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Yesterday was amazing: our Number One Son qualified for the New York State boy's swimming meet by taking third place in the 100-meter breast in the preliminary heat at yesterday's Section III championships.

That is a mouthful for an early-morning post. Boiled down to its essence, it translates into: My kid is going to States!!!! Yeah, we are just a wee bit excited about this here.

Good thing we did all of the hooting and hollering yesterday. Today marks the beginning of the period known as Laurie Is Crawling Into Her Cave To Work on Her Book. I won't be posted much, if any, over the next two weeks. I will be writing, writing, throwing out the pages that don't work, then writing some more.

This is the part of revision that I love the most. It's like going crazy studying for finals - very long, intense days (and sometimes nights) spent wrapped in all the story threads. In college, my fuel of choice was late-night doughnuts and very bad coffee. I've exchanged the doughnuts for salads and the bad coffee for wonderful coffee, but the game is the same: work to exhaustion, sleep, eat, work some more, exercise, eat, work to exhaustion, start again the next morning. I hit this phase with all of my books. Remember the scary scene in TWISTED with the gun? That came to me during this phase. These intense days and nights bring the characters to life - they truly incarnate for me. This is a Good Thing.

Before I grab my pens and scuttle deep into the cave, let me give a last shout out to the 28 Days Later project. Today's featured author is one of my favorite guys in the whole world, Walter Dean Myers. I think Walter should get his own month. He was born in August. Let's rename it as "The Month of Walter."

Thanks to my friend Jerry from high school, and my fellow author buddy Ellen, I am 88% of the way to my fundraising goal for the Lymphoma & Leukemia Society's Team in Training Half marathon. I am still offering a free audio version of TWISTED to the nice person who puts me over the top. You can donate here. If you want to cheer on my husband (who has to put up with my craziness for the next two weeks) donate to him - he's logging just as many training miles as I am, and he keeps the coffee hot for me.

ETA I didn't watch any news yesterday, so I am just catching the news about the horrible campus shooting at Northern Illinois University. This is the fourth school shooting in America this week. Dear God in heaven, how do we keep all of our kids whole in body and mind?

Go away, please. I'm writing.

No, wait! Come back!

Because TWISTED was nominated for a 2008-2009 Georgia Peach Book Award!!!! So were a lot of other great books, including a few written by friends. So I am baking a cyber-peach pie to share with Cecil, Jordan, Sherman and Gail. Somebody else better bring ice cream, 'cause we don't have any.

Don't forget to visit 28 Days Later, where today's featured author is Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, who wrote The Shadow Speaker, which just made the finalists list for the Andre Norton Award (YA category) given by The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Be sure to stop by her site.

OK, now you can go. On your way through the kitchen, please turn on the burner under the tea kettle, OK?

See you tomorrow.

This is the dopeslap draft. I have a headache from hitting myself upside the head every time I figure something out that has probably been obvious for months, only I just realized it for the first time. "Duh! Of course that's where her father works! Duuuuh, of course she's going to do that!"

I need to reserve my words for my story today, so here are some links to keep you happy:

Continuing with this week's "grande dame of children's literature" theme, I present a new interview with the creator of Ramona, Beverly Cleary.

Today's featured author at 28 Days Later is Eleanora E. Tate, who wrote Celeste's Harlem Renaissance. Be sure to read the powerful bio on her website.

Join the most exclusive club in all of children's literature! Low membership fee, everlasting gratitude! Earn bragging rights!

Lake Placid Half-Marathon countdown: 130 days. Seems like it's a million years away.

I threw out the last third of my book yesterday. Yeah, the one that is due very, very soon.

(I didn't actually throw it out. I put it in the file marked "Extremely Good Writing In Search of the Right Story." It has many friends there.)

The main character announced the need to take a different path than the one I chose. While it is utterly terrifying to have no clue how the book is going to end, I must admit, it's also kind of fun, like skiing down an icy slope on a Black Diamond trail. I might end in an emergency room, but then again, I might end up in front of the fire in the lodge regaling the crowd with a tale of adventure, sipping a mug of hot cheer. Either way, it promises a wild ride.

No skiing yesterday, but I did run 10 miles. BH ran 8. We can barely walk today.

Today's featured author at 28 Days Later is Janice N. Harrington, who wins the best title of the day award because she wrote The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County. She also wrote the much lauded and awarded Going North.

