Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 7

We are painting a room in our house this week, which is always a bit stressful because nothing is where it should be. So I'm going to stare at this photo my husband shot in Rangeley, Maine last week and say ahhhh.

And yesterday I was one of the guest authors at Teachers Write for the Question and Answer Wednesday, along with Donna Gephart and Lynda Mullaly Hunt. If you'd like to see our conversations and ideas, they are here. I wondered if we'd have many questions, so I was glad we had so many!

Note taking for Half A Chance

Today is the first day of Teachers Write, a free online summer writing camp for teachers (or anyone!) who wants to work on their own writing this summer with some fun prompts and activities.

I wrote a post last week on Facebook, talking about what it takes to add writing into your life. Kate Messner who is one of the organizers of Teachers Write asked to copy it to their blog. You can read it here if you'd like. Life Doesn't Permit.

And each day, you can check the blog for the lesson or Q&A or whatever the day's activity is. Today's is about setting and the activity is to go outside and isolate one sense at a time.  You come, too.

I always set my books in real places for just this reason. You will go past the common details that everyone would think of. Real places have contradictions and history and surprises. In my school visit presentation, I tell kids that when I am writing details, this is my rule for description:

The surprises that you couldn't have imagined often become the gold in the description.

Here's a photo of a setting from Rules. If I had simply imagined a parking lot for that scene where Catherine and Jason go running, I never would've imagined the hard things that Catherine would've had to deal with in relation to the wheels of Jason's wheelchair. Rocks, sticks, pinecones, the sewer grate--and because I live in the north, SAND. I would've imagined a flat parking lot, but the real parking lot was much more complicated. She would've had to look out for all those things and they would've shaped her decisions.



"Jason’s head and shoulders shake as I bump him over cracks in the tar. There’s so much to look out for: holes and rocks and sand near the side of the building. "

It's a simple mention, but it carries an unmistakable truth.

 I finished my novel revision pass yesterday so I have a few days to read it beginning to end, front to back, catching any last little changes before it's off to my editor. This is always the time where I'm suddenly startled into realizing this is for *real.*

It's both a humble and exciting startle:

Wow. I really get to do this? These characters will reach out and maybe find a home in a child's heart? How amazing is that?

And a horrified startle:

What? Wait. We're going to send this into the world? Whose idea was that?!

It's like being at the top of the rollercoaster, realizing there's only one way to go and that's ahead.

So Page One, here we go.

While I changed Cookie's cage yesterday, he enjoyed the "all you can eat" outdoor buffet.



Nom nom nom nom nom.

Our first Hot Rod Hamster early reader (HRH and the Wacky Whatever Race) comes out at the end of August.



And the second one (HRH and the Awesome ATV Adventure) comes next January! The cover for the second one just went up online, so I can share it with you now.



Hamster is ready for some down and dirty fun!

My friend, author Tamra Wight, owns the Poland Spring Campground with her family. A few times a year she invites some writer friends to come to camp for the weekend and write. I had such a nice time last weekend.

Not only did I get some good writing done, I had the chance to see some beautiful birds. There's an eagle nest with two eaglets. The adults came to feed the eaglets, but then these two little kingbirds kept dive-bombing her (no doubt to protect their own babies).



And here are the babies waiting for more breakfast.



I took a sunrise kayak ride.



And I had a "Lucy in Half a Chance" moment when a loon suddenly appeared right beside me.



It was startling and beautiful.



A lovely weekend with good friends.

I have three author events this summer, all in July. I have two signings that are open to the public:

Saturday, July 12, 9 am-12 noon, Books in Boothbay, Boothbay Railway Museum, Boothbay Harbor, Maine. This is a big group signing of Maine authors. Children's authors are in the morning and authors who write for adults are in the afternoon.

Thursday, July 17, Buttonwood Books and Toys, Cohasset, Massachusetts. This is a joint signing with me and Kate Egan. Kate will be signing her "The Magic Shop" series, and I'll be signing Half A Chance and Hot Rod Hamster Monster Truck Mania.



Fit Girls of Wilton Maine, a running and reading program for girls, is hosting a week-long summer camp centered on "Half A Chance."

"During the summer camp the girls will: read a great book titled, Half a Chance by Maine author Cynthia Lord; participate in a photography scavenger hunt; and share in healthy games and running activities."

They meet at a beautiful park on a lake in Wilton (that has loons!). And I'm going to visit one morning and talk about the book and answer questions and listen as the girls tell me about taking their own photographs for the scavenger hunt in the book.

Those of you who live in that area, if you know a girl who might like to participate, please let her know about it.

Every year, I buy some plants at my local animal shelter's plant sale at the end of May. The plants are donated, so they aren't usually marked with color or variety.

I always buy a pot of unknown irises and call them my "Surprise Irises." I plant them with the other years' surprises around the bird bath and wait to see what color they bloom. I have a whole collection of them: white, yellow, and purples.

This year's surprise.

Northfield, Maine. Population 131. I've had a great week here.



Blueberry Barrens



The dock at our cabin



A Common Merganser and her chicks



The view from the dock. And no matter how many times I see them.



Some things are always special.

It's been a great and productive week. I've worked hard on my revisions, but also had time for this:

Every year I rent a camp/house for a week in June as a reward for a full year of events. It's a week of writing, hiking, kayaking, and it's usually in the location (or one similar) to the novel I'm working on. This year's house is on a lake way Downeast Maine, almost as far as I can go without needing my passport. And my week starts tomorrow.

I asked Mona, my very first writing friend, to join me, and the two of us will explore in the evenings and write during the day.

I took this photo last year during my writing week. Different Maine lake this year, but same peaceful, quiet. Before I signed the lease, I looked up on the Maine Audubon website to see if loons nest on this year's lake and they do. So it felt like a nice place to be immersed in the setting of A Handful of Stars, my 2015 novel, but with a heart-full glance backward to Half A Chance.

The "stars" in the new book's title have two meanings. Stars in the sky, and a blueberry has a star on top. The Native Americans in Maine called them "starberries."