News Journal 2008

Hurray! Max is back! I was happy to discover today that Trina Wiebe's very fun chapter book series, MAX-A-MILLION, has been reissued with all new illustrations. And there is a brand new title in the series--Max the Businessman.

Maxamillian J. Wigglesworth III is determined to be a millionaire by the time he's twelve years old. Even with his best friend Sid's help, his get-rich-quick schemes never quite work out the way he'd planned. But Max and Sid always have an adventure along the way!

The series is aimed at ages six to nine, and it's great reading for both boys and girls. At 96 pages, the books would also make good read-alouds.

Wow, I haven't updated my website all summer! Probably because I've been having the busiest summer ever. It's been so busy, I almost can't wait for it to end. I'm partied out and ready to dig in to the new book I'm writing! Here are a few highlights of my summer...

* We watched the Toronto Blue Jays play the New York Yankees at the Skydome (Rogers Centre... whatever) in Toronto. And we ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe--my first time there, and I loved it. This trip was seriously fun. Everybody in our family was rooting for the Jays, but one of my daughters cheered for the Yankees, along with the many NY fans around her. A certain cute Yankees player shares her baseball uniform number! (sidenote: The Yankees won)

* We went camping at Turkey Point Provincial Park. This is one of my favorite places to camp. But... how many times have I mentioned that I am finished with tent camping and I'll never do it again? I should listen to myself more often. While we did have a lot of fun, a thunderstorm kept us trapped inside our dining shelter for most of one day. It rained so hard and the dining shelter got so drenched that I honestly thought it was going to start raining inside the shelter. Oh well, it gave us a good excuse to sit around and play poker. (sidenote: I am never camping in a tent again. And I mean it!!!)

* Every year my hometown, Kincardine, holds a Scottish Festival. Combine the words Scottish and Festival? Ooh! I'm there!

* Speaking of Kincardine... Every ten years Kincardine holds a five day long party for residents and former residents, and it's called the Old Boys and Girls Reunion. I can't really put into words how big and fantastic this party is. It's BIG! And FANTASTIC! (How's that for descriptive writing??) We saw a lot of cool cars at the car show that lined the main street (my husband and daughter were in heaven!). There were concerts, dances and a celebrity fashion show in the huge beach tent. There were parades galore, family fun day events, games and races, kiteboarding displays and much more. My kids had a blast at the paintball shooting range. We spent every afternoon at the beach with family and friends. And the whole thing was capped off with the best fireworks show I've seen.

But, I haven't mentioned the reunion event I love the most. The Shirt-tail parade! This parade begins at the Kincardine harbour. It travels down the main street and stops at Connaught Park (racetrack with grandstands/baseball diamonds/fairgrounds) at the other end of town near the lake. Thousands of people participate in this parade, most wearing pajamas or an outrageous costume. Once the parade and the followers have reached the park there's a massive concert/party that lasts almost to sun-rise. It's awesome! I had a great, great long weekend at the reunion, and while I didn't get to see nearly as many old friends as I had hoped to, I was really happy to see the few I did bump into. See you all in 2018!

So, how many photos did I take during this amazing weekend-long party? None! Well, not exactly none. Five! I took my camera to the beach one afternoon, did a quick once around to snap our circle of family and friends... and that was it. Can you believe it? I can't, especially since I usually take too many photos. Guess I was just having too much fun.

* I haven't been completely out of the writing loop this summer. Last week, I was a presenter at Book Camp London at the Central library in the downtown mall. My presentation was called, 'Historical Fiction: It's not boring!' The campers were very enthusiastic about history and historical fiction. Yay! My oldest daughter tagged along with me that day and I was so glad to have her as my assistant. Before my presentations, we got lost between the parking garage and the library. Afterward, we got lost between the library and the parking garage. (How exactly does one get lost in a mall?! Twice?!) Both times, she got me where I needed to go. I'd probably still be strolling the mall with a panic-striken look on my face, if not for her, so thanks to my assistant! :)

That sums up my summer vacation. I hope yours went well, too! Back to school is right around the corner...

If you'd like to learn more about my agent, Steven Chudney, here is a recent INTERVIEW with him at Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog, Cynsations. And for more information about him, here is a link to an earlier Cynsations INTERVIEW.

I'm writing a new book! I don't usually like to talk much about a book in its early stages, but I will say I'm having a lot of fun. The new book is not historical fiction like the one I just finished writing. It's great to have the voice of a contemporary teen main character in my head again.

