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at the butterfly gardenAny parent in the mid-Atlantic likely has heard the pleas: take me to Hershey Park!

And yeah, I think it's worth the drive to Pennsylvania (from DC, at least) and it deserves the hype. Our first grader LOVED it, as much as any Disney park. But while you're there, consider staying overnight and going to the Hershey Gardens. 

The Garden started as the private estate of the Hershey family, and now anybody can tour it. Of course it's a haven for anybody who likes to garden--but that's not me. My speciality is killing plants. Still, I took our son there because I had a few hours to kill last June while my husband was at the Chocolate Spa (across the street), and I'd heard there was some sort of scavenger hunt. 

Boy is there a scavenger hunt. The people at Hershey Garden are clever. Even before you get to the ticket window, they have an adorable garden hut set up with bright kid-sized gardening tools and a peppy smiling worker. For ten bucks you get your own scavenger hunt, a pencil, and one of the tools for a prize when you leave and turn in a completed hunt.

My kid went from whining and dragging to having a mission. We also loved the beautiful large butterfly house--mid June was the perfect time to visit it--and just wandering through the expansive grounds. But the scavenger hunt was the big hit.

We've got a bright red hoe in our garage, now, just waiting for my kid to use it. He hasn't touched it yet. Clearly we share some of the same gardening genes.

But for ten bucks, I got plenty of time to see the garden and I got a kid happy to be there. 

I wish every museum and garden was this smart!

I have never been the world's best dancer, but I like to think I make up for it with enthusiasm. Witness my dancing childhood self, at right, all gussied up for a dance recital.

These days I don't do any recitals, but I still love dancing, especially for fitness. At home I'm hooked on Dance Central and the Zumba X-Box games, and at the gym I like Zumba. But what I LOVE is Body Jam. 

Body Jam is a group fitness class that I've heard people compare to Jazzercize, conceptualized by fitness megabusiness Les Mills. It has a set routine to current music--a lot of dance and house music, plus some pop and salsa--that every teacher must teach in the same way. You do the same routine, or "cycle", for four months (I wish it were three!). So at first pretty much everybody in the class is a total mess, missing half the moves. But by the end of the fourth month, if you squint, you could pretend that you're all in a Glee number. I mean, if you REALLY squint. 

The feel of Body Jam is a lot more "street" than any Zumba class I've taken. A lot of that comes from the music, but also from the moves, which can include a lot of body waves, sassy snaps, and hip swirls.

Zumba is a lot of fun, but the quality of the class depends on the instructor. I've been to classes that barely lifted my heart rate, and others that wiped me out--all at the same gym. But with Body Jam, the instructors go to special classes to learn how to teach, and they are tested pretty rigorously. They get very detailed videos and tip sheets with each cycle, showing them just how to teach the class. I find this means you get a much higher quality of instruction. 

I also find that Body Jam is a lot better workout than Zumba. It's carefully mapped out to keep your heart rate up, but it also offers breaks just when you need them the most. 

You can search the Les Mills website to find a Body Jam class near you. If you try it, be sure to tell me how you liked it! I'll be the one in the front row, flailing and jumping and grinning the entire time. 

And here's a teaser video for one of the recent releases:

Dad, full of retortIn honor of what would have been my father's 71st birthday on Saturday, I am sharing his questionable advice on how to respond to bullies.

These are three retorts he suggested I use when somebody teased or taunted me:

1. "Look! A dead bird!". When shouting this, you must point your finger up to the sky and track the flight of the "dead" bird. (I actually stole this and used it in CANDOR)

2. "Simply". (Apparently this was something my father heard a lot during his Peace Corps days in India)

3. "The water is in the cooler." (The only time I tried this, I got punched in the stomach. Hard. I still don't understand what it means.)

If you do try one of these, I advise lacing up your sneakers tightly first--and being ready to run.

Ambika at Smithsonian's National ZooWe're moving to sunny Florida in June. That leaves us 14 weekends to explore the DC area. Here's my short list of what we've got to do before we go. What would you add, DC friends?

• Go to the National Zoo and see the finally-finished elephant habitat
• Explore the Hirshorn museum on the National Mall--we still haven't made it there
• Get Little Dude to a Washington Capitals game, which he's never been to
• See the Constitution at the National Archives
• One last burger at Good Stuff Eatery in Capitol Hill

I can't stop thinking about the new video for Katie Herzig's song LOST AND FOUND. 

