How to use this Page

We’re taking a two week break to rest and relax on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I brought some books with me, as is my usual practice. Only one of them ended up being for the youth market.

Corrie ten Boom and her family are watchmakers in Haarlem, Holland, where they give what little they have to spread God’s love and help others. But everything changes when World War II erupts and Hitler’s army takes over their country. As the Nazis round up Corrie’s Jewish neighbors and send them to deadly concentration camps, she knows that something must be done to stop them. But what can one small family do in the face of such great evil?

Read the amazing true story of Corrie ten Boom, a Torchlighter® hero of the faith, and discover how her obedience to God saved lives and continues to inspire others today.

Paperback: 85 pages
Publisher: Christian History Institute (May 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1563648733
ISBN-13: 978-1563648731

My hope is to blog a few times while we’re away, so don’t go far.

Sorry to take so long in updating this blog, but Internet access has been spotty at best. I’m sitting in an Internet café called Ugly Mugs in Avon, NC on Hatteras Island, and even here over the past half hour the connection has been intermittent.

So, here’s the lowdown:

The first stop on the trip from home (just outside of Boston, MA) was Rhode Island College where I was finishing a 5-day stint as a faculty member of the first annual A.S.T.A.L Writers Institute . It was the final day. Here’s a photo of the whole group in front of the van.

Then southward.

DISASTER #1:  NO RADIO
As I wrote in my last posting, DISASTER #1 occurred around New Haven: the antenna fell off the car. Yikes! Oh well, onward… 

After a quick visit with a friend in Philadelphia, it was down to National Public Radio’s headquarters in DC for a quick-and-dirty lesson in recording sound. They told me that the broadcast of my 2^nd piece for NPR, where we’re packing for the trip, was delayed because apparently they want to hold off until they get the 3^rd piece in hand. It’s even possible that they’ll start our trip without the packing piece – so it’d begin with whatever story I record next. (Boy, I sure hope I come up with something good!) Here I am with NPR announcer Robert Siegel, and also with “All Things Considered” Senior Producer Art Silverman.

From there it was a loooong drive down to North Carolina. Rush hour traffic from hell in the Virginia Beach area. Arrived in Avon, NC around 9PM.

Here’s the thing about our Outer Banks visit. We built this into our route schedule as a nice, easy beginning for our trip -- my family comes out here every year together with our Polish friends from Connecticut and Philadelphia. It’s always fun, because our friends are fun – and some of them have kids the same age as ours so everyone is happy. Sure, it’s hot outside -- and I’m definitely not a beach person. Still, I think of this as my central-air-conditioning holiday. We do beach fires at night, or hang out in the hot tub. All good.

Yesterday (Thursday) we visited the terrific Manteo Booksellers. Here I am with the store’s owner, Steve Brumfield.



It was also Lucy’s 8^th birthday, which was all very nice...UNTIL...at the end of the day came DISASTER #2:

Lucy has developed ‘pink-eye’—conjunctivitis, which she caught from Natalia, one of our friend’s kids. Yikes! This has been a bit of a crisis because 1) it’s not comfortable for her, 2) it’s very contagious, and 3) we’ve been scrambling to find a doctor and get her a prescription for Erythromycin. Lucy should be using it every four hours, but so far we’ve been unable to make contact with any here in the middle of nowhere. We don’t know any local doctors, and today is Friday so we’re finding that many physician offices are closed today, and others will be heading out for the weekend shortly. Plus, we’ll be leaving on Sunday for Atlanta so we’re in a tizzy trying to figure this out today! Tension is high. Not sure what we’ll do, but like everything else, we’ll figure it out somehow…

DISASTER #2:  LUCY HAS PINK-EYE
 

On the brighter side: Looks like we have our antenna situation figured out. A special part needed to be ordered and it was kind of a biggish deal, but we’ve arranged to get the whole thing replaced at a Honda Dealer in College Station, TX on July 6. Until then, we’ll just have to hum a lot… :-)

Sunday we’re off to Atlanta. Stay tuned!

-- Mark

www.markpeterhughes.com

P.S. Update 6/30 1:15pm:  We finally managed to get the eye goo for Lucy.  It required a little devilish cleverness (which I will not detail here for fear of a criminal investigation...just kidding) but now all is well.  Onward!  :-)

I am beyond delighted to report that the YALSA election results are in, and our very own Liz Burns is a brand-new member of the Printz Committee! I could not be happier, prouder, or more full of squee than I am right now. As everyone who reads Liz's posts here and at Tea Cozy knows, she is brilliant, thoughtful, fair, and funny, which is about as fine a combination of qualities a Printz Committee member can have.

Mazel Tov, Smartie. You earned it.

In other fabulous YALSA/NJ news, Friends of Pop Sarah Cornish Debraski is YALSA President-Elect, and Sharon Rawlins is on the Margaret A. Edwards Committee. A great day for NJ librarians, I'd say.