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I am standing at the mouth of the Cave of Revision, impatiently waiting for the coffee pot to finish making coffee. I think I have a few more long days on this revision before I turn it in.

So. Here are my rambling, hurry-up-coffee-pot notes:

1. Yesterday, I corresponded with readers in Brazil and Norway. How cool is that?

2. My latest obsession is worm castings. Yes, that is a polite word for worm poop. I am gardening organically this year and worms are my new best friends. I am looking for a source in Central New York, if anyone knows of one. So far, I've been ordering them from Vermont, and am having a friend's family (who are in the business of producing worm poop, don't ask) bring me some on their next visit to the area.

Go ahead, laugh, but you should see what it is doing to my broccoli plants.

3. If you live in Michigan, please vote for the Thumbs Up! Award by May 30th! (twistedtwistedtwistedtwisted)

4. Little birds have been reporting that the TWISTED paperback version is turning up in stores in one of those cardboard stands. (Those are called dumps, but after my discussion of worm poop, I am not going there.) Have you seen one?

5. When you are in the bookstore, be sure to buy Tanya Lee Stone's newest wonderful picture book: Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote. It has been named a Book Links Best New Books of 2008, and a Booklist Top Ten Youth Biography, and is sure to garner more awards soon.

Not only is it a wonderful book, but Tanya just made a generous contribution that brought my Beloved Husband's fund raising efforts to his goal of $2,500!!! ALL HAIL TANYA! (Please give her some love on her blog!)

The fund raising is done! The fund raising is done! Our nice friends chipped in $5000 for cancer research! ::dances around the cave!!

Now all we have to do is run 13.1 miles on June 15th! ::sits down on cave floor::

No, really, our training has been going very well, so it shouldn't be a problem. We ran 13.3 miles two weeks ago, and had a hilly 10.5 mile run on Sunday. That one aggravated some tendon issues, but everything will heal in time because I said it would.

6. INDEPENDENT DAMES received another awesome blog review. This one is of particular interest to middle school teachers.

7. CHAINS has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild selection!

8. Did I mention how great my broccoli looks?

The coffee is done and my characters are whining for me to hurry up because they have a lot to do today. See ya!

I dashed outside the Cave of Revision this morning and it's true: it is almost Spring up here on the tundra. In fact, I think it will happen today, while I am deeply buried in my story.

I won't be able to haunt the Forest with my camera to pounce on the Absolute Moment, so here is the closest I can come to proving this to you.

Here the Creature With Fangs poses next to one of the last piles of snow we have.

Next: daffodils on the brink of blooming. (Yes, those daffodils, mentioned in '06!) I tried to get the CWF to pose here, too, but she was more interested in crushing the plants with her paws. I threw a stick in the other direction and snapped this shot.

Thank you to everyone who donated to my husband's Race for Cancer. There is still time to help our cause and get some of the free LHA goodies mentioned earlier this week (scroll to bottom of post).

Attention New England SCBWI Conference attenders! Today is Day 5 of my 21-Day Writing Challenge. How's it going for you? I'd love to hear what you're doing - leave a note in the Comments section and pass the word along to the other folks who were there.

OK, back into the Cave I go.

I'm emerging briefly from the Cave of Revision (where I had a very nice epiphany yesterday, thank you, and now I'm pretty sure I know how to fix the part that wasn't working in this story) to check the calendar.

Note: there is a chance to win free books ahead, including a collectible first edition. Keep reading!

Gasp. We only have 61 days until the half-marathon in Lake Placid.

::reaches for running shoes::
::slaps self and points to massive manuscript and mountain of notes::

Truth be told I ran yesterday, so today is a cross-training day (w00t). So far this year, I've done pretty good sticking to my goal of running 20 miles a week. As of yesterday, when I staggered up the driveway, I have run 303 miles since January 1st. The snow is finally gone up here on the tundra, so I've abandoned the treadmill in favor of hilly country roads well-stocked with rotting roadkill.

