Saturday Snapshots
April 16, 2011 @ 9:07 am | Filed under: Family Adventures, Photos
Archive for April, 2011
My Father Reflects
April 13, 2011 @ 6:25 pm | Filed under: Photos
Photo(s) by Murray Brannon.
My father’s handiwork—both the original photos and the melding of the images. That’s me on the bottom, circa 1970, and of course it’s Huck on the top, 2010. I’m pretty much in love with this.
Asparagoosh
April 13, 2011 @ 5:20 pm | Filed under: Food
I think the lesson here is that I should be kept far, far, far away from the kitchen during the week taxes are due. Tonight it was the asparagus: I put some in a pot to steam in a little water, and then somewhere between buttering the bread and slicing the red bell pepper, I forgot about it. For a good twenty minutes.
Puree, anyone?
A Note to My Family
April 12, 2011 @ 4:22 pm | Filed under: Assorted and Sundry, Food
About that campfire smell in the kitchen.
See, the first thing that happened was the Worcestershire sauce came out much faster than I expected. Much, much faster. And since I was pouring directly into the mixing bowl, well, what was I going to do? Throw out all that perfectly good egg and milk and bread that was supposed to go into the meatloaf?
The second thing that happened was that the Worcestershire sauce turned out to be a bottle of liquid smoke.
So, um, yes. I threw out all that perfectly good egg and milk and bread that was supposed to go into the meatloaf.
I think the real question is: why do you still let me loose in the kitchen?
Upstairs, Downstairs: Shall We Talk?
April 11, 2011 @ 2:29 pm | Filed under: Author stuff, Television
So what did you think?
A few years back, Scott and I watched the first few seasons of the original. Enjoyed it very, very much. So I got goosebumps when I saw the old familiar house number and realized we were coming back to 165 Eton Place.
And again when we first saw Jean Marsh! I absolutely love the premise of the new show: not a remake of the original, but another chapter in the life of the house…and in at least one of the people who lived and worked in it before. Brilliant.
The mother-in-law delighted me: not a stereotype at all. Her secretary, perhaps a bit.
Favorite moments: the cook’s reluctance to take the job offer, her mild scorn at the “newness” of their baronetcy, her susceptibility to the lures of a gas range and top-of-the-line refrigerator. That, and the quietly emotional pleasure on Jean Marsh’s face as she looked at the word ‘housekeeper’ on the tag.
The housemaid is going to be trouble, obviously.
Side note: I once began writing a novel inspired by the original Upstairs, Downstairs series, in which the main character was a girl whose mother worked in a turn-of-the-20th-century London household. In the story the girl’s mother was accused of theft, and it was going to be up to the girl to save her. About four chapters in, the entire story up and transplanted itself to a homestead on the Colorado prairie. I know, that’s quite a shift! It became an altogether different kind of tale, but the kernel of the original idea is still there. It will be published in Summer 2012 by McElderry Books—I can’t wait!
Sunday Night Note
April 10, 2011 @ 8:07 pm | Filed under: Assorted and Sundry
Coming up for a quick breath of air…busy days here. If anyone mentions the word “taxes” I will sprout a dozen extra eyes and glare at you with all of them.
Still writing up my notes on the Wondercon kids’ comics panel…I took a lot of notes.
The new Upstairs, Downstairs remake airs tonight on Masterpiece Theater. I guess that’s “aired” past tense for most of the rest of the country, but here it’s still in my future. I can’t wait.
The Kidlit4Japan auction of my Martha books ends tomorrow at 2pm Eastern time. Thanks to all who have bid (or are planning to) on any of the items in these fundraising auctions!
Camera decided to focus on Beanie instead of the dice. Guess it has its priorities straight.
Extrapolating
April 9, 2011 @ 7:07 am | Filed under: These People Crack Me Up
Rilla: Huck told me to watch Boomerang this morning
Me: He did?
Rilla: Uh-huh. He said “Boomerang.”
Me: He DID?
Rilla: Well, he said “Boo.”
