Betty Birney’s Blog

Well, I botched that last post so try, try again. Just ignore the previous version!  I did have a wonderful birthday on Saturday. My biggest present: being home for the first time in a while! And a very nice  stack of presents from my husband and other relatives. But no time to relax because it was off to UCLA for the annual LA Times Festival of Books. Unbelievably, 70,000 people plus come each day- all in celebration of books. Originally, I wasn’t too happy about my timeslot right at the Festival opening. But it was unbelievably hot and I ended up being very grateful I wasn’t signing at 2:00. There was already quite a crowd at 10. I got to sign with fellow LAYA, Michael Reisman, who just had his first book published to great success - starred reviews, movie deal - all well deserved! The book is Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper and there will be more. LAYA Paula Yoo (her almost brand new book is Good Enough) also stopped by - I didn’t get her picture, darn.

We browsed a bit, then returned home for a lovely, long call from son Walshe and his girlfriend, Ania, then off to Beverly Hills for dinner with Becca, Gary and darling granddaughter, Remy. Becca and Gary took us to a favorite restaurant, Kate Mantilini’s. You can see that Remy was a lot more interested in helping me blow out that candle than with photography. When we returned home, I saw that Desi had a little celebration of her own. Desi is a 12 year old puppy - and I do mean puppy. She doesn’t play with her toys a lot but that night, she pulled her entire toy basket out of the corner of the den and scattered toys everywhere. I wish I’d had a hidden camera filming that! Whoopee!

So another year has come and gone and it was a very, very good year, for which I’m grateful.

 I did have a wonderful birthday on Saturday. My biggest present: being home for the first time in a while! And a very nice  stack of presents from my husband and other relatives. But no time to relax because it was off to UCLA for the annual LA Times Festival of Books. Unbelievably, 70,000 people plus come each day- all in celebration of books. Originally, I wasn’t too happy about my timeslot right at the Festival opening. But it was unbelievably hot and I ended up being very grateful I wasn’t signing at 2:00. There was already quite a crowd at 10. I got to sign with fellow LAYA, Michael Reisman, who just had his first book published to great success - starred reviews, movie deal - all well deserved! The book is Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper and there will be more. LAYA Paula Yoo (her almost brand new book is Good Enough) also stopped by - I didn’t get her picture, darn.

We browsed a bit, then returned home for a lovely, long call from son Walshe and his girlfriend, Ania, then off to Beverly Hills for dinner with Becca, Gary and darling granddaughter, Remy. Becca and Gary took us to a favorite restaurant, Kate Mantilini’s. You can see that Remy was a lot more interested in helping me blow out that candle than with photography. When we returned home, I saw that Desi had a little celebration of her own. Desi is a 12 year old puppy - and I do mean puppy. She doesn’t play with her toys a lot but that night, she pulled her entire toy basket out of the corner of the den and scattered toys everywhere. I wish I’d had a hidden camera filming that! Whoopee!

So another year has come and gone and it was a very, very good year, for which I’m grateful.

I will be signing Humphrey books at the L.A. Times Festival of Books on Saturday, April 26th at 10:00 a.m. (sorry, that’s early) at the Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop booth in the children’s area. Hope to see you there - it’s a great event! And you can wish me a happy birthday on my actual birthday!

Not much time to blog but I did receive the Oklahoma State Award, the Sequoyah, yesterday before an audience of 500 kids. I also signed books for over three hours with no apparent damage to my hand! I received more good news which I will share very soon.

  I’m off to give a speech at the Oklahoma Library Association luncheon and then driving to Broken Arrow, OK for visits to Indian Springs and Park Lane Elementary Schools. OK!

   Gennifer, Barbara, me

I just got back from Dallas for the Texas Library Association conference. A whirlwind trip, staying at the beautiful Adolphus Hotel Wednesday and Thursday nights.  The real purpose of the visit was to be on a panel with Gennifer Choldenko (Newbery Honor book Al Capone Does My Shirts, If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period, www.choldenko.com ) and Barbara O’Connor (How To Steal a Dog, Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia,   www.barboconnor.com). I’d met Gennifer before when we were receiving Pennsylvania Keystone to Reading Awards and we presented together, and it was a pleasure to meet Barbara for the first time. We were all grateful to the intrepid librarians who attended our 8:00 a.m. session!  And grateful, also, to moderator Viki Ash for setting a very comfortable tone and keeping the interesting questions coming.

Other highlights of the conference: hanging out with my editor, Susan Kochan, and the inimitable Tomie dePaola (Strega Nona, the 26 Fairmont Avenue books and so many more, www.tomie.com), for a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon, getting to know the Penguin marketing people lots better, getting to do a little manuscript work with my editor, Susan, one to one instead of on the telephone. And then there was the cocktail party Thursday night. I cabbed it there with T.A. Barron (the Lost Years of Merlin books and so many more) and Penguin’s Kim Lauber. At the party, I got to reconnect with Gennifer and Barbara, finally meet Toni Buzzeo (Dawdle Duckling, Our Librarian Doesn’t Tell Us Anything www.tonibuzzeo.com ) whom I had emailed a while back because in her previous life as a librarian, Toni was at Longfellow School in Maine. (In case you don’t know, that’s where Humphrey goes to school. Well, not necessarily in Maine; here are lots of other Longfellow Schools as it turns out.)