Judy Blume Alert!!!! My favorite quote of the interview: "After each book I get panicky. I don't love the reviews. I don't like going through all that, and you would think that, after almost 40 years of writing, I'd have got the hang of it. You can never grow complacent about it because it's always new, it's always exciting and it's always like the first time."

I didn't know she has a blog! ::rushes to hit Bookmark button::

Off to work now. Keep scribbling.

Join the most exclusive club in all of children's literature! Low membership fee, everlasting gratitude!

Lake Placid Half-Marathon countdown: 131 days

What a way to start the month. First, John Green's LOOKING FOR ALASKA is under fire for being "pornographic".

And now, some parents are going after SPEAK. The teacher involved has asked me not to name the school because she wants the process and policies of the district to unfold away from the glare of any spotlights. I respect that. I am allowed to say that it's a middle school in suburban Detroit. For the record, this has also happened in New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Washington, New York, Maine, and California. (As a result of the challenges, the book was embraced, not banned. Which does make an author feel good and a teacher feel even better.)

I sent her a note with teen sexual assault statistics and shared the feedback I've had from readers and their parents, who are grateful for a story that allows them to broach a difficult subject.

This teacher could use some professional support. If you teach SPEAK, can you please leave a note in the comments section for her? Tell her why you use the book. Tell her about your classroom experiences and your professional opinion about the place of the book in the curriculum. Or just give her a pat on the back. If you are a teen, tell her what the book meant to you.

Thank you very much and spread the word.

Now for something positive! Join the brilliant people at The Brown Bookshelf for 28 Days Later - an awesome, wonderful, joyful concept: a black history month celebration of children's literature. They are highlighting an African-American author or illustrator every day this month. Today's honoree is Rita Williams-Garcia, whom I met at NCTE back in November. If you're looking for some great authors, start with this list.

This is my editor Sharyn November with the lovely and talented Rita Williams-Garcia.

Our Team In Training effort is going strong. Between the two of us, BH and I have already raised $1755 of our goal of $5000. Yeah, that means we're still standing here, in the snow, shivering, with our hands out. Please donate to the goose or donate to the gander. We're raising $5000 and running a half marathon for the National Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Come on. Give a little!

(I ran 5 miles on Saturday and 4 miles yesterday. BH ran 5 miles both days. We didn't have any trouble sleeping this weekend.)

Thank you to the Giants and Patriots for a great game last night!!! All hail the Giants defense - even though I wanted the other guy to win, you gotta respect the job they did.

And now the countdown to March Madness...

Along with the countdown to my deadline. scribblescribblescribble

Yesterday was a very, very intense day. Wonderful, every single minute of it, but wicked intense. I feel like an apple that was peeled with a dull knife and left on the counter overnight.

It's weird because I used to be a profoundly shy person, and then I learned how to be brave and extroverted, and now I actually love hanging out at conferences and meeting hundreds of people, but then I have moments like this when I feel shy again. Balance, I guess, is the key.

The highlight of yesterday was booksignings, an hour at Anderson's Bookstores booth, and then an hour at the PermaBound booth, where the line stretched forfreakingever.

I was thrilled when Ms. J. from Hawaii showed up! I met her on my MySpace page when she wrote asking some questions her students had about the symbolism in SPEAK. Her MySpace photo has her sticking her tongue out, so it seemed appropriate.



Thank you so much to all the teachers who shared their stories about using my books in their classrooms. SPEAK and FEVER 1793 have been class favorites for years. Now I am beginning to hear that more and more teachers are using CATALYST, which thrills me, and that PROM is a number-one summer reading pick. Teachers snarfed up the reading guide that Uncle Penguin made for TWISTED and are getting ready to order classroom sets as soon as the paperback comes out in the spring.

Thanks also to Jerry, an old friend from high school, who went to the trouble of coming to the Javits Center just to say hello.

I ran into the tall and mighty Christopher Myers in the lobby and was able to hear about some incredibly exciting projects he's working on. He was being followed by a film crew, for reasons I did not quite understand. I got to see Christopher Paul Curtis, too, but I forgot to take a picture.

I did remember to take a photo of T.A. Barron.

Then it was off to the Marriott for the Children's Literature Assembly Luncheon where we ate an incredibly good salad (fresh greens, oranges, pine nuts and cheese) and the kind of chicken you expect when hundreds of people are being served at once.