Is the sheet a distress signal? Did she expect an answer when she hung it up? Who's shining that light? Do they do this all the time, or has she been trying for years, hoping one day for an answer?

AND WHERE DID THE FLASHLIGHT PERSON GO? Will they be back? 

Is it even a person?

Completely haunting.

trying out a yoke to carry waterFor Mother's Day, I told my family, I wanted one thing: a research trip.

For my current project, I wanted to experience frontier life in the Virginia/West Virginia area. So we headed off to the Frontier Culture Museum, which is about two-and-a-half hours south of DC.

As I recently wrote in this blog, I love to experience the settings that inspire my novels. This was a great way to crawl back into history and experience it directly. The Frontier Culture Museum has real (relocated and reconstructed) homes that tie to different parts of Virginia's frontier history. They've got part of a West African village, homes from England, Ireland and Germany, and then three American homes too.

The homes are furnished according to the time, and many have costumed interpreters that know a LOT about the home they are in--as well as the history of that time. I think one of my favorite things was watching a man play a hummel--a German "peasant" stringed instrument. He was excellent. Every single interpreter taught me something new, and they were game for any question. Which was good, because Little Dude's stock question at each house was "where do you go to the bathroom?" (Actually that led to some fascinating discussions!)

If you can make it to Virginia and you're working on a story that involves 1700s or 1800s Ireland, England, Germany or America, this is a fantatic place to go. I guarantee your story will be much richer for it.

They also have a great bookstore. I've got a pile of books to work through. My poor family will also likely be subjected to some fine frontier cooking, thanks to my new Log Cabin Cooking cookbook. My only regret? That we didn't buy the game Little Dude played with an interpreter, "the graces" (at left). He LOVED it. I didn't tell him it was typically played by girls to make them more graceful!

If you haven’t yet seen this video take a look. It will brighten your day.

I’m still playing with pen and ink, except this week I decided to use a brush instead of a pen. All month I’ve been paying tribute to Dr. Seuss (his 108th birthday was March second). This week I drew Horton hearing a Who … and a What, Where, Why, When, and How! He’s holding all those worlds in his trunk. I drew him with a classic pair of sunglasses because the prompt for Illustration Friday this week is shades. Horton with sunglasses made him look like a cop or a government agent, which was a perfect way to introduce the idea that Horton was a U.S Marshall. He put the other worlds under witness protection (from the monkeys). That’s why you didn’t know he heard anyone other than a Who. He’s got a U.S. Marshall badge around his neck, just like Mary wears hers on In Plain Sight (final season starts this weekend).

I’m drawing a Dr. Seuss inspired image each week in March. I’m trying to tie them in to the Illustration Friday prompt if possible too. Last week was The Cat in the Hat (and his brother). This week is a picture that combines two Dr. Seuss books, Oh, The Places You’ll Go, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and it includes a Yield sign for the IF prompt. I’ve always liked the cover image of Oh, The Places You’ll Go, with the stripes of color, and also the inside picture of the boy at the crossroads. I combined those two for the main image. I added a Yield sign so that the boy would stop to let the fish (from One Fish, Two Fish …) drive by. Here’s the whole image, with a close up/crop below so you can see the characters. I’ve re-named it: Oh, The Places You’ll Fish!

Close up of fish in car, boy, and Yield Sign:

I love to combine ideas and prompts to create pictures. It’s a fun illustration exercise. For me, it’s similar to the writing exercise where you get a list of words and you have to find a way to fit them into a paragraph, or a scene. I think I like it because it forces my mind to make connections between things that I never would have thought of otherwise. Those connections sometimes spin off into more ideas, which create even more ideas, if you’re lucky.

Have you ever combined ideas/prompts for an illustration exercise or a writing exercise?

The next entry in a weekly-ish series inspired by Todd Warshaw's daily 366pixels photo blog. I pick a photo and write exactly 366 characters--not including spaces--inspired by it.

Copyright Todd Warshaw. All rights reserved.

When Ben told his parents that Mr. Sparx was a magician, they smiled. It was the same smile he got when he announced, at age four, that he was going to build a spiral staircase to the moon.

“And I’m a gnome,” his father laughed.

But Ben had seen the glowing lights shoot from Mr. Sparx’s finger and dance over the yard.

He knew it was true.

