How to use this Page

Laura Wood is an emerging illustrator currently living in Melbourne. She was born and raised in Italy and at the age of 24, after completing a bachelors degree in Cinema and Multimedia, she decided to follow the little voice in her head and move to Australia. Soon after relocating, Laura started dedicating all her energy to illustration. She is currently attending NMIT to pursue a degree in illustration.

Display Comments Add a Comment

When I first took over the OUPblog I gave our readers a chance to ask me questions so they could get to know me.  Since Lauren will be in charge starting Monday (get excited!), I decided to ask her a few questions before I go.  I think her answers will give you a taste of how lucky we are to have her on-board.  Don’t worry, I plan on saying a proper goodbye tomorrow (Friday).

What is your favorite fiction book?
Becca, we’ve had this conversation so many times. For the sake of this Q&A, I’ll forgo my top 10 and say The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. This year is actually the 20th anniversary of the book’s publication. Also, fun fact: O’Brien and I share an Alma Mater.

What is your favorite non-fiction book?
Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit. Hands down. No contest. ’Nough said.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure blog?
Overheard in the Office is pretty great.

What kind of flowers should we send you?
Who’s “we”? And why am I getting flowers? I don’t think I should be trusted with flowers. This cactus isn’t looking so good itself. Remember when we had to hide it in a file cabinet for a week? I gave it too much too much sun, Becca. I exposed a cactus to too much sun.

What was your first blog post ever?
I had a LiveJournal back in the day. I have no idea what my first post was, but I’m sure it was something to the effect of, “Hey everyone! I’m Lauren! My favorite color is purple, I have a major sweet tooth, and I’m so totally obsessed with Dark Angel.” I think I had a really big impact on the lives of all (2) of my readers.

What other languages do you speak?
I used to speak pretty decent Japanese, but now I mostly just mumble things like, “aré?” and “éé, nanto ka…” usually directed at my computer. I know some French as well, and one very important phrase in Spanish: “Y para mi, un café con leche por favor.” I recently went to Spain, but that was all I knew how to say, so I was a bit shaky the whole time.

If your friend were visiting NYC, what is the one thing they should do while they are here?
Whenever I have visitors, the first thing we do is go to 5 Napkin Burger. Airport –> 5 Napkin. Bus stop –> 5 Napkin. IKEA ferry –> 5 Napkin. Can you drop off your luggage first? No you cannot. Because: 5 Napkin.

What color are your socks today?
Socks are for people who are wearing shoes…

What is your favorite Twitter hashtag?
#thefuture. Except when it’s being used to denote  something actually in the future.

Fill in the blank: I’m psyched to be the OUPblog editor because it is _tasty_.
…
Oh, we’re not doing this Mad Libs style?

Add a Comment

Lauren, Publicity Assistant

Laura Pappano, co-author with Eileen McDonagh of Playing With The Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal, is an award-winning journalist and writer-in-residence at Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. She blogs at FairGameNews.com . In the original post below, Pappano discusses  Elizabeth Lambert’s hair-pulling and sportsmanship in women’s athletics.  Read Pappano’s previous OUPblog posts here.

Outrage over New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert’s dirty play – including her ponytail-yanking an opponent to the ground – is justified given this egregious act of poor sportsmanship.

But as the conversation and video have gone viral – from SportsCenter to NFL pre-game shows to David Letterman – the subtext has become less about comportment and more about the gendered expectations of female athletes.

Guys fighting in sports – whether ice hockey or baseball – is considered a “natural” by-product of intense play and, well, testosterone. They can’t help it. When women get heated in competition (ask any high school female athletes about trash talking and you’ll get an earful) there is a perception that they’re supposed to act…differently.

In a season of throw-backs, you can add this to the list: Just as our grandmothers insisted that girls don’t sweat, they “perspire,” there remains a narrow range of acceptable behavior for female athletes. Such rigidity is not new (in previous eras women basketball players were required to wear makeup in competition and submit to half-time beauty contests), but until Lambert we had thought the rules had evolved – at least a little.

