Stephanie Burgis - Magical Books for Ages Ten to Fifteen

Aww and Yum...

August 31, 2010, 7.15 pm

This article made me come very close to tearing up - especially the photos near the bottom of the page. A 100-year-old male tortoise in Kenya has adopted an orphaned baby hippo, and the pictures are incredible. This one was my favorite - but really, if you love animals, click through to see the whole series. It's worth it.

And for the yummy portion of the post, here's the teaser that's appearing on several YA author blogs today:

COMING SOON:

It just may be the most delicious contest that’s been run this year. More than a dozen of your favorite YA authors, an obsession with sweets, and a stunning array of prizes. On September 4th, details will be announced here and on Christine Johnson’s blog.

Until then, here’s a hint:

***

Why is it that so many kids' authors are obsessed with baked goods? Does it say something about us? Or is it true of everyone? Hmm.

Today I was good and did not buy a baked good at the café, even though the chocolate cheesecake looked INCREDIBLE. Unfortunately, I can't take too much credit, since I was busy melting all over the floor in chocolate bliss - yes, I gave in to temptation and ordered another Hot Chocolate Milano...

And then, in a weird coincidence, the book I found at Waterstones that ended up in my shoulderbag (a book I'd never heard of before, but which looks great) was Cathy Cassidy's Sundae Girl.

There's definitely something edible in the air right now...

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Links and Kindles and Comfort Books

August 30, 2010, 12.10 pm

I have so many links to pass on, I'm going to list them first, before I can forget:

First, Tracy at Tall Tales and Short Stories just interviewed me about the writing/submission process for A Most Improper Magick. You can read the interview (and her review of AMIM) here.

Second, Jocelyn at Book Babblers interviewed me here.

And for anyone with kids who's going to be within driving distance of Newport, Wales on October 27th: you can check out the full programme for Big Read Day online, including the worldbuilding writing workshop I'll be leading for kids aged 10 and up, "How to Write Your World Real". You can also find a booking form here.

Whew! Now on to the real entry. :)

***

A long time back, I posted here asking what people's favorite e-readers were. Over the past year, a toxic combination of exhaustion and CFS has made it almost impossible for me to read long manuscripts on my computer screen...which has struck a fatal blow to my (very important) habit of critiquing novels for close friends and crit partners. Not only does that suck for me (because getting to read great novels before they're published is a huge gift!), it means I'm really letting down everybody who critiques my novels by not helping them out in return.

So, after months of indecision, I am finally breaking down and spending the money on an e-reader. From everything I've read and heard, the iPad seems like by far the best one out there, but...well, sadly, we don't have that much free money! The prices on the new Kindles have finally dropped to a point where we can justify the expense, though, so Patrick and I are going to buy a joint Kindle this month.

This is something I wouldn't be doing if I didn't want to do critiques - I definitely prefer reading books on paper - but I'm getting excited about it already. Last week, as I was re-reading a favorite book for the umpteenth time (a Regency novel for adults, Loretta Chase's Miss Wonderful), I thought about how great it would be to have extra e-copies of all my very favorite comfort books stored on my Kindle so that they were always available, no matter what. I started making a list in my head of all the books I would want to ALWAYS have on me for comfort and fun.

Then, of course, I looked on Amazon...and, curses! Those are almost all books that were published pre-kindle (or just without kindle rights), so of course there aren't any electronic versions available of my favorite comfort books. Wahh!

Still, it was fun making the list in my head. Here's a quick sampling from it (I'm going to save you guys the whole list, because it was LONG!):

• Ilona Andrews, On the Edge (adult rural fantasy)
• Loretta Chase, Miss Wonderful, Mister Impossible, and Lord Perfect (adult Regency romantic comedies)
• Joan Bauer, Squashed (YA comedy)
• Georgette Heyer, The Talisman Ring (18th-century romantic comedy)
• Virginia Euwer Wolff, The Mozart Season (lovely MG novel about family and music)
• Linda Urban, A Crooked Kind of Perfect (quirky MG comedy)
• Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls (high fantasy adventure for women, with a great quasi-historical setting)

...aaaand so many more!

What about you guys? If you could stick extra copies of any books in the world onto an e-reader, which books would you carry around with you all the time?

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Chocolate ecstasy

August 26, 2010, 1.34 pm

Here's the problem with not having enough time to blog regularly this week: I have SO MANY things I want to talk about, and not nearly enough space in one entry for all of them! Luckily, after this morning's trip into town, my top priority is obvious:

I have discovered a whole new reason to love life, and it is the Hot Chocolate Milano served at Caffé Nero.

As you guys know, I am a hot chocolate addict, and since our Caffé Nero is amazingly child-friendly (they offer special free drinks - "babaccinos" - for toddlers and even keep a collection of toys for them to play with in-store), I've been drinking my hot chocolates at Caffé Nero at least once a week for the last couple of months. This time, though, for the first time, I noticed a second kind of hot chocolate on the menu, one that was described as "extra-rich".

Ooh. Extra rich. Of course, I ordered it.

The baristo (is the job title baristo when it's a man serving the drinks? or is it still barista?) said, "Ah. Ahem. So have you ordered the Milano before?"

"No," I said.

"Ah," he said. "Well, it's a...well, it's very intense. A lot of people don't like it. It's basically melted Belgian chocolate, you know."

"Ooh," I said. "Sounds good."

