Characters are People Too
Writing a novel takes a long time. Or at least it takes me a long time! So by the end of it all, you can grow kind of attached to the characters. In my case, I kind of feel like the main characters in THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER are my own kids or something. And, well, I just miss them. I’m constantly seeing stuff that they’d like or that would interest them. I want to tell them about this or that, and then I remember — darn — they’re just characters. Or are they?

This blog series, Stuff That’s Great Good, is my way of keeping Ivy and Paul alive and well, in my heart and on the interwebs!

Invading Astronauts
Ya’ll know by now that Paul is really into space. As in, obsessed. He wanted to be one of the astronauts to fly the Space Shuttle someday — until he heard that the Space Shuttle program was shutting down.

So imagine his thrill if he heard about all this super fun astronaut enthusiasm happening in Seattle! I’ve gotta say, I think it would inspire him — and his sidekick Ivy — to take another road trip.

Share and Win!
I’ll be doing another prize drawing sometime between now and Monday. To be entered, simply comment, share, retweet, whatever — here, on facebook or via Twitter. #greatgoodsummer And thanks!

Back At It!
This week has included a wisdom teeth extraction for one daughter, a nearly-botched airline trip for another daughter, some lost keys, some spoiled milk. You know the drill. Lucky for me, it’s also included the launch of a new picture book (IN THE CANYON, illustrated by the most-amazing Ashley Wolff) and my wedding anniversary (today!). But all that aside, I don’t want you to think I’ve forgotten about Ivy and Paul and the Stuff That’s Great Good series!

Dog Days
In fact, I was thinking of Ivy when I was writing the previous paragraph. I was thinking, Life. What a thing. And then I was thinking, Good thing I’ve got my dog. Because, y’know, he’s kind of what keeps me from crazy during weeks like these. And keeps me from lonely. And keeps me from lazy. It’s a lot of responsibility but he steps up every time.

But Ivy Green, my heroine in THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER doesn’t have a dog. She wants one. She really wants one. She actually says, “Personally, I think if you’re an only child, you should automatically be issued a dog when you’re born, as a consolation prize…”

So Ivy, these stories are for you.
(And I wish I could really get you a dog!)

Dogs and Only Children in India
12 Reasons to Get a Dog
Dogs: The Only Sibling a Child Needs
Pinterest Pets

Share and Win!
Remember, I do a prize drawing each week. So like, comment or share to be entered to win a copy of THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER and some other treats. And thanks! #greatgoodsummer

Welcome Back!
I was so glad to announce our Week One Winner yesterday — congratulations, Barbara Moon! And now today we’ll get back at it. This new blog series is all about looking at things that would intrigue Ivy Green and Paul Dobbs — the main characters of my new middlegrade novel, THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER.

Storytime — Where???
So far I’ve talked about things that Paul would get psyched about (all space-related) and things that Ivy would be into (discussions of road trips, journaling and middle names — she’s a little more of a rennaissance gal than Paul ). But today I’m sharing something that both Paul and Ivy would be over the moon about that. (Didja see how I did that? A space pun?)

But seriously. This cool, cool thing combines space (which Paul loves) and literature (which Ivy loves) and IDEAS, which it turns out they’re both pretty good at. The Global Space Education Foundation is currently developing and piloting a Story Time From Space! As in, astronauts reading stories from way up in the International Space Station that us earthlings can listen to way down here. Whoa, right? Check it out here!

Share and Win!
And don’t forget that there will be a prize drawing each week, that will include a copy of the book and a few other surprises. Simply like, comment, share, retweet or, well, etc. to be entered! And thanks! #greatgoodsummer

And We Have a Winner!
Thank you all for your enthusiasm last week as I kicked off this new blog series. It was so much fun to share so many Paul- and Ivy-ish details and delights with you. And since so many of you liked, shared, commented and re-tweeted, we had a list of 57 folks to pick from in a very scientific slips-of-paper-in-a-mixing-bowl kind of drawing.

And the winner of this week’s prize is…

Barbara Moon!
(Barbara — when you see this, will you reach out to me via IM or email with your address?)
Barbara wins a signed copy of THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER and a little extra treat or two! Congrats, Barbara.

