Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 4

This week, I've done copyedits on Merlin, the second Shelter Pet Squad book, and First Pass pages on my next novel, A Handful of Stars. The star prisms hanging in the window were throwing tiny rainbows across the pages. That seemed like a good sign.

I've spent the past week visiting elementary schools in Spring, TX. They were all great visits!

At Lemm Elementary School,I received this amazing big duckie, decorated with their school name and with autism symbols. The library assistant even sewed the hat!



Here I am talking to the third graders at Benfer Elementary School in Spring, TX.



Then I spent two days at Hassler Elementary School. We had such a fun time, including a wonderful lunch with her fifth-grade book group that had read Rules.

On my last day, one of the third-grade boys came up to me after my talk and said, "You are a great insprirer! I already have a story in my mind!"

It doesn't get better than that.

Thank you to Linda Viehe at Lemm Elementary, Jamie Camp at Benfer Elementary, and Robon Landry at Hassler Elementary for a fabulous trip!

Georgetown, Maine. Photo by my husband, John


November

Monday, 3, Lemm Elementary School, Spring, TX

Tuesday, 4, Benfer Elementary School, Spring, TX

Wednesday, 5--Thursday, 6, Hassler Elementary School, Spring, TX

Friday, 14, Berwick Academy, Berwick, ME

Wednesday, 19, Lincoln Elementary, Wyckoff, NJ

Saturday, 22, National Coucil of Teachers of English Conference, Washington DC

Saturday, 29, Book signing, Children's Book Cellar, Waterville, ME, open to the public

Yay! I have permission to share my new book cover online now. So here it is!



A Handful of Stars is set in Downeast Maine where there are miles of wild blueberry barrens. Some of that blueberry harvest is still done by hand, and much of that work today is done by migrant workers. The main character, Lily, lives in that area with her French Canadian grandparents, Memere and Pepere, and her blind dog, Lucky. One day, Lucky gets loose on the barrens and girl named Salma from one of the migrant families helps Lily catch him.

The girls become friends and each wants to help the other with something important to her: Lily wants to afford an operation on Lucky's eyes and Salma wants to enter the Blueberry Queen pageant. But no migrant worker has ever entered the pageant before and going first always takes courage.

So it's a book about friendship, blueberries, and all it means to be brave. It comes out in May of next year.

I'm off to Mason Ohio tomorrow, and I had a great visit in Goshen, Ohio last week, including an evening event last night with everyone from preschoolers to grandparents in the audience. It was delightful!

Between my school day and the evening program in Goshen, I got an email from one of my editors with the new cover for my May 2015 novel, A Handful of Stars. We had a cover, but I had some misgivings about it. . . so it was a thrilling surprise to open that email.

I always like to see some kids' reactions to a cover before it's final--they are the actual AUDIENCE for the book, after all. So I had just Ienough time to throw the image into my evening program at the end.

After talking about Rules and reading Hot Rod Hamster, I told the audience that I have four new books in 2015 and I'd just seen a cover for my next novel today, and would they like to be the first to see it? A huge "YES!" came from the audience, and then I told them what the story was about and clicked the slide

The whole place said "Ohhhhh!" happily. I think when I see this cover, I will often remember that moment standing in a gym in Goshen, OH. As soon as the cover has its final approvals, I'll show it to you, too.

This morning, I was looking for a particular photo and came upon this blog post from when I was working on the last chapter of Half A Chance.

What Stays.

This week I was at Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tennessee at an all-school read of Half A Chance for all the 5th-8th grades. We had great sessions, and a fun lunch with readers.



In the afternoon, there was dessert with the English teachers (I tried chess pie for the first time!).



It was a wonderful day.

But the most amazing part was seeing the photos the kids had taken for the scavenger hunt photo contest in Half A Chance. Two professional photographers judged the photos and chose one winner from each grade and one Grand Prize winner.

The winners got a certificate and an i-tunes gift card, and I gave those out at an assembly. The young girl who won the grand prize came up to have her photo taken with me. "Are you surprised to win?" I asked.

She nodded.

"You have a wonderful talent, " I told her. "Nurture that, okay?"

She promised and I don't think her feet even touched the ground as she walked away.

Another glorious day in Maine. I'm storing them up to hold me through the winter.


Richmond, Maine


Blueberry Barren, Dresden, Maine


Day's Ferry, Maine


Dresden, Maine


Foliage reflected in a pool


Looking UP!

New Harbor, Maine. Photo by my husband, John


October Events

Tuesday, Sept. 30-Wednesday, Oct. 1, NEIBA Conference, Providence, RI

Friday, 3, Albert Hall School, Waterville, ME

Saturday, 4, Berwick Public Library, Berwick, ME, 10:00 am, open to the public

Thursday, 9, Lipscomb Academy, Nashville, TN

Thursday, 16, Jay and Livermore Falls Elementary Schools with DDG Booksellers, Farmington, ME

Thursday, 23, Spaulding Elementary School, Goshen, OH

Wednesday 29-Thursday 30, Mason Intermediate School, Mason, OH