A huge thanks to the kids at Elsmere, Clarksville and the Learning Project for the super-ridiculously-awesome cards and pictures. They were all incredible. THANK YOU!
I'll try to post some for everyone to see.
Very pleased to say that I will be venturing east to the land of Pedroia and Puritanism on April 27, 2011. I'll be reading and speaking at the Learning Project in the Back Bay, where my sister Mary teaches. (And where the future of US Soccer, Mr. M., attends.) Get those questions and ideas ready!
I'll also be stopping by the Wee Care preschool in JP for a reading with my nephew Andre.
I am wicked psyched.
I had a super time visiting Clarksville Elementary and Elsmere Elementary this week.
The kids were ready to go! All that creative energy and the fantastic questions and comments had me on my toes. It was very inspiring and gratifying to meet so many sharp young writers and artists. Keep it up!
Special thanks to Principal Melanie Painter at Clarksville, Principal Kate Kloss at Elsmere, and especially to Librarian Anne Rappoccio, who coordinated the whole thing.
...for this extremely nice note that I received from Susan Fowler at the Delaware Community School in Albany following my visit there:
"During our Spring Literacy Festival this past March, my second graders were treated to a visit by author Andrew Pelletier.
From the moment he stepped into the class he engaged and delighted the children. My students are very excited about writing, so having a "real writer" to visit was something special. Andy talked to the kids about what it's like to write a book.He went over the process from ideas to publishing. They were very interested in his "idea book" where he writes down images or notes for future stories. Andy then read his delightful adventure "Bathman" which the children really enjoyed.
Our favorite part of Andy's visit was when he opened the floor to questions. They couldn't keep their hands down! Even the shyest kids had SOMETHING they wanted to know about becoming an author. The kids later surrounded Andy wanting autographs! You would have thought Justin Bieber was in the room! Even better than Justin Bieber, having Andy visit was a real treat!
Thanks again Andy!"
No, THANK YOU. I had a great time. Keep writing, you guys.
I am not the type of writer who spends a lot of time on research-- if I need a fact, I tend to make it up. But there are occasions when I find myself in a bit of a quandary-- how would that work? how would they do that?-- and I find myself heading to Wikipedia or even to an actual reference book for some backup. It's typically something obscure, something to lend authenticity to the backstory. So, today the question was "how do farmers separate milk from cream?" Milk separators? I don't need to know much about them, really, and the answer will likely never make it into the story that i'm working on, but I'll know just enough to be dangerous. Hopefully that will make things more believable.
The eighth novel in this series by Jacqueline Winspear comes out today. It's a truly engaging series. Maisie Dobbs has risen from the lower classes, survived being badly wounded in WWI, and now plies her trade as a private investigator/psychologist in London between the wars. There are many threads interwoven with the mystery angle... post war traumas, anxiety about the rise of Hitler, and a large dollop of class conflict make these very satisfying. The writing is top notch.
Here are a few more ice sculptures, inspired as always by standing stones, steles and barrows
I'm happy to announce that I'll be doing a reading at the Delaware Community School in Albany, NY on Wednesday, March 23. Looking forward to it!!
Remember all that stuff I said back in January about loving the new snow? I take it back.
Romantic balderdash, every bit of it. I'm just in from an hour or so wrestling the snowblower, and hibernation has a decided attraction. Winter? I'm done with it, man.
The new Alan Bradley novel is out, the third featuring the 11 year old protagonist, Flavia De Luce. If you aren't on to these books, you should be. A crumbling pile, rural England in the 50's, an hilariously dysfunctional family, and Flavia-- part mad scientist, part super sleuth-- your typical 11 year old with a morbid interest in making poison and a nose for trouble. Add some murder and mayhem. Superb reading for adults and a certain sort of precocious child- you know who you are.
I'm very pleased to announce some upcoming school visits...
First, on February 18th, which I just realized is next week, I'll be paying a return visit to my 1st Grade friends at Voorheesville Elementary. Thanks once again to Ms. Mancuso for setting things up.
