Halloween Day

Happy Halloween!
I don't know if you can see anything in this picture -- but that's my oldest daughter and her husband dressed for a Halloween party last year. They went as a Day of the Dead couple.

Quick.
Run over to the Three Silly Chicks and enter their contest.
It's easy.
To enter, just tell them what Halloween candy you get dibs on.
They're going to give away a copy of Carolyn's book WHERE'S MY MUMMY? to the winner of a random drawing.

I am a little disappointed that the three chicks (the silly ones with glasses at the top of the blog) aren't in Halloween costume this year. The 8-year old enjoyed seeing how funny they looked last year.

I have it easy -- I only buy candy that my family likes. Then we get to eat the leftovers. And since we live in a 17th century stone farmhouse between two developments, it takes a really brave bunch of kids to creep onto our back porch and grab candy from the candy bowl I leave out there. (They've changed the road over the centuries. Now no one can actually get at our front porch any more.)

Unfortunately, when the 8-year old comes back from Trick or Treating tonight, we'll have more candy than we know what to do with. What do you do with your masses of candy?
We put it into three piles.
1- a pile of candy the 8-year old likes
2 - a pile of candy the adults like
3 - a pile of candy that no one likes and will be taken into my library workplace to be given to the teen volunteers there.

Piles one and two will have some overlap, so there may be a bit of tussling over some candy.

If piles one and two are still around in a couple of weeks -- out it goes. None of this saving the candy until Easter, like my parents did -- and then finding it stored on top of the refrigerator.
-wendieOld

What will you be for Halloween?

Last night, I was kept up late because I discovered a new (to me) blog -- Beyond the Tollbooth.
It's a group blog and all of their October messages focus on Halloween-type stuff.
Costumes!
How to write suspense and horror novels and the difference between them.
TV and movie scary stuff. Vampires. etc.
Go check it out.
Most of the participants have their own blogs too. Here's one by Tami Brown.

It's the day before Halloween and the 8-year old is almost ready for tomorrow. (Grandmom -- I really need red make-up to go with my costume. I want a red face.)

Why? Because, although she has been a princess and Ariel the mermaid and last year was an angel -- this year she'll be a Devil. Oh-Kay. She certainly is more devilish this year.

For years, I've managed to be busy the night of Halloween and my husband has had to escort her and her friends around the neighborhood. This year Halloween comes on a Friday. Libraries are closed Friday nights and I have no excuse not to go.
(Wish me luck.)
-wendieO

Keep on writing

I went to a Vermont College gathering, yesterday at Tami Brown's house in Washington, DC.
(Vermont College Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults)
Current students, graduated students and prospective students dropped in. Great conversation.

I'm still thinking about something Tami said yesterday:
She said that the Vermont College students who were successful writers, did not relax after they graduate. They kept the good writing habits they learned here and continued to focus on their writing. I'm going to remember that.

When I got home, I looked carefully and the Vermont College literature that Tami had collected and handed out at the SCBWI writing conference the day before. (and gave the leftovers to us) What a thrill to see Ann Cardinal's name here and there. She is a member of my Picture Book Certificate program at Vermont College -- and she also works for the college. She created many of those great postcards and pamphlets.

Today I head back to Washington, DC, for another writing event.
Here's crossing fingers and toes that my poor car will survive another trip down I-95.

-wendieOld

Who is Dracula?

Here is the next Halloween quiz question. The correct answer gets a copy of The Halloween Book of Facts and Fun.--

- Is Dracula alive, today?
Does he like Blood?
(extra points for those who know his name and what he does.)

-wendieO

Poetry Friday -- Lewis Carroll forgery

Here's a first -- I'm actually going to post a poem on Poetry Friday.
Basically, it's an assignment for my Vermont College Writing class. We all have to do Lewis Carroll forgeries.
Here's mine:

Ode to my husband

Chip Whip Tall and wide
Biggest heart lies inside
Encompasses the whole wide world -- and me
Fuzzy, furry, growley bear
Fuzzy wuzzy had no hair
I know you'd say it's quite a sight -- to see

-wendieO

Book signings and Sleepovers

Today was the annual meeting of MASL. Maryland Association of School Librarians.
Almost every year I'm invited to their Maryland Author's Luncheon, to sign books and then have lunch with a table of school librarians. (This year there were 23 authors, so many tables had authors.)

The luncheon speaker was the wonderful author, Joseph Bruchac. He began his talk playing his Native American flute. Then he explained that the tune was from a song about young evergreens being sheltered and helped to grow by the older, taller trees -- like parents, teachers, and librarians do. In true Native American fashion, he conveyed his message (how most of his books, even the ones about war, are actually about peace and getting along) by telling us stories. If you ever need a wonderful speaker for a meeting or convention, do ask Joseph Bruchac to speak.

I always have fun at MASL. I got to see many of the school librarians who had invited me to do author visits at their schools. You can see me talking away at Arnold Elementary School in an earlier post. (I highly recommend that school to other authors. They really treat you right.)

Before the luncheon, I signed books people had bought. After the luncheon, I offered free copies of the Halloween Book of Facts and Fun to the wonderful librarians who sat at my table.

Was it just last year that I was a speaker at this event? yup. I still remember driving to Ocean City, Maryland, with two seven-year olds in the back seat, praying that my old car would make the trip. And now it's a year later and I still have the same car taking me places. It's almost 10 years old. I guess old Saturns never die. Luckily, the meeting this year was back to being just outside Baltimore.

Speaking of those seven-year olds -- they're now eight and are presently making nests in our living room tonight for a sleepover. They've spent the evening playing on the website == Club Penguin. Actually THREE eight-year olds were playing together on Club Penguin. Their other friend was on the phone with them and when I went downstairs a few minutes ago -- my eight-year old and the girl on the telephone were having their penguins have a snowball fight on the computer. That's amazing. Over the whole internet, two penguins being controlled by kids in two different houses were interacting. And the two girls were interacting over the telephone.

It's a good thing that most of our friends know our cell-phone numbers, because nobody was getting through on the house phone for about an hour tonight.

Well, I guess I'd better go downstairs to see how close to going to bed they are.
-wendieO

ooops, it's Tuesday

ooops, it's Tuesday, isn't it?
Sorry about there being no Nonfiction Monday this week.

hmmm, actually, there seems to have been quite a dearth (hey, finally spelled it right) of posts this past week. That will happen when I have a week full of library stuff plus working hard on my Vermont college packet (due today) plus meetings.

You could always go over and visit Fuse #8. She's a librarian, too, but somehow she always manages to do at least one blog post a day -- sometimes more. Check out her Video Sunday messages. I normally keep the sound turned off on my computer. (so I can use the computer in the middle of the night without waking my husband when a story idea nags me to death and I have to get up and type it out before it will let me sleep.) But I'll turn the sound back on just to watch/ listen to the videos she has found.

As a writer I was fasinated by the "Manuscrip with sparklies" video.
And as a librarian, the "Libraries are Communist plots" gave me a chuckle.

Go visit her. I'll get a real post up later this week.
-wendieO