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I’ve been a fan of Robert Burleigh‘s writing for the past few years. I was delighted to receive an advance review copy of Trapped! A Whale’s Rescue, his newest picture book that’s out later… Continue reading →

Revision needs to have a sense that a window of possibility is still open to allow another draft in (17). –Jeff Anderson and Deborah Dean Last month, I conferred with a fifth grade… Continue reading →

Please welcome another newbie to the Social Media team at Oxford University Press, Dan Parker, who joined the gang in May 2014 as an OUPblog Deputy Editor and Social Media Marketing Executive. He has been working at OUP since February 2012.

When did you start working at OUP?

I joined the Press in February 2012 following a brief stint living in Madrid. I spent two happy years with the GAB Publicity team in Oxford being called Sally, Mary, or Daniella (don’t ask) before joining the OUPblog family as a Social Media Marketing Executive.

What’s your favourite word?

It varies day by day but it is usually a choice between: Seppuku, crux, muckibus, or crepuscular.

What is your favourite fiction book?

I’m going to cheat and say my favourite fiction trilogy is His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman*, but my favourite novel is Love of Seven Dolls, by Paul Gallico. This was definitely the book that had the greatest impact on me growing up.

* I once handed Philip Pullman his scarf after it had fallen off a clothes peg. This is still one of the proudest moments of my life (I’ve lived a very sheltered life).

Name acceptable bribes that potential guest bloggers could send you.

Pictures of cows and bears. Better yet, an actual cow or bear. Not sure if our post-room team will sign off on that though.

What’s your most obscure talent?

I sing like Kermit the Frog – 90% of the time it is not intentional. It is embarrassing 100% of the time.

What book are you reading right now?

The Ball is Round, by David Goldblatt. It is the most comprehensive history of football/soccer imaginable, from folk origins to the financial behemoth it is today, and it is chock-a-block with statistics that delight my inner nerd.

Which word do you have to look up in the dictionary repeatedly?

Vicarious.

What weird things do you have in your desk drawer?

A wind-up robot, a Jemima Puddle-Duck mug, and pictures of animals.

Which book-to-movie adaptation did you actually like?

I thought the Northern Lights film was a really good… just kidding! The Swedish version of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let the Right One In was spectacular. I’d advise anyone and everyone to see it. Please don’t be put off by the fact it is technically a film about vampires, it couldn’t be less like Twilight.

What do you look at on the Internet when you think no one’s watching?

Game of Thrones fandoms.

If your friend were visiting Oxford, what is the one thing they should do while they are here?

You can spend an entire day browsing the quirky shops on Little Clarendon Street. For example, there is a shop that sells only home-made vinegar and cider and looks like it belongs on the Harry Potter set. Then, once the fairy-lights are turned on for the evening, you can spend the night at a bar, restaurant, or ice-cream parlour. Or all three if you’re that way inclined. It’s also just a two-minute walk from the Oxford office so it means I can meet you there!

How do you feel about American versions of British TV shows?

Hit or miss. Mostly miss. The American version of The Inbetweeners makes me want to scream into a pillow.

What was your first blog post ever?

An Oxford Companion to surviving the Zombie Apocalypse was the first blog post I wrote for OUPblog. Making a connection between the academic content at OUP and terrifying creatures of the night was easier than I had originally anticipated.

The post Hey everybody! Meet Dan! appeared first on OUPblog.

        

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Before this series of posts on preschool writers began, I asked you to tell me what burning questions you had. Get ready for a Q&A!

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Okay, so I saw these fun Q & A posts on Natalie Whipple and Kiersten White’s blogs and decided today we’ll host one here. The deal: You ask a question in the comments & I’ll try to answer it as soon as possible in the comments. So if you have a question — any question [...]

Sweet Moon Baby: An Adoption Tale, which is written by Karen Henry Clark and illustrated by Patrice Barton, was released last month.  When I received my review copy, from Knopf Delacorte Dell Young Readers Group, I began reading it and felt tears well-up in my eyes.  The lump in my throat stayed throughout the entire [...]

It's been really incredible to see how far and wide "Q & A" has traveled online, and the wide variety on people it seems to have touched. Son and my blue haired alter-egos have showed up on such diverse blogs as Mental Floss, NPR's Speaking of Faith to anti-abortion activist Jill Stanek's blog, which seemed somewhat ironic to both Son and me since we're both pro-choice and with my daughter and his sister living with Type 1 diabetes are we're supporters of embryonic stem-cell research. We were even tweeted by Jake Tepper,ABC's Senior White House correspondent, which set my evil twin saramerica's heart all aflutter. It's wild. The You Tube version of Q & A has over 537,000 views, and the Vimeo version has 115,000. Turns out our blue haired selves are viral internet sensations. It's made me wonder if I should dye my hair blue in real life and then my YA novels might make the NYT bestseller list. What do you think?

I guess even if I didn't make the NYT bestseller list I'd get to embarrass the heck out of my kids. Can you imagine my daughter's face if I showed up at her 8th graduation with BLUE HAIR? *cackles evilly, imagining the revenge for recent eye rolling and attitude*

So of course I've spent a time reading the comments on on various blogs and on YouTube etc, many of which say terribly complementary things about my mothering skills. It would be so easy to get, yanno, self-confidence right about now. Or even, dare I say it, a trifle big headed. But fortunately, I have the perfect remedy for that:



Yes, this was awarded to me by Son many years ago. We fondly refer to it as the FAT UGLY MUMMY Award. I particularly love the devil horns and the "I am EVIL" speech bubble, like just in case I missed the fact that I was not his favorite person. I'm seriously proud of award and have kept it pinned up on my bulletin board ever since Josh gave it to me in a fit of anger.