So on Tuesday, Ben knocked on his neighbor’s door.

“Want to go to the moon?” he asked. “Because I’ve got a plan.”

I’ve been playing around with pen and ink lately. I used to use it quite a bit, but haven’t for years. This week, in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday* (he would have been 108 today), I decided to do an ink drawing of The Cat In The Hat. What you might not know is that The Cat In The Hat has a brother.** I decided to draw him too. Unfortunately for the fish, the brother is more trouble than The Cat In The Hat! It also works for Illustration Friday this week. The prompt is, “intention,” as in, The Cat In The Hat had good intentions, but his brother had other ideas. Poor fish!

This is more of a sketch than finished art. If you look closely, you can probably see the pencil lines I forgot to erase. Also, I used a new ink that for some reason faded to grey in places (won’t be using that ink again). I added the color digitally. Overall, I like the image, even with the ink weirdness.

Are you doing anything to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday? Today is also Read Across America. Go ahead, celebrate both of them!

* If I have time, I’m going to do Dr. Seuss inspired art once and week in March and post it on Friday. Hope I have time; this was fun!

** Dr. Seuss never mentioned a brother for The Cat In The Hat, but since most cats have more than one kitten, I decided he had a brother, or maybe it’s his sister.

I was amused to see that one of the web searches that leads visitors to my site is "how does DROUGHT end"?

Well, kids who have to write a report but are faced with too little time and too much pages, it's your lucky day. Here's the ending.

• Ruby leaves the woods and becomes a Country-Western singer. Her first #1 song is titled "CONSTANT SCRAPING".
• Sula convinces Darwin West to build FOREVER WATERS, a luxury resort on his property. He appoints her to the role of Boss Lady. Guests come from all over to bathe in the resorts' supposedly miraculous waters.
• Sula's weekly services are offered to all FOREVER WATERS guests, which sparks a new worldwide religion. Her followers call themselves the Thirsties.
• All of the Congregants become resort employees: chambermaids, front desk workers, and cooks. The cooks aren't very good. They haven't made anything decent in 200 years. 
• Hope and Gabe open an organic farm that supplies most of the resort's food. Also, it has those cool goats that faint when you make a loud noise (at right).
• Otto shows up. It turns out that he's been busy in the entertainment industry, operating under his fake name: Dick Clark.
• Jonah leaves and becomes a world-famous poker player. 
• Ford becomes a priest. Yeah, sorry about that, but did you really think it would be an entirely happy ending? (Well.. it's happy for the Church...)

So, there you go. The ending. 

Right?

Or maybe you SHOULD read the whole thing... authors are notoriously untrustworthy...

This year, for the first time, Little Dude asked me to MAKE the cake for his birthday party. 

For a moment I sat, stunned. "You don't want me to get it from the bakery?"

"No, I want you to make me chocolate chip-cookie dough cupcakes. Because I love your baking the best." He flashed me a smile and dashed off to play Ninjago or Pokemon or some other game that involves teenish boy-men smacking each other with magical creatures or swords. 

Because he loves my baking the best.

I was sunk.

Happily, I found that chocolate-chip-cookie-dough cupcakes are quite The Thing on the internet. I made my own with this mix of methods, with my very own mixed but tasty results: 

1. I made the this "cookie dough stuffing" recipe for the middle and froze it overnight, which all the recipes seem to agree is critical. I went with an eggless recipe because I really didn't want all of Little Dude's friends to get food poisoning along with their rock-and-roll goody bags at the party.

2. I mixed up a boxed yellow cake mix and filled the cupcake tins. Then I plopped a dough ball in each. No need to cover it or otherwise mess with it. The cake will take care of it.

Now here's the first thing I wish I had done differently. I didn't have any boy-birthday-appropriate cupcake wrappers/papers: I only had Christmas ones. So I merrily sprayed the heck out of the pans and trusted that would work. 

Wrong. I spent a lot of time and anxious energy trying to coax those cupcakes out of the pans. Thankfully, first graders don't really evaluate whether a cupcake is PERFECT before shoving it in their mouths. Husbands are a different story. They point out the raggedy sides. And then they shove the cupcake in their mouths. 

And then I boot them out of the kitchen.

3. After the cupcakes cooled, I frosted them with icing that tastes like cookie dough--for real. This stuff tastes AMAZING. 

