Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 102

Portland Head Light, taken yesterday by my husband, John

I love November. The pale light, the bare branches, the frost edging the leaves on the ground, It's a slow turn, a transition between the showy leaves of October and the busy-ness of December. I feel like I'm in my own November as a writer, too.  My own slow turn from one book to another.

This morning I'm drinking my coffee with Milo asleep on my lap, like he always does.  Eventually my foot will start falling asleep from his little 7 pounds of weight, and I'll put him down.  But there's something peaceful and trusting about how he wants to start his day with his face tucked into the crook of my arm. 

In a couple hours, I'll pack up the car and head to the airport for a One Book/One School Read for Rules tomorrow in Owensboro, Kentucky. I've never been to Kentucky, and Rules won the Bluegrass Award in 2008. So it'll be a nice chance to acknowledge that and say thank you.  

This has been a busy year. I went from one book to three books.  I told John last night that I felt like a real author now.  It's a relief and a joy to have Touch Blue simply be another of my books, and not my brand-new book anymore.  The transition of a new release is exciting, but I love when it's done. That's when the book really feels mine. 

Every book I've done has stretched me in new directions, and the events I've done have changed me.  It's one of the reasons I love writing.

    

Rachel Field was absolutely right--I'm not the same from writing Touch Blue, the events I've done for it, and the islands I've slept on.  I added my little Nantucket mermaid next to the sign yesterday.  Somehow the contrast of the November bareness and waning sun out the window feels right with all those beach things for letting this book go. I love the winter ocean.  It's just as beautiful, and there are no distractions like there are in summer--it's just you and the water.    

A friend on Facebook told me Touch Blue was in Adoptive Families magazine this month and it made the New England Children's Booksellers Advisory Council Top Ten for Fall.  So it's finding its own quiet little way without me now--skipping along in the wake of its popular older sister.  One thing it's shown me is that books don't have to be equal to matter, and I'm ready to enjoy all three books now.

And I'm excited to return to my new novel next month and looking ahead to the release of  Happy Birthday, Hamster next August.  I'm anxious to see what changes each of those books bring me.  

I'm sure they will.

   

I have a lot of photos, so I'm going to break my favorites into separate posts.

1.  My school visits. I loved meeting the kids of Nantucket!  I visited Nantucket Elementary School, Nantucket Middle School, and two private schools.  At the elementary school, I was greeted by walls full of fun and thoughtful rules the kids had created:

  

  

  

Posters!

  

and even the class pets at The New School got into the act!




The kids asked wonderful questions and had great ideas as we brainstormed together about story development and the writing process.  And the staff couldn't have been nicer. I loved my time with the kids and teachers and media specialists.  

2.  Cobblestones.  Though it was very b-b-b-u-u-u-m-m-m-p-p-p-y-y-y.  You have to be a really good driver to live on Nantucket.  Cobblestones add a whole new challenge to parallel parking! 







3. The sea.  It was full of wild white-caps while I was there and oh so beautiful.



The wind was so strong, I had to be careful every time I opened a door, because it would pull it hard away from me.  That wind had a will. 

One of the nice things about being from Maine is it gives you immediate "Weather Cred."  Whenever someone starts apologizing for their own weather challenges, all I have to say is, "Don't worry. I'm from Maine."  

They immediately breathe a sigh of relief.  "Well, you understand then."

Yes. I completely understand (and cherish) knowing that we are really tiny beings, inconsequential to the air and the water and the sky around us. Sometimes weather makes you slow down and just "be" awhile.  And really, that's a lovely thing. 

I had the chance to do six events on Nantucket, and then the wind gave me the gift of an extra day--a chance to enjoy the island in some new ways that I would not have had if the seas had been calm and the air had been tame. 

I saw a Nantucket most people don't get to see.  I saw it by sea and by air and on land, I was driven all over the island by such kind, lovely people who live there and know great stories and the history of the places I was seeing.

