on my desk monday

The Newbery Banquet or my Cinderella night

Once upon a time, there was a Cinderella who received an amazing invitation program to a ball banquet.
It even had her name on it!
As she sat in the ballroom banquet hall, she looked in awe all around her. She was really there! She knew it was magic that got her there. But, unlike other well-known Cinderellas who only have one, measly fairy godmother, this Cinderella had many.

First there was the Dress Fairy...
Dress Fairy Cindy Pon who is the nicest & loveliest person to dress stalk as well as being a great author! Her Silver Phoenix is kind of a Young Adult Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.
who made sure Cinderella was clothed as well as a princess:


Because I went with the Dress #2! Majority ruled, even though I had to put straps on the dress.

And the Great Friends Fairies:

The blue rose girls, my greatest friends with me through thick and thin. From L to R: Anna Alter, me, Alvina Ling (back)Libby Koponen, Meghan McCarthy, Elaine Magliaro (missing: Linda Wingerter)
The Awesome Agent Fairy:

My agent, Rebecca Sherman, who so wisely guided & guides my career & does all the biz stuff that I hate to do, all while being a friend.
The Revelation Fairy:
Janet Wong, whose wise words pushed me to finish Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. As well as being witty and warm, she is a great author whose new book looks really good!
Cinderella met some fairies for the first time:

I met Pam Coughlin (MotherReader) for the first time at ALA. We've been reading eachothers' blogs for so long, we felt like old friends! Pam was passionate advocate of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, so much so that I almost felt like I needed to send her a check at the end of the year!

While other Fairies had been there along the way:

Marketing savvy (and great author--check out all the buzz for her Bamboo People)Mitali Perkins, who helped me create the online booklaunch...she is the one who had me start my FB fanpage!

The fabulous Kirsten Cappy of Curious City who put together the the Activity Book and the Event Kit which a librarian told me she used recently to rave reviews!

Besides the many fairy godmothers (there are a lot who missing from this story, so sorry!) Cinderella, of course, had her Prince Sasquatch.

Alex, aka Squatchie, who made up for having to be on good behavior by purposely making goofy faces in all his photos!

So with friends, magic and a Prince Sasquatch, Cinderella was at the ball banquet. And, oh, how happy she was!

The King spoke his words:

Jerry Pinkney, winner of the Caldecott medal, gave a heartwarming speech. People ovated (is that a word?) him 3 times.

And, then, Cinderella had a feeling that the big dance was coming...

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon on the big screen!

Yes! Her time had come!

I jump onto the stage to receive the NEWBERY HONOR!

"Is it really for me?" I ask Newbery Chair Katie O'Dell with my psychic mind. She assures me it is.

See, it IS mine! My name's on it!

I'm just going to take this with me, okay? You don't mind, do you?

Run! Before she changes her mind! NO TAKE-BACKS!

Safely back in her seat Gracefully retired, Cinderella listened to the words of the Queen:

Newbery winner Rebecca Stead gave an inspiring speech!

And then the evening was ending...the clock was striking midnight:

The receiving line after the banquet was really, really long! Though it was nice to meet so many people.

And Cinderella had no slippers:

But my feet couldn't take my heels anymore. And neither could Alvina's!

But she didn't care, because she had a much better accessory!

But my tired feet was still able to carry this home!

So, she lived happily ever after.

The end.

ALA, part 2

I had time getting to sleep the night before the Newbery banquet. I was so excited! I felt like the next day was going to be Christmas and instead of stockings hanging on the mantelpiece, I had all my pretty dresses hanging in the closet. So, when the day came, I was awake really early! So early, that I indulged in ROOM SERVICE!
This is where I have to spout about how great my publisher Little, Brown & Co. is. If you ever publish a Newbery Honor book, publish it with them. One of the many neat things they did (as well as pay for my room service, thanks!) was put me & Squatchie up at snazzy hotel, complete with robes:I SOOO wanted to steal this robe, but I was a good girl and left it behind.
Now when I was deciding between the two dresses, many people suggested that I wear the one dress for the daytime events and the other dress for the Banquet. That was a good idea, except I had already settled on my daytime event dress.

The dress I had decided on was not only jade green, like my bracelet (in fact, it was the reason why I decided the 1st green dress wouldn't do and decided to keep looking--I didn't want to wear green for both the day & banquet) but it belonged to my grandmother.

I found it while rummaging through my mom's closets and loved it so much that I had it tailored to fit. And I also found an old pin of hers that went beautifully.
this isn't the best photo of the dress, I'll post better ones as I go on...

Thus attired, I made my way to the Convention Center, where I had great fun being a terrible pet,

running into amazing author and friend, Barbara O'Connor,
grabbing some bubble gum,
and posing with an origami yoda!
As I made my way to the Little, Brown booth, I noticed a long line of people waiting for a signing.... and was uber-suprised that it was for ME!

flanked by my agent, Rebecca, who is not only awesome but good at color coordinating with me
Neat! What fun! A good way to begin the day!

ALA, part one

So, it was time to go! My trip to ALA and the Newbery Banquet began with a game of iphone pacman on the airplane:

It was about the time that I lost my 5th game that I realized I did forget something! I had remembered the jade bracelet this time, but I had forgotten my blue rose! It was a specially made rose to match my dress and to match the other blue rose girls whom I had gotten banquet tickets for. It was laying on the table at home:
I tried really hard not to be a whiner about it but I kind of had had my heart set on taking a blue rose photo at the banquet just like we had at my wedding.

But as soon as we got in, I met Alvina to go to the Tea for Katherine Patterson (our new Ambassador Children's Literature), who gave a lovely speech even though I didn't hear any of it because I was way in the back...but I knew it was lovely because lots of people who DID hear it cried and clapped.

