In the works

LLAMA LLAMA MAD AT MAMA on the way....!

Alrighty:  it's 11;30 at night, and I'm procrastinating....I really should go to bed. 

But I'm nervous.  The heat is out in my studio (the kerosene is disconnected), and it is supposed to go down to 5 degrees tonight.  5 degrees!!! What kind of crazy state do I live in?  And why, why don't I live in say, Savannah?  Well, I guess I know the answer to that one; too many people for me, and not enough hills.

I've got both electric heaters on, enough to make me nervous - I had a fire experience once with an electric heater - but there really isn't any other option, because my paints are in there.  If something happens to my paints, I don't know what I'd do...

It's tempting to drive up there to my house-in-progress (where the studio is) and just babysit them all night, but I don't know if I can stand hanging out in 38 degrees all night.  The cats are in the heated part of the house, thank goodness, and there really isn't anything I can do about the studio, anyway.

OK, the real reason for the post:  if you are searching for LLAMA LLAMA MAD AT MAMA, and can't find it, have no fear!  They tell me we have LOTS in the warehouse, and they should be in bookstores soon.  Yup, and so I hope, 'cause it is the holidays, and it is a very inconvenient time to sell out, I must say.  Ah, but I will count my blessings.

Like, for instance, the fact that my paints will NOT freeze tonight, right....? 

Oo la la!

So exciting!!! LLAMA LLAMA MAD AT MAMA is going to be on The New York Times Bestseller List AGAIN - for a third time - and this time it moved UP to spot #9!

You know, the pathetic thing is that while this is great, yadda yadda, professional validation, yadda yadda, worked for years to convince publishers to buy my work, so on and so forth, ad infinitum...the thing that REALLY makes me psyched is that I can maybe now hire somebody to put in my kitchen. 

That would mean an actual room...instead of walking out of my studio into a space that has live creatures in it....bats, squirrels, SKUNKS!  I think the woodchuck is gone (he lived under the floor), but the stupid skunk is back, and it sprayed under my studio yesterday.  This is not conducive to a full and happy workday.  Not that I care about skunk smell; I'm one of the minority who don't mind it too much.  But Radish (my doggie companion) spent the morning crawling desperately under the studio, rolling in the skunk detritus.  I found that distracting.  And the cats have been crawling around under the floor, too....let's just say that it is a fabulous place if you like dank earth.  I, on the other hand, do not.  And the idea that I might be able to get REAL CARPENTER MEN (or women) to CLOSE OFF the crawl space and put in insulation and put in heat and make a place where I can make myself lunch, instead of going outside and pulling an apple off the tree to have with my Goldfish crackers (yeah, that's a great lunch)...well, that is such an exciting concept.

OK, off to go work on my new little creature, who is making me very happy, also.  I almost completely forget about the real, live creatures when I am working on this new book.  That is, under I hear some odd thump under the floor....

YAY YAY! Happy me.

I am so thrilled to announce that LLAMA LLAMA MAD AT MAMA is going to be on The New York Times Bestseller List on October 7!  OK, not that this matters to anyone but myself (and my publisher), but I do feel honored that so many people seem to like it....and, on a practical level, this means I may be able to have a kitchen and bathroom in my house someday (the little things make me so happy...).  The cats have their own kitchen and bathroom, but I could really use the kind with hot, running water. 

On another note, I am hard at work on another book about another animal that is not (!) a llama, but it is just in the sketching stages as yet.  I really like this little creature, too.  I'll be happy when I can finish cleaning up the latest stage in my house demolition and can completely focus on him/her for a bit.

A good place to buy my books:

Of course, you should always be able to get my books from your fabulous local library.  And, if you don't already hang out in your local library, I strongly recommend it; there is nothing more fun than leaving the library with your little one's arms loaded with new books.

HOWEVER!  If your little one wishes to have his or her own copy of one of my books, then I have a piece of shameless hucksterism to throw at you:  buy it from Dragonfly Drygoods.  Why?  Well, no good reason other than it is my sister's store, and my sister is a nice woman with two little kids, and she carries all my books.  Plus, you can check out her store while you are at it, and it's one heck of a place, even online.  I always want everything in the store when I go in there.  Of course, she ships and all that stuff, just like the big chains...but she's not a big "box store"; she's a regular person with a neat store in Brattleboro, Vermont.  Just thought I'd throw the suggestion out there.  : )

Just click on this link:   www.dragonflydrygoods.com  .  I hope it works!  (I've never linked to anything before.)

