Mankato Area Cycling Team

Just have to say....
I had a BLAST tonight at Franklin School. I met some excited young cyclists who will join the local cycling team.
Singletrack High is so much fun. I made me want to just get out and ride right now, but it's late and dark and cold and windy. I'm hoping that it will be nicer in the morning, and maybe I can sneak in a ride before school.
Thanks Mike Busch and Matt Busch and Jenna and Justin Reinhardt from Nicollet Bike for all making this happen!

I got to talk a bit about Chasing AllieCat (and even read my favorite race scene), and we watched the trailer, too! It was much fun!


If you have a chance to see Singletrack High, and you have the least interest in cycling, see it!

Required Reading for Singletrack High: Chasing AllieCat

http://www.tennesseemtb.org/singletrack-high-premiere/

So....I'm hoping if we want kids to RIDE--which we DO--maybe we want kids to READ as well. Wouldn't everybody in this documentary love to read about mountain biking kids as well?

Chasing AllieCat!
http://www.fluxnow.com/product.php?ean=9780738721309
and
http://www.amazon.com/Chasing-AllieCat-Rebecca-Fjelland-Davis/dp/0738721301

April 10? What? And St. Peter 8th Grade

Had a terrific visit last week with the St. Peter 8th grade English classes. The students were wonderful listeners and had great questions. They had all read Chasing AllieCat, so it was much, much fun to get to talk with them! Thanks, Ms. Hughes!

Time is flying past!
It's April 10 already! And look at the ground! Freya's happy--she was crazy this morning, playing "Grab Mom's warm stuff and run." (Question of the day: How many exclamation marks can one writer use in one short blog post?)

 Time is flying! I'm not keeping up with my days...I put out fires at school, work on the details we need to iron out for our trip to South Africa, try to keep up grading and reading ahead of the students, and try to squeeze in a little writing and a little cycling.

South Africa approaches, and it's getting more and more exciting as it does. Will keep you posted...might have more news by the end of the week! (There--I had to end with another exclamation point, of course).

PW review of Girl Meets Boy and upcoming events

Wednesday night, I'll be signing books in Mapleton, at the Public Library, as part of the Snowflake Dazzle festivities. That should be fun! All sorts of Holiday stuff happening in Mapleton, if you're anywhere nearby.

Sunday, I'll be in Grand Rapids, MN signing at the Village Bookstore from noon to 2 p.m. It's a great Indie bookstore!

Publishers's Weekly reviews our anthology Girl Meets Boy. They liked my story--I'm so honored because I'm in this book with so many hugely terrific and successful writers.

Lastly, have I mentioned how much I love teaching Children's Lit? I do. I have such a great group of readers (and writers) in my class this fall. I love Monday nights. We had a great discussion about Chris Crutcher's Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes last night.

AASL

At the FLUX booth at AASL (American Association of School Librarians) this past Friday. So much going on, I can't quite get it all posted and do everything else I'm supposed to be doing (including WRITING!!). Here I am with Marissa and Bethany (in the back), from FLUX, and fellow FLUX author Lisa Albert, and with Steven Pomije from FLUX. Maggie Stiefvater came a bit later (see the FLUX blog post).

Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, The Depot, Minneapolis

Davenport B&N Tomorrow, and Girl Meets Boy Anthology, January 2012

We got the cover! This week, Kelly Milner Halls sent the cover to all of us whose stories are in this anthology. Pretty cute, huh? It contains some pretty heavy subject matter, I'll tell you that much. The cover may somewhat imply the weight of the stories within...

I'm honored to be in the company of the authors in this book. I'm excited that it's actually in the works and will be in bookstores in January. My story is called "Mars at Night," and the main character is an Iowa farm girl. Go figure. The catch, however, is that she's in love with the only Muslim in her high school. And her beloved pig farm is in danger...

Closer to home, and closer to the moment, TOMORROW, I'm signing Chasing AllieCat in Davenport, Iowa, at the big Barnes and Noble

New Ulm Public Library July 15

Tomorrow, July 15! New Ulm, here we come!

Sadie, Allie, Joe, and I (well, they're alive and well on the pages of Chasing AllieCat, so they're certainly coming with me) will be at the New Ulm Public Library on July 15.

At 3 p.m., I'm meeting the teen reading group.

Public reading and book signing 5:15-6:15.

Check out the cool New Ulm Public Library website.

Everybody's welcome.

Books available for purchase, of course.

And, um, bicycles are welcome, too, of course!