But That’s Not All!
Last week was just the beginning. I’m going to continue with this blog series for a few more weeks, starting later today, and there will be three more chances to win. So don’t give up, folks. Same rules as before — like, comment, share or retweet and you’re entered. Many thanks, and think big!

Wrapping Up Week One
Ooooo, this has been a fun week! I’ve loved sharing all the bits and bobs I’ve collected about space travel, and bus travel, and middle names — all things that would really matter to the characters from my middle grade novel, THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER.

Reboot the Suit!
Today I’m sharing something a little bit different — a link to a Kickstarter campaign! This a special Kickstarter — it’s about conserving and digitizing and exhibiting Neil Armstrong and Alan Shepard’s spacesuits!

What my character Paul Dobbs wouldn’t do to get a load of these suits! Or even one of the rewards, like “a boot print from the Apollo 11 mission on a mega-attractive Cling-On Decal.” Maybe we can go ahead and donate since Paul really can’t. 🙂

Share and Win!
Please like, comment or share — here, on facebook, or on Twitter (#greatgoodsummer) — to be entered in a weekly drawing for a copy of the book and a lucky strike extra or two. The first drawing is this Sunday, August 16 so toss your name in now! And thanks!

Day Four
Thanks for stopping by, friends! If you visited earlier this week, you know that I’ve started a new blog series called Stuff That’s Great Good. The whole point is to share news and links to things that would mean something to Ivy Green and Paul Dobbs, the main characters of my book The Great Good Summer.

What’s In a Name?
So far I’ve shared stories of journeys — be they by bus or by spaceship — but today I found something that would’ve meant a lot to Ivy long before her mama disappeared, long before she set off on her own great good adventure.

One of Ivy’s old sorrows (we’ve all got them, I think) is that she wasn’t given a middle name when she was born. Her parents have their reasons, but that does nothing to assuage Ivy’s feelings of inadequacy and deficiency. She’s ached for a middle name her whole life, and spends part of The Great Good Summer looking for one.

And now, here comes someone called The Name Lady who agrees with her! Nothing like a good dose of validation to make a girl’s day.

It turns out that lots of folks have thoughts on middle names:
Here’s the BBC…
And the folks at Mental Floss…
And The Daily Mail…

Ivy would be so relieved to find out she’s not alone!

Share and Win!
Share or comment on any of my Stuff That’s Great Good posts, here or on twitter or facebook using the hashtag #greatgoodsummer, and you’ll be automatically entered into a weekly drawing for a free copy of the book and who knows what else? Some fun little Paul-and-Ivy related things! Good luck! And thanks….

Active Denial
One of the things that is most fun about writing a novel is really getting to know the characters as people. And one of the hardest things about finishing is giving them up, releasing them to the pages of the book and moving on.

So this blog series is sort of my form of Active Denial. I can carry on thinking of Ivy Green and Paul Dobbs as living, breathing 12-year-olds and this world we live in is their oyster.

Kinda Cool, Kinda Creepy
Yesterday I shared some links to Greyhound and road trip-related articles because I just know that Ivy caught the travel bug during her GREAT GOOD SUMMER. But today we’re heading back up into space. Because would Paul think that news from Mars was cool, or what?

This particular news is actually kind of cool, but kind of creepy too. I think you’ll agree.

Share and Win!
To learn more about Ivy and Paul than just the stuff I’m sharing on my blog this month, enter to win THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER (plus an extra treat or two)! Simply share this post on twitter using the hashtag #greatgoodsummer, leave a comment here on the blog, or leave a comment on my facebook page. And thanks!

Welcome Back!
Hey friends — Thanks for your great response to yesterday’s kick-off of my new blog series: Stuff That’s Great Good. I’m excited to spend the next few weeks sharing some of the cool, creepy, weird and wacky stuff in the real world that I know my fictional characters would dig — and I hope you will too!