I recently read and can highly recommend the YA novel, JUMP THE CRACKS, by Stacy DeKeyser:

****While on the train to her dad's place in the city, fifteen-year-old Victoria helplessly watches a teen mom repeatedly mistreat and abuse her toddler. After the mother stashes her bruised son in the washroom and leaves the train alone to meet with her violent boyfriend, Victoria makes a split-second decision to board the next train out of town. And she takes the little boy with her.*****

And my friend Mary Pearson has a new book coming out at the end of April--THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX. I am dying to read it! The film rights have been optioned by 20th Century Fox. You can check out the book's website and amazing book trailer HERE!

The last day of 2007. I'm excited to jump into 2008. I don't usually make new year's resolutions, but I would like to do some things more or less often next year. On the off-chance that listing some of those goals will help me actually achieve them, here goes. In 2008, I hope to do the following...

More often: Read, write books that take place now, ride my bike, talk to my sisters, relax, put down the M&Ms, swim when I go to the beach, walk the dog at her favorite park, be spontaneous, and have fun with my family.

Less often: Sit on my butt, use commas excessively, research, write books that take place in the past, use the treadmill for my dust collection, worry, camp in tents, clean the litter box (ugh, fine, there's just no getting out of that one), and swear when I drive.

I got some fun book news to finish off the year. A library in Italy included Tu Tu e Ancora Tu in their 100 best books of 2007 list! The library selected a hundred books that readers appreciated the most or those they thought were interesting to read. It was pretty cool to see the Italian version of Over and Over You in the same list as books by authors like John Grisham, Michael Crichton, and Nicholas Sparks. Oh, Italy. I want to visit you even more now...

It's almost December. I can't believe that. We haven't had much wintery weather yet, which I'm happy about, but without snow everything just looks grey and sad and dull. It's bumming me out, man!

While I wait to hear back about the latest revision of my spy novel, I'm going to read, read, read. So far I've read and can recommend: Lessons from a Dead Girl, by Jo Knowles, Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, and Story of a Girl, by Sara Zarr. At the moment I'm reading Mistik Lake, by Canadian author, Martha Brooks. I'm not too far in, but this book grabbed me from the first page. I'm sure I'll love it.

Occasionally I check Google for updates on Over and Over You. I've noticed that readers of Tu, Tu e Ancora Tu--the Italian version--have been so wonderful and kind to the book! To them, I'd like to say, "Tante grazie!" :)

For the second year, Lizzie took her role as Assistant to the Christmas Tree Decorator very seriously...

I'm on vacation! Okay, so I'm not on much of a vacation, I'm sitting at the computer in my dining room, surrounded by the chaos that is a half-completed 9th grade Geography project, a few breakfast dishes, and a desk in dire need of dusting. But, hey, I'm in my jammies still. That's vacation-y.

I mailed off the latest revision of my spy novel, VIOLINS OF AUTUMN, last week. It was a killer. I swear I seriously thought I might never complete it. I kept thinking of new stuff to add for character development. Then I would think of something to up the intrigue. The book just grew and grew. But it is gone now! Away! Out of my hands! And I get to take a BREAK. I do get paranoid, though, when the manuscript is tucked inside its bubbly envelope, all sealed up tight so I can't get at it again. Sometimes as I'm handing it over at the post office, I want to yank it back, saying, "No, no wait! Geez, I bet there's a bunch of typos in there that I missed. And I'll bet that dialogue I wrote at 3 a.m. doesn't make any sense at all to somebody who is actually awake!"

So, did I find a typo after the fact? Yeah, I usually do. You'd be surprised by what your brain can skim over time and time again. In one scene, I fiddled around with some dialogue, and now one of my characters says, "You are the only one with hardships, Adele." The line is supposed to read, "You are NOT the only one with hardships, Adele." UGH! One little word changes the meaning altogether.

Usually when I'm revising a book, I work almost around the clock like a maniac. I do my best writing between ten p.m. and three a.m. That kind of schedule is hard to keep up for long, especially when you have kids pestering you for clean socks and other stuff like, you know, food at seven in the morning. So when I finally get a book sent off it's a huge relief. I celebrate by doing things I squeeze out of my life while I'm revising. What kinds of things? I love to play Sims 2 games. I read a lot more. I paint rooms in my house. I leave the house again to breathe fresh air. I wear clothes that don't have stains and elastic waistbands. I also exercise like crazy, as if it's possible to fit six months worth of working out into a two week chunk of free-time.

Yesterday, the weather was gorgeous. I got all my bike gear on, including my pretty helmet that makes me look like a supreme dork, and off I went. Wheeee! I love my bike! I love the sunshine! I could ride forever! I just kept riding and riding, farther than I'd ever gone before, venturing down new and exciting bike paths. Up some insane hills! The only problem with that is, after an hour and a half you're getting tired and your butt hurts. And then you have to turn around and ride an hour and a half back home! By the time I dragged myself up our driveway, I was merely a shell of the chipper biker who'd left the house. The word WHEEEE! was no longer part of my vocabulary. It sure gave me a new appreciation for the women who were bicycle couriers, during WWII, like my main characters Adele and Denise. I only rode for a few hours, not days, and I wasn't even getting shot at by Nazis!