The increasing skill level and intensity of women’s sports even at high school and college levels should not be a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Problem is, of course, many have not been paying attention. Women’s sports remain poorly covered by the mainstream male sports media. News outlets hardly feel obligated to report on even major events (it took digging to get the result of the WNBA final). And chatter about Lambert on sports talk radio last week on the Boston station I listen to was preceded by the admission that “we have never talked about women’s college soccer on this program and we will probably never talk about women’s college soccer again, but…”

The fact remains that while female athletes have developed skills, hard-charging attitudes and leave-it-all-on-the-field seriousness about their play, we still view them as grown-up girls (in ponytails) who might be doing cartwheels in the backfield if they thought they wouldn’t get caught.

Some little girl-female athlete affinity is purposeful marketing. That’s the justification for Saturday afternoon college basketball games and cheap tickets. And, certainly, why shouldn’t women’s teams, from college basketball to professional soccer build a fan base from those who can relate to them as role models? Isn’t that the NFL’s goal fulfilled when millions of boys paste Ladanian Tomlinson Fatheads on bedroom walls and wear Peyton Manning jerseys to school?

Promoting athletes as role models, of course, is always tricky. But where men get a pass for bad behavior, women draw fire.

We forgive Michael Vick, and gasp when Serena Williams screams at a line judge’s late call at the U.S. Open.

We must get past the notion that female athletes are “nice” first and good second, and women’s games should be peddled as “family fare.” It is tiring to hear enlightened men describe themselves as “supporters” of women’s sports as if they are charitable donors. No one likes dirty play. But if Elizabeth Lambert just made people see that women’s sports are highly intense, competitive, and exciting, well, good for her.

Add a Comment

April 24th, 2004
Mankato, Minnesota

It sure as heck doesn't seem like 5 years, but here we are at our 'Wooden' anniversary. Who's idea was it to come up with a material for the anniversary gift we're going to give each other? Seriously. What am I supposed to do? Go out to the woodpile and find the nicest log I can?

"Here you go, Laura. Happy wooden anniversary."

Anyway, I broke out the wedding album and scanned up a few of my favorite shots of our wedding. We did the whole camera on each table thing, too...but man. Like 95% of the pictures were horrible. I guess heavy drinking and photography just don't mix.

Here I am up at the altar with my beautiful bride. You can't see it here, but later when the priest started yammering on about raising our kids in the Catholic faith, etc, etc... I had my fingers crossed. Whatever, dude. I just want to marry this woman, not devote my life to your crazy fairy tales.

Here we see the large groom attack the little bride like he hasn't been fed in roughly 4 days. I don't know what it is, but I feel like I'm looking at Tony Soprano whenever I see pictures of me in this tuxedo. "You may kiss the bride." Don't mind if I do, padre.

The groomsmen and ushers in full effect. My brother is the one with the giant mouth, doing the Hong Kong action movie pose. I just wanted to see how high up I could get my legs. Guess I'm lucky I didn't fall and break my dumb head open.

This was shot at the place where we had our reception in Dirty ol' Mankato. It sort of looks like we're in an abandoned shopping mall, but this picture, I think turned out really cool. The photographers had some good ideas and some others that weren't so great. Bless their f-stopping little hearts.

Beautiful ol' Laura. Not a day goes by where I'm not thankful to be married to this woman.

Happy Anniversary!

(enjoy your wood)

Display Comments Add a Comment

Seriously. My new kid hasn't been here for over 2 weeks already. Has he? Seriously? Must be. I went back to work yesterday and I'm just stunned by how quickly the time has flown. It's frightening, actually.

If someone's got the spare time and the funding, I've got a research project idea. Let's see if there's some sort of time flux thing that happens to people with every kid they add. My theory? The more kids you have, the quicker the time flies. There's gotta be something to it.

