. I have these dreams fairly frequently-- I know I'm dreaming and decide to fly, but it takes a few moments before I remember how to leave the ground. It's like jumping, but just continuing to go up and up. Whenever Baby jumps and doesn't quite manage to leave the ground, I think of these dreams.

The reason I'm justifying writing about it here in my writing blog is that for me, writing is like flying. I'm lifting off from this world and entering a different one. It takes a lot of focus, but at the same time, it takes letting loose and being free, which in some ways seem contradictory. That's what's challenging about creating stories-- the simultaneous extreme concentration and extreme letting go. Meditation or flying are the best comparisons I have for it.

When I was twelve, I kept a dream journal. It was a blue spiral notebook and I probably still have it somewhere. I still write down the Big Dreams in my journals now-- the ones that feel extra important. A lot of the imagery in my books comes from my dreams-- both Helena's and Clara's spirit animals in What the Moon Saw were inspired by powerful dreams I had. Sophie's looking for underwater treasures in Red Glass is another re-occuring dream.

In college, I read lots of Carl Jung on my own... I haven't read his stuff lately, but I think I've internalized it and it's part of me now. I think that we all have our personal mythology, with our own symbols and myths and characters and journeys. I think that as a writer, it's important to honor whatever your mythology is and let it come out in our writing. That's what will give it real depth and resonance.

Baby is sleeping and my husband is talking to his mom on the phone in the backyard, and it's nearly dark. I love summer. I can't wait for it to start. Did you know I'll be in southern France this summer? I will! In Aix-en-Provence, where I lived for a year as a 20 year old. It was a magical place for me, full of mysteries that I will tell you about sometime, maybe. I have an 18th century apartment rented for a month on one of the narrow streets in the labyrinth downtown. I've been busy planning the trip in between polishing my current manuscript (which STILL has no definite name, though I'm coming close, I think...)

Okay, I'm going to make some chicken for dinner. Thanks for reading. These pics are of the Colorado Authors' League Award Banquet. (Red Glass won in the Middle Grade/Young Adult category!) In one pic I'm with my friend Gloria, who is a beautiful and talented Mexican writer, artist, dancer, and singer. In another, I'm with Liz, winning author of Curveball: When Life Throws You a Brain Tumor, who I met at our table over dinner. She's lovely and fascinating and smart! In another pic, I'm receiving my award from, yes, a bunny. This award was freshly named the Harvey Award, which has something to do with six foot tall bunnies...

You know, I realized I got side-tracked and never told you about the rest of my day. So. Baby's babysitter comes at 8:00 and I have time to change out of my PJs and throw on some clothes and grab some yogurt and come out here to my trailer. I either check email or jump right into writing. Ideally, I write a bit in my journal first, but that doesn't always happen.

I write and drink tea and write and drink more tea and have some yogurt and drink more tea. If I'm very very very tired I might rest my eyes a little on the futon in the back of my trailer. (It's no longer a secret... Sarah in my writing group let it slip at a reading we did...)

So then around noon the babysitter takes off, and if the weather's nice, Baby and I wander around Old Town for a few hours-- he plays on large bear and fish sculptures, runs up and down a ramp, hurls himself into puddles, sips milk and watches big trucks go by in front of Ardour Cafe, waves hello and goodbye to countless strangers.

In the evening I pop in a DVD of Six Feet Under or LOST or something similar and we play and I watch TV (a little guiltily, covering his ears at the cursing, and covering his eyes whenever anyone gets shot or has sex.) Then my hubbie comes home and feeds him and then we eat and talk and read and relax and listen to NPR, and perhaps, if I'm not feeling too lazy, I write in this blog...

G'night!

IRA Conference!

Hello all!

I just got back from the IRA (International Reading Association) conference in Atlanta, where I accepted the IRA Young Adult Fiction Award! At the awards luncheon, I sat at a table with some wonderful ladies (we’re almost all females at these events…) -- librarians, teachers, and professors of children's and YA literature. The keynote speaker was Suzanne Fisher Staples, who wrote Shabanu-- she was a fabulous speaker-- she gave a slide show about her travels in the Middle East, which inspired her books. The end of her speech gave me shivers, it was so powerful.