Every once in a while Lizzie gives me a look that says, "What? You can still type. Just reach around me."

My summer has been very busy! I've been revising my spy novel like mad. And the book finally has a temporary title, Violins of Autumn, which is much nicer than Untitled Spy Novel. Or, The Book That Will Never End, as I like to call it.

The book takes place in Nazi-occupied France, during WWII. Violins of Autumn comes from the Verlaine poem, Chanson d'Automne. In early June, 1944, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) broadcasted the first line of this poem--The long sobs of the violins of Autumn--to the French Resistance. That code phrase let them know that the D-Day attack would occur within the week. The second line of that poem--wound my heart with a monotonous langour--let the Resistance know that the attack would happen within 48 hours. It was their signal to step up sabotage efforts by attacking German garrisons in France, derailing trains used to transport German soldiers and vehicles, cutting lines of communication, and more.

Fortunately, my summer hasn't been all about work. This past weekend we visited my hometown, Kincardine--those of you who've read Over and Over You know that the main character spends her summer in Kincardine!--staying at nearby Inverhuron Provincial Park. At one point almost all my family members from Kincardine and our dogs were crammed onto two campsites, with even more friends and family coming by during the day to visit. That was our first trip to Inverhuron Park and I really enjoyed it. The bike trail was so fun, I rode through it several times each day. And the beach, like Kincardine's beaches, was beautiful.

Only one thing marred what was an otherwise great vacation. We woke up the final morning to discover that someone (me!) had locked the keys inside our van! There they were, sitting on the seat, right below the lock. It was so terrible to be able to see them and know we couldn't get at them!! So we began a seach for a locksmith. Do you think we could find one on the Sunday of a long weekend? No. There wasn't a locksmith available anywhere for days. It didn't help that the park is rather isolated in a rural area. Visions of us resorting to smashing a window began to go through my mind. Luckily, we had another vehicle with us. We brainstormed some ideas on our drive into town to gather the supplies needed to break into our own car. When we returned, my sister-in-law, brother, and my husband worked so efficiently together I now suspect they're secretly in a gang of car thieves. When I heard the sound of the doors unlocking after hours of worry and dwindling options, I couldn't have been more relieved. Thanks so much to my wonderful relatives, who may or may not be criminal masterminds, for getting me out of a jam.

After leaving the park, we all went to my mom's house in Kincardine to celebrate my daughter's fourteenth birthday. So, the day ended on a good note that included chocolate fudge cake. (Although at home that evening I got one of the worst headaches I've had in years. But did incredible pain stop me from watching Big Brother 8? Heck no!)

Members of the Myspace group TANTALIZE FANS UNITE! recently shared their gothic fantasy reading favorites. I'm thrilled that they recommended Over and Over You! A big 'thank you' to them, and thanks to Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of TANTALIZE, for giving me the heads up! You can read the fantastic full list of gothic fantasy faves HERE.

In June, Over and Over You will be published in Italy. Here is a sneak preview of the cover!

So lovely! I can't wait to hold the actual book in my hands. I'm curious to know what the object dangling below the title is. My husband thinks it's a bleeding heart, and he might be right. I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that teens in Italy will be reading a book I wrote. It's a dream come true!

I sat down to work this morning and found that about half of the keys on my keyboard were sticking. And even though I spent almost an hour prying out keys to clean them, some are still sticking down when I type. Evidence collected from the area suggests that someone was eating cereal at my computer and they got milk in the keyboard. UGH!! Strangely, nobody's admitting to it. Go figure. Maybe it was a ghost. Or the cat. Or a cereal-eating-ghost-cat.

So, today is a holiday. All week I looked forward to being outside today, gardening in warmth and sunshine. What's the big idea with the snowstorms we're getting?! It's not supposed to snow in April. UGH!

Def Leppard is at Sarnia Bayfest--a huge outdoor concert in July--this year, and my 8th-grader is pestering me to buy tickets. Def Leppard was one of my most beloved bands from my teen years, but for some reason I'm humming and hawing over seeing them in concert. What do you think? Should we go?

Usually when I'm feeling bored and out of sorts, I go to the grocery store. I LOVE going to the grocery store (weird, I know). And everything is closed today. I can't even look forward to getting mail. Sigh. So instead, I'm sitting at the computer, pounding away on a sticky keyboard, getting even crankier. I think I'll go do one of the following: bake something, clean something, do a puzzle (uh, nope can't do that, I need the dining room table free for turkey dinner tomorrow), walk the dog, jog on the treadmill, or repeatedly open and close the cupboards and fridge to search for a snack without really knowing what it is I want to eat. Uh oh, I just remembered there's a bag of those delicious foil-wrapped chocolate eggs in my closet...

