Saturday’s Reading at Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, IN!

I’m so grateful to Andy and Randy at Destinations Booksellers and to everyone who came indoors during a completely glorious summer afternoon to hear me read and answer questions about Nice and Mean.  Thanks especially to the cool mom who brought these fun kids!  (She’s taking the picture.)  They also won an author visit from me on behalf of their middle school, and I can’t wait to set it up, in part because I need to do a better job at answering one girl’s question.

The Q&A about the book veered toward the subject of meanness, and one of the girls, not pictured here, asked, “If you had a daughter this age, what would you tell her if people were being mean, the way they were in this book?”

“Ooh,” I said, “that’s a really good question.” (Apparently this is what I automatically say when I don’t have an answer ready, which is one sign of a good question.)  ”It’s such a good question that I’m not even sure I can answer it well right now, but I’ll try.”

I said something to the effect that there will probably always be mean people and they’re not likely to change a ton, but if you are a nice person, people will notice.  Classmates and teachers will notice your including someone who isn’t well-liked, or going out of your way to support a friend, or having the character to engage people in interesting conversations.  And it may not pay off right now, in elementary or middle school, but as you get older, people will seek you out for friendships and positions of responsibility, and you will be a happier person than the person whose main means of pulling themselves up is putting others down.

“How’s that?” I asked the girl.  ”On a scale of tiny to huge, how helpful?”

She gave what I can best describe as a look of kindness, although that’s not quite it.  ”It’s okay for now,” she said.

Well, phew.  But I went home and thought about it some more, and I came up with a longer answer–so long, I created a new post.  But thank you, brave middle-school student, for asking me that question, and thanks to everyone else at Destinations Booksellers who created an environment where she felt comfortable asking.  I admire you all.

Coming soon: an 8-step plan for dealing with meanness in school.

First of all, I am pleased to announce that I will be appearing at two more bookstores in the area this fall!

Saturday, August 21, 2pm

Desinations Booksellers

604 East Spring Street * New Albany, Indiana

Saturday, September 11, 4pm

Carmichael’s Bookstore

2720 Frankfort Avenue * Louisville, KY

I must be straightforward and report that there will not be cake.  (I know! And you were told there’d be cake!)  However, there will be something pretty much as good: a chance to win a free classroom visit from an author!  (Well, this is good if you are a parent, teacher or librarian.  If you are a childless plumber not taking any extension classes anywhere, I imagine that this offer doesn’t appeal as much as cake.  But moving on…)

It’s pretty simple: come to a Nice and Mean event (I will read and dazzle you with my super-secret strategy for spritely Q&A), and if you are a parent, teacher or librarian, you can enter a drawing to win a classroom visit from me. I’ll talk about the process of becoming a writer, discuss the skills that are crucial to being an artist (revision and attention to detail–sound familiar, teachers?), and answer questions.  (I can also read from the book, but often, the Q&A takes a while.)

What if you’re thinking, Oh woe, I do not live near enough to attend, so I cannot enter the drawing! or I am occupied both of those days!  Fear not.  Next month or so, I will hold a drawing online for those interested in a Skype visit.

Go, go, Nice and Mean!  See ya real soon!

Wellesley Booksmith Party.  More friends!  More strangers!  More ways to share Nice and Mean!

For this event, I actually read, and it was so fun!  Once again, I was thrilled by the people who came.  Grad school friends who drove in from Cape Cod and Massachusetts!  Friends of friends—one of whom I’d co-bridesmaided with back in 2001!  My very first boss from when I was a camp counselor and her 9-year-old daughter!  Writers I’d met on the internets, one of whom blogged about the event in such vivid detail that I’m gobsmacked to have this record of it.  All this in addition to friends I see frequently and, once again, some people I’d never met who just thought the book sounded good.

Probably the best thing about giving the reading was hearing people laugh.  I shared Sachi’s chapter three, in which she picks her little sister up from school. (This is the second time I’ve mentioned that chapter here.  I’m obviously attached to it.)  Everybody is saying, “Pallavi is the princess!”  Sachi asks, “Wow, how’d that happen?” and Pallavi says something to the effect of, “I don’t know!  I just asked everybody, ‘Who wants me to be the princess?’ and they all said, ‘I do!’ and so I was!”  I hardly base anything in my books on real life—whenever something does slip in, it’s usually the first to get cut—but this incident was actually inspired by the daughter of a friend of mine, and apparently everybody else thought it was just as funny as I did.  Hooray for laughter!

I had a few special effects that I was proud of, too.  One was the Nice and Mean Memories Clothesline—ribbons I’d strung up along with slips of paper to share their Nice or Mean memories.  I did this in New York, too, and some fun ones have emerged, such as, “I drove my 8^th-grade teacher, who was a nun, crazy.”  I actually know who wrote this and the story involves writing fake diary entries about time spent as a Satanist.  I feel bad for the nun, but this story always makes me laugh, and I like having it preserved on the Mean Clothesline.

Ticket to anywhere blogged about the Q&A session, so if you’re curious about what people wanted to know after the reading, head on over.  You can also win the copy that I signed for her!

I’m so grateful to the bookstore for hosting me.  When I asked New Englanders where I should have my Boston party, I heard almost unanimously, “The Wellesley Booksmith.”  It’s not hard to see why: they have fantastic write-ups of books classic and new; they have a vast collection of gently used books in the basement; their toys and favors don’t seem too commercial; and their staff is helpful and fun.  I hope to return there soon, possibly as an author, but most likely as a customer!

Me and lovely Vermont College grad school peeps! (Sorry they are so small…I have had it up to Here with WordPress, though!)