Betty Birney’s Blog

Sorry I haven’t posted for a month. First of all, I was gone for 2 1/2 of the last 4 weeks, including an unexpected trip for a family funeral as well as full weeks of school visits in Houston and San Antonio.

Some irritating issues came up regarding the blog and I’m rethinking the whole thing. Hopefully I’ll make a decision soon about retooling. Thanks for your patience.

-Two small umbrellas

-One earring I REALLY-REALLY-REALLY liked.

-Another earring I liked a lot. (Meaning I lost two pairs of earrings. However, I found an earring in the suitcase that I lost on a previous trip so I gained one pair back. But I didn’t have the mate with me so I actually bought two pairs of earrings in England. One pair was cheap and broke in two days. One pair was nicer and I’m still enjoying them.)

-An engraved silver compact with a regular mirror and a magnifying mirror, a gift from my husband.(However, I lost it once before and my husband replaced it, so I had the replacement at home.)

-A comb. (Lost in a tax with the compact).

What I gained: more than words can say!

Here’s a photo at the Bridge of Sighs on the campus of Oxford. We visited Oxford on a 12-hour trip. We hired a local driver who researched the trip and plotted it out. Luckily, Tim was a splendid guide and companion. We left Caterham,  Surrey,where we stayed with friends, at 8 in the morning and arrived back at 8 pm.

Oxford Bridge of Sighs

Then on to the Cotswolds!

It’s hard to believe we arrived in London last Wednesday (late night)… and are leaving again tomorrow – I feel as if I’ve been here five minutes! We’re staying at the Hotel Russell, overlooking Russell Square. Believe it or not, our room is ultra-modern – a 7th floor suite with a turret so we look down on the park and across to the Thames. We can see the London Eye from the window — and Sunday night, brilliant fireworks on the Thames! We also discovered that there’s a great cafe in Russell Square right across the street, where we’ve had fabulous, affordable breakfasts al fresco all week.

Parliament

On Thursday (husband Frank’s birthday) we had tickets to tour Parliament. Once a year, there are many public buildings which are normally closed that are open to the public at ticketed Open Days. We had pre-ordered our tickets. The tour was spectacular. I learned more about British government and history than in any course. I was suprised that the chambers for the House of Commons and House of Lords were quite small – next time I watch on TV I’ll have a different perspective.

We then went to Fleet Street and toured St. Bride’s Church, (after refreshment at the Old Bell pub – directly in front of the church). I have been following Samuel Pepys’ diary at www.pepysdiary.com for several years and this is the church where he was baptized. The spire is also the model for the modern wedding cake. We also saw Samuel Johnson’s charming house but it was closed. (Alert- this is an English major going to London so literary sites are top priority.) We peeked in London’s oldest pub, The Olde Cheshire Cheese, then took a cab back to Charlotte Street, not too far from our hotel, and celebrated Frank’s birthday at an Italian restaurant.

Wedding cake spire of St. Bride's

Friday was a pleasurable business day. My wonderful UK publisher is the venerable Faber & Faber (where T.S. Eliot was an editor as well as one of its famed poets) is located about two blocks away, directly next to the British Museum. I had lunch at the museum with my editor, Julia Heydon-Wells, saw her assistant editor, Emily Hardy, and met the new children’s publicist, Laura Smythe. After lunch, Laura whisked me off to Leicester Square to record about 15 minutes of me reading Humphrey (they will be broadcast in installments over 3 weeks) for the kids’ radio show Fun4Kids. We stopped for a glass of wine to plan the rest of the week. While I was doing publishing business, Frank was off to the National Portrait Gallery where he found a painting he’d always wanted to see in person – his great-great grandfather James G. Birney, who ran for president on the Abolitionist ticket is one in a large group painting of a famous international meeting of abolitionists.

Seriously jet-lagged, we met back at the hotel and ate here.

With Sue Foster at the Golden Treasury

Saturday was a business day for me. While Frank was off to the Tate Modern, Laura took me to a signing at an independent children’s bookstore, The Golden Treasury.  Sue Foster and the staff rolled out the red carpet and there was a wonderful group of kids and parents there to greet me.  After the signing, we headed to another charming children’s bookstore, called Tales on Moon Lane, where I signed stock. I had a date for tea in Covent Garden but it was canceled due to illness. My afternoon was up for grabs so I explored the neighborhood around the hotel, visiting the Dickens House Museum on Doughty Street, where Dickens did some of his early writing, and saw other local highlights, including a park called Coram’s Fields, which adults cannot enter without a child in tow.  Still jet-lagged and a little weary, we ate in our room and enjoyed British telly, which I love.

