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::sounds a fanfare::

Without further ado, I bring you the greatest gift a writer can ever receive:

I didn't mean to alarm anyone by not posting for a week. Things have been a bit busy. Mostly with good stuff, but at such a fast pace I haven't had blogging time.

First - A wee movie for your enjoyment. This turtle belongs to my daughter, OfficeMouse. When she got the turtle, it was smaller than a quarter.

The turtle thinks it is a cat. This is very confusing to the real cats.



Second - I have heard nothing from the Kentucky high school where TWISTED and other books still appear to be banned. I have no idea what is going on and hope that everyone down there is figuring out how to have constructive, professional conversations about the place of YA contemporary literature in the classroom.

Third - WINTERGIRLS is preparing to move to the world stage. I think the Australian edition will be the first one to go to press. Authors Melina Marchetta and Alyssa Brugman said very nice things about the book - thank you! As it stands now, WINTERGIRLS will be published in Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Norway, Korea, Poland, Spain & Latin America, Italy, Germany, and Holland. And Great Britain, I think. This is all VERY exciting!!! As soon as I get cover images of these books, I'll post them. It always fascinates me to see what images the non-US publishers choose to appeal to their markets. 

Fourth - last weekend I got to speak to the lovely booksellers at the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Conference. You can read Part One of Jennifer Brown's conference coverage in today's Shelf Awareness.

Fifth - I have been struggling a bit with some health issues. I added up the stress factors of the past year and everything suddenly made sense. In addition to the two deaths in the family this summer, and caring for a niece for a while, I was on the road for business for more than 100 days of the last year. That is officially Too Much Travel and explains many things. So please, if you have been trying to get me to come at speak at your school or conference, please understand why I am going to have to say no. I am already scheduled for 50 days next year and we're going to try and limit it to that number.

Plus One - I've been sneaking into the cottage and writing amidst the power tools, but BH assures me we are days away from being able to clear out the equipment and handing over the keys to me. Some of the interior projects, like the wall of bookcase have been put on hold until I hit the road again. Next week I might make a video that shows the entire project. For now, here are a couple of recent shots.

  The south wall with the magic window in place. It only requires a little bit of siding work (that is cedar siding) to be done. BH is planning on stoning that bit of wall from the bottom of the siding to the ground. I don't know if he'll have time to do that before the snow flies.

BH standing next to the woodstove where the fire is crackling away. The stove is covered in soapstone so it should radiate plenty of heat. The floorboards are 125+ years old. 

I am slowly transitioning from insane farmer woman back to being a writer who gardens a little. By the end of the weekend, the new vegetable plots should be finished, seedlings in, and seeds sown. And it's a good thing because I am itching to get back to writing. All the travel and work stress is almost gone, and being in balance again is now appearing possible.

The glass is now installed in the Magic Window, the walls and most of the ceiling are up, and the cool chimney pot we found at the salvage yard is in place on the roof.

Our friend Steve, a natural born Tinkerer, has been up here helping out. He's our lead elf for alternative energy issues. (The goal is to keep the cottage completely off the electrical grid.) The small wind turbine came last week. At first they mounted it on the garage roof, but that was a bad idea. Then they put it on a 10-foot pole in the back meadow. Better. Now it's on a 20-foot pole in the back meadow - MUCH better. They are still experimenting with the exact location to take the best advantage of the winds. The other piece of the electric system will be a solar panel that should arrive next week.

Just writing all of this down makes me tired.

Aside from gardening and hanging with friends this weekend, I am going to try and make yogurt in my crockpot, thanks to a tip from Bookavore.

Don't know what you're going to do this weekend? I have a few suggestions:

Change a life. Buy a book for a boy in prison (thanks to all at Guys Lit Wire!)

Read Jezebel's review of Wintergirls.

Read this jaw-dropping interview with A. S. Byatt in which she discusses her new book, The Children's Book, a novel set in Edwardian England that examines the destructive side of creativity. (For the record, I usually like her books a lot and am looking forward to this one.) In the interview she says some rather stunning things, such as, "Yes, because I noticed that there's a high rate of suicide among the children of children's book writers."

And "I think that most of the children's writers live in the world that they've created, and their children are kind of phantoms that wander around the edge of it in the world, but actually the children's writers are the children."