To that end, Jake is going to be my final installment in the kid saga. We're done. Two boys is more than enough to keep us busy.

So...I thought I'd just get on here and talk about the whole 'going into labor' story and all the craziness that ensued when Big Jake made his appearance. But honestly? There really wasn't anything to it.

This is coming from the guy who didn't have to push an almost 10-pounder through his crotch...

But seriously, folks. You can ask Laura and she'll tell you, the difference between having Travis and having Jacob is like night and day. She pushed for 4 hours when she was in labor with Travis.

With Jake? 46 minutes.

We were at the hospital for the entire two days. This time around? We cut out early, after a day of sitting around and not doing much.

I can tell you that Jake was born on one of the coldest days in Minnesota history and that, like his older brother, decided to wait until the day after his due date to arrive. That's just the way the Troupe brothers roll.

Laura bounced back almost immediately after Jake was out the chute. Really. She will be the first to tell you this pregnancy was 10x harder than the first time around.


- She went to bed early, usually around 8pm when Travis did. Heck, sometimes she was asleep before TKT Part 2.
- She snored like a grizzly bear for the last 4-5 months of the pregnancy, which caused yours truly to have to sleep elsewhere. I can usually sleep through a hurricane, but Hurricane Laura proved too much even for me.
- She had heartburn and an upset stomach on an almost daily basis.
- Morning sickness? Not so much.

But things went well and it's hard to believe the little guy is here and part of the family. It's definitely strange not being able to have anyone but our kids sit in the back seats of our cars and just weird as all get-out to change diapers, mix up bottles, etc... I thought I'd be rusty when it came time to re-diaper the little guy, but I've got it down to a science. Even after 4 years!

The greastest thing? Travis is so excited about having a little brother now. Almost daily, he peeks in at Jake while he's sleeping and says:

"Look at that cute yittle (that's how he says 'little') guy."

or

"Hey brother." (which immediately reminds me of Arrested Development)


Anyway...life is good. Thanks to all for your well wishes and words of congratulations. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by.

Add a Comment

After Rochelle and Jenna and Laura. Some of these are by choice and some are just… weird broken parts of my brain but it hardly matters which now, does it?

• I can’t set the time on the clock in my car and it’s set to some crazy time [i.e. not like an hour or two off]. I’d like to, but this time of year if I’m not driving the car it’s too cold to be in it. Erica?
• My bank is in Washington state. While I do a lot of e-banking with them, I generally mail my paychecks to my bank to deposit them. This isn’t strictly technological in nature, but it’s definitely an old-fashionedness that looks like a tech-not.
• I can barely use my cell phone. I can take a picture. I can make and receive phone calls. I can text, but I still try to answer it when someone is text messaging me. I like to think I’d be a better study if the thing worked in my house.
• I have very little e-book curiosity. My interest in e-books is purely professional.
• I have an iPod I rarely listen to. I have an iPhone I don’t use much (both were gifts). I like to have them, but I usually just listen to the radio in my car and iTunes on my laptop at home.
• I have created more podcasts than I have listened to.
• I don’t play online games much. I play Scrabulous (come find me on facebook!) and that’s pretty much it. When you have a job that’s online, spending more time there just doesn’t seem as appealing.
• I use my TV to watch movies only, and even then pretty rarely. I was a Nielsen family earlier in the month and I sent the whole book back blank.
• I don’t have voice mail, just an answering machine. No caller ID, so please tell me who you are when you call.
• When I have to set the alarm to wake up, which happens rarely, I’m as likely to set it for PM as for AM. This is more of an absentminded professor thing than a tech-NO, but I’ve sortof never gotten the hang of setting an alarm on something without hands
• And lastly, because I grew up in the country, I pretty much don’t understand locks. I have a heck of a time with any door that locks, remembering which direction to turn the key, or rememebring my keys period.

I can do pretty much anything with any sort of computer, but that doesn’t mean I know everything or do everything with technology. How about you?

