things I should have said last week
Mar. 10th, 2009 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ewein2412I am still having anxiety dreams about Sara's geography project, even though she turned it in two weeks ago. Incidentally, Sara's geography project is to blame for the lack of activity at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
simien_mtn_fox. All through February we were making Playmobil dioramas of Maltese history (they have got a Playmobil factory in Malta, which we visited. Like you do when you're in Malta. It was Mark, incidentally, who first told us about the Playmobil factory in Malta).
The Siege of Malta:
And my very favorite, Calypso finding Odysseus washed up on the shores of Gozo:
In other news, Sara has decided where she's going to high school. The most famous grad of the school she'll end up at is a big-name actor, which prompted the comment, "I'm going to the same school as Obi Wan Kenobi!" Hee hee hee. My daughter is going to Jedi school! "You have learned much, young one, but you are NOT A JEDI YET."
Motherhood! Nobody warns you. You do find yourself wondering, sometimes, "Why am I standing at the counter gluing split peas together?"
No, really, here I am GLUING SPLIT PEAS TOGETHER.
(They were props. Her class all dressed up as fairy tale characters for World Book Day/Literacy Week and she went as the Princess and the Pea.)
In honor of Literacy Week, I also went and did authorly presentations for Mark's class (primary 4) and for the two primary 6 classes. The kids were lovely. One of the P6 classes sent me a sheaf of thank-you letters:
"My favourite part was when you showed us the pictures of Ethiopia, they were all great and the hills were really nice and the people in them looked happy and cheerful. It made me think that Ethiopia isn't a bad place after all."
SCORE.
A lot of them decorated their letters with drawings of books and/or lions (and, quite curiously, quite a few stars evocative of The Mark of Solomon, though only one or two of them had read any of the books). I got one FAB drawing of the rock-cut church of St. George at Lalibela.
I held up the four most recent books and asked them which they'd be most likely to read based on the cover. Overwhelmingly, they picked The Empty Kingdom. When I asked them why, it turned out it had nothing to do with the picture; they liked the title. Hmmmm.
"I wish I had stayed the whole forty five minutes rather than going to the dentist."
-------------------------------------------
Sara: "Did you go out in the snow?"
E Wein: "No, Sara, it lasted about five minutes."
Sara: "It lasted twenty minutes at least!"
--------------------------------------------
In other news: OMG KITTYSPAM APPEARS ON MY BLOG. We have a kitten. He is ten weeks old and is called Hershi. He cried… I am not kidding, this cat CRIED for THREE SOLID DAYS after we brought him home. I would not necessarily post kittyspam here under normal circumstances, but that was before I lived in a house with a cat that yapped incessantly for THREE DAYS.
"We don't want a lullaby,
We prefer a DIN!
NOISY CATS ARE WHAT WE LIKE!
ALL JOIN IN!
MEOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!"
--Quentin Blake, All Join In, one of our very favourites from Sara's babyhood
Anyway, he (Hershi) seems to have adjusted and stopped now. He is still very chatty but at least he has stopped his infernal YAPPING. Apart from that he is extraordinarily cute and sweet and does goofy tricks like crawling up inside your sweater.
--------------------------------------------
Firebirds Soaring is out, edited by Sharyn November.
(available here)
This is my happiest news, as the short story that ate my soul ("Something Worth Doing") in 2003 is included in here. I particularly love the cover because it looks like an illustration for MY story, hee hee hee (yes, it includes a flaming aircraft falling through heavy cloud. No, Telemakos is not the pilot).
I am also very proud of myself because I have an article in the March/April 2009 issue of The Horn Book Magazine. I kind of feel like this is the kidlit equivalent of having a story in The New Yorker. Probably I'm fooling myself. They've included a link to their previous coverage of my books in their online notes for this issue (scroll down to "More Web Extras" if you're interested).
The Coyote Road (in which I've got another story) is now out in paperback at $10.99 "and available all over the place," according to Ellen Datlow, co-editor with Terri Windling; and finally, Demigods and Monsters was independently reissued by Benbella Books, so it's now universally available (not just in Borders). I have an essay in here on disability in the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan. Seriously, all this stuff came to light last week.
TeenLibris, who publish Demigods and Monsters, are anxious to promote the series and their connected website, and are giving away copies of the new edition here; there are links to buy here and at amazon. Their books are aimed at kids rather than grown-ups, and with that in mind they've put up an educators site with lesson plans, SAT practice essays, discussion questions (also perfect for book clubs!), and other info here.