Then the group joined Newbery winners Linda Sue Park (A Single Shard) and Lynn Rae Perkins (Criss Cross), and I had a great chat with Linda. I had been invited to dinner with Gennifer and her the previous night but was already committed to having dinner with my editor and some librarians from the Coppell school district. By the way, a lovely group at a great restaurant, Hibiscus.

After the party, the Penguin people (I know, it sounds funny - they don’t wear funny tuxes) took John Erickson (Hank the Cowdog), Neal Shusterman (Unwind, The Schwa Was Here, etc.) and me to the Dallas Fish Market, another wonderful restaurant. It was raining as we left, so we got soaked on the way back but it’s sort of embarrassing to take a cab one block.  (Susan was at a memoir event with Tomie.)

THANKS-THANKS-THANKS Scottie, RaShahn, Emily, Kim! And Susan, of course. I can never thank Susan enough for taking on Humphrey to begin with and I always enjoy hanging out with her. She and I cabbed it to the Dallas airport Friday morning and that was that!

 I am home for one day and then leave early Sunday morning to fly to Tulsa for the Oklahoma Library Association conference and receiving their state award, the Sequoyah Award. More fun!

I knew all along it was Barbara O’Connor, not Jane, with whom I’ll be speaking on the panel at TLA.  Jane O’Connor writes the popular FANCY NANCY books.

 Barbara O’Connor is the award-winning author of  the acclaimed books: HOW TO STEAL A DOG, MOONPIE AND IVY and FAME AND GLORY IN FREEDOM, GEORGIA. I can’t wait to meet her.

As soon as I published the blog I realized I’d made a mistake.

For more than a year, I have been emailing back and forth with Elaine Carlson (at the end of the table) in Farmington Hills, Michigan for a visit there — and now, it’s over! I had a GREAT-GREAT-GREAT time.

First of all, I want to congratulate all the students at Highmeadow, Forest, Wooddale, Kenbrook, Hillside, Wm. Grace, Flanders, Lanigan, Gill, Beechview, Longacre, Eagle and Woodcreek who EARNED the right to see my presentations by reading five books in their annual Book Parade event. Almost every student had read World and Friendship (in previous years, too) and Sassafras.

A special congratulations to the kids who went the extra mile and earned a free book - TROUBLE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, signed by me. It was a race to get all those hundreds of books signed but I made it!

And a very special thanks to the media specialists who drove me, made sure I was fed and at the right place at the right time. We had a great dinner together - it’s unfortunate that the picture above is the only one I have and my apologies to those who got cut off, but we had a great time. (I’m in the blue on the left.)

An extra special thanks to Sue Kalisky (in blue on the right)  who picked me up at the airport and arranged my transportation back at 6 am on Friday. (We won’t talk about the fact that American cancelled my flights home - I got home right on time, thanks to United.)

On Thursday night, we had a successful event at the staggeringly sensational Farmington Hills Library -a surprise on a rainy night. Thanks to Laurie Scott for all her help and to the Friends of the Library for helping to sponsor my visit. I’d sure love to have a state-of-the-art library like that in my neighborhood.

Thanks also to Addie, who is retired but works at the public library and also shuttled me a couple of times and made sure I got dinner.

I’m madly trying to catch up before leaving for the Texas Library Association conference in Dallas. I’ll be on a panel with Gennifer Choldenko (whom I met when we both received Pennsylvania Keystone to Reading Awards, along with Kelly DiPucchio) and Jane O’Connor. It’s bright and early Thursday morning. I’ll get to schmooze with media specialists, my editor Susan Kochan and other folks from Penguin. I come home on Friday and leave Sunday for a week in Tulsa, where I’ll receive the Sequoyah Award for THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY at the Oklahoma Library Association meeting. Then I’ll speak to some schools in Broken Arrow.

FUN-FUN-FUN!

Why did the cookie go to the doctor?

Because she was feeling crummy.

 This cookie’s been feeling crummy for two full weeks and there’s not an end in sight. Yet I’m leaving Monday for three days of long-anticipated school and library visits in Farmington, MI.  I’ll make it - I’m just not sure about my voice.  

Looking backward … I’m still savoring my U.K. visit.

One little addition: I wish I’d put Marcus Chown’s website up when I talked about World Book Day. It’s www.marcuschown.com. He’s a fascinating person! I wish he’d been my science teacher.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get many pictures at the Royal High School in Bath. There were some tech problems which still didn’t mar the day for me. The school is situated on a hilltop overlooking the unbelievably beautiful and unusual city of Bath. Rebecca Hindmarsh, who arranged my visit, just emailed me some pictures. A windy morning on a high hill … and a wonderful memory. She also emailed the link to their website where they talked about my visit. They did a better job of explaining World Book Day than I have so far!

 http://www.royalhighbath.co.uk/junior/news_events/recent_news/VisitFromWorldBookDayAuthor.html

Meanwhile … back at the ranch …..

 At our ranch-style California bungalow, after three months, we have a kitchen! And I love it. The refrigerator was finally moved out of the dining room a week ago. Those lemons in the sink are from our Meyer lemon tree. I couldn’t even figure out what they were when we first moved in. Now, about nine months of the year I can go outside and pick a fragrant and delicious Meyer lemon.