Add a Comment

This just in from the home office: The Junior Library Guild will be offering A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers to its members next year. Perhaps you recall that it's already offering A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat.

What's that you're hearing? Me sighing with satisfaction.

Display Comments Add a Comment

A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat was reviewed in the October issue of the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. I say October because that's four months after publication. It was one of those mixed reviews that I keep saying writers should be grateful for, so I'm putting my money where my mouth is and mentioning it here. Plus a review in a professional journal four months after publication is fantastic.

The reviewer said Monster Cat is "conceptually inspiring." When my computer guy heard that, he said, "What does that mean?" I said, "I don't know, but I love it." No, really, I do know what it means, and I still love it. Actually the whole sentence was quite good. "More than anything, Gauthier's novel is conceptually inspiring, and it may motivate more than one reader to click off that remote and head into the endless possibilities of imaginative play."

Another good line is "Be prepared to laugh." That's what a writer for The International Falls Daily Journal had to say about Monster Cat. If you follow the link and go all the way down to the fourth from the last paragraph, you'll see it. I only got two sentences in that particular piece, but when one of them is "Be prepared to laugh," you don't need any more.

I was particularly pleased to get a mention in The International Falls Daily Journal because it's published in International Falls, Minnesota, the inspiration for Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, the home of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Rocky and Bullwinkle were cool.

Add a Comment

A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat made MotherReader's Best Books of 2007 (So Far) MEGALIST. That's the good news.

The bad news is that even though I've read nearly 80 books so far this year, I've read only three from the 2007 MEGALIST. (I got a fourth one from the library this morning.) This business about 150,000+ books being published every year is just too much for me. I can't keep up.

Display Comments Add a Comment

A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat was recently reviewed at Big A, little a. I was very pleased with how that one turned out.

Add a Comment

Remember last week's drawing for A Year With Butch And Spike? A copy has been inscribed for three brothers from Indiana and is going into the mail tomorrow.

If I don't forget, I'll do another giveaway at Halloween because Butch and Spike has a Halloween chapter. Club Earth has a Thanksgiving chapter, so I'll give away copy of that at the end of November. Then in December I'll be giving away a copy of My Life Among the Aliens because--you guessed it--that has a Christmas chapter.

So you can get freebies here for the next quarter year.

Tomorrow I'm also going to be sending out an arc for A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat. I have two more left. Contact me through my web page if you'd like one.

Add a Comment

This past weekend I was so involved with my thoughts regarding Gregor and Ripred that I forgot all about putting in a good word for A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat. I have some new reviews to share.

The July/August issue of The Horn Book gave Monster Cat a very satisfying review. "Take one boy stuck at a neighbor's house, mix in one girl with an overactive imagination, add one vicious Chihuahua, and you have a perfect recipe for havoc...Cepeda's familiar black-and-white sketches add just the right energy to an already lively chapter book." The Horn Book also lists Monster Cat on its web page collection of pet stories. (It also has a page called Web Watch that includes my classroom materials under "Reading Guides.")

School Library Journal posted its review of the book at its website. "The outrageous situations, quirky characters, and black-and-white cartoon illustrations are certain to appeal to children who are looking for an easy chapter book that is pure fun." That was satisfying, too.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Thanks to all who sent e-mails yesterday for the A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat giveaway. My computer guy will take care of the random drawing this evening, and I'll be getting in touch with the winners this weekend.

I'll be doing another drawing in August during the Perseid Showers. That one will be for My Life Among the Aliens.

Sorry, Computer Guy, but this means it's time to update the homepage, too.

Add a Comment

It's still early in the day here on the east coast. Go ahead and take your shot at winning your own copy of A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat.

What will I be doing on this exciting publication day? Well, in less than an hour and a half I will being tested on anything my sambumnim wants to test me on. Say, the seven different ways I'm supposed to know to disarm an assailant with a gun or the...ah...ah...maybe nine or ten ways I'm supposed to know to protect myself from an attack with a joon bong. And then you have the twenty-seven step-sparring techniques. And...ah...some other stuff.

