Lowry Updates

Sunday morning misanthropy

Today's NY Times has a lengthy and adulatory review of Nora Ephron's new book, and the NY Times Magazine has an interview with Nora Ephron, and  there are photos of Nora Ephron looking sleek and stylish, and you can get enough of a glimpse of her apartment to see that she has very charming and comfy digs on the Upper West Side, and I bet anything she has never needed gum surgery, either.

So I am clearly a humliating minority of one for not having liked her new book.  Today's review does point out that it contains a great deal of recycled material, but the reviewer is forgiving of that (as I am not) because she recycles in amusing ways. (Now there's a phrase! Where I live, in Maine, recycing consists of taking your trash to the dump; and now I am trying to think of a way to do that which would be sophisticated and witty. I'll have to get back to you on that.)

I m not going to dwell on this. I didn't like the book, but my grandmother used to say "That's why there is vanilla, and also chocolate."  I will read something else. I am already reading something else. Specifically I am reading Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken and liking it very much.

Day after tomorrow I head to NYC where that night I will vsiit with old friends, and on Wednesday will spend the day at The Riverdale School in the Bronx. I very rarely...well, close to never...visit schools. But for complicated reasons I agreed to do this one. Coincidentally, back when I was a photographer of children, i did portraits of a number of kids who attended that school. Of course they're all grown up now, as is the young girl on the cover of Number the Stars whom I photographed at about that same time, in the 1970's.

 

 

Looking at these, at me (age 30-something) with that old M-4 Leica, I am nostalgic. In those days I studied photography in graduate school; I used  (this is of no interest to anyone except other photographers, I know...) a rangefinder camera (albeit a very fine one) and a hand-held meter; then I developed and printed the photos myself. I sometimes made photos sepia by bathing them in potassium ferrocyanide...lethal stuff!... I spent hours and hours and HOURS in the darkroom (loving every minute).

Now, with the advent of digital photography and Photoshop...it is all so easy. Anybody can do good photos. Anybody can buy a DSLR and become a photographer. I guess that's a good thing, that people no longer spend long days in lightless rooms, breathing in chemical fumes. But there seems a downside to me, in everything becoming so easy.  I think I liked it better when you had to work at stuff, and earn it.

I guess that's actually related to my previous semi-rant about spending time learning the craft and art of writing, instead of looking for the immediate gratification of publication.

Oh, I am getting old and crochety. Probably Nora Ephron has never grumbled about anything in her life. (And did I mention her very slim hips?)

 

 

Over the river and through the woods...

I did, indeed, go to Grandmother's house most often for Thanksgiving. I remember my freshman year in college (Brown University, in Providence)---I was 17---taking a train to New York and from there a train to Harrisburg, where someone picked me up for the 15-mile trip to the smaller town in Pennsylvania where my grandparents lived.  My parents lived in Washington DC and had driven up from there, and my sister made her way down from Penn State, where she was a senior.

Goodness, why am I blathering on with such dull nostalgia? Holdiays bring that on, I think, when we start remembering holidays from the past.

Today I am the grandmother, but people are not heading over the river and through the woods to my house...instead I am heading to Maine tomorrow, bearing desserts which I will make today. (recipes from a GREAT new cookbook: THE ESSENTIAL NY TIMES COOKBOOK, by Amanda Hesser)

But first, before I start cooking, I am answering today's email, and just finished up with one to a teacher who had sent me sample writings from a 13-year-old. He, the teacher, wanted me to advise her on routes to possible publication. I'm going to copy, in part, what I sent to both the student and the teacher, because I know there are a lot of young poeple out there eager to become "Authors" which to my mind is not the same as becoming a "Writer"---

 Mr. XXXX suggested that because of your interest and gift for writing, perhaps I could advise you about possible routes to publication. But I am not going to do that because I believe very strongly that it would be much too soon.  At your age the important thing is to read and read and read, and write and write and write...all kinds of things in both realms. You have a long time to enjoy the pleasure of experimenting with words and language and story.  Maybe eventually you will choose to enter the world of professional writing and publication.,..but that is a very different thing; it is the world of business and has nothing to do, really, with mastery of the written word.  Writing is a very personal and private thing, as you already know.  It is best to keep it in that realm until you are older because it is a realm where you can savor the joy of the solitary experience, and in which you will have time to learn a great deal.  Successful professional writing requires mastery of certain skills, of course, but those are easy for an interested student like yourself to acquire; more importantly, it requires life experience, a broad knowledge of literature, and keen observation of human behavior...those are things that can’t be rushed.

Back home from Orlando

I'll be in Orlando again in May for the IRA convention, and at that one I'll be signing copies of "Bless This Mouse" which is to be published in March. At this recent NCTE convention, I was focused on "From the Willow Tree" which was there in galleys, though it won't be out until January. Kirby Larson, who has also done a new Dear America book, and I spoke to a large and enthusiastic group of teachers the other morning. Then she and I, along with several other Scholastic authors, each read a 2-3 minute selection at a large breakfast before I flew home yesterday.

It is very hard to choose such a short selection! If a book is any good at all, each piece of it depends upon previous information...and also leads to something further. Unless it is purposely episodic, there are very few selections that can stand completely and comfortably alone.