But here was my second mistake: the recipe says to dump all of the confectioners sugar in at once, then blend. DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE. The sugar went everywhere. Happily for me, my sweet and helpful mother was visiting. As she wiped away probably a half pound of sugar, she simply smiled and said, "you have never done anything halfway, my dear". Look, at left. She really did smile.

Blend the sugar in gradually. Little bits at a time. Or you'll wish you had listened to me.

So how were the cupcakes? Raggedy. Rich. Delicious. I would definitely make these again, so long as I had suitable cupcake wrappers. In fact I have some extra dough balls stashed in the freezer, just waiting for another opportunity to whip these up. 

Little Dude's review: "They were really good, Mom. But I didn't like the frosting."

Me: "Oh. OK. Well, I won't freeze the leftovers to put in your school lunches, then."

Little Dude, panicked: "Wait, no, you can freeze them. I'd eat them for LUNCH." (As opposed to breakfast, I guess... not that we EVER have cake for breakfast in this house...)

So, you might want to consider vanilla frosting if you're making these for kids. But for grown-ups? Go whole-hog and do the dough frosting!

If you're launching into revisions, listen to BULLETPROOF by La Roux for inspiration. Consider it for an anthem, even.

Some of my favorite lyrics:

Been there, done that, messed around

I'm having fun, don't put me down

I'll never let you sweep me off my feet...

and:

Burning bridges, shore to shore

I break away from something more...

The video is worth watching just for the major 80s flashbacks:

I just joined Pinterest and I had a lot of fun making a little "board" of presents for Ruby, the main character in my novel DROUGHT. Check it out; I hope you love it!

Next up: presents for Oscar. If you have ideas, leave me comments or make your own Pinterest board and let me know where it is!

I'm re-writing the climactic battle scene of my work-in-progress this morning. Music always inspires me, so I put together a short playlist on repeat. I'll be listening until the last word of the chapter is written. Here are the songs:

1. Mermaids by Hans Zimmer, from the soundtrack for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

2. The Battle by Harry Gregson-Williams, from the soundtrack for THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

3. Dragon Battle by John Powell from the soundtrack for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

4. Mutiny by Hans Zimmer, from the soundtrack for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

5. Massive Attack by Nicki Minaj (if my writing pace is slowing, this song will pick it up again, guaranteed...)

I'm realizing that I have tons of energetic songs in iTunes but not a ton of crazy-aggressive fighting ones. I might need to grab a few more if this chapter goes on for awhile...

Here's the video for Massive Attack. I want my mother to know I previewed the whole thing and there is nothing TOO crazy inappropriate with the dancing (sorry if that's what you were hoping for....) :)

I've been thinking a lot about this, and I think Pokemon is basically like Hunger Games meets Wild Animal Kingdom.

I felt bad for the contestants in Hunger Games and I feel bad for these little Pokemon too.

These rare creatures with highly limited vocabularies (they can only say one word--their name--with varying inflections) are minding their own business, living in the seemingly endless woods. Then a human comes along with a softball-sized trap and lobs it at them. They're caught in this "Pokeball" and then they are the prison of that "Trainer".

They are taught how to fight other Pokemon. And when they get really good at it, they go to tournaments where Trainers proudly pit their caught Pokemon against each other. 

Come on. It's sick, admit it. Just listen to the theme song (below). The lyrics include "Gotta catch them all" and "to win them is my cause". How exactly does this benefit the Pokemon?

Then you get your episodes with these poor Pokemon that have been broken by their trainers and have developed complete Stockholm syndrome--and then their trainers abandon them. We are expected to cheer as another trainer convinces that sad little Pokemon that HEY, forget living in the wild. Come fight on MY team!

Someone needs to get these Pokemon on the endangered species list, stat!

Of course I'm all talk. As I write, my kid is playing a Pokemon DS game and what did we read while he took a bath last night? A Pokemon chapter book. 

I think I'd better go make a sizeable donation to the Free Pokemon Fund. 