In the first comment, I believe she is speaking only within the context of children's writers from the Edwardian era, but the second comment seems more general. Any thoughts on this, gentle readers? (The book is available in the UK and Australia now, comes out in the States in October.) (And thanks to Judith in Australia for the info about this!)

That ought to hold you for a couple days.

ONE LAST THING!!! Do you have any secret ingredients you put in deviled eggs? If yes, please tell me what they are!

PS - GoogleLitTrips has a very nice feature on FEVER 1793. Check it out, teachers!

Wow. You guys are incredible. I can't begin to express how much your comments and emails about the New York Times discussion board kerfuffle meant to me. Thank you, thank you!!! I am blessed to have such kind readers and friends!

Because of the stress from the past six months of travel, and losing my Simon & Schuster editor (he was laid off last week - I am still too upset to blog about it rationally), and everything else, I've been mostly gardening this week. Despite the soothing effect of attacking the boulders in my garden with an iron bar, pick axe, and rototiller, I am still having nightmares about zombies. Go figure.

But the rocks are slowly yielding, seeds are being planted, and I have no doubt that the zombies will soon crawl back to where they belong.

Cottage Update!!!

While I've been wielding my pick axe, BH and his tribe of elves have been hard at work at the cottage.

This is the interior of the north end. The windows are up high because there will be bookshelves underneath them.

They have put the Magic Window in place in the south wall, and filled in the gaps around it. The glass guy is supposed to be here this weekend. He'll install the clear, insulated, UV-filtering glass - can't afford stained glass yet - someday!!

The insulation crew did their job this week, Coler Natural Insulation of Ionia, NY. Their spray-foam insulation is based, in part, on soybean oil and is a healthier choice for both me and the environment.

Insulation guy at work! The cottage is much, much quieter with the insulation in place. Next step, along with the glass being put in place, is for BH to put up the ceiling and interior walls.

Last but not least notes!

Gail Carson Levine has started blogging. Drop by and welcome her to the blogosphere!

TWISTED won the Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award, given by the Indiana Library Foundation (and named after one of Kurt Vonnegut's characters - how cool is that!?) Thank you, Indiana!!

TWISTED was also nominated for the Kentucky Bluegrass Award. Check out the whole list!

Off to hit zombies with a shovel... Read the rest of this post

It's a dreary day in the Forest, but we have candles lit and good music playing to chase the gloom away.

(Linguistic tangent: The OED does not think "gloom" is in anyway connected to or descended from the Old English word "glóm", which describes the growing darkness at twilight. What kind of tea are they drinking? Of course, they're connected!)

Congrats to fellow Central New York author Tamora Pierce, whose new book BLOODHOUND will debut at the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller List on May 3rd!!! Hie yourself over to Tammie's LJ to congratulate her!

(Yes, WINTERGIRLS is still on the list, too! Along with some other awesome novels, and, er, the Twilight director's notebook and Miley Cyrus' book.)

My Beloved Husband and several elves have been hard at work on the cottage whilst I've been galivanting all over creation. Here's the progress so far.

I don't have any pics of just the foundation. Here is the next step - building the frame of the cottage on top of the foundation.

Walls up. Roof trusses on.

Roof and porch on! Outside shell of cottage complete!

And the magic window is in place. No glass, yet. I think the glass guy comes next week.

There is still lots and lots of work ahead - minor things like insulation and flooring and interior walls, and installing the woodstove. But the progress has been very exciting to watch!!! (I think that BH has been such a good egg about my travels this spring because it gives him more opportunities to work on his masterpiece.)

I'm taking my camera to LA and I'll be twittering from the Festival of Books, but the blog post about it won't be going up until Monday. (Follow me on Twitter.)

Don't forget, Angelinos. I'd love to see you this Saturday, April 25, at the LOS ANGELES TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS!

12:30 - 1:30pm Young Adult Fiction Panel: “Problem Child” Location: Moore 100
Moderator: Jonathan Hunt
Panelists: Laurie Halse Anderson
Suzanne Phillips
Nate Powell
Jacqueline Woodson

2:30 - 3:30 pm Booksigning
Location: Penguin/Whale of a Tale Booth, #816

We have winners!!!!