People like, Susan Kusel, the well-organized as well as kind librarian who got me the extra Banquet tickets:

and one of my favorite bloggers Jama Rattigan (check out her post on the tea to see the good eats)
There were many more, but I forgot to take photos. I think was distracted because an extremely lucky occurrence had just happened. as Alvina and I walked to the tea (very hot!), we passed many stores. As I glanced at one of them, I saw they had red rose hairclips in the window.

"Do you think they have a blue one?" I asked Alvina.
She shrugged, and I thought it was unlikely, but we went in anyway. And they DID! Not as nice as the custom made one, of course, but it was a blue rose! What were the chances? Ta-hah!
I'm making the "I forgot!" Ting face from Ling & Ting
Fate or luck? Who knows? But I am never going to bet against the jade bracelet!

After the tea, I had a quick drink (big glass of water, which I really needed after walking in the DC heat! really not recommended.) with Harold Underdown. If you remember he was my first editor, the one who acquired The Ugly Vegetables, my first book and my first break into the children's book world, and is miraculously still in print! Thank you very much, Harold!!

After that, I met up with good friends for dinner (somehow I don't have a photo of everyone):

at a restaurant called Busboys and Poets, chosen with hopes of grand inspiration for our poet friends Janet Wong & Elaine Magliaro:

which I'm not sure was accomplished. However, we did plan an epic called, "The Velveeta Rabbit, or How Fake Cheese becomes Real."

procrastination technique...or help me decide what to wear to the newbery banquet!

So I've been pretty busy and have lots of things to blog about-- BEA, my last school visit of the year, visiting my parents in Upstate NY...but my current obsession is trying to figure out what I should wear for the Newbery Award Banquet at the end of June. This truly has become an obsession. Such a distracting obsession that I have promised Squatchie that I will get the dress question settled by the end of the week and actually get some work done (did I mention that I have a novel I have to write?)

But can you blame me? This is like the Oscars for children's book authors! Really! I've been scouring the web to see what people have worn before and found this:



So, I've been mulling over my dress options. The practical side of me says I should wear a dress that I already have in my closet...but you know me and dresses!

For a while I have had my heart on this Anthropologie dress that I saw online:

but I can't find it ANYWHERE in my size (or even a size that could fit with some tailoring). I have searched and searched. sigh. So, I've had to discard this dress dream and move onto other possibilities (fyi, it's the "painted lotus" dress if anyone has any connections with Anthropologie outlets or knows someone who might want to sell it to me...)

And the other possibilities include this green lace dress, the same color as my lucky jade bracelet:


Or this raspberry one, that reminds me of the roses that blooming outside:


What do you think?

thank you

Recently, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was awarded the Josette Frank Award for fiction by the Banks St. College of Education. I was thrilled to accept at the awards ceremony, especially when I saw the impressive list of books that were also honored.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Red Sings from Treetops, Almost Astronauts, Moonshot

It was also great fun to meet and catch up with the other authors as well!

pic 1: Pamela Zagarenski, me, Joyce Sidman, Alvina Ling
pic 2:Tanya Lee Stone, me

However, the only thing I wasn't exactly thrilled about was that I was expected to make an acceptance speech. I was told it didn't have to be anything too formal, but I know that I have a tendency to stutter and blather incoherently if I try to do anything off the cuff. Also, I truly wanted everyone to know how much I appreciated the attention and honor they had given my book. So, I was a bit nervous.

But I did it.

After I gave my little speech, Alvina suggested that I post it online. At first, I thought I wouldn't...but then I realized that my thanks were incomplete; that there were so many other people I was grateful to.

So, even though this speech was addressed to the Bank Street Committee, it is also for Newbery Committee, the Indies Choice Booksellers, the Parent Choice Reviewers, the teachers, parents, librarians, and kids...this is for anyone who read Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and loved it:

Thank you so much for your great honor.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was a labor of love for me and everyone involved—from the wonderful editing of my friend Alvina Ling & Connie Hsu to the production and design by Alison Impey and the marketing efforts of Victoria Stapleton & Zoe Luderitz. I am truly grateful for this award.

And I suppose it is apropos that gratitude is the emotion that I feel, standing here, as it is a primary theme of the book. It is, in fact, what Where the Mountain Meets the Moon claims as the secret to happiness. Minli travels long and far to discover this; and looking back, I realize that I, too, journeyed a distance to be here today.

Because this book was perhaps a book of destiny for me. Even though it was inspired by stories I read as a child and travels to Asia as an adult, I only began to write it when pushed by my late husband Robert. Even while terminally ill, he enjoyed hearing my writing and asked me to write a fantasy—something to help him imagine he was elsewhere. And so I began.

But midway through, Robert’s life journey ended and, at my lowest points of grief and sorrow I believed that that was end of the book as well. It was suppose to be a book about hope, a book about overcoming and accomplishing the impossible—just as I had fantasized about Robert’s illness. But as his death became unflinchingly real, the unfinished story was, to me, lost.

Until one day, a friend of mine, the poet Janet Wong came to visit. She asked about the story and I shook my head.

“I couldn’t finish it before Robert died,” I said, “Maybe it wasn’t meant to be.”
“No,” she said, “It’s better that you didn’t finish it because now you can change the ending.”

And the truth of her words struck me. The story, my story was not finished. It didn’t have to end because Robert was gone. It was up to me change the ending for the book, and really my life.

So, Minli’s journey is a search to change her fortune and to find happiness just as mine was as I was writing. Minli is not perfect, but she tries her best and at every point she learns and grows until finally she realizes that happiness is not a prize that can be bought or won. Happiness is a gift that is cherished, something that one is truly grateful for. Just as I am to all of you, today.

Thank you very much.

Robert Mercer, 1972-2007