New readers of the blog might be wondering why on earth I'm doing all this running. My husband and I have vowed to raise $5,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training fund. The money goes for research into the causes of and treatments for blood cancers, which kills an American every ten minutes. My cousin is fighting this disease right now so it is a cause that means a great deal to our family.

Note: You're almost to the part where you get to win the free stuff! Keep reading!

Because I know a million, bazillion people, I was able to meet my fundraising goal last month. My studly, adorable, patient, quick-witted husband (yeah, that's him in the photo) is not far behind, but he could use a little help. He is 60% of the way to his goal. All he needs is another $1,000. But he needs it soon. (Photo by Sonya Sones, BTW.)

Here's where the bribery begins... I mean, here's the free stuff!!!!


If you donate $50 toward Scot's goal, I will send you a free audiobook of TWISTED (seen here hanging out with the revisions of my WIP).

If you donate $100, I'll send the audiobook and a special surprise.

If you donate $500, I will send you a very rare, first edition, first printing copy of SPEAK. No one had high hopes for the book when it was published, so the first print run was limited. Here is your chance to snag a collectible.

Or you can donate what you can afford and receive our everlasting gratitude and a really good feeling in your heart. Come on. You're about to get a check from the government. Here's a way to put it to good use.

Please help us. It's for a good cause.

It's time for an update about our Team for Training run. My husband and I are running the Lake Placid Half Marathon on June 15th in honor of my cousin, Darcy Skinner, who is fighting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. We joined the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training and decided to raise a total of $5,000 for the cause.

Thanks to readers and friends across the country, my part of the effort has reached its goal of $2,500. Now it's time to support my Beloved Husband. He needs to raise $1485 to meet his goal.

Simon & Schuster has offered to help. Starting today, the next ten people who donate at least $20 to Scot's run will receive a free Advanced Reading Copy of my next book, CHAINS. The book doesn't come out until October. If you are one of the lucky donors, you'll get your copy in June! (One rule - you must be at least 18 years old qualify.)

Donate right now! It's so easy! Click! Click! Click!



Thank you!

OK, one more dash from the Cave of Revision, this time to pick up medicine, dump the tissue-filled trash basket, and proclaim thanks and celebration throughout the Forest because my fundraising goal for the Team in Training Half Marathon has been met. Karen McQuestion, a Wisconsin journalist now working on a novel, put me over the top, and is the happy winner of the audio version of TWISTED. Thank you, Karen! Thank you, everyone who contributed! Because of you, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society can save lives.

But....

.... it's not over. You see, it's called the Team in Training. My teammate is my best friend and Beloved Husband, Scot. Since my name is on the books, it's easy for me to beg for donations. Trust me, my friends, if it were not for this guy, the books would not get written. He keeps me going in more ways than I can count.

Scot is 29% of the way to his goal. Please donate to the hottest bald guy in running shorts! He makes the world a better place.

New Topic: Attention teachers of FEVER 1793! There is a terrible outbreak of yellow fever in Paraguay right now.

One more thing: I stayed up last night to watch the eclipse. We had a foot of snow the night before so the the back meadow was hushed and brilliant with a million moon-filled diamonds sparkling. As the dragon ate the moon, the snow dimmed and fell into shadow. Then the stars came out, exuberantly, like a chorus that's been impatiently waiting its cue. BH stood with me as the dragon swallowed the moon and her belly lit up red. A dog down the road couldn't stop howling. We understood what he felt.

I woke up early this morning and watched the moon set, and am now watching a beautiful sunrise. In the middle of all these revisions, with kids home on vacation, plus the hacking, disgusting cough, having these still moments in the real world of moon and stars and sleeping meadows is quite nice.

Back to the Cave. Miles to go before I sleep.

I am dashing outside the Cave of Revision for a quick breath of fresh air. All is going fairly well. I am working long days, but love being so submerged in my story. One of the characters is now found only on the cutting room floor. Eliminating her cleared up all kinds of structural problems in the text.

Now if I could just get rid of the hamsters who have taken up residence in my lungs, life would be peachy. I am coughing like a seal with a three-pack a day habit, a seal who hangs out under the dock and steals French fries from unsuspecting tourists, a seal who works as a carnie with a traveling fair and writes rambling screeds about walrus conspiracy theories. I sound like a Seal Gone Bad.

