Toilet Shoes In Paradise: Days of a Writer's Life

So the Grand Boy had a lovely time at his 4th birthday party, and the rain held off. Yay.

Just heard the date on the Rainbow Dinner Theatre's production of my play "Uncle Chick's Last Wish." It'll be fall of '09, running from August through October. Hooray! I'm so psyched. This will be my first play production, and I think it'll be so much fun.

Ok. Have to finish my Sardinia article and get a mailing ready for my first semester at Vermont College. Ciao.

Heading out soon to the Grand Boy's birthday party, but I just want to say that so many of my friends are so stressed and struggling with this economy. Some of my artist and writer friends don't know where the next meal is coming from, and this is America, for heaven's sakes! Let's all send positive energies toward a big turnaround in this country and in our economy . . . SOON! Geez. We need a revolution or something, eh?

Now I'll go from complaining to sad: some of you may know Sara Holbrook, a great children's writer/poet. Sara suffered a heartbreaking tragedy this week when her 7-year-old granddaughter Stephie passed away from a sudden onset condition called ITP. Stephie suffered a stroke during or after emergency surgery, and her organs are now giving life to another child. My thoughts and prayers are with Sara and her family.

Hug your babies tight, and have a good weekend, all.

http://books.guardian.co.uk:80/news/articles/0,,2277692,00.html

Move over, Madonna.

Back home from Sardinia, and my body still thinks it's in Italy. It was spectacular on that mystical island, and now it's back to the real world: emails, phone, bills, writing, laundry, buying groceries. I like to finish my travel articles while the spirit of the place is still fresh in my mind, so I'm working away. Hope that you are all having a great Monday!

The countdown to the press trip to Sardinia, Italy has begun! I leave on Sunday, so am crazily doing errands, working, working, working, cleaning, etc. etc. etc. My birthday is on Monday, so I'll turn 50 in Italy! Half a hundred is a good age to have a birthday across the pond, right? I might gain half a hundred pounds there, too, as the food is the most fabulous ever. The Italians sure do know how to feed a group of hungry Americans.

Speaking of food, I'm thinking of trying a tiny garden. Haven't done this for years, but food prices and gas prices and fuel oil prices and . . . blah, blah, blah. So maybe I'll plant some tomatoes and other stuff.

I have a story in an anthology titled "Just Like a Girl," and the book arrived! Very cool. Very edgy. Lots of kick-butt writing in this book.

So anyway . . . ciao.

So I dove into the depths of the new YA, and I also created a playlist for this book. Never did this before, and it's just way too much fun. You can go on http://www.playlist.com and create easy, free playlists! I must now stop myself from playing with my playlist and get back to writing the book.

I'm being haunted by the vague idea of a new teen novel that begins with a lot of grief. I keep shying away, because I don't know that I want to immerse myself in this character's sadness. It keeps pulling, though. Maybe I should pay attention to what Anais Nin has to say:


"The role of a writer is not to say what we all
can say, but what we are unable to say."

~ Anaïs Nin


So I think I'll just take a deep breath and dive in, like taking a swim. See what happens.

The signing at Lancaster's Barnes & Noble was so much fun, thanks to the new manager, Kenneth-Michael Ebert! This guy knows how to host a bunch of authors. He had really cool signs, and a nice tablecloth, and a FLOWER for each of us, and a little bag of CHOCOLATES for each of us, and our choice from the cafe when we went in. So I'd like to officially nominate Kenneth-Michael Ebert the Barnes & Noble Community Relations Manager of the year!!

It was fun to schmooze with the other authors, and we all agreed that this booksigning was one of the BEST ever! Thanks to Ken, and to the Fruitville Pike Barnes & Noble. You rock.

The first Lancaser Book Festival was a big success, and it was fun to hang with other writers. I'm signing books tomorrow at Barnes & Noble, 11-1, in Lancaster's Red Rose Commons, for any of you local people.

The weather is incredible! Enjoy!

The first copy of "Tenth Avenue Cowboy" has arrived, and it's GORGEOUS!! Love how this one turned out. Here's the amazon link: http://www.amazon.ca/Tenth-Avenue-Cowboy-Linda-Oatman/dp/0802853307

So official pub date is July 15th. Yay.

Received an exciting call from the Rainbow Dinner Theatre, and they're looking at the fall for producing my stage play "Uncle Chick's Last Wish!" Yay! This will be the first play that I've done, and I'm so psyched.


In the too-many-boxes department, I now have 23 cartons including 60 books each piled in corners of my kitchen and living room. The house is tiny and the boxes are big, so I need to brainstorm how to sell them. This book is titled "Hogwash, History, & Horse Sense," and it's a collection of columns I wrote for a local newspaper back in the late '80s/mid '90s. A fan of the column named Robert Weaver sweetly self-published them with Masthof Press. Mr. Weaver is now selling his house and so the books needed to be stored elsewhere, i.e. my house. So now they're for sale. I'm selling cartons at $200.00/each, which comes out to a bit over $3.00 a book. If anybody would like to purchase a box to re-sell (it's a great fundraiser for organizations, Scouts, schools, etc. etc.), let me know. Please. My Grand Boy is using the living room stacks as a spaceship. He sits on one stack, I sit on the other, and we fly to the moon.