Stuff That’s Great Good
We started off with Paul — the pal and co-conspirator of my book’s narrator, Ivy Green. Paul is a science kid and hopes to be an astronaut someday. Ivy, on the other hand, considers herself more a girl of ideas than a girl of action. Still, with Paul’s nudging, the two of them take off on a brave but risky adventure. What she learns along the way is that she’s made of tougher stuff than she’d imagined.

Ivy’s only twelve in THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER, and by the end of the book she’s headed back to the small (fictional) town she grew up in, but somehow I imagine that the road is going to call her name from now on.

I’ll bet she’d love to take a trip like this with her mama and daddy on a Greyhound bus. And once she gets her driver’s license in a few years, maybe she’d be up for the Old Spanish Trail, the ultimate in blue highway (or backwoods or bike trail) adventures!

I hope if she goes for it, she’ll write about it….

Share and Win!
(To join Ivy and Paul on their original adventure, enter to win THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER (plus an extra treat or two)! Simply share this post on twitter using the hashtag #greatgoodsummer, leave a comment here on the blog, or leave a comment on my facebook page!)

Paul and Ivy Would Love This!
So the main characters in my novel THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER are pretty cool kids. As in, they’re interested in things that are wild and mysterious and, well, interesting. So much so that even though I finished writing the book many moons ago, I still see articles online and hear stories on the radio and think, “Oh, Paul and Ivy would love this!” (Yes, I know that they’re not real people. But y’know, if they were…)

Anyway, I’ve decided I can’t stand it anymore — I want to share these discoveries! And if I can’t share them with Paul and Ivy, I’ll share them with you! Over these next four weeks, I’ll be posting every day or so about the things my characters would get jazzed about — and that you might get jazzed about, too.

Share and Win!
And also (because why not?), I’m turning this whole thing into a give-away! Share any of the posts on twitter or facebook using the hashtag #greatgoodsummer and you’ll be automatically entered into my weekly drawing for a free copy of the book and who knows what else? Some fun little Paul-and-Ivy related things!

So. Yes? Yes!

Stuff That’s Great Good
Now, here’s a teaser of how this is gonna go. Paul Dobbs — the slightly antagonistic pal to my narrator, Ivy Green — is a freak for space. He flies remote controlled airplanes and he hoped to someday fly a Space Shuttle. But alas, the Space Shuttle program is no more and he grieves it throughout the novel.

Paul’s like a lot of us — he thought the end of that era was a death knell for the adventure of space. But there seems to be mind-boggling space news nearly every week lately. And I just can’t help but think Paul would get a huge kick out of it all. Like the fact that you can follow Buzz Aldrin on twitter. Seriously. And what about this look at Buzz’ Customs Declaration Form, submitted when he returned from the Apollo mission to the moon.

Cool, huh? Yep. That’s what Paul would think….

More tomorrow, I promise! In the meantime, share and be entered to win #greatgoodsummer

And thanks!

So our challenge for this month was haiku because, well, it’s summer vacation.
And we wanted something super duper easy.
Something we could just toss off in a couple of minutes.

(Insert evil laugh track here.)

I think we should re-name our challenge the “It Wasn’t As Easy As It Looked” challenge.

Anyway, we did it — haiku.
Although lots of us actually did senryu, or senryu-haiku hybrids or something.
Mine are sort of seasonal in nature (seasonal in nature — ha! — that’s a genuine haiku joke!) so maybe they qualify as straight haiku, but regardless…

Here’s the fun part:
We modeled all of our haiku after classifieds.
The old-fashioned kind that showed up in, y’know, newspapers.

Here are mine….

Free for the taking:

All food except raspberries

(seasonal cuisine)

Hot girl seeks sweater

and a/c that’s much too cold:

Summer Matinee

Wanted: stolen hours

huge latte, a comfy spot.

(I can’t put this book down)

To see the lovely, witty, perfect poems written by my partners in crime, go here:

Tricia Stohr-Hunt

Kelly Fineman

Sara Lewis Holmes

Tanita Davis

Andi Sibley

Laura Purdie Salas

And then you’ll find a zillion other amazing poems here, at Poetry Friday, hosted by Tabatha Yeatts.