It was a grand, exciting adventure.  I bought myself a little cast-iron mermaid to come home with me. She'll always remind me of my fun, wonderful, surprising, warm, welcoming, delicious, windblown Nantucket adventure.  





I'll tell you all about it after I'm home and my stomach isn't in my feet anymore :-) I wasn't ever scared on the plane, but I am feeling a wee bit green from it!

Note to my Mom and Dad: You probably don't want to read this until I'm home safe and sound. Okay?


The good weather news is that the rain has stopped!  This was the view out my window on Nantucket as I drank my early morning coffee. I've stayed in a lovely guest house on India Street.



And out my other window:



The bad weather news is the wind has not died down at all, and the seas are too rough for the ferries:



So at 10:30, I'm flying.

In a 9-seat puddle-jumper plane.

In 30 mph winds. 

This will be another first for me!  This trip has been a wonderful, unique adventure.  And given the plane ride ahead, I have the feeling it's not over yet!

Here's today's weather on Nantucket:

Rain and Wind from NNE at 33mph gusting to 43mph.

When I heard that this morning, I looked at Maggie, the children's librarian. "Yeah," she said slowly. "We're going to have to talk about that. . . they're already starting to cancel ferries."

Believe me, if you have to be stranded, you couldn't pick a prettier place or nicer people.  I couldn't even use an umbrella today because the wind was so strong that it would've turned it inside out. When I mentioned that to Laura, the elementary school librarian, she laughed. "Oh when we see people with umbrellas, we know they're not from here!"

Sure enough, my boat was cancelled. So after visiting my three schools, I went shopping today instead of catching the boat!

I have lots of photos of my days on Nantucket, but I'm going out to supper with Maggie and her daughter soon, so here's just a quick few:


Yikes!  This is the RAIN part of the forecast!


The Whaling Museum

There seems to be a theme to my island trips this fall.



Rough seas and rain. I drove four hours to Cape Cod yesterday, because I'm doing a few days of school visits on the island of Nantucket. Sitting in the ferry terminal, I texted my daughter this sign and she texted back:  "Next trip, The Bermuda Triangle?" :-)  It has certainly been a fun adventure this fall.

There are two ferries to Nantucket. One takes 2 hours and one is a high-speed ferry that takes an hour. The Nantucket Atheneum (the library) sponsored my visit, and they sent on the high-speed ferry.



It looks like a cruise ship!  They strongly recommend reservations (the population is about 11,000 in the winter but can swell to 50,000 in the summer), but on a rainy, rough November afternoon, only 20 of us were heading out to Nantucket.   



Nantucket is about 25 miles out to sea, and in the rough seas, it was very exciting. For my Maine island trips, I hardly ever lost sight of land, because there are many islands in each bay, but on the trip to Nantucket, it was ocean everywhere for many miles.


Coming into Nantucket



Maggie, the Nantucket children’s librarian, met me on the docks, and she drove me around to show me some of the downtown area where I’ll be staying. Nantucket looks like a beautiful children’s book—cobblestone streets, brick sidewalks, gray shingled houses with some flowers still in bloom—but it was pouring, so I didn’t get any good photos. I hope to do that before I leave.

I had supper at a restaurant called:



The hostess sat me right next to the big fireplace, which was welcome after the cold rain outside. And since I was in Nantucket, I started with a cup of clam chowder.



Today I have two schools and an evening presentation. It’s still raining, but Maggie told me that Nantucket’s nickname is “The Grey Lady.” So it’s perfect.

This video shows Nantucket in the summer--not in the season or with the weather I'm going to have.

Today, it's raining and windy with a gale warning in effect. . . I'm sensing a trend here with most of my ferry trips this fall!   Still, I'm packed and ready and pointing the car south to Hyannis, and then I'm taking the passenger ferry to Nantucket this afternoon. 



There's something special and familiar about tourist places in the off-season for me.  I was talking to one group of Maine island kids last month, and they were telling me how they had related to the details in Touch Blue about the "summer people" and the changes that summer brings. 

