Again with the blogging lapse. Arg. There's just so much going on right now! The book, of course, and other things I can't really talk about (I am a secret agent), and in the midst of it all, the whole Life thing just keeps right on ploughing ahead. [Re: Trailer Contest: I am not ignoring this, and again I'm so sorry for the delay! Something came up with it at the last minute, and I will tell you what it is as soon as I can! I hate to keep the entrants waiting like this :-(]
Last weekend, Clementine and I took a little trip to California to visit friends of the 21st Century variety, which is to say: dear friends whom we had not yet met IN PERSON. Ha! You know how this goes. Below is me and Tone Almhjell, of Norway, about whom you will be hearing things in the publishing world this year:

Tone and I met via my blog some years ago. She would comment frequently, and her comments just really shone through as funny and smart and kindred, and over time we began emailing and skyping, and it turned out we were both pregnant at the same time, and Clementine and Magnus (in utero they were "Professor" and "Gameboy") were born three weeks apart, and on top of it all, Tone was writing a book. She was writing a book in Norwegian. So I tried not to get too excited about reading it, but she would tell me these tantalizing snippets, and her imagination and way with words (in English) would leave me making gimme hands in spite of myself. And then she would write these short pieces for Sunday Scribblings in English, and they were so, so good. Really, truly beautiful. Even if she were a native English speaker they'd be beautiful, and since she's not, they were kind of astonishing, and there was always this unexpected lilt that came of her non-nativeness that had a way of being magical and never awkward. So. Time passed.
And maybe she'll tell the story in more detail some time soon, but it came about that she started translating her in-progress Norwegian novel into English (yay!) and as expected, I fell deeply in love with it, and ... so did my agent, Jane Putch, who took Tone on as a client and sold the remarkable TWISTROSE KEY to Dial Books, and it's coming out this fall!!!
I will tell you more about in another post, and maybe get Tone on here too, if she agrees, but you can
pre-order it now if you wish! It's a middle grade fantasy novel of the sort that will sweep all ages off their feet. My blurb on the back of the ARC reads: "This book is pure magic. I want to live in it." Really, I more want to
vacation in it, but living there wouldn't be bad either! You'll see what I mean when you read it. But more later, since I'm in a rush and can't do it justice right now! This is just my first push :-)
So anyway, Tone's husband Peter lived in California as a boy, and they were in Sonoma to visit family, so I couldn't have them be so near and not go and visit. Jim couldn't come, due to deadline pressure (poo), so it was just me and Clementine, and we had a lovely couple of days.
The view from the porch. Sigh:
Professor and Gameboy hit it off in an instant, in spite of not speaking the same language -- how much language is really needed for wall-walking and hammock-swinging, anyway? It was such a delight to watch them run rampant over this beautiful Sonoma garden complete with a sloping hill of grape vines!
There were excursions into town and to the Russian River. It all flashed past very quickly.
And then, as we were leaving, agent Jane was arriving to spend a few days, and we only passed each other in the airport long enough to hug.
So there was a little break from projects underway, and when we got home, we found ourselves in the middle of a fake summer of the sort that Oregon likes to throw out in the spring to tease us! Several days of pure summer weather, still ongoing. It goes on long enough that it feels permanent, and then BAM!, reverts to rainy Northwest spring and chill. Clementine is getting hooked on evening sprinkler runs, and will be bummed when they go away for another couple of months. Ah well, at least we won't have to water the lawn as much!
Happy weekend, all!