random wonders

So...Ling and Ting has received 3 starred reviews!!! It's true--Kirkus, Booklist and the Horn Book (my first star ever from them) have given Ling & Ting the elusive star! I am (happily) amazed. Truthfully, I'm telling you this not to brag but because I want you to think that the book is SOOOOOO good that you HAVE to come to the book party on Sat. C'mon, it's 3 stars of goodness!

Speaking of goodness, you can see the "original twins," the ones who first inspired Ling and Ting at this blog post HERE.

And, along the same lines of amazing strange things, I am only 7 (yes, 7) fans away from reaching 1000 on my facebook fan page. When I first started the page, I said that if I ever reached 1000 I'd give everyone a cupcake. I didn't think it would happen so I wasn't too worried about it. But now I am going to have to seriously consider the possibility. Do you think I can wheedle my publisher into sending me on the 1,000 cupcake book tour? Hmm, say 40 cupcakes at each event...that would be like a 25 city tour! Eeks! And where would I bake them in each city? Okay, will have to start thinking of a plan B...

But, in the meantime, you CAN get a real home-baked cupcake from me if you come to my book party on Sat. (It's at 3 pm at Porter Square Books). I'm thinking chocolate with vanilla frosting this time. Anyway, there won't be 1000, but there will be one for you!

and the winner is...

So I have decided my dress! Which one is it? Well, you'll just have to wait until I post about my Newbery Banquet Experience! It's happening REALLY soon, June 27th, so you really don't have to wait that long.

In the meantime, thank you all who commented on my dress choices. I chose randomly (meaning I closed my eyes and randomly scrolled down) and these are the winners of the Where the Mountain Meets the Moon audio book:

From my personal blog gracenotes- commenter #9 Kiy
From the blue rose girls blog--commenter #13 Sarah
From my FB Fanpage: commenter #11 Karen Gajewski

Thank you very much for playing! Please send your snail mail address to gracelin.manager@gmail.com and we'll get your audio books out to you ASAP.

book talk tuesday

Mitch and Amy by Beverly Cleary

IndieBound Description:
Mitch and Amy both think being twins is fun, but that doesn't stop them from squabbling. Amy is good at reading. Mitch is a math whiz. Amy likes to play pretend. Mitch would rather skateboard. They never want to watch the same television show. And they always try to get the better of each other.

Then the school bully starts picking on Mitch -- and on Amy, too. Now the twins have something rotten in common: Alan Hibbler. This twosome must set aside their squabbles and band together to defeat a bully!

My Thoughts:
This is such a wonderful book! This book was probable another book that influenced me to make Ling & Ting, my own book about twins! Even though I read this book in the 80's I think it is still very timely, dealing with bullies and siblings in a realistic way. I liked how at the end, both Mitch & Amy were able to see that Alan (the bully) had his own problems and the bullying ended when peers stopped being a silent audience (I read that this is the most effective way of stopping bullying, not the victim reacting but peers showing their negative judgement of the bully). While, I'm not crazy about the cover, the cover I had in the 80's was worse!

on my desk monday

My author copies of Ling and Ting have arrived! (You're coming to the party, right? It's THIS Saturday!)

fortune cookie friday

"Keeping the company of an emperor is like keeping the company of a tiger."
-Chinese Proverb

my dumpling days

A couple of weeks ago, I ended my school visit year with a whirlwind. First, I rushed into NYC for for Book Expo America, where they were going to announce the winner of the EB White Award. We came early just so I could eat my favorite soup dumplings (now that I am writing "Dumpling Days," dumplings are on my mind quite a bit) at Joe Shanghai's:

Yum! Just as good as in China!

But it was in the middle of eating, that I realized that I forgot my lucky jade bracelet. Darn. I would have to go to the EB White event without.

Which was quite an event! My publisher, Little Brown, did me proud with big banners and signs:

What I thought was hilarious was that the publisher tried to encourage booksellers to meet the authors by printing their photos, to help recognition. However, they used my glamour shot author photo, which looks nothing like me! I imagine booksellers were confused.

After passing on the electric blue martinis, the festivities began with music and singing and ending with the announcement of the winner of the EB White Award which was...
not me.

The winner was The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z by the lovely Kate Messner(Congrats, Kate!). Oh well. I knew I was doomed when I forgot the jade bracelet.

But to drown my sorrows, afterwards for dinner we went for soup dumplings AGAIN! There is no disappointment that dumplings cannot comfort.


Then I was off to my last school visits of the year. The first one was in Ct, where there was a lovely welcome banner:

and a wonderful longtime fan, who brought me this photo of the first time we met:

which we retook: Isn't that neat? I can't tell you how much I love when readers grow up with my books. I'm going to start giving prizes away to kids that do this.