Holy Smoke

I haven't had time to be online for several days, and I have a lot to catch up on....When I sit down to write, I guess I can see why. Holy Smoke.

Wed., the 27th, I spoke at the Summit Center about writing and biking, and read some from Chasing AllieCat. Small crowd, but every person there bought a book. Great disussion, and some wonderful senior bike enthusiasts. Keeps me inspired to keep at this biking thing forever. (And Freya went with me).

Friday, I got to visit a second grade class in Nevada, Iowa, with Freya, and the kids and Freya had great time. I love talking to kids about writing.

Saturday, I read and signed books at Borders in Ames. Again, not a huge crowd, but very receptive and all wonderful people. The crowd included my aunt and cousin, cousin's wife, adopted sisters-in-law (through my brother), former student (thanks, Heidi!), new acquaintance whose daughter is a librarian and is going to ask me to come for a library event, long-time friend, classmate (thanks, Glenda!), and a few more, including a woman from Des Moines trying to sell her first book. It feels so important to give back to the writing community. Funny, my road to publication was sooooo long and full of set-backs that I never thought the whole thing would feel fortunate, but it does.

Sunday, I rode the Minnesota Ironman Bike Ride/Gran Fondo--a timed 105-mile ride starting and ending in Lakeville. The wind almost killed me. But if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger, right? After all said and done, it was indeed fun. Thanks, David, Lisa, and Carol for being such great riding partners, and Rachael, too!

Today, I visited Sam Pottenger's Preschool at the YMCA. Freya went along, of course. We read my Flowers and Showers: A Spring Counting Book. That was a blast. Freya sort of makes a splash of attention wherever she goes and makes getting out of any building a rather long task...but much fun.

Zoe's review and the lovely Dodge's Review! YAY!

Great review on a fun blog at Zoe's Book Reviews.

The Lovely Kristin Dodge, of Books for Breakfast, has reviewed Chasing AllieCat and given it 4.75 out of 5! Yippee!! Also on BookBook...YAY!

"Any day above ground is a good day," right? Any day above FREEZING is a good day! Looks like we'll get there again. :)

Author Visit to Ballard East and Cambridge Public Library

Had a GREAT time in Iowa the past two days. Ballard East students were a wonderful audience: great listeners with smart, thoughtful questions. I loved spending time with them. So did Freya. It never hurts to bring a big bear dog along for an author visit!! First thing I saw was this huge sign (so big I had to take two pictures to get it in my lens)! And then, afterwards, Mrs. Fjelland's class posed with Freya and me. Freya looks as big as the whole class combined. Freya loves helping with author visits. I think she had as much fun getting loving attention as we all did!

What a fun day, and what great students. It makes me proud to have graduated from Ballard!

Then, Saturday, I was a guest at the Cambridge Public Library. Thanks, Janet Thorson, for hosting a delightful event. Great to reconnect with some old (as in long-time, not old as in ancient! :) friends. It was great fun, and we had a good discussion. I hope the world keeps supporting public libraries like the one in Cambridge!

To IOWA! and blog tour...

Off to Iowa to see Bill and Cathy and Steph and Ian and boys.

This afternoon I get to do an author visit at Ballard West Elementary. Can't wait. And better get going! Tomorrow, I'm reading at the Cambridge Public Library. Fun! Anybody in the area is welcome!

Freya has been invited to go to school with me. This will be fun, no matter how it goes!

Blog tour continues with this review on Words and Whisperings.

SPRING! Theater, and Blog Tour continues.

Spring! Spring, spring!

Can anyone anywhere love spring more than Minnesotans and Canadians? It's not possible to be more grateful for melting snow mounds and the sight of bright green grass, is it?

And a bike ride outside (yes, I got one in this weekend in spite of an insane amount of work to do)!

Joe is on the block today on the Teen Book Scene Blog Tour. You can read his interview here at Reading Teen. And don't forget that you can click on the icon here to donate to "Give a Girl a Bike" through Global Giving. Every meaningful comment on one of the host blogs will result in a dollar donated, too. $50 buys a girl in India a bike, which means the difference between being able to go to school or not getting an education.

Besides trying to get a bunch of grading done this weekend, trying to finish my part of the Program Review for Liberal Arts and Sciences report, playing with Freya in the woods, and riding my bike, I went to two theater productions in the Twin Cities: "Annie" by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Middle School in Minnetonka, which was SPECTACULAR and made it hard to believe that it was all seventh and eight-graders on stage.