Angelina Jolie.

I admit it:  I read IN TOUCH magazine.  Well, "reading" it is a little generous.  I started buying it to show my girls just how actresses are airbrushed and photoshopped (or not)...it's pretty funny when you noticed that someone in layout or design did a lousy cropping job and some model is missing a leg, or the shadows are all wrong on some picture, and the two people in the "candid" shot are not really next to each other at all....and now I just get it for fun, and because it gives me much amusement over my morning coffee when I'm not quite ready to think.  And one can never get too much of Britney, Paris, or Brangelina, right...?

HOWEVER, this is what I want to know:  why hasn't anyone pointed out that maybe Angelina Jolie is so darn thin because she's an over-worked, over-stressed mom???  Sure, maybe she takes diet pills, and maybe she's a nut (frankly, I think that anyone who jets from country to country, dragging their children with them all the time, has got to be a little nutty), but isn't it just as darn possible that the woman is super-frazzled and stressed?  Her mom just died, and she has four kids, and a more than full time job.  There was a time in my life that people gave me all kinds of grief for being too thin, and I can guarantee you that it wasn't because I was choking down diet pills and avoiding paparazzi.  I had a 1 year-old and a four-year-old, a full-time job and no money.  OK, so the money isn't Angelina's problem.  But please, maybe she's actually trying to be a mom and hold down a job and it's wearing her thin - literally. 

End of rant.

Llama Llama Mad at Mama...out and about in the world!

Alrighty- I have about three seconds before I have to go pick up my kid for dance class, but here are a few reviews for LLAMA 2, which came out a few days ago....

School Library Journal said:

PreS-K—In this sequel to Llama Llama Red Pajama (Viking, 2005), the hoofed protagonist goes shopping with his mother. Gradually the small annoyances of the Shop-O-Rama ("Yucky music,/great big feet./Ladies smelling way too sweet....Try it on and take it off./Pull and wiggle,/itch and cough") send the youngster into a tantrum: "It's no fun at Shop-O-Rama./Llama Llama/MAD at Mama!" With admirable patience and parenting skills, Mama tames the "llama drama," explaining to her son that they can make the chore fun by working together. Soon Llama Llama is helping Mama clean up the messy results of his meltdown and complete their purchases, and then they are off to pursue more pleasurable activities. Children will giggle at Dewdney's rhythmic rhymes. The inviting, oversized paintings are bold and colorful, and Llama Llama's priceless expressions carry the emotional arc of the story to its gentle conclusion. Add this amusing tale to your storytime repertoire or recommend it for one-on-one sharing.—Jayne Damron, Farmington Community

...and Publisher’s Weekly said:

Llama Llama Mad at Mama
Anna Dewdney. Viking, $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-670-06240-9

The engagingly expressive and emotive protagonist of Llama Llama Red Pajama has another reason to be grumpy in this droll follow-up. Having survived bedtime in the earlier tale, Llama Llama here faces another childhood bugaboo: a shopping expedition. None too happy when Mama Llama drags him away from his toys, the overall-clad youngster discovers there’s little to like at Shop-O-Rama: “Yucky music,/ great big feet./ Ladies smelling way too sweet./ Look at knees and stand in line./ Llama Llama starts to whine.” Forced to try on itchy clothing and wait while Mama deliberates over food items, her increasingly disgruntled progeny decides, “It’s no fun at Shop-O-Rama./ Llama Llama/ MAD at Mama!” Sitting in the shopping cart, he furiously throws would-be purchases on the ground, creating toddler-tickling mayhem and eliciting from Mama the tale’s reassuring message: “Please stop fussing, little llama./ No more of this llama drama./ I think shopping’s boring, too—/ but at least I’m here with you.” After helping her offspring clean up the mess, Mama holds his hand as they push the cart together, finishing their shopping as a team. After Mama (in a parent-pleasing diversion) remembers where she left the car, they drive off (“Say good-bye to Shop-O-Rama”) and are then seen happily holding ice cream cones (“Llama Llama/ loves his mama”). Snappy rhythm, pleasing rhyme and large-scale art—plus the easily identifiable experience depicted—make this an involving read-aloud, one that will leave kids and parents hoping Llama has many more adventures ahead. Ages 2-up. (Sept.)

and Kirkus said really nice stuff, too, but I'll have to add that later.  Oh!  And it was a BookSense Pick of the List (but have I mentioned that already...?).