I think that's enough about me.
simien_mtn_fox. All through February we were making Playmobil dioramas of Maltese history (they have got a Playmobil factory in Malta, which we visited. Like you do when you're in Malta. It was Mark, incidentally, who first told us about the Playmobil factory in Malta).The Siege of Malta:
And my very favorite, Calypso finding Odysseus washed up on the shores of Gozo:
In other news, Sara has decided where she's going to high school. The most famous grad of the school she'll end up at is a big-name actor, which prompted the comment, "I'm going to the same school as Obi Wan Kenobi!" Hee hee hee. My daughter is going to Jedi school! "You have learned much, young one, but you are NOT A JEDI YET."
Motherhood! Nobody warns you. You do find yourself wondering, sometimes, "Why am I standing at the counter gluing split peas together?"
No, really, here I am GLUING SPLIT PEAS TOGETHER.
(They were props. Her class all dressed up as fairy tale characters for World Book Day/Literacy Week and she went as the Princess and the Pea.)
In honor of Literacy Week, I also went and did authorly presentations for Mark's class (primary 4) and for the two primary 6 classes. The kids were lovely. One of the P6 classes sent me a sheaf of thank-you letters:
"My favourite part was when you showed us the pictures of Ethiopia, they were all great and the hills were really nice and the people in them looked happy and cheerful. It made me think that Ethiopia isn't a bad place after all."
SCORE.
A lot of them decorated their letters with drawings of books and/or lions (and, quite curiously, quite a few stars evocative of The Mark of Solomon, though only one or two of them had read any of the books). I got one FAB drawing of the rock-cut church of St. George at Lalibela.
I held up the four most recent books and asked them which they'd be most likely to read based on the cover. Overwhelmingly, they picked The Empty Kingdom. When I asked them why, it turned out it had nothing to do with the picture; they liked the title. Hmmmm.
"I wish I had stayed the whole forty five minutes rather than going to the dentist."
-------------------------------------------
Sara: "Did you go out in the snow?"
E Wein: "No, Sara, it lasted about five minutes."
Sara: "It lasted twenty minutes at least!"
--------------------------------------------
In other news: OMG KITTYSPAM APPEARS ON MY BLOG. We have a kitten. He is ten weeks old and is called Hershi. He cried… I am not kidding, this cat CRIED for THREE SOLID DAYS after we brought him home. I would not necessarily post kittyspam here under normal circumstances, but that was before I lived in a house with a cat that yapped incessantly for THREE DAYS.
"We don't want a lullaby,
We prefer a DIN!
NOISY CATS ARE WHAT WE LIKE!
ALL JOIN IN!
MEOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!"
--Quentin Blake, All Join In, one of our very favourites from Sara's babyhood
Anyway, he (Hershi) seems to have adjusted and stopped now. He is still very chatty but at least he has stopped his infernal YAPPING. Apart from that he is extraordinarily cute and sweet and does goofy tricks like crawling up inside your sweater.
--------------------------------------------
Firebirds Soaring is out, edited by Sharyn November.
(available here)
This is my happiest news, as the short story that ate my soul ("Something Worth Doing") in 2003 is included in here. I particularly love the cover because it looks like an illustration for MY story, hee hee hee (yes, it includes a flaming aircraft falling through heavy cloud. No, Telemakos is not the pilot).
I am also very proud of myself because I have an article in the March/April 2009 issue of The Horn Book Magazine. I kind of feel like this is the kidlit equivalent of having a story in The New Yorker. Probably I'm fooling myself. They've included a link to their previous coverage of my books in their online notes for this issue (scroll down to "More Web Extras" if you're interested).
The Coyote Road (in which I've got another story) is now out in paperback at $10.99 "and available all over the place," according to Ellen Datlow, co-editor with Terri Windling; and finally, Demigods and Monsters was independently reissued by Benbella Books, so it's now universally available (not just in Borders). I have an essay in here on disability in the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan. Seriously, all this stuff came to light last week.
TeenLibris, who publish Demigods and Monsters, are anxious to promote the series and their connected website, and are giving away copies of the new edition here; there are links to buy here and at amazon. Their books are aimed at kids rather than grown-ups, and with that in mind they've put up an educators site with lesson plans, SAT practice essays, discussion questions (also perfect for book clubs!), and other info here.
I think that's enough about me.