Not to be outdone, his sister has given me several Bad Mom awards and a this:



I can't remember which of the many times I've almost set the house on fire this was for, but I do remember it was well deserved.

It's always good to know where you stand. Last weekend over dinner, I was discussing Pat Buchanan's latest and Son said, "This is why I should be Dictator of America."

Daughter and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes. I'm not quite sure what Kerri, our dinner guest, made of all this, but I decided to give Son some rope.

"Okay, Dictator. What's your platform?"

He said that he would close all US military bases in Europe (he happens to be writing a paper about this at the moment) and create closer relations with China.

"How would you create closer relations with China? And how would you do that without compromising our democratic principles?" I asked.

He gave me the "over the glasses look".

"What democratic principles? The US is a dictatorship!"

This is what happens when a merely gifted Mom argues with her Mensa teen so

On Friday morning, March 17th, 2006, the National Public Radio program Morning Edition broadcast a brief clip from an interview of me done at the StoryCorps booth in Grand Central Station, New York, by my then twelve year-old son Joshua, who was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, an autistic spectrum disorder, when he was five years old.
The response was overwhelming.

“Our best friends are a couple who have a boy with Asperger's. I wrote to the father this morning and told him he had to go to NPR and listen to the story. My exact words to him were, "I was in love with this kid." … Man...another morning driving to work with tears in my eyes.”

“I have never had this happen before, but when I was listening to the Story Corp interview and heard your son ask you if he had met your expectations as a son and your tender reply tears ran down my cheeks. Your answer to his question is the most loving thing I think I have ever heard a parent say to a child. How blessed he is to have you for a mother and how blessed this world is to have you in it”

“Well, I've had my share of "driveway moments" in 25+ years of listening to public radio, but your Story Corps segment with Joshua this morning was a first for me: a "burst into tears while driving 70 mph moment."

“I’m the father of a 10 year-old son who was (finally) diagnosed with Aspergers a year ago…After listening to Joshua’s questions and Sarah’s responses, I feel for the first time that my son, my wife, and I are not alone in dealing with these challenges.”

“I am a principal of an elementary school and wish I had more parents like you. You see the qualities that Joshua has, and don’t seem to focus on the one he doesn’t.”

This was just the beginning. As a fiction author by trade, I’m not short on imagination, but the reaction to our interview was beyond anything I’d have envisaged. In fact, our story turned out to be one of the top three most responded-to StoryCorps segments in 2006.

It wasn’t just the sheer volume of e-mails that amazed me.It was the depth of the responses - the heartfelt connection people seemed to feel upon hearing this brief snippet of conversation between my son Joshua and me.

The father of a five year-old with autism wrote: “I found your interview very uplifting! It gave me the sense that we can get through this journey together…Please remain vocal about your experiences and share them with other people in your position. It helps!”

What’s more, it wasn’t just parents of children on the autistic spectrum who wrote - our conversation seemed to strike a chord with parents in general. One woman wrote of her frustration trying to communicate with her son, and concluded: “Thank you for allowing strangers to peek into your life. It has inspired me to work harder to become a better mother to my son.”

All I can say is that she didn’t peek into our life at 7:15 am on a school morning, when I can usually be found shouting something along the lines of: “Aren’t you dressed yet? I woke you up half an hour ago! Stop winding up your sister! And feed the dog, already!!”

So how did Joshua and I end up at StoryCorps in the first place? Well, every school vacation since my kids were little, I’ve tried to have a one-on-one day with each of them, doing something fun.
One of the many difficult things a working mother of more than one child is the feeling that there simply isn’t enough of you to go around. You can multiply that feeling by however many hours a week you have to work to earn a living, because even if you’re fortunate enough to be a writer, working from your basement lair, your kids won’t be thinking, Gee, I’m so lucky that my mom works downstairs instead of having to commute into New York every day. No, they’ll still resent the fact that you’re in the middle of a phone interview w

Sticking my head above the revision parapet to let you know about two exciting things that happened this week:

1. On Sunday night, the kids and I attended the ASIFA - East Film Festival at the New School, where Q & A, the animated short of the StoryCorps interview between my son and me by the wonderful Rauch Brothers took Best in Show!! It was so incredibly exciting! I felt like I was at the Oscars (minus the red carpet and a fabulous dress, loaned diamonds and Joan and Melissa Rivers and the E Network). J and I got to go up on stage when Mike and Tim accepted the award. I stood there sporting a cheesy grin like an ad for some bad dentist, but I couldn't help it. It was Just.So.Cool!



me, J's head, Mike Rauch speaking and Tim Rauch


I don't either J or I ever would have imagined when we stepped into that booth in Grand Central Station in February 2006 that our discussion would have reached so many people. And now we're going international! "Q & A" is one of 3 US short animated films chosen as an official selection at the Annecy Film Festival next month. Unfortunately, we're not going to that one, but Mike and Tim are, we'll live vicariously through their blog.



A, Me, J, Mike Rauch, Tim Rauch

2. In other exciting news, The Webmeister was mentioned on the FRONT PAGE of the New York Times! Our trip to Germany two summers ago was prompted by this research - Dr Brockmann was at the Max Planck Institute at the time. It's fascinating to see the real life applications of the research. And it's a terrific example of how it pays to always try to keep your awareness open because there are so many potential connections that are easily missed.

And now, back to revisions.