Thanks to a generous contribution from Mary Pearson and Aliya, who contributed from England (!), I am 94% on the way to making my Team in Training fund raising goal. All I need is another $150. Will you put me over the top?

OK, the fresh air is killing me. Back into the cave I go.


2008 Resolution Tracker
Week 7 - Miles Run: 22, YTD: 146.75
Week 7 - Days Written: 7, YTD: 49

45 weeks left this year.

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?

We got about 18 inches of snow yesterday. The Forest looks like someone painted it with thick fondant icing. I drove through a white-out down to Syracuse (where they didn't get any of the storm at all, not even a flake) so I could talk about writing historical fiction to a group of teachers.

These weary warriors had worked all day, then came to the OCM BOCES for my talk, which is part of an ongoing series for history teachers. Thank you all for your kind attention and for the pickles.

Today is a spinning plate day. I have to go over the page proofs for Independent Dames with magnifying glasses and a fine-toothed comb, work on my WIP draft, send more content to Theo for the website update, deal with old email and sneak in a run.

Speaking of running (yeah, you knew that was coming, didn't you?).... I am 81% of the way to reaching my fundraising goal for the the Team in Training Half Marathon. (The money goes to fund cancer research, which pretty much affects everyone, so share some love. Please.) I will send a copy of the TWISTED audio version to whomever puts me over the top!

And thank you, kmessner for the shout-out!

Last but not least, my daughter Stef sent along a link to an article about the increasing number of women facing sexual assault on college campuses after drinking alcohol. The article slams the researchers for their approach to the issue. Comments, anyone?


2008 Resolution Tracker
Week 6 - Miles Run: 20 (3.1 of which were rather chilly), YTD: 124.75
Week 6 - Days Written: 7, YTD: 42

46 weeks left this year.

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

OMG, I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is better than oatmeal.
This is better than an armful of library books.
This is better than finishing a draft.

My Beloved Husband and I are going to make a difference.

We've joined the Team in Training, a kick-butt group that raises money for cancer research for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. BH and I will be running the Lake Placid Half Marathon (yep, 13.1 glorious miles) on June 15, 2008. We are trying to raise $5000 in support of this run.

Why should you give a hoot about this? Because we need your help.

Please go to the Laurie Halse Anderson Team Website and make a donation there.

If you want to support the guy-side of this effort, go to BH's site and give money there..

Between the two of us, we're trying to raise $5,000. If you help, we can achieve the goal.

After you donate (and I thank you loudly), please ask someone else to help. TEACHERS - this is a great classroom project - a way to show how adults incorporate physical fitness in their lives as well as a chance for your students to give back. LIBRARIANS - ditto. What about your book club? Your critique group? Your kidlit buddies who get together for drinks on Friday nights? If everybody tosses a couple of dollars into the pot, we can change lives and change the world.

What? You still have questions? Let them fly.

Hey, Writerlady! I thought you were really busy with writing. How are you going to make time for this, too?
We already run four times a week. Last month I did two 10-milers, so covering the distances won't be a problem (though it won't be pretty, either). It won't take any extra time and I promise the new books will be done on schedule.

But, wait. You've had melanoma. Your mom, aunt, and cousin had breast cancer. Why aren't you raising money for those cancers?
Because another cousin of mine, Darcy Skinner, is fighting non-Hodgkins lymphoma today and I want to help him.

Are you going to send me annoying emails about this?
If I have corresponded with you by email, then yes. So why not give a little right now and save yourself the trouble? If you are a new friend, or someone I only know through KW or SCBWI, you won't be getting an email. It would be unethical to use the private contact information from those groups for this. So I hope you read my blog and will take it from there.

OK, OK, my wallet is open and I'm making a donation. What else can I do to help?
Spread the word. Feel free to post about this on your blog, to email friends, to bring it up at faculty meetings and at the coffee pot.

Any other questions?

Thank you so much!!!