From there, we went to Upstate NY, just a couple hours away from where I grew up. I felt extremely welcome there, as well, because the first thing I saw was this craft activity the students had done with Dim Sum For Everyone!Isn't it neat? The students made their own dim sum cart and filled it with drawings of their favorite foods. And what was right on top? My favorite food!

A great way to end my school visit year and a good omen as I begin writing "Dumpling Days," don't you think?

Choose My Dress Part 2 or the Tale of Two Dresses

So,I've bumped this week's booktalk for more important things...my dress to the Newbery Banquet! ha ha. But I now have TWO dresses in my hot hands to decide between. Both are beautiful (to me, anyway). Both have fun stories. Both need alteration badly (you might have to use your imagination a bit, picture the dresses actually fitting on me). Which do you think I should wear?


Dress #1, The Forgotten Dress

Before Robert's illness took a turn for the worst, one of the things I did to get my mind off of things was to surf the internet for pretty things (ok, I still do that now). One day, on Ebay, I saw this gorgeous, Chinese-embroidered pink silk dress. It was way too large for me and I had no place to wear it to, but it was so eye-catching and going for so low that I put a bid on it...and won!

After Robert passed, I went through a great purging period. Somehow, I thought if I got rid of my things, I could get rid of my sadness and grief too. Clothes, shoes, shampoo, curtains...all sorts of random things were piled and pushed straight to the goodwill. The pink dress landed at the top of one of those piles, but the bright color caught my friend Libby's eye.

"This is gorgeous," she said, "Are you sure you don't want it?"
"Take it!" I said, airily, waving my hand at it in disdain.
So, she did.

And now, 2 and half years later, she's given it back. "It's perfect for the Newbery Banquet," she said, "You bought it for someday. This is the day!"

Maybe, with alteration, she could be right. What do you think?


Dress #2, The Dress of Destiny?

So, if you remember from my last dress post, I had for a while been hoping to wear the "Painted Lotus" dress from Anthropologie but had continually struck out in my search for it. I had about given up, but after posting, I decided to try once again. I scoured the internet...and found a size 0. A friend's daughter had the dress...also in a size 0. For a moment, I considered dieting and going to the gym like a maniac to try to fit into a size 0, but realized that was a bit excessive (and unlikely).

Then, following the lead of some of my lovely readers, I contacted Anthropologie. They gave me a list of stores that, according to their database, might have the dress in a size larger than a 0. I called all of them--the store in Michigan, the store in CA, the store in New York. None had it.

At that point, I realized I had spent WAY too much time trying to find this dress. I really had to stop thinking about clothes and write my novel! So, with great effort of will, I attempted to switch gears.

Now, in the book I am writing, "Dumpling Days" the main character takes Chinese brush painting lessons. This is based on my childhood experience of Chinese painting class, but I have to admit my memory of it is a bit fuzzy. There were so many little details about Chinese painting that I knew I was forgetting. I needed to do some research. I remembered fellow author and artist Cindy Pon (whom I am on the Enchanted Inkpot blog with)did brush painting so I went to her website and blog and nosed around and then there on her blog I saw....

Cindy wearing THE DRESS!!!!

Oh my! What were the chances? It felt like some sort of weird fate and I felt obligated to e-mail her. As it was NOT a size 0, she very, very kindly offered to loan it to me:

and here it is!

Unfortunately, this dress too needs a bit of alteration as I don't have the cleavage to hold it up and nor have I any desire to make a scandal at the Newbery Banquet. But the dress is just as gorgeous in person as I thought it would be.

So, #1 or #2? Let me know what you think ASAP (the tailor must begin soon)! Leave a comment here with your choice and your reason why! To one random commenter I will send an audio book (4 cds!) of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (it's a really great recording!). Thanks!

on my desk monday

More goodies for the Ling & Ting Book Party!

fortune cookie friday

"If anyone spits in your face, let it drip dry."
-Chinese Proverb

book talk tuesday

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Description: A young boy, Elmer Elevator, who runs away to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon. The narrative mode is unusual, in that the narrator refers to the protagonist only as "my father", giving the impression that this is a true story that happened long ago. In the story, we meet some tigers, a rhinoceros, a lion, and a gorilla all leading to the baby dragon. There is also a river, an island, and a bridge.

My Thoughts: I had to cull and abbreviate the description for this book from Amazon as all the description I found just told about the various awards this book has one and how it is a classic--assuming that everyone already knows what the book is about! Well, everyone probably does know what the book is about as it is beloved by generations. But just in case you haven't read it, get onboard! It's a wonderful, sweet little story that deserves it standing as a classic.