One of the best things about such conventions is seeing old friends (as well as meeting new ones) and there were too many there for me to list here—and I'm sorry I didn't have a good camera with me.  But Lois Duncan's husband did, and here we are:

Lois and I have known each other for 25 years at least, and we both remember the panel we were on together, each of of wearing a yellow dress, and people asking questions would say, "This question is for Lois"...then we would have to say, "Which one?"...and sometimes they would reply, "The one in the yellow dre—oops"

Lois D. has been re-writing a batch of her own long-published books for new publication—going back and putting in cell phones and computers, etc., to update them. I picture what it would be like to do that with the Anastasia books. Lately so many people have been asking me about those books, I think because they read them as children and now have children of their own who are at the appropriate age for them.

But of course without references to technology they are now "historical fiction," I suppose.

Here I am, as well, with Mitali Perkins, taken wiht her cell phone. She says we look like a Seurat. I say we just look dotty.

Someone replied to my previous post that I didn't seem happy signing autographs. She must have encountered me at Hour 3, when my hand hurt. Actually, I am always thrilled that so many people want their books signed, and that all of them are such nice people!  But it does become exhausting, and in recent years, when people have begun to bring cameras and phones with cameras...I must seem like a terrible grouch because I ask them to turn the flash off if they can.  The flash really hurts my eyes, and I can't see, afterward.  I think this must be a function of aging eyes because it doesn't seem to bother younger people as much. (I also can no longer drive at night; there may be some connection. I think it is because as eyes get old—mine are 73—they can't go back and forth between light and dark comfortably)  Not complaining, really, because they have served me well all these years!

So that is your Ophtalmalogy 101 Lecture. There will be a quiz Tuesday.

Anyway, I am back home. The Patriots beat the Colts. I have a new Cambridge resident—a fiction writer with a first novel coming out this year—coming for coffee this morning. And Martin and I head to Maine for Thanksgiving. My assiugnment is desserts and I have COOK (meaning the verb) scribbled on my calendar for Wednesday.

I bought a great shirt at the convention. It says DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS MOVIE on it.

 

The M word

Here is a photo of what was on my bed when I checked into my hotel room at Disney.

Speaking of the hotel--and its staff--- a distinguished editor---who shall remain nameless---said to me: "If one more person tells me to have a magical day, I am going to puke on their shoes."

Thursday evening I had dinner with a couple from Germany, and they, having just arrived here and strolled around a bit, said, "It's all very, ah, fake, isn't it?"

And that is true. It is all very Mickey Mouse. Kids probably love it (but if they do, why are so many of them whining and crying and sulking in the lobby?)

But forgetting all of that, the NCTE convention is always fun, largely because you see people you like and meet new ones you like. This time, because we did some events together, I got to know and like Kirby Larson, whose name I keep mis-remembering as Kirby Perkins, the Boston newscaster); and to be with Pam Munoz Ryan, whom I've known and liked for years.  Many other old friends as well, and I'll be with more of them at dinner tonight.

Despite the MM head-on-a-bed that greeted me in my room, the room is very pleasant. However I would like it better if the telephone worked (it is dead as a doornail),and if the toilet flushed. (It does, but only if I fill the wasterbasket with water and dump the water into the toilet).  Maybe this room should have been named for Goofy instead of Mickey.

But the weather is great, the people are fun, and the enthusiasm for books is invigorating. Three cheers for NCTE.  For DIsney? Well, have a magical day, Mickey Mouse. But please don't follow me home.

Li'l David was small, but oh my !

This is in haste because I am headed out to a lunch date. But I got back late last night from Sacramento...by way of Dallas/Fort Worth...Anbd when I was sitting in the DFW Airport between planes, I became aware of the dazzling outfit on the man sitting next to me. He was an African-American man about 60+ and he looked as he were costumed to be Sporting Life in Porgy and Bess. I would not have been surprised if he had suddenly stood up and burst into a tenor rendition of "It Ain't Necessarily So"   This is a surreptitious photo and doesn't do justice to his glimmering gold suit with the windowpane check, or the bright yellow paisley socks.  There wasn't time to initiate a conversation but I'd give anything to know where he was headed.

 

  

Sometimes travel is fun.  Not often, but now and then.

 

 

Discretion/Valor

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was freed after seven and a half years of house arrest and was greeted at the gate of her compound by supporters.

This from this morning's NY Times.  On behalf of freedom everywhere we should all rejoice at this news.

And speaking of freedom of expression, though this is in not the slightest way related to the magnificent woman just released....I must remind myself from time to time that with freedom comes responsibility. That should evoke a DUH.  But from time to time I am reminded of my own stupidity and/or thoughtlessness.  Yesterday, on this blog, I mentioned disliking a new book by a particular author.  Within hours I found myself on the other end of a live radio interview, having to reply to, "I understand you didn't like xxxxx's new book"

Well. it's true. I didn't much like it. Maybe it was because I had a sore throat and a cough and was feeling rotten when I read  it.

There are other books I dislike. Loads of them.  And just for the record, I hated the movie "Eat Pray Love."

