C-SPAN, take 2

Well, some of you may recall that one of my book tour stops last fall was meant to include a taping with Book-TV; it was cancelled for some peculiar reason.

However, my tireless publicist at Random House has continued to knock on C-SPAN's door: my next bookstore event (in Houston, later this month) will be taped.

The date is January 29, 5 p.m. at the Blue Willow bookstore in Houston. If you are in the neighborhood please come by. I don't know when they'll be airing the segment, but it would be great if you can be part of the audience. I'll be giving a presentation about The American Story and taking questions. And autographing books. I'll be in Houston for most of the week visiting Annunciation Orthodox School, doing a history writing writer-in-residence program.

I was about to say, "Whew! it'll be nice to get out of the ice and cold of upstate New York!" but apparenty Texas isn't getting off so easy this winter, either. In any event, I'll be heading south in about a week and a half, and hope to see some of y'all there.

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Free-Lance Star (Fredericksburg, VA) picks Banana out of the bunch

A mock Caldecott group at the local library didn't select it as a winner or an honor, but they just had to mention it all the same, evidently.

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Washington Post writes about The American Story today

And mentions five favorite stories.

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If you want to buy any of my books...

Buying them through the Givezilla site will benefit the Ethiopa Books for Children and Education Foundation, aka Ethiopia Reads. This would be a most excellence confluence of Good Things for me. This is a foundation and mission very close to my heart.

So if you think you'd end up ordering on-line, please consider ordering from Givezilla.

Thanks!

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ice getting thicker

It's beginning to look very much like trees may start falling today. Already there have been power flickers. Are we going to lose electricity? Please, please, please no!

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Ice Storm

No snow this year, which is great if you're not a skier, like me (not a skier, that is). But now this? Since January 1 I have been conscientiously walking at least 10,000 steps a day, as measured by my pedometer. Yesterday the sidewalks were slippy and scary, and by 11 p.m. when my weekly Game Night came to its exhausted end (Scrabble tournament, bridge, hearts, lots of pizza and yelling and a nice fire in the fireplace) I discovered I had only 6,500 steps or so.
So I went out for a walk. It wasn't too cold, but the ice was starting and I walked in the streets instead of on the sidewalks, since that felt safer. At one point I police car cruised past, and I wondered what I would say if, for some reason, they stopped to speak to me, "Well, I have to get up to 10,000 before midnight, officer, so I'm carefully walking in the dark, on an icy night. It's a goal, you see."
I went back in when I reached 8,200 and walked the remaining 1,800 steps in the house. I reached 10,000 at 6 minutes before midnight.
Now we have a crazy glaze of ice out there. How will I do 10,000 steps today? I guess I could go to a mall and walk inside. What a dreary prospect.

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Times Union (Albany) did a story about me yesterday

"Two books, one busy author..."

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Magnus at the Fire an IRA-CBC Children's Choice for 2006

IRA (International Reading Association) and CBC (Children's Book Council) annually invite 10,000 school children around the country to participate in this selection process. According to the listing of the 2006 winners, "Children love this story about a faithful and heroic horse who serves the community well."

Thanks, kids!

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Abilene (KS) Reporter-News

Lists Once Upon a Banana as a Caldecott contender. Go banana, go!

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"Oh the wacky exploits that are Once Upon a Banana"

A fine review in another blog.

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A really nice review on "Seven Impossible Things To Do Before Breakfast" Blog

Calling Once Upon a Banana a "whiz-bang gotta have title."

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South Bend Tribune reviews Once Upon a Banana

Well, it's about a two-line review, but I'll take it.

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History Contest Winner

Nate Crawford, a 5th grade student from Bellevue, NE, was the winner of the December writing contest on my website. Go to the sidebar here (on some computers it drops to the bottom, don't ask me why) and click on "CONTEST WINNERS" to read his letter from George Washington to Lafayette.
An autographed copy of The American Story is going in the mail to him and his class today.

For two chances every month to win a copy of the book, check out my website.

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Fuse # 8 gives Once Upon a Banana a Golden Fuse Award

As the runner-up in the 'wordless picture book' category. Thanks, Betsy!

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The air going out of the balloon

In the heady shopping whirl leading up to Christmas, The American Story and Once Upon a Banana were like colorful balloons bobbing above a sea of shoppers. Now, they are lying on the floor, looking a little shriveled. Well, that was predictable.

Now that my autumn of publicity and the holiday season are behind me, it's back to work. I'm preparing an on-line webinar for February, and revisiting a macabre middle grade novella about a slightly mad dollmaker in pre-Revolutionary Paris which I had started a few years ago and put aside. On the last day of 2006 I emptied all the waste baskets, washed and folded all the laundry and emptied the sink of dirty dishes and headed north to the High Peaks. New Year's Day was the first official day of my 1,000 mile challenge (minimun of 10,000 steps a day) and a walk along the icy banks of the Ausable River was the perfect start. My friends Jane (of the Ethiopia trip) and her husband, Christian, pointed to the icicles growing from the rocks across the river from their beach -- "they'll be there until May" they said. It isn't really cold here yet, but will be soon enough, and winter is the time I typically hunker down in front of the fire and get the most work done.

So along with my 1,000 mile walk this year I'd like to complete a new book.

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