Last night Queen Louise ordered her squires to participate in the Official Drawing of the Names. They dutifully complied.

drum roll........

The winners of custom WINTERGIRLS laptop (or phone) skins are:
Jennifer Forgotten!
Mindi Scott!
Tressa Korson!
Kara Huck!

You'll be receiving an email from Queen Louise with the details about what happens next so we can get the skin to you. Thanks to everyone for participating!!

Bob the Builder showed up to the cottage project yesterday.

He brought a very large machine.

He plucked out the tree stumps from the site, then added a couple tons of dirt and tamped it down. (Notice the last, lingering snowbank.) Next up: a mason comes next week to form up the forms (I think that's the right way to describe it) so the concrete slab can be poured.

I've been receiving early sightings of copies of WINTERGIRLS on sale already. Since I'm not J.K. Rowling, booksellers are not compelled to hold the book to the release date. If you see it, buy it!

If you see it, you could also take a picture of you standing in the store with the book. Send it to laurie AT writerlady DOT com.

March Madness News!!! Since my Georgetown Hoyas are not in the NCAA tournament this year, ::weeps::, I am supporting Syracuse University. For the third year running, Sarah Dessen and I have our bet going; if her team (North Carolina) goes farther than mine, I will send a signed copy of my new book to her public library. If my team goes farther, Sarah sends her book up here.

Haven't had time to do my brackets yet. I think I'll do that on the plane Thursday.

WINTERGIRLS comes out in 5 days....

So, what does an author do in the days before book tour?

This author has been very busy with interviews. I had a great one yesterday with a reporter from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and have a bunch more lined up for next week. Today I hope to finish the Keynote presentation I'll be taking on the road with me, and start packing. Am also busy emailing back and forth with the Web God as he puts the finishing touches on the WINTERGIRLS website.

While I've been crossing off things on my to-do list, work continues on the Cottage.

Our tree guy chopped down the dead 200-year-old maple and cleared out the smaller trees from the spot where we want to build.

The dark spots are rot. We could also see shadows where spiles had been inserted to tap the sap.

BH and a buddy of his have been busy on the magic window. They had to sand out every frame, patch and strengthen weak spots in the wood and start preparing thingies (have no idea what they are called) that will hold the glass. They found a mixture of wire nails and cut nails. The presence of cut nails confirms their suspicions that the window was buit in the late 1800s.

By Friday, the window was strong enough to be stood up. That's his buddy on the left, BH and me in the center, and Queen Louise to the right. The glass guy came to take a look at it and will soon give us the estimate for the cost of the glass. Fingers crossed about that. The plan is for the magic window to take up most of the south wall of the cottage.

I'll end with a couple of links for those of you who can only catch up with this blog on weekends.

Can you come and see me on book tour?

Have you entered the WINTERGIRLS contest yet?

Did you see the WINTERGIRLS book trailer?

How about the short video where I explain why I wrote the book?

WINTERGIRLS comes out in 5 days....

THE BOOKS ARE HERE!! THE BOOKS ARE HERE!!!

Honestly, I think my UPS man loves me best. Not many of his other deliveries jump up and down and scream when he shows up.

Here they are! Drum roll.......



So much work all wrapped up in a drop-dead gorgeous cover.

If you're interesting in hearing me talk about my work for teens in general and WINTERGIRLS in particular, head over to this audio interview of me. The interview was conducted by Jennifer Buehler of ReadWriteThink.org. If you're an educator, you will love the resources on their website.


Cottage update: BH is working hard on the magic window. Right now he's sanding it. Next step is to strengthen the entire structure so that it can stand up to the eventual weight of the glass. The plan is to put clear glass in all of the panes now, and replace a couple with stained glass when we can afford it.

We have run into a quandary about the roof. We did not want to use traditional roofing shingles because they are made with a petroleum byproduct. If we were to use traditional asphalt shingles, it would cost about $800 for the roof (for comparison, I'm only giving the cost of the shingles).

A slate roof was my first choice; it would last 100 years, is a natural product, and looks great. But the slate alone would cost about $3000 and have a much, much higher labor cost on top of that. Next up; shingles made from recycled rubber and plastic. The shingles alone would cost almost $4500.