He sighed, looking worried. "How about this," he said. "I'll make it for you, but if you don't like it, just tell me, okay? And I'll make you an ordinary hot chocolate for free. Because a lot of people...well, I like it, personally, every once in a while, but it is very intense."

"Okay," I said. As Patrick pointed out later, when I told him this story, the barista/o had NO IDEA what effect he was having on me with this description. He thought he was warning me off. Little did he know...

It looked incredible, served in a tall glass with whipped cream on top. Pure chocolate bliss. I told myself not to have too-high expectations, though, even as I lifted it up to my lips. It couldn't really be that intense, that chocolatey...

OMG. It really was. It was incredible.

I drank every drop. I would have licked the dregs if I could have reached them at the bottom of the glass.

Hot Chocolate Milano. Hot Chocolate Milano. Hot Chocolate Milano...

I can't wait to order another one. I wonder if they would think I was too weird if I got it again tomorrow...

What about you guys? What are your favorite, most decadent café treats?

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Because I have the best friends in the world...

August 22, 2010, 1.02 pm

This arrived in the mail this week:

(You can click on the photo to see the larger version.)

The handmade chocolate truffles are divine. The picture on the champagne label comes straight from my beautiful UK cover, and it reads: A MOST IMPROPER CHAMPAGNE. DRINK ME!

Just like Alice in Wonderland, I followed orders.

I really, really love my friends. :)

Sadly, I have to warn everybody that - believe it or not - in this coming week, I am going to be even WORSE and even MORE slow at replying to emails and other messages than usual (beating even my previous terrible record!), because we've just started a period of 10 days without any childcare at all. (Curse those August holidays!)

I'm fighting hard to find the time and energy for fiction-writing...but personal emails may just not happen at all in the next week or so. :( I feel really guilty every time I look at my inbox and see so many messages I need and want to respond to...but between exhaustion, CFS, and sheer lack of typing time, it's just not happening at the moment.

My hope is that if I can keep on posting here fairly regularly, at least all my friends will know a bit of what I'm up to...and I promise to try to make up for my email lame-ness once life goes back to normal!

In the meantime, though, I'm having lots of awesome adventures with roaring dinosaurs, tigers, horses, and other animals, both inside our house and at our local park. In the evenings, Patrick and I have been watching Season 4 of Gilmore Girls (our joint anniversary present to each other this year - so great to have a long-running show we both completely enjoy!). And every so often, I manage to find time for my dragon novel, which makes me very, very happy. :)

How are you guys doing? And what's the coolest gift you've either gotten or given in recent times?

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The scary side of parenting

August 19, 2010, 12.02 pm

Wow. There is NOTHING like taking your child to a big, crowded children's play house to bring back all your own childhood insecurities and fears - amplified by a thousandfold as you watch the usual bad stuff happen to your own child. Nothing major, obviously - just the kind of casual nastiness from a couple of the bigger kids, which feels SO much worse when you're watching it happen to your baby.

And of course, as the parent, you have to look cheerful and unconcerned by the whole thing, to help your child stay calm and make sure they have a good time even if they have just been casually punched or kicked by a much bigger kid who really should have known better...

And then there's The Big Playhouse Issue, the one I'd forgotten might even come up (possibly because I'd worked so hard to blank it out of my memory?) after all these years away: rope bridges.

I really, really hate ropes courses. And when I say "hate", I mean "pathetically fear". I mean, I used to be the little kid crying and shivering with panic at the head of the bridge, the one who nearly threw up afterward if she ever did manage to cross them.

You know how people always say to kids that once they go ahead and DO that scary thing, they'll enjoy it? I never, ever enjoyed it. Not once. When I was 21, I nearly quit a job I'd just taken - a good job, a job I needed badly - when I found out that as a "bonding" thing, we had to have a day out at a ropes course. Because I was an adult, I didn't cry where anyone else could see me, and I managed to force my way through the day with muscles and teeth gritted to hold back my real reactions, while everyone around me seemed to be having fun.

Then afterward, when no one else could see me, I cried and shook with decompression, because I am so physically petrified of those things.

It's irrational. It's stupid. It's deeply humiliating. I hate this weakness I have, which no one else I know has ever shared. It makes me feel small and really dumb.

Today, I had to encourage my tiny son to cross those ropes, because it was important for him and I really, really don't want to pass on my panic to him. Today, to help him, I had to cross those ropes. Twice. I kept a smile on my face. I kept my voice chirpy. After the second time across, though, I had to call Patrick to pick us up, half an hour earlier than planned. I kept my voice chirpy the whole way back to the house, and waited until Patrick and MrD left for their own trip out.

Then I walked inside the house and cried and shook. Because not only had I had to cross those rope bridges, but the stupid, irrational panic was multiplied a thousand times as I watched - and helped! - my son cross them, too. I know in my head that they're perfectly safe, but my body refuses to accept that, and the feeling of watching my son put himself in mortal danger (untrue though I know that scenario to be) is just lethal.

I hate that I'm still so scared of something so babyish, at the age of 33. I am baffled by the fact that this morning, which should have been fun, turned out to be one of the hardest mornings I've ever spent as a parent (outside of a medical situation).

I came very close to not posting this entry, because I am so humiliated by my fears. But I think - I hope - that there must be other people out there who have "childish" fears that they're embarrassed by, who might be willing to share them here or at least be glad to see that someone else has them, too.

Do you guys have any fears you haven't outgrown, even if you think you should have? Or: if you're parents, what are the hardest things you've had to do to help your kids?

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