First Book salutes the men and women whose service each day keeps us all a bit safer. Since August 4, 1790, when Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton’s proposal to build ten cutters to protect the new nation’s revenue, this date has marked the officially recognized birthday of the Coast Guard.
Our friends at the USCG honored First Book by choosing us as their signature charity in 2000. Since then, we’ve distributed more than 15 million books together. The USCG has supported literacy across the land with warehouse space to store books waiting for homes and with manpower to sort and distribute books to children in need.
Right now, you can help. Click daily to extend a virtual handshake of salute to thank the “Coasties” for all they do.
“Thanks for doing your part to keep our coasts safe and for providing new books for children who don’t have any other way to get them. Keep up the good work!” - First Book supporter
Every handshake at www.firstbook.org/uscg donates one new book for a child in need.
Happy Birthday USCG!
On July 5th, I had the honor of visiting Tacoma, Washington to kick off summer reading with First Book and the United States Coast Guard’s Handshake Tour! As you may know, First Book is the signature charity of the Coast Guard and for the next few weeks First Book will be hosting private reading parties aboard the USCG Tall Ship Eagle to generate new books for children in need. How does it work? Everyone that tours the Eagle will be invited to shake hands with a Coastie on board - each handshake will provide a new book for a child in need.
Although the day started out rainy (I know surprise, surprise) the sun soon came out and we were greeted by a group of smiling 1st and 2nd grade children from the nearby Bordeaux School. The kids and adults alike were thrilled to tour the 295-foot vessel and each child walked away from the day with three beautiful new books!
This weekend First Book and the USCG are heading to San Francisco for the next stop of the tour – July 24 through July 28 - so if you’re in the Bay area, come down to tour the Eagle and help bring new books to children who need them! If you are not able to make it in person, you can still help by virtually shaking a Coastie’s hand at www.firstbook.org/uscg.
Lots of people wrote to tell me that X-Rays were needed for TB tests, and some people suggested that they were in hand-baggage as they might be fogged by X-Rays in checked baggage, but no-one explained why there seemed no mechanism for anyone ever to look at the (quite expensive, and carried over in hand-baggage), x-rays until this arrived from Mr Petit...
Having been a commanding officer in the UK -- meaning I had to supervise
airmen and NCOs under my command when they wanted to bring their UK brides
back to the US -- I had to chuckle when I saw the note about the x-ray.
It's not required by the immigration folks (either Division 6, or anyone
else). Since it's a different federal agency, I'm not surprised that an INS
employee wouldn't know about it. It's required by the US Public Health
Service, for everyone, regardless of nationality, who is trying to immigrate.
And they do, on occasion, get checked, but only if there's advance reason to
believe there's "a substantial risk of exposure." For example, you can bet
that flights on foreign-flag carriers originating in, say, Nairobi get more
scrutiny than would a BA or AA flight from Heathrow.
The relevant statute was passed in 1938 (there may have been a predecessor,
but I doubt it) and hasn't been updated yet. What a surprise.
And this came in from my editor Jennifer Brehl at Harper Collins about the free American Gods -- I'm putting it up because she says it better than I could paraphrase it:
First of all, the online edition has been optimized and the embedded pages are moving much faster. I’ve asked that the widget confusion be fixed – i.e., open up widget to full book rather than older partial version.
We’re wondering if you might have some time tomorrow that we could call you and we could have a conference call to discuss things? We want your fans to know that we are responsive to their concerns and, although it’s painful getting the criticism, it’s also a good learning opportunity.
So there will be a conference call, and I'll report back on it.
...
-MikeOh good.
(And I should mention, I loved
this Michael Chabon New Yorker article about Superhero costumes.)
Hello Neil,
I am going to the Easter Con in Heathrow because I'd like to hear you. Could you recommend which day would have the most Neil-time or most Neil-events? I know I'm not made of the right stuff since I might have to be selective about the days at the con, and even though I'd love to build my own battle-ready space ship, I still would like to get two flies with one swat....being battle-ready an'all (Ahem!).
Thank you,
HenrietteFrom the schedule, it looks like it's definitely Sunday.
http://www.orbital2008.org/sunday.pdf -- and you get a
Mitch Benn concert into the bargain.
...
Dave McKean says he doesn't mind me putting up his sketches for
The Graveyard Book cover...
So to bring you up to speed...
Dave
did a cover while I was writing the book. As the book continued, it became sort of obvious that the cover was younger than the book was, and we needed a cover that told adults that this was a book for them too.
So I finished the book and Dave read the book and did a bunch of sketches, all of which made me happy, and all of which felt a lot more like the book I'd written...
All of these are sketches, it's worth pointing out -- roughs for me and the various editors and art departments to look at and choose from. It's not finished art, nor is it meant to be.
(The actual typeface is something Dave plans to scan in and create from photos of old gravestones.)
And in the next post I'll tell you what the response was, and which one we wound up going with and why.