packing for Spain! (first step: carry-ons)

OK, here we go! Just one more week (and a day, but who’s counting?) until we head off for two weeks in sunny Spain. Well, it’s not super-warm there either this time of year, but it’ll definitely be warmer than here. Anyway, time to get cracking on the packing!

First off, here’s what we’ll need to carry on the plane with us. Next I’ll get to the big suitcases.

  • babies
  • passports
  • KangaKid backpacks (still using these, at 14 months and counting)
  • enough diapers for 24 hours
  • wipes and vaseline
  • ziploc baggies
  • snacks (cheerios, Japanese rice crackers, cookies)
  • bibs
  • sippy cups, bowls, and spoons
  • blankets and stuffed animals
  • pjs and extra change of clothes
  • jackets and hats
  • baby tylenol
  • 2 new books each
  • 2 old books each
  • new toy each
  • old chewing toy each
  • toy keys
  • ziploc with carry-on toiletries
  • grown-up book (wishful thinking)
  • flip video/camera
  • grown-up change of clothes
  • grown-up jackets

kip’s new book reviewing gig

For Children’s Literature: Independent Information and Reviews:

http://www.childrenslit.com/childrenslit/home.html

They do a lot of non-fiction, especially for the educational market.

I did my first stack a couple of weeks ago, and have another batch to do before Spain. They didn’t have a military reviewer, and they had a huge stack of military books, so that was right up my alley. I’m hoping for some on language, culture, and history soon too.

rutgers notes

Hands-down, the absolute best thing for me about the Rutgers Council on Children’s Literature one-on-one conference was the one-on-one itself. Of course, I was super-lucky, and got assigned to the best possible mentor ever: Jim Murphy. Read more about him here:

Home

I know, couldn’t have gotten a better pick, what say?

But other than that, it was also great meeting such an amazing group of editors, agents, and authors, and running into ones I’ve met before. It was also wicked cool to meet all the Blue-Boarders (including my cool roommate Jean). Such a nice bunch of people, and such a dedicated bunch of writers.

Yeah, and one last thing that sticks in my mind. The words of the morning speaker Kay Winters (I am not quoting exactly, but from my shoddy memory): “I don’t know anyone in this business who really wanted to make it, kept at it, and didn’t make it.” So, keep at it, keep trying, get to work!

nanowrimo stats

I know this is sort of cheating, but I decided to work on my non-fiction manuscript this month instead, so it’s nanoficwrimo for me, I am going to keep track of my progress here. Some days will be revisions of existing chapters, so I’ll use pages revised for those days, and I’ll use word counts for days where I’m writing new material. Here we go!

11/1/2008 – revised 5 pages

11/2/2008 – revised 5 pages, plus 4 pages to count for tomorrow

11/3/2008 – revised 2 (more) pages

11/4/2008 – revised 2 pages

11/5/2008 – 361 words

11/6/2008 – 516 words

11/7/2008 – revised 2 pages

11/8/2008 – revised 4 pages, plus wrote 155 words

11/9/2008 – 0 words (researched for several hours though)

11/10/2008 – revised 2 pages

11/11/2008 – 435 words

11/12/2008 – 452 words, revised 1 page to count for tomorrow

11/13/2008 – 0 words (date night!)

11/14/2008 – 174 words

11/15/2008 – 595 words

11/16/2008 – 279 words, plus revised 2 pages

11/17/2008 – revised 3 pages

11/18/2008 – revised 2 pages

11/19/2008 – 0 words (work disasters and sick babies)

11/20/2008 – 415 words

11/21/2008 – 479 words

11/22/2008 – revised 4 pages

11/23/2008 – 846 words

11/24/2008 – revised 3 pages

11/25/2008 – revised 2 pages

11/26/2008 – revised 17 pages

11/27/2008 – revised 3 pages, plus wrote 155 words

11/28/2008 – revised 7 pages, including several patches of new words

11/29/2008 – revised 8 pages, including probably about 1,000 new words

11/30/2008 – 1,217 words

DONE! Total manuscript length: 24,306

Kip is headed to the fridge to get her little bottle of champagne now …

nanowrimo: revised plan

No, I’m not chickening out before it even begins!