I downloaded these three IPhone apps recently and have been loving them. Thought I'd share the wealth:

• Stitcher Radio. If you listen to certain NPR podcasts, you already hear the ads for this app. And you probably are ignoring them like I did for several months. But finally I got my lazy self to download this FREE app and I use it almost every day. You can listen to podcasts from many sources (though I mostly listen to NPR ones), including in many cases a small library of their old episodes. That means I don't have to fill up my iPhone with podcasts or worry about syncing. But the thing I love the most is that Stitcher will suggest OTHER podcasts I'd like, based on the one I'm listening too. That's gold for someone who's addicted to podcasts.
• Pedometer FREE GPS+. I've tried a few pedometer apps now and this is my current favorite. I like that it uses the iPhones accelerometer alongside the phone's GPS to get an accurate read of how far I walked. Since I like walking on nature trails, this is the best way to get an accurate sense of how far I've gone. It also estimates calories and reports on average pace. Will run in the background and nothing seems to confuse it, except when  my battery is at 10%. Then it gets a little squirrely. I love setting a chain of podcasts to play on Stitcher, then opening this app, hitting start, and cruising onto my favorite woodsy trail.
• zulily. This is an app that gives you easy access to the bargains on the website zulily. I'm hooked on all those bargain sites--Groupon, Living Social, etc--and zulily is one of my favorites. They offer clothes and shoes for children and women, plus some housewares. Everything is cute and really a very good deal. Last weekend I scored a Hurley hoodie for Little Dude, for Christmas--half off any other prices I could find on the web.

What are some of your favorite apps? What is my iPhone missing?

The peeps at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt just launched a new site to celebrate the release of the new American Heritage dictionary. You upload your photo and feed it a bunch of text, and it makes a "word picture" out of your face.

It links to twitter and facebook, so I just pulled in my latest tweets.

Author portraits have SO many fun uses!

Sung to the tune of CAMPTOWN RACES.

Oh blue flair pen, you mark so nice

Edits and deletes

Oh blue flair pen, let's go revise

All over the page

On and on and on,

On and on and on,

100,000 words ain't bad

When you're by my side.

If there is such a thing as revision-induced insanity, this blog posting may just prove I have sunk into it.

Back to my blue flair pen.

Yes, I write books but I also watch more than my fair share of TV (how else would the laundry get folded?). So, here's my take so far on the fall TV season.

• My favorite new show: UP ALL NIGHT, starring Christina Applegate, Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph. I don't care if you have kids or not, you'll love it. It's funny and modern and not trying TOO hard to be hipster. 
• The show I turned off after ten minutes: CHARLIE'S ANGELS, starring actresses who surely could be doing better somewhere else. I loved the Drew Barrymore movie and she's producing on the show so I had high hopes. Hopes so quickly dashed with howls of laughter at the terrible dialog. I wonder if Rachel Taylor kicks herself once or twice daily for dumping GREY'S ANATOMY for this.
• The show I despised and don't understand why I watched the whole thing: 2 BROKE GIRLS. Why do the critics love this? It's not clever. It's not funny. It made me cringe and not in an OFFICE kind of way. 
• The show that stuck with me: RINGER, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. I watched it because I loved Buffy; I'll watch it again because it messed with my head and it was pretty darn good. Maybe it was unfair to watch CHARLIE'S ANGELS right after this. If you decide to try it, be sure to start with Episode 1 or you'll be lost.
• The show that revived my love: GLEE. I was getting turned off--I'm not even sure why--by the end of last season. The season opener totally brought back the love for me. Although I agree with the stoners that it should have been a Bangles episode, not the Go-Gos.
• The show I'm a little worried about: MODERN FAMILY. Look, I've loved it from day one. But the dude ranch opening episode was flat and strange, and I'm not sure about the angle of adopting a rival brother for Lily. Also, it's weird to "age up" just one of the kids (Lily) with recasting while leaving everyone else the same. I get why they did it but... it's messing with me. I just hope they're going to be as amazing as in previous seasons, because where else will I get my annoying quotes to shout at random times to indulgent family members? El diablo! El diablo!
• The show that's been sitting on my DVR and I can't seem to get to it: Another beloved, GREY'S ANATOMY. I'm so afraid of what they'll do with Derrick and Mer this season. I may have to watch behind my hands. 

What are you loving and hating so fall in the Fall TV season?

When I'm in a low place, I love pulling this movie up--even though it makes me cry EVERY TIME. It was created by Casey Strand, a friend of ours who is a talented writer and actress and yes moviemaker!. Casey is one of those people who reminds you that there's still so much good and beauty in the world. This movie will make you feel the same way.

If you are writing a story for kids and you want to show something inspirational or sweet while still evoking deep emotion, study this film.