http://sarahmillerbooks.blogspot.com/

You made my whole day!! (July 25th blog!)

So, yes, I got a little addicted to imovie this summer. I kept meaning to change the two brothers (who really are not right whatsoever, way too managerial. I wanted blue collar boys! Still. It was fun to make!

THANKS JAMA over at Alphabet Soup for the Launch Post, too!!
http://jamarattigan.livejournal.com/152214.html


Cookies, cupcakes and punch for everyone!!!

It is only 12 more days until THE FLOATING CIRCUS is released! I am SO nervous. Never been so nervous about a book launch before. Excited, yes indeed!!! But I feel like Owen is heading out to college or something. Why? I guess 'cause it is in prose. I wish I knew what to do to help this book get a foot in the saddle. Ideas??

My ALA report (sorry for the delay)!



The Schneider Family Award winners- so wonderful to meet Andrea Stenn Myer and Ginny Rorby!
Doesn't it look like we coordinated our outfits?

( My Full report from ALA.... )

ALA here I come! I'm thrilled, nervous, and disbelieving that THE summer event is here!
It would be so nice to see a friendly face:

MONDAY
2:00-3:00 PM Booth 2525 Bloomsbury
I'll be signing both Reaching for Sun and my first signing of FLOATING CIRCUS!!!!!!

TUESDAY
5:30-7:00PM
ALA Awards Reception
Marriot Anaheim Marquis Northeast


ALA Posts to come from the floor (I hope!)




Until then, back to the aleady scheduled program of graduate school....

I'm dunked into ten graduate credit hours for the next five weeks. Four classes. Two on Library Media (flirting with the idea of getting this certification since I need to take credits anyway) and two from the reading/writing workshop approach to language arts. I LOVED teaching language arts but as I've whined incessantly about before in this forum, I am, alas, no longer qualified to teach it. (Irony in wads: I am not qualified because I do not have the requisite experience in writing). But I'm loving being a student again, despite the load of papers and readings and even despite the small porcelain chairs that make me feel like an astronaut-in-training by the end of eight hours (OH, sympathies for my students!!)

I have gifted teachers (Tom Romano, for one a writing guru) and wonderful new friends. The workshop is cracking me open as a writer which is exactly what I needed, having gotten too analytical, too clinical in my process lately. I'm experimenting, and I'm allowing failure and abandonment and I'm having fun.

And I get long drives out into the country while I head off to my workshop at Miami University that look like this:





So I won't be around much for the next several weeks except to pop in with my ALA schedule. I hope if you're going we can see each other!!!

Here is the final jacket for THE FLOATING CIRCUS!

THANKS, Becky over at Becky's Book Review for an early and generous review:
http://blbooks.blogspot.com/2008/06/floating-circus.html

At long last I share my new office space .. I have delicious art from my dear friends- Kyra Teis, Judy Stead, and my twin sister Trish DeLong!

Last week I got to go to my favorite Indie bookstore: THE BLUE MARBLE in Ft. Thomas, KY (just across the bridge from Cincinnati). It was great to see my friends there and yes I bought plenty of titles to read for summer. Here is a shot of their great green room which choked me up the first time I saw it as it was THE bedtime book in the Zimmer house like it has been for zillions of others.








In this year of presidential elections I know candidates are told to ASK for people's vote. It shows that they really WANT it, I guess, and it shows humility. On that note I ask that you, fair blog reader, to please order (or ask your library!!) to order THE FLOATING CIRCUS. It has a rather unfortunate release date in the dead of summer so I'm hoping you'll help me get the word out. I would be more grateful than words can express (and I've got a thing for them you know, words).

Julia Durango and I pushed through and are tweaking a project we have been volleying between us for the last two years! I am so excited about it but I don't want to jinx it... Writers are such an odd lot of total insecurity and wild ego to believe the world needs to hear what is ping ponging around in our heads, don't you think? I've been reading (a lot, as usual) for teacher guides. Big update to website pending with lots of guides for next school year to debut!

Feedback from FLOATING CIRCUS is starting to trickle in and I'm glad to be hearing back from people about it. As the first prose novel I'm exceedingly neurotic about it's introduction this July (see insecurities, above) and I'm hoping it is well-received but my fear is palpable.

A sublet and subsidiary organization of Camp Barry (Goldblatt)

Julia Durango and I holed up in a hotel outside Indianapolis near the half-way points between our homes. It was a fabulously productive weekend and we are closing in on a project we have been kicking between us for two years! I highly recommend this type of writing retreat if you really need to make progress on a project and are hitting the wall. No tuition. No exhausting small talk. No polite meals.We stayed at a Drury Inn. Clean and cheap with free happy hour and breakfast. Yes, indeed. Then splurge on a massage when you hit your goal. Voila!

Do you know is possibly the dreamiest part about writing books for children? It is meeting the authors whose books you salivated on before. While I missed my chance to meet the divine Barb O'Connor recently (see? no whining!) I DID get to read her fabulous new book GREETINGS FROM NOWHERE. I love Barb's characters. I love her settings. I love the conflict and the sense of place in each book. Yes, I am gushing and will stop. Or, try. But listen up people: THIS is a contender for the YOU KNOW WHAT award. And I think it is long overdue. Lecture complete. Now please enjoy the interview and the guide!



When you start a book is it with a character or a problem first?

Definitely character. And I need to know the character through and through – 100% - before I can begin to write anything. Since stories swirl around problems, I do need to know what my character’s problem is. But unless I know that character thoroughly, knowing the problem is useless.

Which children’s authors have most influenced your work?