I told them I grew up on a lake where many of the houses were summer cottages. After Labor Day, the summer people went home and suddenly, all those yards opened up to us kids.  Our territory expanded hugely, and I loved that thrilling feeling of boundaries running outward with each packed-up car that was driving away. Our range for tag and hide-and-seek suddenly rolled across empty yard after yard.

I saw a room full of sudden "knowing" smiles.  They knew that feeling of "It's ours again."  

Nantucket is obviously beautiful and busy in the summer, but I'm excited to see its other face.  The quieter face. The Nantucket the local kids own.   

by Nathan

My brother cannot walk, talk, or do many things independently. I am so happy I have found your book. --Catherine

I enjoyed reading your book so much, I read it for a second time. --Danielle

Was it hard to come up with a book that has so many chapters? --Fatima

Yesterday, an author N.A. Nelson came to our school to give a presentation at my school. She was very nice and polite. I hope you will be the same way. --Marina

You are a great role model to me. --Julia

My favorite character is David, because he is funny sometimes. --Austin

I think the book shows that kids with autism or special needs are not stupid, and they just have a harder time communicating with people and controlling their feelings. --Adrian

I told my grandfather all of Tess's favorite islands and that there was an island school on it. I couldn't find any more clues, so after I finished the book (which had an awesome ending), I flipped back to the beginning. I found Chandler's Cove and Strout's Hill. I told him that, and he said it was Chebeague Island. Are we right? Did you teach there? --Saylor, whose grandfather lives in Maine 

     Saylor, Nancy Drew would be so proud of you!  
 Bethsaida is a made-up place (I didn't want any island to feel I had singled them out), but it's based on several islands in Casco Bay, including Chebeague, the island where I taught. This is the ferry I took to and from work every day as a teacher.

Me with my Indiana Touch Blue Crew!

1.  I'm in the Indianapolis airport watching a news show on the airport TV about the 75th anniversary of the board game, Monopoly.  Sometimes the world seems so small and connected!

2.  Last night at my evening event in Franklin, Indiana, I had a great group of students from an after-school program who had all read Touch Blue.  So I quickly opened my computer files and altered my presentation on the spot to include that book.  It felt a bit surreal to be showing photos of Maine islands in Indiana, but it was so much fun. The kids were very into it and had great thoughts about the issues in that book and wonderful answers to my questions.

3.  On Monday, I am off to another island. This time it's Nantucket, Massachusetts!  I've never been to Nantucket, but I've always wanted to go, so it will be wonderful to see it and meet the kids who live there.  Nantucket has a "high-speed ferry."  That sounds exciting, doesn't it?  I wonder what that will be like?

4.  My daughter is coming home from college for the weekend. It will be so nice to see her!  Milo will be wagging his tail so hard to have us all home. 

   5. I have found something very helpful for traveling. I bought myself a little "sound machine" that plays six different sounds. Five of them are useless to me (I mean, really? Who could sleep to JUNGLE sounds? With MONKEYS?!).  But "waterfall" is just white noise.  I turn it up, and it cuts out the hotel sounds that sometimes wake me up.  It's one of the best $25 I ever spent as an author who does distance school visits.  I bought mine at Wal-Mart (they stock them with the candles and little table fountains).   

What a nice visit I had today at the Franklin Community Middle School in Franklin, Indiana.  I had a first for me, too.  For the past four years, my biggest audience had been 700 . . .today, I pushed that number up a notch with an assembly of 750 kids!  

I wondered how that would work, but I have to say that the kids could not have been better and it went great! 

I was charmed by the library displays of my books.



And how fun to see lobsters in Indiana!  "Where did you find them?"  I asked Trish, the media specialist.



But my favorite part of the display was the duckies. Trish told me that the kids had been rearranging them into various scenes all week. 



Today there was a duckie wedding!

I have a community event tonight at the school, and then I fly back to Maine tomorrow.  Although this has been a quick visit, I love Indiana, and it's been a big treat to be here!   :-)