Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
As of Tuesday morning, the Children’s Authors and Illustrators for Japan Auctions have raised a staggering $6,000 for tsunami victim relief efforts. The auction for my contribution—a signed set of Martha books in paperback—will begin at 2pm EDT on Wednesday. I’ll post the direct link then.
These are my four Martha Years books, the original, unabridged editions with illustrations by Renee Graef. I’ll inscribe them any way the auction winner wishes.
The titles are:
Little House in the Highlands
The Far Side of the Loch
Down to the Bonny Glen
Beyond the Heather Hills
I was asked to set an estimated value for the package—a very difficult question! I said $40 for the lot but now that most of these books are out of print, individual copies are selling for more than that on Amazon Marketplace. (Yikes!)
For information about how the auctions work, click here.
UPDATE: The Martha books auction is open! Click through to place a bid.
Much to tell. Later. We drove all day and reached home before rush hour got ugly, hooray. Boy do I love a road trip with that husband of mine. Or any kind of trip, really. Or just staying home with him. Him, basically.
We had a great time in San Francisco. Lots of pictures and stories to share, as is always the case after a con. For now, just one little sneak peek of one of the best, the very very best, moments of the whole weekend.
That’s right! I MET MISS BEADLE! Charlotte Stewart, the perfectly lovely actress who played Laura’s beloved teacher on Little House in the Prairie, was there at a table in the convention hall, and I totally geeked out when I saw her. Got speechless and stammery and gushed like crazy. And she was so nice and friendly and warm, and I am thrilled to bits to have met her. I told her about my books, and she told me about the Little House Reunion Cruise that is happening in November, with Charlotte, and the hilarious Alison Arngrim (Nellie Oleson), and Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush (Baby Carrie), and Dean Butler (Almanzo), and ohhhh how much would I love to go?!
I told Charlotte how much I loved the gentleness and patience of her Miss Beadle, and she told me she modeled the character after her sister, a mother of eight. I love that.
Saturday at Midwinter was a happy day for Maud Hart Lovelace fangirls like me…HarperPerennial hosted a booksigning, giving away tote bags and copies of Carney’s House Party and Emily of Deep Valley to a crowd of happy conference-goers. Mitali Perkins and I signed our forewords in the gorgeous reissues, and I loved getting to meet so many fellow Betsy Ray devotees, including several lovely women I know from the Maud-L discussion list.
With Maud-L listren Nancy D. and Kathleen W., a happy meeting!
The lovely Mitali Perkins
Me, HarperPerennial’s Jennifer Hart, and Mitali Perkins
Delightful lunch company. All of us are card-carrying members of the Betsy Tacy Society. (Well, I guess baby Lucy isn’t carrying a card…yet.)
Related posts:
Heaven to Betsy! High-school-and-beyond books being reissued! (Sept 2009)
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Betsy-Tacy e-books!
The Betsy-Tacy Songbook
Interview with Mitali Perkins, Jennifer Hart, and me about Maud’s books
Photos of my visit to the real Deep Valley, as chronicled by Margaret in Minnesota
Why I love Carney
Why I love Emily
A Reader’s Guide to Betsy-Tacy
It’s great fun to have ALA Midwinter happening in our own back yard this year! I’m looking forward to seeing a number of publishing pals and kidlitosphere chums this weekend. I’ll be at the YA Blogger meetup on Friday night (details here), and on Saturday I’ll be at the HarperPerennial booth (#2016) with acclaimed author Mitali Perkins from 11:30-12:30, where we’ll be—as Mitali aptly put it—reverently signing our forewords for the beautiful reissues of Maud Hart Lovelace’s Emily of Deep Valley and Carney’s House Party/Winona’s Pony Cart.
If you’re attending the conference, I hope you’ll stop by and say hello!
While I’m at it, this is a good time to mention that I spilled a little bit of news on my Facebook author page yesterday. 🙂 I’m very happy to say that my early reader, Fox and Crow Are Not Friends, will be published by Random House in 2012. I’ve been bursting to tell for quite some time, but we had to wait until things were all official and tidy-like.
I also have a YA novel in the works—more on that in the weeks to come!
Again, these are books I haven’t read yet (except one)—I saw them at the con and they piqued my interest. The TBR pile moans.
Series by James Owen: The Chronicles of Imaginarium Geographica (I saw these last year too. Gorgeously designed fantasy series with an appealing premise, something about a map of all the imaginary worlds ever written about…
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (they had a very cool one-of-a-kind handbound metal edition at the publisher’s table)
Hungry Tiger Press. This is the publisher of Eric Shanower’s beautifully illustrated new editions of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books. Eric won two Eisners this year for his edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (a Marvel Comics project). Hungry Tiger publishes reprints of old Oz stories and other Baum work, including two books about The Flying Girl, “intrepid girl aviator Orissa Kane.” Baum was one of my favorite authors as a child—we still have my collection of Oz books—and I couldn’t resist bringing The Flying Girl home with me for a test flight.
Tigerbuttah by Becky and Frank of Tiny Kitten Teeth fame. My friend Sarah showed me a copy, and the art and title made me swoon. I hunted for the booth but this was late in the day on Sunday and we had a curry date with our pal Jock, so I gave up the search. The book was adorable—it’s made after the fashion of a Golden Book with many cunning details.
Buzzboy by John Gallagher. Had the pleasure of meeting John at the kidlit gathering and am looking forward to reading his comic about “what happens when the sidekicks take over.”
Nerds: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society by Michael Buckley, illustrated by Ethan Beavers. Wonderful art & a fun premise—the nerds are kids who use technology to “upgrade” their weaknesses into superpowers. More about this (and all of the above) after I’ve had a chance to read.
More on SDCC 2010:
A few photos
Photos of supercool steampunk wheelchair
Awesome sketch drawn for me by the incredible Fiona Staples
What I did at SDCC
Rick Riordan panel
LOST Encyclopedia Panel
Epic fantasy panel
Books that caught my eye (part 1)
August 1, 2010 @ 6:48 pm | Filed under:
Events,
SDCC My posts on SDCC, all in one handy-dandy linkypost.
A few photos
Photos of supercool steampunk wheelchair
Awesome sketch drawn for me by the incredible Fiona Staples
What I did at SDCC
Rick Riordan panel
LOST Encyclopedia Panel
Epic fantasy panel
Books that caught my eye (part 1)
Books that caught my eye (part 2)
Coolest thing I saw at the con. These pictures don’t come close to doing it justice. I chatted briefly with the owner—she did all the work herself. Wish I’d gotten her name. Amazing craftsmanship.
More on SDCC 2010:
A few photos
Awesome sketch drawn for me by the incredible Fiona Staples
What I did at SDCC
Rick Riordan panel
LOST Encyclopedia Panel
Epic fantasy panel
Books that caught my eye (part 1)
Books that caught my eye (part 2)