I just found out on Google that the Italian publication date for Over and Over You is June 29th! That's only three months away! The cover isn't up on the Internet, yet, but the Italian title is: Tu, tu e ancora tu. I believe this translates to You, you and still you. Cool, eh?! I'm so freakin' excited.

While walking to pick up my son from a friend's house this afternoon, I saw my first robin of the year. Hopefully, Spring is right around the corner.

This morning I took the big dog for a run through the park and back. It sure is cold at seven a.m.! Spring, where are you?

Today has been the kind of revision day I like. I get so absorbed in work I don't notice that hours have gone by. I'll look at the clock and be completely surprised to see what time it is. That's when I know I'm making good progress on a book. And that makes me happy!

My agent and I did some serious brainstorming on my novel recently, and now I have pages and pages of helpful notes to tackle. I love A-HA! moments--when missing pieces of the book-puzzle suddenly come together and click in my head--but I usually wind up with a ton of haphazardly scribbled notes all over the place. Notes that say things like: "Missing link from life in England. Gone to party? Life in rut. Nothing to lose!" and "What does Adele fear most?!!!" It can be tricky to wrap your head around all the new bits and pieces of information and find ways to weave them into the book. You have to really rethink what's already down on the page (uh, computer screen) and accept that it is not set in stone.

Movies: Stranger than Fiction is wonderful! One of the best movies of last year. I loved it!

***Writer Debbi Michiko Florence has a lovely updated website. Check it out!

I'm home from a relaxing vacation to the Bahia Principe resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The weather was gorgeous, the pools were awesome, the beach was incredibly beautiful, and the food and drinks were all-inclusive (my favorite kind). My sister-in-law and I loved Jose, the bartender at the Internet cafe. What a sweetie! And I found out that I LOVE pumpkin. Every time they served it at the breakfast buffet, I loaded my plate. Apparently, I also love french bread slices covered in cheese and ham... but that's not such a surprise.

My one big complaint would have to be The Disco, which was terrible most nights. One night they played great music, but only a few of us had stayed awake long enough to enjoy it. Another night we requested ACDC and Guns and Roses. As soon as that music started, the dance-floor--which remained empty most of the time due to the near-constant CRAPPY music--flooded with excited people who seemed to come from out of nowhere. Then the D.J. cut our music short and everybody left the dance-floor again. Just terrible!!! So my brother, sister-in-law, another couple, and I decided to set up a table on the huge outdoor stage in the market and have our own party. One of our friends had brought a mini stereo, so we ate burgers and danced around to '80s and '90s music until the middle of the night. Then everybody went swimming in the pool at 4:30 am. We were the only people awake in the whole resort, I think. What a total blast that night was!


Entrance to our resort	Walking to the beach

Is this me, parasailing? Ha, not a chance!	'The Shipwreck'

Hubby, brother, sister-in-law at the beach	I just couldn't resist the computer

The day I left for the airport I found out that my friend, Cynthia Lord's middle grade novel, RULES, won a Newbery Honor. The Newbery is one of the most prestigious kid's book awards. Cindy is a wonderful person and RULES is a fantastic book--one I heartily recommended in this journal, back in July--and I was thrilled that she and her book were recognized so highly. YAY, Cindy and RULES!

Those of you who read this journal frequently know that I'm a bit of a pop culture freak. I love TV, movies, award shows, and glammed up celebrities in way-overpriced dresses. Some of you may be shocked by what I'm about to say. Appalled, even! Aghast! Flabbergasted! Knocked for six! Incapable of speech, especially temporarily! (Thank you, Encarta dictionary).

I know, it's almost inconceivable that *I* didn't watch. But I had a good reason. His name is Jack Bauer. First off, no channels here carried the Red Carpet, so I had to scratch that. Then the award show began, and all I could think was, I wonder what's happening on 24... I know, I know, I could have recorded 24 to watch later. I was recording it to watch later! I switched anyway. What a show 24 is! I thought the first four hours were phenomenal. And, what can't Jack and Chloe do?

In writing news, I finished a revision of my spy novel over the holiday break. Frequent readers of this journal also know that I sometimes go into Deadline Freakout Mode, which is characterized by high coffee consumption, heart palpitations, a look of madness in the eyes, disheveled appearance, senseless muttering, and furious keyboard activity, mostly between the hours of 9 pm and 3 am. I swear, I almost laughed like a complete lunatic at the post office, when I was finally able to mail the manuscript off to my agent. I get to sleep again! And shower! And actually make sense when I talk to people!

Now I just have to anxiously wait to hear back about whether or not my agent likes the book. Writers are always paranoid about something...