We got to see the Orbis Pictus awards handed out and heard a wonderful presentation from Brian and Andrea Davis Pinkney, complete with pictures from their books and their lives. If you ever get the chance to hear them speak, run, don't walk. Brian had the entire room singing scat. The luncheon was also a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Jump at the Sun imprint, which has published so many important books about the African-American experience, it's hard to keep track of them all. Congratulations Andrea!!!

After the lunch, I had a chance for a quick chat with buddy Phil Bildner (who will be in Austin soon - go see him) and my dear friend and distant cousin, Jen Bryant. Then I walked back to the hotel.

I passed these striking stagehands on the way.

The sun was setting too fast to sneak in my Central Park Run, and the gym in this hotel in three levels into the sub-basement and a little creepy for a woman traveling alone, so I went out and got Chinese food and ate while I worked on the new book in my room. And went to sleep very, very early.

I went for my Central Park run this morning and it was fabulous; exactly what I need to feel like I was covered with skin again. Now I have to figure out how to squeeze in some overdue writing time with seeing a couple of friends and leave time for tonight's reception and dinner. I leave you with two desserts from the dinner the other night:

a chocolate death

and killer key lime... well it wasn't exactly key lime pie, more like key lime cheesecake. It was so rich I could only eat a few bites.

It's time to close tabs, back up the hard drive, and get ready for the train. I don't want to leave you stranded so here are some reading noshes.

Jen Robinson's Book Page (excellent, excellent resource) is now sending out a Growing Bookworms email Newsletter. It is very easy to read - you should probably subscribe to it.

Two great announcements via Cynthia Leitich Smith:
1. The Brown Bookshelf showcases the "best and brightest in African-American Children’s Literature, with a special emphasis on new authors and books that are “flying under the radar.”" Be sure to check out their wonderful blog and their 28 Days Later project. I don't do this very often, but I bookmarked the blog for my daily reading.

2. The Texas Library Associations YA Tayshas List is out.

It sure sounds like Christopher Hitchens made last night's NBA readings more interesting than usual. And Sherman Alexie was the voice of reason.

Oh, duh. It's Children's Book Week. (I am glad they are moving it to May!)

And this in from our Plains reporter, Aunt Barb: Oklahoma celebrates its centennial on Friday. Happy Birthday!

The Call to Shakabaz

by Amy Wachspress

When their mother died, Doshmisi, Denzel, Maia, and Sonjay came to live with their Aunt Alice on her ranch. The four children find life on the ranch boring, until Midsummer Eve, when Aunt Alice and the children's two uncles awaken them in the middle of the night. Before they have time to figure out what's going on, the four find themselves sent on a mission, through a gate into the land of Faracadar. In Faracadar, Doshmisi, Denzel, Maia and Sonjay discover that they are "The Four," each with a unique gift that they can use to help people. Faracadar is under the rule of an evil enchanter, Sissrath, and the four children must find a way to rescue the powerful Staff of Shakabaz from him and save the land.

First and foremost, The Call to Shakabaz is a highly readable, entertaining fantasy that anyone can enjoy. But beyond that, it fills some important holes in fantasy literature. The four children are African-American and many aspects of African-American culture are integrated into the story. Also, the people of the fantasy world Faracadar could truly be considered "people of color": besides having darker skin, they also have a kind of aura-glow in a variety of colors, such as red, green, or yellow. You don't have to be African-American to enjoy this book; I found it quite enjoyable and a great read. But it's about time that a good fantasy came along featuring characters that African-American children can identify with.

Another thing that is unique about this book is its message of non-violence. That doesn't mean there isn't violence in the book; there are a couple of battles, and yes, people die. But in the end, the heroes learn that violence isn't the answer and that violence only begets more violence. They teach the people of Faracadar the principle of Satyagraha, or truth-force, as developed by Mahatma Gandhi and espoused by Martin Luther King, Jr. I was skeptical that this could work in a fantasy without being preachy, but the climax of the book is quite moving.

I liked the talents that the four children have. Healing is a frequently used talent in fantasy, but musical ability is not as common. I especially liked that the youngest, Sonjay, becomes the leader. Most books of this type stereotype the oldest as the leader and the youngest as a baby or the most sensitive. It's a pleasure to watch Sonjay's leadership skills develop, much to his own surprise as well as the surprise of his older siblings.

My only complaint about The Call to Shakabaz is that it could have used one more pass of editing: there were several errors in grammar and usage throughout the book.