Without a doubt, Cynthia Rylant. Her book, Missing May, was my lightbulb moment in my writing path. I had been struggling with several projects that just never seemed to work. Then I read Missing May and I recognized Rylant’s distinct voice. But even more enlightening than that was her strong sense of place and what an integral part of the story the setting was. It was obvious that she knew and loved those mountains of West Virginia, where the story is set.

What’s the best piece of writing advice someone ever gave you?

To write what you feel most passionate about. That advice came from my editor, Frances Foster, during a conversation we had once about that old adage, “Write what you know.” While I do think it’s important to know what you write about so that your writing has authenticity, the passion and love of your subject is what most rings most true for the reader.


( Teacher guide for GREETINGS from NOWHERE )

Recently I was lucky enough to read JUMP THE CRACKS by Stacy DeKeyser. I was even luckier to get to write the discussion guide for it! You'll love this fast-paced story that's perfect for reluctant readers!

1. What inspired this story?
After a few years of trying and failing to sell my very long picture book manuscripts, I wondered if I might be a novelist after all. But I didn’t know what to write about.

During that time, I took the train into New York for a weekend, and that’s where I saw the real-life Wills. Except for the details, I witnessed on the train what Victoria did, and it upset me. I couldn’t stop thinking about that little boy and wondering what would become of him. Then I realized that was what I should write about. So I did.

2. What advice do you have for young people who want to be writers?
a. Pay attention to your surroundings. How do people act? Dress? What small habits do they have that make them individuals? You can write, “I saw a man riding a bike.” OR you can write, “I saw a man riding a bike that was too small for him” and you have an interesting character and situation. Eavesdrop on conversations to develop an ear for dialog.
b. Write a lot. Anything you want. The more you write, the better your writing will get.
c. Don’t worry about being published yet. You have lots of time for that.

3. What can your fans look forward to next?
My next novel is about a girl who hears voices. She’s worried she might be going crazy, but the thing is, she likes the voices. It’s also about family secrets, a cute boy with dimples, and a crisis of faith.


( Use the discussion guide with your book club or classroom! )

Regular

Every Wednesday at four
the bell jingles on the door
of Aunt Mimi's Attic.
Precious comes in first-
a yappy teacup poodle sporting a rhinestone collar-
followed by Mrs. Durango,
who holds the other end of the red leather leash.

Pick pick pick.
The pup paces the tile floor.
Pock pock pock.
Her owner's high heels answer.
Mrs. Durango turns china
upside down,
studying the maker's marks
with a magnifying glass
mined from her vintage designer bag.

She pays cash from a neat roll of bills
she takes from a silk-embroidered change purse.
Then they go to the coffee shop next door,
where Mrs. Durango sips tea
slips bits of gourmet cookie
under the table to Precious
and writes letters on fancy stationery
to her husband,
who they say
never did come home
from the Vietnam War.

- P. 44, from 42 Miles by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
Illustrated by Elaine Clayton





Available NOW!

Melodye Shore (newport2newport) on LJ is the proud owner of 42 Miles with her entry pulled randomly!














THANK YOU to Everyone who played!

To send me a picture and enter the contest to win 42 Miles! Hurry! I draw a name out of the dozens of entries at 6:00 PM!


I'm pulling for you. Get it? Ha!

So, you know I missed TLA this week which completely bummed me out because I was SO looking forward to being an author for 24 hours instead of my typical earth shattering interview questions like "Mom do I have any clean socks?" or "Can you take me to the skate park/friend's house/pet store?" But no, food poisoning had her way with me in details that I shall not describe for you, fair reader. But it did get me to thinking about important things like fate. Fate and food poisoning? Perchance I take myself to seriously? Yes, yes I do. See it goes like this. My mom/sister/brother/friends trying to comfort me in my weakened and dehydrated state invariably said something like "Well, you never know. Maybe you weren't supposed to be on that plane/in that taxi/on that highway." And part of me accepts that, needs to accept that (if only to stop wallowing in self-pity for ten seconds) and part of me just doesn't. Do you believe in fate that simply? I'm not sure I do though I must admit it was comforting to think that it just was not meant to happen this year. The other 90% of me is still FURIOUS that if it was only 24 hours later I would've been able to go- YEAH, Stomp my feet, bite a stick, pound my fists TICKED!

As a writer one of the most powerful things is to play with the fates of my characters although it often feels like once the story starts rolling I can no longer control things where they lead any more than I can figure out which bite of broccoli cheddar soup ruined my week.

At least I got to read GREETINGS FROM NOWHERE by the spectacularly talented Barb O'Connor (who I was supposed to meet for the first time! Wah!) I feel like I say this every year but each year I mean it: This is my favorite O'Connor book. Why has the Newbery not landed on one of her books yet? Let this be the one! Go forth and BUY THIS BOOK. It is your fate.

TLA whining shall conclude with this post, I promise.

Today I should be in Dallas, floating because I heard so much great poetry and had breakfast with my literary big sis, linda sue park. Instead I'm still woozy from days of losing fluids....and I. am. so. down. about missing TLA. Wah.

This week I will be flying to Dallas, Texas for the Texas Library Association conference- Yeha!

I'm looking forward to it very much. If you are going please consider attending:

The Poetry Round-up on THURSDAY APRIL 17th at 10:00-11:20 Room C 155/156
John Frank, Jaunita Havill, Alan Katz, Linda Sue Park, Adam Rex and MOI!


Then, if you please, visit me at Bloomsbury's booth #1335
for a signing between 12:00 and 1:00



* Don't forget to send me a picture within 42 MILES of your home to be entered to win a signed copy of the book!