Art Show!

When I got to the school, the teacher I was suppose to replace was there and wasn’t actually attending her conference so I’m home.

I hope you’ll follow the link to see pictures of my children’s art work. Mrs. Moll the art teacher and numerous volunteers cover the halls with art work that students have created through the entire year. It is overwhelming to see the all the great art. Here is a small bit of it here.
EB's Cave Painting ala Lascaux
EB’s Cave Painting ala Lascaux. Click ART SHOW to see more!

Illustration Revisions Coming Along

I’ve come so far this week in the revision of my picture book dummy. Too bad I have to substitute teach today. I’d like to spend the time finishing one more illo and assembling the book. I’m eager to send it off but will complete it this weekend and show it to my writing partner once more before I send it off to secret agent man. I feel that I had a major break through this week that allowed me to reinsert an idea that I had lost in other revisions but really loved. 

All Stars

Number one son with mouth full of breakfast: “Jackson says that I’m going to be an all-star.”
“A what?” I ask. “Chew and swallow, please.”
“An all-star for the baseball team.”
Me: “And how does Jackson know this?”
“Well Jackson has proof  because Carter’s father is an assistant coach and Carter saw the list and he told Jackson, and Jackson told me.”
“So what does it mean to be an all-star, more games?”
“You get to play in the all-star game against another town.”
Me: “Wow.” Trying to suppress huge grin of motherly pride. “Well sweetie, don’t get your hopes up. Just be the best you, you can be and have fun.”
Sweet smiling son: “Yeah.”
Me: “I’m really proud of you.”

Range Pond Paddle

Yes, the weekend was lovely because I got to see my friends but I also got some quality family time. We rented tandem kayaks and paddled Range Pond.
“Dip your paddles in quietly. Very stealthy so your father and brother don’t hear us. ‘With muffled oar…'”
“Like Paul Revere.”
“Yes, but he used lambs wool or a lady’s petticoat or something.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but we don’t have that, so be quiet.”
“We’re getting closer.”
“Wait till you hear my command… Ready? SPLASH!”
“Ack, they’re splashing back!”
“Forward paddle! Turn, turn, prepare to defend.”
Much laughter, and splashing, and general soakedness.

We were lucky to spot birds:
A bald eagle perched and watching the sparkling waters for fish. (Not this particular bald eagle this is from Google images, as are the rest.)

A flashy Oriole.

And two lovely loons.

Places and People

This weekend I had places to go and people to see. On Saturday morning, I was to be in Holliston, Mass. as the NE-SCBWI conference co-director for a meeting to present all the exciting things we are planning for April 2009. At the same time, however, I wanted to be at Poland Spring Campground Schmoozing with my writing buddies.  I ended up driving down Friday evening so that I wouldn’t have to drive six hours in one day. I stayed over-night, presented at the meeting and saw the wonderful folks who volunteer to make NE-SCBWI work. Then I hopped in the car and drove four hours to the campground. I missed the critique time but got to connect with

[info]anom3

,

[info]cfaughnan

,

[info]jbknowles

,

[info]tamra_wight

, and Jeanne Bracken. They showed me online scrabble. They are so evil!  (Check out their blogs for pictures.) The weekend was very full and the most amazing thing was that the timing all worked. I said I’d be at the campground at 4 pm and I was. Thankfully, I was safe and sound despite the rain, and traffic.

Hubby starts his job in Maryland this week and we will finish out the school year in Maine. Things to do this week.
1. Finish Roar send to agent. Check in on manuscript sales status. (ick)
2. Work on novel every day.
3. Sort through clothes toys and books. Weed out what you do not want to move.
Okay, that it way enough.

A Crooked Kind of Review

    I just spent the last half hour sitting in my van. I wasn’t alone. I sat in my van with my nine and seven year old boys listening to the end of Linda Urban’s, Crooked Kind of Perfect. We couldn’t stop listening (or laughing) because the voice of the main character Zoe Elias, read by Tai Alexandra Ricci, keeps you wanting to know the outcome of this lovely story of imperfections.

    Urban’s masterful use of voice, dialogue and humor keeps the conflicts light yet we know they would fill a firkin for Zoe. Zoe dreams of playing a baby grand piano at Carnegie hall but has to settle for a wheeze-bag organ.  Her loving father has to overcome a fear of people, Anthropophobia, and his fear of leaving home, Agoraphobia. These fears are never spelled out as such, but developed in such a subtle and masterful way that the listener understands that this is just the way Zoe’s father IS without it being weird or bad. Zoe’s mother, a perfectionist in her work, learns to temper her expectations and find time for her daughter.

    As in so many wonderful children’s novels, it is the careful use of detail, the sprinkling of realism, that places the listener in Zoe’s world. From the goings on at the Performorama! (Exclamation point!), to the endless list of cookies her father bakes, to the hysterical but sad flying lessons from Living Room University, Urban captures the surroundings of this working-class Michigan family beautifully.

    Because I was listening to the book, instead of reading it, I was unsure of the format of the book. At times, the short chapters and rhythmic prose sounded more like poetry and I wondered if it was formatted in that way. Ricci does a great job capturing the almost-elevenness of Zoe. While she does not use “voices” for the other characters (like those on Harry Potter) her inflection is true to each character and Urban’s dialogue makes it easy to follow the the story.

    My boys were hooked on the humor and the story. Because isn’t that what a good book is all about? Good story. Thank you Linda! and congrats! for making it on to the Maine Student Book Award List! for 2008-2009!!!

Chug, chug

More writing this morning. Went well. Today I’ll be subbing (that’s substitute teaching not submitting) and then tonight there is a family poetry reading at my kids’ school. Here is the one I plan to read from a larger collection of poems entitled DC for Me. It is a non-fiction poetry book about DC neighborhoods. Very difficult to get published as it is pretty narrow in scope but you’d think that I book on our nation’s capital would be of interest to all.


My Neighborhood
By Anna J. Boll

After school,
streetlights
spotlight
my neighborhood
Shepard Park.

Kickball games
four square and
double dutch

Tick-tick
Double ropes
slip,slap the black.
Feet dance, trip,
tangle,whip
over the ropes
just in time.
Out.

Next in line,
then dinner time.