Betty Birney’s Blog

We've had a lot of rain this year, which we need. One recent rain produced a spectacular sunset - this was taken a few feet from my office door.

When I haven’t posted for awhile, do not assume I’m lounging around eating bon-bons. It probably means I’m on a deadline, or possibly that I’m on the road.

A week ago today, I finished up the hurried-up revisions on the 6th Humphrey book, due out next year. Then I spent two days at Miller Elementary School in Burbank – probably the closest school to my house I’ve ever visited. Really great kids and the school had such a nice vibe. My thanks to Fran Zimmermann, Judy Hession and Betty O’Dell for hosting me so well. As usual, I learned as much as the kids did.

Then I’ve been dealing with some new health problems for Desi the dog. She spent the weekend in the hospital. She’s as pretty and sweet as ever but they’re trying to figure out what the problem is. She’ll be back home tonight, hurrah!

Ooh, the new book for next year has just the best cover ever, but it’s too early to share it. I wish I could!

You don’t hear the word “Huzzah” very often. It’s more fun than “Hooray” but really, just the same.

Anyway, Humphrey is featured in Publishers Weekly’s Children’s Bookshelf this week … read by most people in the world of children’s books, I imagine. Here’s a link to the article:

http://publishersweekly.com/article/CA6637125.html?nid=2788

Some fun pictures, quotes from my editor Susan Kochan and agent Nancy Gallt. And Crayfish. (You have to read the article.)

Here’s a crayfish that didn’t make the article. Who knew crayfish read? Should someone write a book for crayfish? They seem to be enjoying Trouble According to Humphrey here.

By the way, don’t tell Susan about this post OR the previous one. I still have those revisions due!

Please don’t tell Susan Kochan about this post. She’s the editor of the Humphrey books and she thinks I’m working 24/7 on revisions for next year’s Humphrey book but I had to go to the bathroom and then I thought, well, would it hurt to post a little blog? How long could it take? But I am on a tight deadline and Susan sounded very serious when she said everything had to be done by the 17th. Okay, so I won’t go to the bathroom again.

Earlier this morning, I took another teeny-weeny break to check out pal Lisa Yee’s blog and look at my picture. You can check it out, too:

http://lisayee.livejournal.com/98103.html

Lisa has a new book -  another one! (Maybe she doesn’t take bathroom breaks.) It’s called Absolutely Maybe – a great title.  I was at Monterey Hills Elementary School in South Pasadena on Monday – before I got Susan’s notes. Lisa lives nearby so we met for coffee. Okay, I had a diet coke and Lisa ordered mounds of food and then shoved it in front of me before she took the picture. Pretty sneaky. That’s me with Peepy, who goes everywhere with Lisa.

Go to Lisa’s blog and her website and her new website for Absolutely Maybe and read all of her books. Then scroll down to the bottom of her blog. If you have any interest in reading, writing or teaching children’s books, look at the video. It’s 10 minutes long or more (I guess it was a longer break than I remembered) and hysterical. Jeanne Birdsall is fabulous as the agent and so is Tomie de Paola, with whom I spent a couple of jolly hours in Dallas back in April (Susan was there, too).

Tomorrow is ADVENTURE DAY! ADVENTURE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY comes out! I had one copy and I accidentally left it at Monterey Hills Elementary. Don’t tell Susan that either!

So I might skip the bathroom breaks tomorrow and write another post to celebrate.

Bye!