Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 19

North Pond, Woodstock, Maine. Photo by my husband

1.  My daughter is home for the weekend! That always makes the house feel extra warm and full and wonderful.

2. Yesterday I went to visit my mom and sister in Massachusetts. The foliage in New England is so pretty right now. It was a beautiful drive and a lovely visit.

3.  On Wednesday, I fly to Ohio to visit Mason Intermediate School. It's my second time there, and I'm so excited to see everyone again! This year, I'm also doing an evening program for the district. That will include parents and kids of all ages.

4.  We had an amazing story play out at the animal shelter where I volunteer. It's always wonderful when an animal finds a home--especially one he is so happy to return to.

5.  We adopted our guinea pig, Cookie, over a year ago now. It seems like he's always been part of our family.

I took this photo a few days ago when I was out running errands. My town has several boat launches, and sometimes I'll just stop at one to breathe the salt air and center myself. It was a beautiful day and the only other person at the boat launch was this lady with her dog. It's easy to get caught up in all details of life and miss how wonderful it is to just "be" for a few minutes.

I have a lot going on right now, including two trips this month: Ohio next week and Virginia the week after. So I've been prepping for those events between doing book-related things.

If all my books stay on schedule, I'll have four new books out in 2014 (a picture book, an early reader, a chapter book, and a middle-grade novel), which means that at least one of those books has something for me to do at all times.  It's like a revolving door!  I send one back and within a day or so, another one returns to me. It's a fun type of busy, though.

And since some of those books are series books, I'll have at least two books in 2015.  Maybe three, as I have a fourth novel heading to acquisitions soon. The school channels at my publisher have signed on already for that novel, so that's a big check mark in its favor. Still, it's never a sure thing in publishing, and I definitely still get rejections.  I got two no's on picture books lately.

Publishing is a very up and down business. It reminds me of that song from summer camp, The Grand Old Duke of York:

Oh, The grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.

And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down.

So I've got some projects "up," some projects "down," and my novel in process is currently "halfway up," neither up nor down!"

Yesterday I needed to read through my chapter book one more time, since it's heading to copy editing soon. But you know how when you've read something so many times in quick succession, it's hard to read it fresh again? That's never a good mindset to make decisions.

When that happens, sometimes I change the font. Other times, like today, I shake myself up by going somewhere different to read it. Usually I pick a town library that I've never been to. But on Sunday, many small libraries are closed, and I didn't feel like driving too far. So I picked a place where no one would care if I sat there for a couple hours. And I could have a pumpkin latte!



I revised my book at the Gardiner rest stop on the Maine Turnpike! Right under the big caribou.

1.  The foliage is gorgeous in New England right now.  I took this photo in my yard, by just looking up.

2. I loved this  lunch inspired by Happy Birthday, Hamster, created by a mom for her hamster-loving son.

One of the most fun things about having a book published is seeing all the wonderful ways that people take the book and add their own creativity to it.

3. A really lovely post about Rules by a teacher who grew up with a unique brother. After spending a lot of time in the past week thinking about the mechanics of writing and publishing, it's always good to be reminded what really lasts about books--the connections they make in us and the ways they show us more about ourselves.

4. I saw some sketches from the illustrator that my publisher would like for the Shelter Pet Series, and I'm very pleased!  When it's official, I'll link to her website.

5. Milo thinks Cookie has gotten too much time on my blog lately, so here's a photo of Milo.

Greenfield, Massachusetts. Photo by my husband, John

October 16-18, school and community events, Mason Intermediate School, Mason, OhioOctober 24-27, Mid-Atlantic SCBWI conference, Dulles, Virginia

Publisher's Weekly announced the sale of my chapter book series a week ago:

"Emily Seife at Scholastic Press has acquired three books in Cynthia Lord's new chapter book series, Shelter Pet Squad. Second-grader Suzannah volunteers at her local animal shelter's program for kids, gaining confidence as she and her new friends help different animals find their forever homes. The series will launch with Jelly Bean in 2014, with one book following per year. Tracey Adams at Adams Literary negotiated the deal for North American rights."

Jelly Bean is a guinea pig. Guess who he's based on?


"I'm *inspiring!*" says Cookie.

LL Bean tastes great!

I had a lovely school visit this week at Atkinson Academy in Atkinson, New Hampshire. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders had all read Rules. It was delightful to meet and talk about the book with them.

And look at the beautiful welcome sign, artwork, and writing that greeted me!

Lincoln Plantation, Maine

Since this is now on the Internet, I can show you the cover of my next novel, Half a Chance. It comes out at the end of February/early March. :)



BNC CataList - Scholastic Inc