But I do have an updated plan after attending the Rutgers Council on Children’s Literature One-on-One Conference this past Saturday. I’m taking it a step even farther removed.

Instead of finishing the second half of an unfinished novel I wanted to work on, I’m going to finish revising my non-fiction manuscript on the White Rose, which is, OK, let’s be honest, WAY cooler than a novel anyway (to history geeks at least).

My goal is to get everything in order before November, revising the first four chapters I already have, and then I’ll spend November writing the rest of the new Hans-chapters.

So it is totally like NANOWRIMO, but better.

PS Last night, I wound up with 415 words. Yaaay!

gearing up for november …

It’s National Novel Writing Month: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

I wonder if any other mom of twin toddlers has ever managed to write a novel in a month, hmm.

Being realistic, I don’t think I can either. Besides which, I have a half-finished novel I need to work on. So for me it’s going to be more like NaNoFiMo (National Novel Finishing Month), yaaaaay!

I’m shooting for 25,000 words (conveniently half of the goal for NaNoWriMo), which works out to 833.3 words/day. Let’s see how far I get!

book review: The Boy Who Dared (Susan Campbell Bartoletti)

Bartoletti is probably best-known for her award-winning work of non-fiction, Hitler Youth. With her novel The Boy Who Dared, Bartoletti shows off a great storytelling talent, as well as the meticulous research behind this story that brings it to life.

The Boy Who Dared is the true story of Helmuth Hübener, a German teen in World War II who stood up to the Nazis by distributing leaflets against the Nazi regime. He is one of the teens mentioned in Bartoletti’s Hitler Youth book.

So why a novel, and not another non-fiction book? What makes this story fiction is the lively dialog and very specific actions of the character that Bartoletti could only infer from research. Her informative author’s note describes what she did to dig for the details that help color the novel with a broad swath of reality.

The tension and intrigue transform The Boy Who Dared into a real-life spy novel, as the clock ticks up to Hübener’s final moments in prison before execution. Bartoletti gives us a real sense of how terrifying this must have been for him, placing us there in the cell with him, as the prison guards approach.

stuff to do with toddlers in boston

here are some great tidbits froma  list sent out by another twins’ mom:

Museums:
Children’s Museum – on Fridays, open until 9 pm, admission is $1 after 5 – www.bostonkids.org
Aquarium – www.neaq.org
Science Museum (has a discovery room – great for young children) – www.mos.org
Museum of Natural History at Harvard (animal exhibit, etc.) – www.hmnh.harvard.edu

Pools that offer day passes:
Sonesta Hotel across from Cambridgeside Galleria
Seaport Hotel in South Boston
Marriot Longwharf
Marriot Charlestown
Charlestown YMCA
Indoor water park in Danvers – http://www.cocokeywaterresort.com/locations/danvers/index.aspx

Theatres:
Puppet Showplace in Brookline – http://www.puppetshowplace.org/
Regent Theatre in Arlington – www.regenttheatre.com/

Farms with Animals:
Drumlin Farm in Lincoln – www.lincoln-ma.com/town_groups/drumlin.htm
Codman Farm in Lincoln – www.lincoln-ma.com/town_groups/codmanfarm.htm

places to go to in Spain

here is kip’s list so far, of places to hit – most of them are old favorites, but there are a few new ones on the list

in Madrid:

  • El Corte Inglés (claro)
  • Rodilla: take-out chain with the cutest triangle sandwiches ever (side note: Rodilla means “knee,” so when kips say they are going to the knee, they mean this place)
  • Montaditos (or something like that – in between the Plaza Mayor and Sol) cute place for breakfast
  • someplace (anyplace!) for chocolate con churros
  • the Prado museum
  • Paseo del Prado playground (this will be a new one!)

in Valencia:

  • El Corte Inglés (claro)
  • Horchateria Santa Catalina
  • Museo de Ciencias