Photovoltaic cells won't work because the cottage is being built in the woods. (We are going to generate solar energy to power the building, but it will come solar panels that are a distance from the cottage.) Eco-shakes cost about the same as slate.

We're still exploring options. If you have any tips or advice, please leave it in the comments.

Theo the Web God almost has the WINTERGIRLS pages ready to go live. Can't wait for you to see them. In celebration, we're going to hold a contest. The winners will receive a laptop skin printed with the cover image of WINTERGIRLS. We only have one thing to figure out.

How to structure the contest? What do you think? What is a fast and fair contest? Again, please leave your advice in the comment section.

WINTERGIRLS comes out in two weeks.

OK, no clouds or grumbling today. Just fun.

First, some fun announcements.

The BCCB has given WINTERGIRLS its 5th starred review!! Thank you, BCCB!

The audio version of WINTERGIRLS has won an Audiofiles Earphones Award. (I wonder if it comes with a statue of giant earphones...) I had a very nice note from the narrator, Jeannie Stith over the weekend. I got to, erm, voice my opinion about the auditions and I thought she nailed Lia's voice. I am so excited about the job Brilliance has done with this. Audiofile magazine agreed. Their review says "Stith takes listeners deep into Lia's dark and frightening fight for survival."

I'm not running to raise money for the Leukemia Society this year, sadly. I am so snowed under with work, I'm hardly running at all. (My goal to run 750 miles this year had to be tossed out. But I'm not grumbling. No clouds.)

However, the indefatigable and ever-organized Julia Maguire is running a marathon to raise $5,000 to find a cure for blood cancer. Julia works at Simon & Schuster and has always been an enormous help to me. If you liked CHAINS, please donate to Julia's run, because there is no way the book would have been published on time without her. Go Julia!

And now..... the magic window.

Backstory: It is getting harder and harder for me to find a quiet place to write. My office up in the loft in busy and crowded with "author" stuff: outreach to readers, research, correspondence, etc. In the last two years, I've taken several mini-sabbaticals in hotels where I basically lock myself in and crank words. I have enjoyed these respites enormously, but it's expensive.

Back in October, my Beloved Husband suggested that he make me a writing cottage in our Forest. I resisted the notion and found lots of reasons why I shouldn't do it, but he was right. I need my own version of Walden Pond. Thoreau built his cabin himself. I don't need to because I am married to a carpenter.

We're in early days yet, but the plan is for "The Cottage" to be off the grid (solar power) and heated with a woodstove. We're also trying to use as much recycled and sustainable materials as possible. To that end, we went to a salvage yard on Saturday to see what old building elements we could reuse.

We found a magic window.

It is around 125 years old and came from a church.

Loading it up and carting it home was a little nerve-wracking for me, but BH had it under control.

Obviously, it needs a little work. No, a lot of work. BH and a buddy of his are starting on the rehab of the wood. Once that's done, they'll bring in a glass guy. The window is ten feet wide and eleven feet tall and will take up nearly an entire wall of the cottage, if everything works out. I'll be posting about the construction project as it happens. Right now we're waiting for the snow to melt.

And now this blog entry is already too long. Writing questions tomorrow, I swear!

So these Oregon high school basketball players have been charged with hazing a new member of the team. Hazing, as the Oregonian article points out, can run the gamut from having a new team member sing The Star Spangled Banner with cookies in their mouth to what happened in this case. Which seems to be sexual assault.

The article begins:
The evidence against three Molalla High School basketball players accused of sexual assault starts with a text-message to a vacationing friend that recounts, according to prosecutors, how the players "pansted" and violated a younger teammate.

"Why did you do that?" the friend fired back.

The answer: "That's what we always do."

Now three teens and star athletes are in jail and charged with sex abuse."

It’s a small town. I wonder what it’s like for the boy who told?

Obviously, one parent is in denial. “Reached by phone Friday, Vera Berokoff, the mother of the 18-year-old senior, said she was distraught over the way her son is being treated. ‘We're very upset about it, and we're thinking that they made too big a deal out of it,’ she said. ‘It's something that the kids all did in fun.’”

[Full disclosure: Sure sounds like my idea of fun.] Read more here.

Do you know of any YAs that deal with hazing?





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