Pete has asked me to remind everyone that today is National Cat Day. According to him, this means that all humans are supposed to provide extra treats and petting to all cats that they know. I’ll add that it’s a good day to donate to your favorite animal shelter or support a spay/neuter program.
My trip to Indiana for the Young Hoosier Award included a missed connection in Chicago, a sneezing, dripping seatmate on one flight, and the hazardous materials team called to my plane because of a fuel spill. The AIME conference was way more fun than the travel.
The bear has not been seen.
Yesterday was the official launch of Runaway Twin at the Enumclaw Public Library. The standing-room-only crowd was mostly teachers, young readers with their parents, and a few of my loyal friends. Lindon Books has autographed copies, which they will ship nation-wide. To order one, contact lindon@skynetbb.com.
Molly’s doing better since I began providing Kitty Room Service, where I take her favorite food to wherever she is sleeping, and offer it. I do this three times a day, and she always eats some. This small additional nourishment along with the extra exercise she gets when I take her outside on nice days, has perked her up.
Seattle’s University Book Store will celebrate its 110th birthday on Jan. 10. I was asked to write a piece for a birthday celebration book. I could write anything I wanted as long as it was exactly 110 words long. This was a fun project and might make a good exercise for students. With my computer’s word count feature, it was easy to track my progress. My first draft was 160 words.
I have the copy-edited manuscript for Ghost Dog Secrets. It’s been several weeks since I worked on the story so I can read it with fresh enthusiasm. I enjoy this part of the publishing process.
Late Saturday afternoon, I saw a bear in my yard. By the time I went from my office to the living room, he had come up the steps to my back porch. I grabbed the loudest item I could easily reach: a brass school bell that was an Iowa Children’s Choice Award. The clanging bell sent the bear running away. I wish my story ended there.
Instead, I had a phone call about fifteen minutes later from a man who lives half a mile away. He had been deer hunting in the woods behind me and had shot a bear. He told me it was wounded and had come over the fence in to my yard. He was calling to ask permission to come on my property to look for the bear.
My property is a wildlife sanctuary. Ordinarily, I would never give permission for anyone to hunt there, but I did not want the bear to suffer, so I said yes. The hunter (poacher, really, since it is not legal to shoot a bear without a permit) searched my woods thoroughly but the bear was gone. I am hopeful that it was only slightly wounded and has returned to where it lives to recover.
While all of this was going on, I was packing and preparing to leave for Indiana. I alerted my pet-sitter to the situation, and kept Lucy leashed on her outings that night, in case the bear returned.
The whole episode sickened me. Even though I chased him off my porch, he was a beautiful animal and I did not want him killed. One of my books, The Hideout, dealt with bear poaching. Now that I’ve experienced this first hand, my feelings are even stronger than when I wrote the book.
I’ll say one thing - my life is not boring!
I received my copies of Runaway Twin. There is a gate across my driveway and, although there’s no lock, Fed Ex and UPS sometimes drop packages over the gate rather than delivering them to my home. Other times, they come to the door. This time the box of books had been put in a plastic bag and left inside the gate, where it sat overnight. I found it at 7 a.m. Saturday when I walked out to get my morning newspaper.
A box of books is too heavy for me to carry, so I hurried back to the house for a wheeled dolly to roll my treasure home. Sensing my excitement, Lucy barked, picked up a pine cone in her teeth, and raced ahead of me.
Is there anything more satisfying than opening a box containing copies of my new book? No matter how many books I publish, that moment is always a thrill. Running a close second to this feeling is the fun of distributing my copies to the special people in my life. My kids and grandchildren each get one. The person to whom the book is dedicated gets a copy, as does anyone who helped in some way, such as with research or proof-reading. One copy of Runaway Twin is for the person who was high bidder at an auction to benefit Pasado’s Safe Haven. I had donated the opportunity to have a favorite pet included as a character in a future book. Snickers, the dog in Runaway Twin, is that character.
Runaway Twin has a terrific cover that will appeal to middle grade readers. I hope my story will, too.
My closest neighbor, Chris, raises birds. She starts with eggs, then hatches and raises ducks, peacocks, chickens, quail and turkeys. She bought an emu egg on craigslist, hatched it, and now Emma the Emu is a pet. This year, Chris entered a turkey in the Western Washington State Fair, known locally as the Puyallup Fair. It’s a huge fair and one of my favorite events. My friend, Marie Smith (wife of author Roland Smith,) enters her delicious pies every year and has a host of blue ribbons to show for her efforts. If you taste one of Marie’s pies, you’ll agree that the judges know their business.
This was Chris’s first time to enter. She delivered Tom Turkey to the fair and got him settled in a spacious pen with bedding, food and fresh water. Until then, Tom’s only socializing had been with Chris and her other birds. At the fair, his pen was surrounded by admirers who praised his size and beauty. Well, Tom LOVED the compliments! He strutted and gobbled. He let the fair-goers pet him. He puffed up with self-importance and quickly became a favorite of the audiences and judges. He not only won first prize, he was named the Grand Champion Turkey. Because he was so popular, the fair officials asked Chris to enter him again next year.
The fair ended two weeks ago, but Tom is still strutting and carrying on. I can hear him from my back yard: “Gobble, gobble, gobble.” He doesn’t seem to realize that the ducks, peacocks, and Emma are unimpressed.
I understand how Tom feels. When I receive a book award, as I’ve done twice in the last month, I get complimented, photographed, and hugged. My books are praised and my autograph is sought. For a day or two, I’m the star of the show. Then I come home and resume my real life - scooping the cat box, cleaning my house, slogging my way through the first draft of a new book.
Unlike Tom, I don’t want to spend every day in the spotlight. While award events are exciting and gratifying, I love my quiet life at home. I am writing this blog on a bench in my back yard, enjoying the sun with Molly and Lucy. The only sounds I hear are bird calls, a squirrel, and, from Chris’s direction, “Gobble, gobble, gobble.”
I’ve recovered from my back-to-back trips to Tennessee and Florida. Both were wonderful conferences. The first day home, Oct. 2, was Anne’s birthday. We celebrated by going out to dinner, with cake here afterward. I made her (and my) favorite birthday cake: chocolate with whipped cream filling and mocha frosting.
Over the weekend, I enjoyed the sun with Molly and Lucy, got a flu shot, and answered the bottomless pile of mail, both snail and e-mail.
There’s been a spike in the number of author letters I receive. I differentiate between fan mail (letters written spontaneously by readers who love my books) and author mail, which are letters assigned in class and which all follow the same format. Before asking a student to write to an author, I wish teachers would have the student explore the author’s web site. The reason I post biographical material and a list of my titles on line is so that interested people don’t have to ask me if I have children or pets, and if I’ve written any books other than one they read in class.
One question always stumps me. Over and over, I am asked, “What was it like to have polio?” The kids who ask have read Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio. Since the entire book tells what it was like to have polio, I’m not sure what it is that they want to know. I respond by saying that I put everything I remember in the book.