Then, on April 5th I'll be heading over the back roads to Clarksville Elementary, right in the shadow of the Helderberg, followed immediately by an April 6th visit to my friend Rowan and her compadres at Elsmere Elementary. Its my first visit to both schools, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing you all. Thanks to Ms. Rappoccio for making the arrangements.
See you very soon! Get those ideas and questions flowing!
I've always loved a good snow storm, especially the first major one of the year. That feeling of everything being whitewashed and fresh, the sense that the world has shrunk and that you have no choice but to settle into your safe little cocoon with a cup of hot chocolate and a really interesting book...
Even now, when I have to shovel and snowblow, a deep new snow is wondrous. I like the softness spread over the ground, clean and unmarred and ready for anything, like a new page in a notebook. You have so little time to enjoy it before everything gets all tracked up and dirty.
Happy New Year to you all!!
Thanks to everyone who bought or read one of my books or had a kind thought for me, and thanks to the kids (and teachers) who sat through one of my readings this year. I really love the feedback.
(A special note to Mrs. Landa Latta's second grade class way down in Caroline-- thanks for the awesome notes-- look for something from me soon!)
Hope we run into each other in 2011. Not literally, of course.
Hello, you brilliant and charming 2nd graders at Efland Cheeks Elementary in Efland, NC. Just confirmed that i'll be coming your way for a reading and brainstorming session next Monday (wait-- is it really NEXT Monday? Holy Cow!), which by my reading of the sun spots and phases of the moon is November 22. Get those questions ready and notebooks humming.
See you soon!
Andy
Maddie and I took a foliage trip up into Washington County (NY) not too long ago. I love it up there-- its like Vermont without the crowds. We love to wander aimlessly on the dirt roads, turning whenever something looks interesting or mysterious, getting semi-lost on purpose. Maddie makes me stop at every half-forgotten graveyard, which of course is no hardship.
We stopped for a while at the Eagleville covered bridge and drew together.
I'm very proud to attach a Youtube link to my band, the College Farm, being joined by the LEGENDARY (and I mean it) Jason Ringenberg of Jason and the Scorchers. You younger folks might know him as the equally legendary Farmer Jason. The song (in case you can't recognize it) is "Lost Highway" by Hank Williams; that's my big brother Matt on drums and yours truly bashing, quite ridiculously, on that Telecaster. Our bassist, the brilliant Josh Herzog, got left on the cutting room floor, but he's in there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxBvmMZgq3Y&feature=related
This was in August at the fantastic Livestock festival in my hometown in the Catskills. John Finn is the ringleader for the event, and he does some kind of job.
A Quote from JRR Tolkien about how he came to the Lord of the Rings-- where do ideas come from?
"One writes such a story not out of the leaves of trees still to be observed, nor by means of botany and soil science; but it grows like a seed out of the leaf-mould of the mind; out of all that has been seen or thought or read, that has been long forgotten, descending into the deeps. No doubt there is much selection, as with a gardener: what one throws on one's personal compost heap..."
We have a lovely new black and white kitten, name of Joan Jett. (My daughter was going through a sort of glam-rock/80's rock phase-- she's passed on to the Beatles, now). I really love JJ, but she is continually climbing onto my desk and thence onto the keyboard. It is very distracting and driving me batty. This morning she jumped off and took the "f" key with her. Its not one of my primary letters, but still...
Any suggestions on what to do to dissuade this behavior? Or will it be "I hate myself for loving you" all the time?
Speaking of Joan Jett, my band, the College Farm, has shared a bill a couple of times with Roscoe (Eric Ambel) who played with (the real) JJ and the Blackhearts in their heyday and then formed the Del-Lords back in the early 80's. How's that for a six degrees of separation moment?
Hi Uncle Andy! I can't wait for you to visit my school and read to my class! Ms. Brinkley and Ms. Hargadon are really looking forward to it.
We love you,
Marco and André