Let's see, highlights of the trip:

I got to meet my editor, Stephanie Lane, in person for the first time. She's an angel-- beautiful, brilliant, kind... now that I know her, I feel even more grateful and lucky that she's my editor. And the rest of the Random House women there were super-nice. It made me realize how many people at RH are passionately involved in my books behind the scenes.

I ate lots of tasty food at fancy places with great people-- authors, librarians, teachers... it was the ultimate wining-and-dining experience.

My room was on the 64th floor of one of the tallest buildings in sight! My ears popped going up and down the elevator. And even at top speeds, it took a good minute or so to get to my floor, enough time for me to take some pics (to prove to you that indeed, this hotel had over 70 floors...)

Those of you who've read RED GLASS might remember that Sophie has an elevator phobia... and I must admit that the fear-of-elevators thing is one of the more autobiographical parts of the book. I almost always take the stairs, even when there are ten floors. But 64 floors...well, I decided the stairs were not an option if I didn't want to arrive sweaty and completely out of breath to every event.

It actually wasn't too scary. Like Sophie in RED GLASS, I vividly ran through all the disasters that could occur and how hard it would be to save myself on the 64th floor... but the sheer novelty of being so incredibly high up outweighed the fear.

The pics are:

dizzying views from my hotel room window (the tall cylindrical building is the actual hotel-- some windows are busted from the gigantic storm earlier this spring.)

Stephanie (black dress) and me,

Adrienne (black suit) (RH Library/Educational Marketing) and me

Me and the ladies from my luncheon table, including Lisa, another lovely RH woman (publicity)

The elevator buttons

In other news, my spectacular agent, Erin Murphy, did an interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith.
It's definitely worth checking out-- not only is she an interesting, smart person, but you'll also learn a bit about what she does as an agent and how she got where she is. (Plus, she says some nice things about Red Glass! ;)

Sleeptime for me now... g'night!

Springtime, finally!

Hi all! I'm in my trailer with the windows and door open and the sunshine pouring in-- feels great.

I've been busy with events and school visits and conferences lately. I had a great time at my school visit to Heritage Middle School in Longmont a couple weeks ago.

Here are some pics of projects that the students did, inspired by WHAT THE MOON SAW. (Click on the pics to enlarge). The projects incorporated material from different subjects-- reading, writing, geography/environment, culture, art... I was very impressed!

I did workshops and a presentation and had a yummy burrito lunch with some teachers and students who had written winning essays. Most of the kids at Heritage speak Spanish, which made the visit extra-fun.

Last week I had another school visit-- this one to Cherry Creek High School. I wish I'd gone to a high school with a campus like that one. It felt more like a college campus, and the library (where I did my presentations) had one wall of windows-- pretty spectacular! The librarians and students were very cool. I'd been a little scared (not sure of what, exactly...), since I mostly do school visits with younger kids... but everyone seemed to have a good time and was very nice to me.

At the moment, I'm doing more rounds of revision on my next novel (which has yet to be named-- my writing group is a hard bunch to please-- but it will come out around Fall 2009). I'm also trying to arrange my France trip (where my next novel will hopefully be set)-- I'm pretty unpleasantly surprised at the cost of tix-- three times what I was expecting! Ack!

Baby's doing great-- toddling all over the place, saying "nana" (which means grandma and fruit), doing sign language (and inventing his own... hitting his head means "Take me outside!" and "Vvvvvvv" with a twirling hand motion means "Turn on the fan! Or else!"

Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Laura

Cool Stuff Happening!