Martha Books Auction Is Underway
April 8, 2011 @ 6:50 am | Filed under: Author stuff
Here’s the link. Visit Kidlit4Japan to place a bid on a set of signed paperback copies of all four of my Martha Years books about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s great-grandmother, Martha Morse Tucker. The winning bidder will be directed to send his or her donation directly to a charity participating in tsunami relief efforts. (Details here.) Auction ends Monday, April 11 at 2pm EDT.
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Wondercon Recap (Part 2)
Saturday evening, back at the con. That’s when the Bestest Thing Ever happened. Should I show the picture again? All right, since you’ve twisted my arm.
After I met Charlotte Stewart—did I mention I met Charlotte Stewart?—I almost got knocked over by this fellow.
Not the little boy. The guy with the five-foot-long tail. A tail which needed one of those sensors that tell you if you’re about to bump into unsuspecting passersby who may or may not be distracted over having just met Miss Beadle.
We had dinner plans with our friend Kelley Puckett, writer of The Batman Adventures, Batgirl, Supergirl, and other cool stuff. We had tapas, which is pretty much my favorite way to eat: a little something off everybody’s plate.
I did not take pictures. I was too busy eating off everyone’s plate.
After dinner we went around the corner to a small gathering of other kidlit and comics folks, where I got to hang out with one of my favorite couples in the world: the brilliant Jennifer Holm and her husband Jonathan Hamel. Jenni, as I’m sure you know, writes the Babymouse books and just won her third Newbery Honor (third!) for Turtle in Paradise—which is a really marvelous book and you should read it, if you haven’t already. It’s set in Depression-era Key West and involves a spunky heroine, a wonderfully quirky and distinctive culture, and real buried treasure. Also, it made Scott cry.
This photo is from the next day, on the con floor. Don’t mind my straight-out-of-1980 jacket. I thought we were doing a taping of Charlie’s Angels but Kate Jackson never showed up.
On Sunday morning, we met our friend Brian Stelfreeze—one of the best artists in the business—for breakfast. At Denny’s. None of this $20 burned toast nonsense. As a rule I won’t pay a penny above $6.99 for burned toast.
At some point that day, Scott slipped Brian my sketchbook. Not a book of my sketches, which would likely make Brian’s eyes burn, but a book of drawings by friends of ours who are artists. This is something of a custom in the industry, passing one’s sketchbook around, but I’m terribly shy about it and pretty much never ask for a sketch myself. Scott does it on my behalf, though, and I get embarrassed, and then later I look at the drawings and get giddy over how awesome they are. Bob Boyle drew me a Wubzy! Jock drew me a Batman! Fiona Staples drew me a Super-Me!
Of course I was DYING to ask Brian for a sketch but I would never have done it because at a con he’s spending the whole DAY doing sketches (and in his case, even paintings) for people. But Scott asked him, and I yelled at Scott and was secretly thrilled.
I don’t seem to have any pictures from the Sunday afternoon kids’ comics panel that Scott and Jenni were on. I guess I was too busy taking notes. I have pages and pages to write up for a post about the panel, which was fantastic. OH WAIT, I know I took pictures—I bet they’re still on my camera. Well, I’ll save them for that post, I guess.
After the panel, Scott and I found a quiet little Italian restaurant a few blocks from the hotel, and I got all excited because they served sauteed chicken livers and mushrooms, a dish I haven’t had since Scott’s first year in New York City, when we used to go to this tiny little place called Boccaccio and they beamed at me for always devouring their house special, chicken livers and mushrooms in a marsala sauce. Oh my. Amazing.
We were just finishing up when Brian called; he was around the corner and wanted to drop off my sketchbook. And when I saw what he’d done for me I got all choked up.
It was Oracle. Oracle is my favorite character in comics. If you don’t know, Oracle is Barbara Gordon, who used to be Batgirl but then the Joker shot her and shattered her spine, and now she’s wheelchair-bound, and she’s like a one-woman Google (from way before there was a Google), amazingly adept with computers and information-gathering and hacking. The Batman calls upon her assistance all the time. That’s right: Batman relies on Oracle’s help. That’s how awesome she is.
Scott and Brian did an Oracle story together in 1994. It’s an incredibly gorgeous work of art.
As is this.
Not all superheroes wear Spandex.