In the sad news department, the 18-year-old Mennonite teacher's aid who was hit by the motorcycle last week has died. The other woman is still in critical condition, as is Adam, my friend's son. Adam has not yet come out of the coma. He's 21. His younger brother - 19 - has cancer. A very bad cancer. Two chemo rounds have not worked. My heart aches for everybody affected by this accident. It just occured to me that THREE of my friends have children who were in motorcycle accidents the past few weeks: Teresa, who is Adam's mom, my friend Patty whose daughter was riding a road bike with her boyfriend when they were hit head-on and catapulted as high as the telephone wires (Shannon and her boyfriend are recuperating; thankfully), and my friend Connie, whose 16-year-old son was in a dirt bike wreck. He's also, thankfully, recovering. Whew. I understand the appeal of motorcycles, yes, and in fact my Dad still rides one at the age of 77. Scary, though.

So that's it for today. The good, the bad, the ugly. The beautiful. That's life.

It's my least favorite day of the year: tax-filing day. Oh, I so don't like numbers. After H&R Block, my son and his son are coming for dinner. It's a gray and cold day when cooking up a big old comfort meal doesn't sound like a bad idea. Where's the springtime sunshine?!

So the Italy invitation conflicts with an educators' night at a Barnes & Noble in the Allentown area on April 28th. I was supposed to speak there and I really hate canceling commitments, but how can I turn down an absolutely free trip to an island in Italy?! Famous for their sardines and clean sparkling beaches, no less?! If any of you authors in the Pa/NJ area are interested in taking my place at the B&N educators' night, please let me know ASAP. No payment, but it's a good venue for hooking up with school visits plus publicizing your books plus connecting with cool and dedicated educators. Teachers rock!

I continue to be astounded by the results of the eye surgery! If ever your eye doctor tells you that you have a cataract, run for the surgery. It's amazing.

There was a horrible accident in our area on Tuesday night, in which a motorcyclist hit two young teachers from a one-room Mennonite school. It was dark, and the teachers were either walking or riding bicycles. All three were air-lifted out: 3 separate helicopters circling down on our little town. I just found out that the motorcyclist is the 21-year-old son of one of my childhood friends who is also a distant relative. Her other child, the motorcyclist's brother, has been battling a rare form of cancer. It makes me shake to think of what their family is going through, as well as the families of the two young teachers. All three accident victims are in critical condition. Send prayers and healing energies in their direction, please, and strength to my friend Teresa. Wow.

The eye is so much less cloudy today, and I'm now working with the right lens popped out of my glasses. Yes, it's goofy as heck, but I'll get new glasses in a few weeks and I think that I'll just need them for reading. This surgery stuff is miraculous!

It's a gorgeous springy day, and yellow flowers are blooming in the backyard. Yay for spring.

Had my eye surgery yesterday, and so the right eye is still really blurry. All went well, though, and the doc says this should clear in a day or two. Yay. Yesterday was a boring day, with a huge patch on the eye and nothing to do but watch TV all . . . day . . . long. How do people stand that?!?!

So the basics of the Italy Symposium invitation have arrived, and it's April 29-May 5. Italio, here I come again. Yay.

Have a good day, all!

I'm finally reading Sara Zarr's "Story of a Girl" and I see why it was a National Book Award finalist. Way good. I'm stocking up on books for the MFA program and that's one of them. Barry Lyga's "Boy Toy" is next.

My Grand Boy is sitting beside me painting a gorgeous picture. "I'm an artist," he says. He's also a poet. He told me that last week when I was working in Lansdale, he wrote a poem titled "M'Mere Is Working In A School and I Miss Her." A boy after my own heart. We're soon heading out for a bowling alley because that's what he wants to do to celebrate the fact that he's wearing big boy underpants. I think that we ALL should do something to celebrate everyday! Just put on your big girl underpants & do something fun!

I leave you with a quote from David Sedaris:

"Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you
realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to
bring their own stuff into it."

--David Sedaris

The North Penn Young Authors Conference was amazing! So many enthusiastic kids, supportive parents, hard-working teachers. This was the kind of event that makes an author's job so much FUN! Thanks to Eileen McDonald and all of the support people and volunteers. I'm back home and everything's dusty and the fridge is empty! Hard to get back to Real Life after a writing/book event, but here I go.

Have a lovely weekend, all.

News flash: My book "The Cemetery Keepers of Gettysburg" has been named a Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year! Yay!

And ANOTHER fantastic school day! A shout out to everybody at Bridle Path Elementary. You were an amazing audience, and I loved checking out everybody's books. See ya tomorrow at Young Authors Conference!

Another spectacular school day today at North Wales in the morning and Kulp Elementary in the afternoon. Thank you, super students, teachers, and parents! The kids were so attentive and well-behaved: every author's dream audience. And dinner at the William Penn Inn: Yum.