We woke up Sunday wondering what on earth we should do and ended up taking the boat down the Thames to Greenwich which was a brilliant decision. In fact, I’d recommend a trip to Greenwich to all London visitors. It’s not that far, you get to be on the river and it’s a beautiful place, rich with history and science, and very different than London.

It’s the home of the imposing Royal Naval Academy – well worth seeing, as is the British Maritime Museum. Then we climbed a high hill through a beautiful park to the Royal Observatory – this is the home of Greenwich Mean Time which is the time the world sets its clock to. (We set our watches there, of course.) Packed with people, wonderful museums on space, chronography, astronomy and longitude, and the best views of London you’ll see.  We rounded out the day at a pub and headed back to the Hotel Russell, highly satisfied.

Coming soon: Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Faber dinner and Agatha Christie!

As Richard Peck said at the SCBWI conference week before last, “friend … is not a verb.” I agree. But I took the plunge anyway and put myself on Facebook as another way to communicate with friends and fans. So check me out, friend me – “friend” will be a verb in the dictionary very soon I predict. (But I only wish everyone could have heard Richard’s moving speech.)

The conference is behind me and right in front of me is a month-long trip to NY/UK/NY. Everything’s in place – a mixture of pleasure and book promotion (which is pleasure) and time with the wonderful people at my UK publisher, Faber & Faber. If you haven’t checked out their Humphrey website, please go to http://funwithhumphrey.com/. There’s a brand new Humphrey story in the Hamster Zone.

We’ll have two different chances to see our faraway son Walshe in NY, nephew/niece Michael and Claire in Glen Ridge, NJ, great-nieces Rita and Josie, my agent, Nancy Gallt and her new agent Marietta Zacker whom I met at SCBWI, Humphrey editor Susan Kochan, Humphrey paperback editor Jen Bonnell, wonderful friends Betty and Alex, and cousin Reed Birney in a play – he works all the time in NY and it will be treat to see him onstage at Playwrights Horizon in Circle Mirror Transformation.

Oh, and I also have a bit o’writing to do!

I had a very relaxing day on Sunday (unusual for me=relaxing). Granddaughter Remy and her parents Rebecca and Gary came over and we pulled the table out under the trees, had a Mediterranean feast (Greek food is my favorite) and talked ourselves silly.

Remy pulled out her usual collection of toys, including Humphrey and Og puppets,  and also did a LOT of drawing. I particularly like her drawing of – well you can guess who it is (above). There are books about him. He has a cage with a lock-that-doesn’t-lock. He lives in Room 26 of Longfellow School. Okay, enough with the hints.

I’ll put up my schedule for London, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Bath very soon. We’re also looking forward to time in Surrey with friends Min (and Johnny and Suzy), and Wendy and Roger. But I must say a month-long trip takes a lot of planning as far as clothes.

(Take a deep breath, Betty.)

Last night, Amy Goldman Koss (The Girls) hosted an awesome farewell party for Kerry Madden (Harper Lee) who is leaving L.A. to teach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It’s a wonderful opportunity for Kerry, who is a born teacher as well as writer, and a great boon for Birmingham,  but we’ll definitely miss her smiling face at our LAYA events. (She’ll come back to L.A. as her family is temporarily divided.)

Kerry and me at Mrs. Nelson's

Lisa Yee and Kerry Madden at Kerry's signing at Skylight Books earlier this year.

I took my camera and then proceeded to have such a good time, I didn’t take any pictures of the folks my husband Frank and I hung out with: Kerry’s husband, Kiffen,  Lisa Yee (Absolutely Maybe) and her husband Scott, Michael Reisman (Simon Bloom, Gravity Keeper), computer guy Scott Bly (YA book coming out soon), Sally Nemeth (The Heights, The Depths and Everything in Between), or fellow “starter LAYA”  and future bride, Eileen Rosenbloom (Stuck Down).

Above is a picture of Kerry and me at a signing about 4 or 5 years ago. Goodness, we both look so much better now! Funny how that happens. We’ve signed together a couple of times and in fact , we met at a disastrous event (in terms of turnout) where we got to spend the entire day talking (due to lack of turnout), and had a fun time kibitzing away the day with Alan Zweibel of Saturday Night Live fame and many, many other stellar accomplishments. (Maybe he’ll become a senator one day.)

LAYA stands for Los Angeles Young Adult writers and Kerry and I were at the first informal meeting, hosted by our guiding light, Cecil Castellucci, who also attended Amy’s party last night. (But of course, I didn’t take pictures.)

There was the obligatory tour of Amy’s amazing bomb shelter – a book in itself. Amy hates it, but liked the house so much she and Mitch bought it in spite of the shelter.

So, bye-bye Kerry and don’t forget to write (more books)!!!
Weather alert: it’s HOT in L.A. – even in the shade of our patio.