Endings & Beginnings

Last day of 2009: yesterday Sophie & I enjoyed our final Sophie/Grammy Day of 2009, happily Linda was free to join us. Today I'm back to doing picture research but just took a break to shovel snow, bake bread with these yummy ingredients--honey, butter, rough cut oatmeal, bananas, whole wheat flour, buttermilk and believe it or not a tablespoon of baking soda and baking powder, eggs, vanilla, pecans and raisins. Our evening New Year's tradition is to listen to the Classical Music Countdown on the radio--lots of Beethoven (Sophie & I are still going back & forth about the phenomenon of Beethoven the composer & Beethoven the dog)-- and make a puzzle; It's simple but heartfelt as we move from one year to the next.

Update

Chilly, chilly day in my basement office where I'm immersed in selecting images for Sitrring Up The World: Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, A Biography of a Powerful Friendship. Yes, I do all the picture research, including some photography for my books, an enormously time-consuming, intense activity. (There's more info about my process in the author's note in my books Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made a Difference and Thanksgiving: The True Story.) Sophie just called: "Can we have a Grammie Day tomorrow?"
Of course, I said--Yes! So shiver, shiver--back to work because my editor wants all the images and captions on 1/4!!!

Books, Wildflower Seeds, Happy Holidays

So, the gifts are wrapped--books galore, including one I'm really excited about--The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Wonder; in fact, I bought two copies--one for Sophie & one for Sue, my friend & science educator at NYU. I also tracked down a copy of the December 1934 (yup, 1934) "The National Geographic Magazine" that featured the article, "Half-Mile Down," by William Beebe, about his first descent in the Bathysphere, which he co-invented with Otis Barton. Recently Sophie & I had read a picture book biography about William Beebe that listed his article in the bibliography--yes, we check out all the front and back matter when we read together! Sophie expressed interest in it so I set off on a quest to buy it--hurrah for the Internet. I'll be interested to see if it engages her?!?!
My other cool gift, at least I think so, was to parcel out pieces from a puzzle (I'm a avid jigsaw puzzle maker) that are embedded with wildflower seeds!! Each person on my list is getting a baggie with puzzle pieces & a baggie of soil & instructions to soak the seeds overnight in water and plant in the soil in a pot (no, I didn't include a pot, hum) or wait until Spring then soak and plant outside.
Ooops, Linda just called down, "Should I be watching the pot that's on the stove?" Better get back to my cooking for tonight & tomorrow. . . . Happy Holidays to all!!!!!!

Author Visit at P.S. 174

Last week I visited with two classes of sixth grade students & their teacher Marie Russell at P.S. 174. The students had read my book, Where the Action Was: Women War Correspondents in World War II, so I brought in samples of the production process from revised manuscript pages to page proofs to the advanced readers copy that gets sent to reviewers. The students were lively, smart, fun & asked great questions!

Sophie's Birthday

Tomorrow is Sophie's 6th birthday. But, since it's a school day she had a sleep-over on Saturday. On Sunday, we gathered for a bowling-birthday party. Katrin just emailed these pictures: l-r: Katrin, me, Linda, Sophie, Sarah, David, Crystal(cupcake & cookie maker), Steve; bottom picture: l-r Sophie, Crystal, David, Jonathan, Steve, me, Linda, Sarah, Katrin). Tomorrow I'll join Sophie & her parents for dinner; as I have since she was born I'll continuing the tradition of making the cake in the shape Sophie requests--this year it's a star, vanilla on vanilla.

A modern postcard

"Greetings from the Seine," is the caption on this photo that Steve just sent via his iPhone to my email. He titled it "A modern postcard."
Note: Steve & Sarah celebrated Thanksgiving and Sarah's birthday in Paris."