Speech! Speech!

Hollins University has posted the Keynote Speech that Delia Sherman & I gave in June at the Children's Literature Association Conference that was held there this year.  We decided to give parallel psycho-auto-biographies on how reading fantasy as children shaped our lives.  Here's the link, if you'd like to watch it:


http://youtu.be/dTU7veSf6ps


Delia & I both taught in the Hollins Graduate program in Children's Literature this summer, and enjoyed it hugely.  We didn't realize when we signed on that we'd get the chance to participate in the CLA conference!  Wish we'd had more time to hang out and talk with people there, but we were so focused on polishing our speech that we missed a lot of good stuff.  Once the speech was over, we had a great time.

"Ask a Busy Person"

"Often the less you do, the less you can do. And the more you do, the more you can do.

"So lighten your load with care, or nothing will get done."

Words of wisdom from my good friend Isabel Swift.* Read the whole thing here.

*We met when we were both assistant editors at Pocket Books, in adjacent carrels.  We shared the pretty Georgette Heyer editions when they came in from the UK.  I quit to write - read her Swordspoint drafts while she ironed clothing for her rise in publishing to become chief at Harlequin.  She stepped down not long ago, and is still figuring out what to do with her time.  I was just there the other night, talking about which of the 2 new novels I've got started has the best chance of survival and endurance . . . . 

And, no, I don't know why it's giving me 2 spaces between paragraphs instead of 1. It's been wonky lately.

Recording SWORDSPOINT audiobook!

That's where I've been for at least part of this post-less time: working out details with my fabulous wonderful producer/director Sue Zizza, who created The Witches of Lublin with us last year, and is a renowned audio drama director and teacher.  This is not her first audio book project, but I modestly think it will be the craziest & most exciting.

Sue & I have been having deep discussions on sound effects and original music, and where it should all go in the text.  And I've been working on my breathing and terribly tight jaw (when did that happen??), since in order to get the book done, I'll have to read aloud for 4-6 hours/day. I've never done that; my recording sessions for Sound & Spirit were never more than 2 hours.  Sure, I've been live on the radio for hours at a time - but, well, there was always a lot of music in between speeches.  My amazing chiropractor & personal shaman, George Russell, has also been giving me exercises.  (And making me laugh a lot - check out his Subway Workout Video - and then imagine him telling me to get Alec's voice to come from somewhere near the top of my head this time, while envisioning the Duchess' barge....)

When & where this fully-produced miracle of sonic splendor will appear, I am not yet at liberty to divulge - though we hope it will be before the turning of the year. However, I am encouraged to invite you to attend a public recording/performance of the first couple of chapters on Saturday, September 10th out at Hofstra U. on Long Island.  

I'll be on one side of the glass with all the microphones, and you will be encouraging me with your smiles and rapt expressions on the other.  

The audience room seats only around 15 people, so there will be 2 "seatings," one from 1:00-3:00, and the other from 4:00-6:00, I believe. If you'd like to attend, please write directly to SUEMEDIA1 at Gmail dot etc. and put SWORDSPOINT READING in the header, and she'll send directions for the exact location on campus.

Meanwhile, Delia & I are off to Maine on Saturday, to spend a good week in isolation at our dear & generous friends' glorious house overlooking Eggamoggin(?) Reach, where there will be nothing to do but write and write and write.  (And do vocal exercises.)  Wish me luck!  It's worked in the past.