And when I get home, I need to knock off a thousand words on The Durand Cousins. The last three or four days I've worked on that manuscript, I've managed to write a thousand words or better a day. Now, I know many writers won't get out of bed for a mere thousand words. But it's good for me.

My point is, by the time a book is actually published, a writer ought to have moved on to something else. This one ought to, anyway.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Yes, people, this is the last time you'll have to endure me reminding you that A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat will be published on June 21st. Remember that tomorrow you have a chance to win a copy for yourself. Yes, you, too, have a chance at experiencing the happiness of a brand new copy of Monster Cat.

Display Comments Add a Comment

A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat. Comes out this Thursday. Go here to see how you can win a free copy.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Three more days until A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat is officially published. Those of you planning to try your hand at winning your own copy of the book will be relieved to hear that the books arrived today.

I didn't really have a back-up plan if they didn't come for a while.

Add a Comment

...until A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat bursts out into the world and you can take a shot at winning your own copy.

What will I be doing to celebrate, you may wonder? Well, Thursday morning is my taekwondo class, and this is testing week. Even though I'm not testing for promotion, I will be expected to know more than I did three months ago. Testing week is always...testing. So, I won't be thinking about Monster Cat until well after ten in the morning.

Display Comments Add a Comment

...until you can take your shot at winning a copy of A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat.

Add a Comment

...until A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat is let loose upon the world, and you can take a shot at winning a copy.

Today I was preparing a copy of Monster Cat to send to Miss Rumphius who won it for her participation in the 48 Hour Book Challenge. When I sign books, I like to have a little something to say in them besides, "Gail Gauthier," which just doesn't seem like enough. For The Hero of Ticonderoga, for instance, I say, "Speak for those who can't speak for themselves," and for Saving the Planet & Stuff, I say, "Turn out the lights!" Both these little inscriptions are deep--very, very profound--if you've read the book involved.

So today I said to a family member who had just read A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat, "What do you think I should use for an inscription in this book?"

And he said, "Can we watch TV now?"

Given what the book is about and who was making the suggestion, this was hysterically funny. But not really appropriate because we're not supposed to be encouraging the young to watch TV, are we? So I had to come up with something else.

Display Comments Add a Comment

A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat will be published a week from today. And that day is your big chance to win a copy of the book.

Don't worry about forgetting. I'll be doing a daily countdown from this point.

Add a Comment

In just two weeks, A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat will be launched out into the world. Learn how you can have a chance to get a free copy.

If you do go to my homepage, check out the photo of me at the top. I just had it taken last summer and was quite pleased at the time. But now I'm thinking I look as if I sell real estate.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Add a Comment

Today is Thursday, people, and that means that publication day for A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat is only three weeks away. That also means the Monster Cat Giveaway is only three weeks away, too. Mark your calendars.

Of course, my copies of the books haven't arrived yet. But I'm not worried.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Or, rather, I didn't do it again. The publication date (and book giveaway) for A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat is four weeks from yesterday, and I meant to remind everyone yesterday. You know, do a little countdown. For the second week in a row, I forgot the Thursday reminder.

Well, so, now you're reminded in a really awkward way.

Add a Comment

As if you need one.

Liz B. mentioned Meg Cabot's Pants on Fire Tour this morning. This reminds me that Cabot will be at R. J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut tomorrow at two o'clock, by the way.

What am I doing to support my new book, A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat? I'm giving away books on publication day, June 21st. My plan was to mention the giveaway every Thursday to build up to the big day.

That was all I had to do.

Needless to say, yesterday I forgot. I was all excited about someone else's book and forgot about mine.

So, anyway, the giveaway is five weeks from yesterday.

I swear, last night I was reading the list of upcoming author events in the local newspaper and thought I felt what might be the beginning of a panic attack coming on. It passed very rapidly, though.

Add a Comment