Sorry I skipped February-- too short of a month, even though it had 29 days this year. In February, we went with baby to a beautiful candlelit no-electricity beach in the Yucatan. I brought a stack of photocopied letters I was judging for the Letters About Literature competition and had fun going through them, underlining and starring parts I loved. (For those of you who don't know about this, it's a national competition open to elementary through high school. Students write letters to the author of a book that somehow changed their life or their outlook on life. If you're a teacher, encourage your students to do it! If you're a student, do it yourself!) Anyway, it was lovely and relaxing to hang out on the beach reading these letters amidst palm trees, with my friends and mom and dad around to watch baby.

Good news has been pouring in about RED GLASS. I'm hugely grateful that so many people are reading it and liking it. (Grateful to readers, to the universe, to the source of stories, just, in general, grateful...) It won the International Reading Association award for YA Fiction-- and Random House is sending me to Atlanta to receive the award! This is super-exciting for me-- several of the authors who will be there are heroes of mine, and I get to be in their midst. Wow.

RED GLASS was also recently selected as a VOYA Top Shelf Book, which is very cool-- and rumour has it RH will also be sending me to the ALA conference in California in June-- and again, I'll be surrounded by more writer heroes of mine (and librarian heroes, of course). You can check out the other awards and honors under the news section of my website.

I keep discovering how teachers and librarians and students are using my books in creative ways. (I love getting emails about creative ways you've used the books, so keep them coming!) WHAT THE MOON SAW is one of the books in the Intergenerational Book Club through the Center for Community Literacy here in Fort Collins. This means that lots of people got free copies of the book, and are reading and talking about it with friends, relatives, and classmates.

My good ESL teacher friend, Andrea Heyman (talk about award-winning-- she's the ultimate teacher of the year!), has been doing fun activities with her advanced ESL adult students at Front Range Community College. Every class she comes up with amazing games (usually fairly rowdy-- I hear them in the next classroom over) that involve vocab, grammar, visualization and verbalization, you name it. I'll try to post some pics of what her students did as one of their first activities.

I'm really excited that the paperbacks of WHAT THE MOON SAW are coming out on April 8. They're about a third of the price of the hardcovers-- only 6 bucks! And for school visits, Random House does a 40% discount, which makes it only about 4 bucks. This will make the book much more affordable. I'm hoping that more classes will be able to read it together, and more kids will be able to get the book at my school visits. (It'll be another year til RED GLASS comes out in paperback.)

I have a bunch of local events and conferences coming up, and I'll try to remember to take pictures to post on this blog-- the Colorado Teen Lit conference in Denver, the Arapahoe Community College Writers' Studio, a reading at The Readers' Cove with my writing group, and more (see the events section of my website for details).

What else can I say? Life is good. I love writing in my trailer. I love spring. I love my baby, who is walking now and does new cute things every day, like eating sunshine. (The other day, sunlight was shining through a wicker basket in front of the living room window. He saw the pattern of spotted light, and took his tiny pointer finger and rubbed it in a sunshine spot and licked it and said, mmmmm.)

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Laura

Post Bas Bleu Reading

Hi. It's about 9:30 p.m. and I just finished teaching my ESL class, which always leaves me a little wound up (in a good way). I'm drinking chamomile tea and eating oatmeal cookies to calm down
before I go to sleep. A number of good things have happened lately:

- I've gotten on a good writing schedule now that our part-time nanny has started hangin with Baby in the mornings.

- My mom was in town last week, which helped me have more writing time, too, and get caught up with my backlog of emails and phone calls. I reduced my to-do list by a few pages.

-My husband has finally finished a work project that was requiring him to work insanely long hours.

-I had a great time at the Bas Bleu Theater reading I did last night with Bill Tremblay. I love Bas Bleu theater. The set onstage for the current play is a dank prison cell, which was the backdrop to my reading-- very moody and atmospheric... I saw some good friends there and met some fascinating new people, including a French man who graciously put up with my rusty French.

Here's a pic of me and my friend/neighbor Chris on the left and my friend/neighbor/Nia (dance) teacher Erika on the right. The other pic is me and my mom-- it was her birthday yesterday.