Tuesday, December 07, 2010
MILO BOOK TRAILER
Monday, October 25, 2010
MILO BOOK LAUNCH
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Thursday, September 16, 2010
IT'S OFFICIAL!
Tuesday, MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE had it's real-live book birthday and I couldn't just sit on my butt at home. No siree, I had to have visual proof that the book was actually IN bookstores. Besides, I was too excited to actually stay home and write and so I drove downtown and hit the trio of book sellers there.
Like Old Mother Hubbard, I went to my bookshelf, careful to follow the alpabetical path to the "S" names. To my horror - "Silberberg" did not exist. I quickly accessed one of their nifty search kiosks and what I found was...."zero available in this store". Oh, fortuna how low you have spun me!
Lucky for me - another chain store was just up the street. And so, hat in hands, I trudged off to visit the equally huge Chapters bookstore (owned by the same company as Indigo I might add).
Soline was looking for books for her daughter and 12 year old son and I offered her a quick review of MILO. As it turned out she was also a therapist and immediately thought the book sounded like something she might be able to use with families dealing with grief and so, eager to give it to her son first - she bought a copy!
I love Paragraphe because it's a cramped space packed full with books and weaving my way to the kids' section was kind of like navigating a wild maze of books. And to my delight - I saw stacks of MILO. Yay! Again I needed some help and so got the fabulous book buyer to blow the streamer for Milo!
Hey authors - are you a member of Twitter Book Parties? If not - why not? This brain child by author Mitali Perkins is genuis because it makes the usual lonely part of having your book come out turn into a joyful day of tweet "greetings" from all the members of the book party universe. Not only does it make you feel kinda sorta special - every tweet is also telling that person's followers about your new book. Social marketing and fuzzy feelings all in one click!
Later this week, I hit some of the smaller book stores in my area. Hey, I like to know MILO is in good hands!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
AROUND THE WORLD WITH MILO
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Saturday, July 24, 2010
BEST DAY EVER!
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Milo and I arrived outside the Simon & Schuster offices and he was immediately awed by the building.
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Then I had Milo pose with everyone.
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Thursday, July 15, 2010
MILO Summer
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Saturday, July 03, 2010
MAINE!
MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE (the full title) tells a very personal story for me and being able to share the book with my family was especially meaningful because the book tells the story of my mom's death when we were all kids. I was so proud to be able to have my sister read the book while we were in Maine (yes, she loved it - though tissues were used).
Here's a shot of my sister Debbie and me posing with the newly arrived book.
Most delicious memory of the week: Pizza night!!!!
As happens every year - the week speeds by in a blur and we all frantically pack our cars on Saturday morning and go our separate ways - but the memories are so strong and tangible that I'm already counting the days until I get to return!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
HANGING OUT WITH JILL MURRAY
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I may not win the award for most frequent blog posts - but I do hope to snag a blue ribbon when it comes to having great guests drop by for a little one-on-one chat. Jill Murray is not only a friend and fellow Montreal author she is also the voice and code behind the wonderful kid-lit writer site Y-Eh!
For Rhythm and Blues, I had some past experience working with indie music, and I’ve played a bunch of instruments throughout my life, but voice wasn’t one of them. So I took singing lessons with pop-jazzy Montreal chanteuse Amanda Mabro, because I wanted to be able to get across what it feels like to learn to sing.
Finally, you may also note that my protagonists, Nadine and Alya, are black and hispanic, but if you check out my headshot, I, the author, am clearly descended from the blog-dwelling peoples of northern someplace-English. This was a case of wanting to represent the people in my neighborhoods and my life, and give some airtime to interesting voices.
ME: Good advice! Here's a question about your own writing process.
Because MILO borrows moments from my life, I relied on balancing the fiction of the story with things I remembered. The awful smell of hospital visits. The kindness of neighbors who wanted to help me. Waking up and then remembering how different everything then was. The memories became an important part of my palette. What role does memory play in your own writing experience?
JILL: I know I just told you that I make a lot of stuff up, and that I study new things to give life to my writing, but also, I think it’s worth pointing out that memories tell you what’s important enough to bother writing about. If a memory is still with you, chances are there’s something about it that needs further exploration or that if you share it, other people might relate to it too. Bottom line, it’s going to get its job done much better on the page than in your head.
JILL: Friends are important at any age. Like right now, I have friends who share my love of onion rings, olives, summer drinks on balconies, indian food, coffee, vegan ice cream sandwiches, avocados and oatmeal. But maybe this is more about how much I love to eat. When I was Milo’s age, my best friend had moved away, and it took me a really, really, REALLY, long time to find another one. There was an incident in high school where a friend and I spent an hour daring each other to go ask the elderly couple at the next table if we could borrow a french fry “just for a minute.” But we were too polite to actually follow through.
ME: Selfishly I always like to hear how other writers deal with the dreaded “writer’s block”. I have days that seem impenetrable when it comes to being creative. When I’m stuck I like to doodle or read a book…or do laundry. What do you do when the muse just won’t show up?
JILL: That slackerly muse! It’s so hard to find good help these days.
Actually, I don’t have a muse. It’s all “writer’s block” to me. Uphill, everyday, dragging the heavy burden of unwritten manuscripts.
I took a creative writing workshop with writer Kent Nussey once in the early ‘00s (I like typing it that way because it makes me sound like I’m 130 years old.) and he’d spent a lot of time worrying about writers block, and ultimately decided that it’s really just “failure of the ego.” By that, I think he meant that it’s not that you can’t write, it’s just that you think you ought to be having better ideas than you actually are, and that embarrasses and disappoints you, and so you don’t write.
That’s how I decided to take it. And I simply can’t have anyone thinking my ego is defective, so I just imagine I’m some kind of donkey or workhorse, and I put on my yoke and drag the till endlessly across the field, feeling sorry for myself as I write embarrassing, disappointing things. Eventually, in revisions, everything starts looking up again, and I remember that no, actually, I am awesome.
ME: In revisions, thankfully - we're all awesome! Thanks for taking time out from your crazy schedule. One last question: So we can all be jealous - what flavor ice cream did you recently make?
JILL: Mint chocolate cookie dough.
ME: Yum!! You truly are awesome!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
MILO on FACEBOOK
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Wednesday, May 05, 2010
More on TRIPP ZOOME
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Sunday, May 02, 2010
FACING FACEBOOK
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Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Blue Metropolis Festival
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