No accidents yet....

Well, no mishaps with the circular saw, yet.  Of course, I haven't been using it recently.  I did have a bit of a nasty scare with a ladder and a roof, yesterday...I've decided that I really ought to wait until there is someone else around before I do tricky things.  Falling from the third floor off the north side of the house (away from the road) would be bad for my llama painting schedule.  But the house is almost entirely painted!  Some places have four coats, even.  I've found spots that I would swear have not been painted since the 1860s...

While I juggle paintbrushes, I thought that I would note that I am going to be in Burlington, Vermont for the Burlington Book Festival on Sunday, September 16 and at the NEIBA trade show on September 28 (in Rhode Island).

LLAMA LLAMA MAD AT MAMA comes out in a week, and people have said nice things about it.  When we get around to it, I'll be posting the reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus.  It was on the Booksense Fall 2007 short list of ten, too. YAY!

'K.  That's enough for now.  I have to go make phone calls and send emails, etc....there's so much to do to make sure the kids are set for school...thank goodness I'm not going back, myself.  Although, I must say that it is odd to have all the teachers busy busy busy and not be ordering materials and checking on my room, etc. etc., myself.  Instead, I will be ripping out mouse-infested insulation, talking to my cats, writing stories about talking animals, and getting weirder every day...oh well.

Aaaaarrrgh!

NOW I am in an evil mood......This is NOT a good way to start the day!

I make a vow to myself to post on my website, I write a nice post, and then it disappears!!! And I can't get it back again, and I have to wake up the children and go to work!!!  Rats rats rats.

Fine, stupid computer, fine!!!  Stupid Typepad.  It will probably rain today, too.  And I'll cut my fingers off with the circular saw (gross...I take that back). (Yes, I have a circular saw..very handy in my house, but it scares me a little...)

Here's the deal:  LLAMA LLAMA MAD AT MAMA comes out in a week or so, and the gist of my post was to say so.  Now I have to go wake up my teenage girls (who won't like to be woken up).

Rats.  What a rotten start to the day. 

Pokey Little Puppy

I have decided (again) that one of the greatest lines in all of children's books is the following:

"And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble, 'till they came to the edge of the green grass, and there they stopped short."

It just tumbles you right down the hill, and pulls you up short at the end.  Completely perfect.  One of the most beautiful lines to read aloud that I have ever had the good fortune to read to a child.  It popped into my head again, tonight, as I was kissing my daughter good night.  I don't think she's heard the story for oh, eight years or so, but she smiled when I recited the line, and she said, "Mmmm...strawberry shortcake".

Uh oh...

Wow...this is really bad.  I'm going to have to get myself to actually sit down and type these entries if I'm going to have a "blog" at all.  These entries are meant to be mildly informative, but they're not informative if there ain't no info.  The problem is, of course, that the only time I'm in front of the computer, it's late at night, and all I want to do is stare stupidly at the screen, eating lemon sorbet and looking at antique turkish rugs on ebay.  And during the day, there are pictures to paint, children to drive back and forth, dirt to shovel...it is hard to justify updating something that I'm convinced nobody looks at.  Enough excuses, already!

Here's the signing schedule, a little late:

I've already had two signings in Brattleboro, Vermont.

I'll be at The Concord Bookshop (MA) on Friday, October 27, @ 4 p.m.

Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH,  on Nov. 4 @ 11 a.m.   I am doing a radio show/interview with the owner of the store, as well, that may air on October 31st (Hallowe'en!).

I'll be at the bookstore in Bellows Falls, Vermont, on the 17th @ 6:30 p.m.

I'll be at The Keene (NH) Public Library on Sat. November 18th, in the morning sometime.

At Toadstool Books in Keene, NH, @11:00.

And then, back in Brattleboro at Dragonfly Drygoods, to sign all those holiday books on December 1st, between 5:30 -7:30.

OK...back to antique rugs...  : )