What I forgot, or overlooked, was that this is a public venue---and of course people have a right to express their opinions to the public.  But when you do, you may be held accountable. Have to answer questions about why, exactly, you didn't like---whatever. And you have to be aware that the most trivial things can blow up to monstrous size.  I don't think that there will ensue a headline about the feud between me and Author X (see previous blog post for her name, because I am not deleting it).  And I don't think Author X (whose previous work I have often liked very much, incidentally) will lose one minute's sleep over the fact that I found her new book rather slight.

Still: it took me by surprise to be questioned about it publicly.

I think we are lulled by the seeming intimacy of blogdom.  We feel as if we are chatting with a close friend or two. (And often we are) 

And now I am off to the airport to fly to Sacramento....by way of Dallas....which is certainly the long way around, but it is the way American Airlines chooses to do it, for some reason.  Tomorrow morning I will speak at the Or Rishon Temple, then be the guest at a lunch; then have dinner with friends who llive in Sacrmento; then fly home first thing Monday morning.

At least this weekend I am not changing planes in Minneapolis/ St Paul, which I have done the past two weekends.  (Last weekend I called Martin from thre and said, "I am eating sushi in Minneapolis" and he replied "That surely is an oxymoron")  It is apparently snowing there today, so I'd rather be heading to Dallas.

And just for the record, I plan to read, en route, Antonia Fraser's new book about her life with the late Harold Pinter. I expect I willl like it very much.  If I don't.....maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut.

grumble grumble

Okay, first of all, we were supposed to go Monday night to hear Paul Harding read from his Pulitzer-winner book "Tinkers" and to have dinner with him (and others).  Rainy night. We don't drive at night (old eyes, can't see)  and had ordered a cab for 6 PM. It. Never. Came.  AT 6:20 we called. "He's on the way. Let me put you on hold and I'll see where he is."  Hold. Hold. Hold.  The dispatcher never returned.  The cab never arrived. We missed our event.  Grrrr.

The next day (not rainy, but now muddy, as a result of rainy) the truck we had arranged for came to pick up a load of JUNK. We had cleaned out both attic and basement so this was a serious pile to get rid of.  They came when scheduled.  One guy asked to use the bathroom so we directed him to a guest bathroom...which meant he had to walk through a guest bedroom...which had brand new carpeting.  Seriously muddy footprints all over the carpet.  We discovered later.  Grrrrr.

I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and runny nose. Grrrr.

Went to bed early because of aforementioned st/rn.  With the new Nora Ephron book, I Remember Nothing, which I had bought after reading a FULL PAGE ad someplace. Okay, my dumb. But come on, Knopf; shame on you: charging $22.95 for 137 wide-margined pages of....occasionally amusing anecdotes, and a few lists?  Mostly I am mad at myself for succumbing to hype and buying it.

The title refers to Ms. Ephron's age and the fact that she undergoes the moments we have all known: the wide smile, hug maybe, and "So good to see you!" while your deep brain is thinking: Who is this person?

Well: I will forget this book. I already have. What was her name again?  Grrrrr.

Home again, home again...

It would have been unthinkable, impossible, to travel like this in the days of my childhood. When we lived in Honolulu in my early childhood, my widowed grandmother came all the way across the country by train from Wisconsin, then by ship to Hawaii...then lived with us for two years. One didn't just zip over and back.

Later, when we lived in Tokyo, we didn't see our grandparents for almost three years. Even a phone call was a big deal...planned in advance, then consisting of a lot of "What time is it there?" sort of conversation.

Now: zip, zip. I wet to Montana on Friday, came home Sunday. This coming weekend I head to Sacramento for two nights.

It's fun, but does make one's head spin. This morning I was answering an email from the chidlren's librarin in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and I had to think for a moment: Grand Forks. Yes. He and his wife were at the dinner. They brought their baby with them. I remember!

Bozeman was fun. We were very lucky with the weather, which could have been awful in November, but instead it was sunny skies and sweater temperatures. The day-long festival of Children's Books was at the fabulous new llibrary there:

I wish I had had a camera with me because it is always fun to have photos with other authors. It's one of the most fun parts of such events, to meet other authors, or in some cases to be with ones you know already.

The hard part comes later, when at another event in another city, you run into the same person, and she/he looks familiar, and greets you like a old friend, and your head spins. Who? Where did we meet? Oh, yes: Bozeman!

Oh, yes, my other grandparents DID come to Hawaii, by ship. Here they are (I'm the infant, being held by my mother; that's my sister Helen, age 4, looking bored)

Isn't it funny, that my banker grandfather wore a suit and tie in Honolulu?

Is your manuscript ready??

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: 13th Annual Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award

The 13th Annual Children's Book Committee
Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award

Each year, the PEN New England Children's Book Committee honors emerging writers and writer/illustrators with its Susan P. Bloom Children's Book Discovery Award. Winners will present their work to the public at the PEN New England Children's Book Discovery Evening in May 2011, and winning manuscripts will be read by editors at major publishing houses. In past years, editors from Knopf, Candlewick, and Houghton Mifflin have read winning submissions.

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, February 1, 2011.

To download submission guidelines here: Download file