Five of my Humanities students and I went to the Guthrie on Sunday to see "A Winter's Tale" by Shakespeare. I'd never seen this play, or read it, which is sort of rare for an English major. I hadn't heard the best reviews about it, but I actually truly enjoyed it, and my students did too. We had quite a lot to talk about on the way home. The two time periods of the two acts made sense if we considered the first act to be about 1950, and sixteen years later put it smack-dab in the sixties flower children era.

At any rate, every one of my students can't wait to get back to the Guthrie, so it was worth every minute and every penny spent.

Oh, yeah, I also did a reading/book event at the Blue Earth County Library Saturday morning. It was small, but there were great questions, and we had a delightful discussion. Thanks, thanks, thanks to those of you who came, and to Jennifer Cassman for organizing it!

Friday, Friday

Last day of first week of Teen Book Scene Blog Tour for Chasing AllieCat. Three weeks to go.

Every "meaningful comment" on one of the Bloggers' sites results in a $1 donation to "Buy a Girl a Bike" through Global Giving. You can also go directly to the website and make a donation. A bike changed Allie's life...so why not let the book change some girls' lives in India--where a bike can mean they actually can go to school?

If we get more than $150 worth of comments--enough for three bikes--then the rest will go to Tsunami relief in Japan, or whatever emergency is at the top of the need list in three weeks.

KIPP: Gaston College Prep visit

Monday night, a much-loved and much-respected student from KIPP Pride High in Gaston, NC (Where Josh--um, I mean Mr. DoBell teaches) dropped dead during a pick-up game of basketball. The student body at KIPP has had its share of tragedy and sadness, believe me.

Tuesday, I was scheduled to visit KIPP: Gaston College Prep to talk with Ms Russell's students who had just read Chasing AllieCat. The visit went on as planned, though all of the senior high kids were too busy with more important emotions and helping each other through the grief to want to attend and talk about a book. UNDERSTANDABLE.

I watched these teachers and kids, from the standpoint of a visitor on the fringe, and observed them act in a way that rings true for their motto, "We are a team and a family."

It was an amazing day.

But the visit I had with the GCP girls and underclassmen was no less amazing. Everybody had stellar questions, and our time flew by. They asked me questions about the characters, and it reminded me why as writers, we MUST know our characters like icebergs: We know the WHOLE people in our stories, even if readers just see the top 10% (floating above water) that makes it into the story. We know the whole submerged 90% as well.

Here are some photos from that wonderful visit. Thanks, KIPP and GCP!

Launch and Readings

Can't thank everybody enough for coming out for readings at Barnes and Noble and at SCC. What a day. Thanks, thanks, thanks.

I can't believe my brother and sister-in-law drove all the way up from Ames, IA to be there. Thanks, Bill and Cathy!

Sarah Jamila Stevenson reviews Chasing AllieCat

Sarah Jamila Stevenson made my day with this review of Chasing AllieCat:

http://writingya.blogspot.com/2011/02/monday-review-chasing-alliecat-by.html

Besides being a blogger and reviewer, Sarah wrote a spectacular YA novel, thoughtful and funny, with depth and characters that stick with us long after the read: Latte Rebellion.

I met her at KidLitcon in the fall, and we hung out at ALA in San Diego. She's a fellow FLUX author, and it's nice to have, as she says, another author buddy with whom I had an instant connection. Thanks, Sarah!

Guest on Memphis Writes

Chasing AllieCat --Sadie, Joe, Allie, and I--are guests on Linda Jackson's blog today. She and I have become good online friends in the process. Check out the interview and review: http://memphiswrites.blogspot.com/

Best Book Event Ever

Saturday morning, I gave a book talk at Excelsior Bay Books. My friends Steve and Leslie attended, but the chief attendees were the amazing and delightful girls in the Fabulous IHMCS Book Club. Here we are in Excelsior Bay. They asked good questions, and we talked about writing and books we love. I read the prologue of Chasing AllieCat.

After the bookstore event, we all went to have lunch at Pamela's house. She's the Book Club leader, and the girls are lucky to have her! After Chinese food, and literary mysteries, we had Chasing AllieCat cake!!

It can't get much more fun than that!

Blizzard all morning

Freya and I went for a walk in the woods this morning. In the Blizzard. In howling winds. In pelting snow. With thunder rolling through the heavens above us. (Count the prepositional phrases: 8).

Still, it was wonderful to be outside. She looked like the abominable white snow creature when we got back. By the time I got my camera out, she was already melting, but you get the idea. Now she's recovering, snoozing soundly on the floor.