Snowing

Tonight I called Sophie to compare notes on the snowstorm & she asked if I had "done the thing with the cardboard," i.e., try to see a snow crystal (there's an earlier post about that). I had tried earlier but the snow was too wet; so, I tried again. By the light of the porch light, I think I saw one!

Happy Birthday

Today is it, the actual day David and Stephen were born, eight minutes apart, forty years ago--and what a fabulous adventures we have all had together along the way!!!! Here's a picture from our celebration on Sunday at Sophie's, Jonathan's & Katrin's home in New York. Crystal, David's wife, and Sophie are presenting the cakes. Jonathan & Linda are in the pics also.

catching up

At last!!! A few days ago, I sent to my editor everything that is needed to publish my forthcoming book about the friendship between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony that changed history--revised manuscript, front matter and back matter, captions, jpgs, etc. etc.! What a job--interrupted by shoveling snow, teaching three classes, baking chocolate cookies to keep our energy up, etc.--but it's done! Special thank you to Denise Gilrane and Debbie Ganeles who read the manuscript and gave me feedback. Then there is Christine Schachter who undertook a last-minute close read and emailed me pages of indispensable comments, which ranged from typos to her responses to ECS & SBA--thank you, thank you!!!!!

I surfaced on Friday, the day before the "drop-dead" deadline for my essay in response to a chapter, "Nonfiction Literature for Children: Old Assumptions and New Directions," by Barbara Kiefer and Melissa Wilson for the Handbook of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature, co-edited by Shelby Wolf, Patricia Enciso, Karen Coats, and Christine Jenkins, to be published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis in October 2010. Made it!!! Today we're gathering to celebrate my twins' 40th birthday!!!! Hip, hip, hurrah!!!!!!

Sophie

Without realizing what we were saying, "Yes," to, Sophie and I had a terrific experience on Saturday.
We regularly go to the American Museum of Natural History, although not usually on a Saturday. This Saturday, however, there we were making our way through a crowd of adults and kids who were waiting to get into the Discovery Room. Everyone had tickets; we didn't, but as we got to the ticket-taker, I said, "We're members."
"Are you going to 'Meet the Scientist?'
Sophie looked at me, I at her, neither one of us knowing what that was, but, since it seemed like a "ticket" in, plus who wouldn't want to meet a scientist, I said "Yes."
We were directed up a flight of stair, through a narrow room with books and microscopes to a back room with a young woman standing in front of a screen with the word "Scorpiology."
That is how we happened to hear a scorpiologist tell us all about scorpions, including how to catch specimens (go out at night with an ultraviolet flashlight and long tweezers)!

Picture Research

As many of you know, I do my own picture research and photography for my books (my photographs range from many to a few in my various books). What with revisions, i.e., putting four chapters into two, plus the scope & complexity of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship that Changed History (how do you like version #3 of the title?), yesterday I decided to revert back to scissors-and-paper-cut-&-paste. The pink strips are chapter headings under which I've placed the images I've selected. Now I'm keying the images (each has a number) in the margin of the relevant page in my manuscript (in the blue notebook, lower right corner) to ensure balance, e.g. images spread, not clumped, which means I am also revising my selections. The process is intense, but engaging, even fun.