It was a dark and stormy night...

Greetings from Austin.

So. This morning at around 12:30, we were awakened by rain and what sounded like someone dropping rocks onto our roof. Then the wind came, and there was a loud crash as something broke the window in Cyn's office. The cats fled under large pieces of furniture... We couldn't see across the street due to the rain.

As we were gathering to move downstairs, we turned on the cable news station and heard the weatherperson use the reassuring phrase, "I've never seen a thunderstorm this bad before." Admittedly, she was young, and had the night shift, but still. :-). Then they started showing pictures of baseball-sized hail.

According to the weather maps, the storm formed two angry purple lobes, one just to the north and one just to the south of our house. Fortunately, we kept power throughout and our trees are still standing (one of them lost a small branch).

By the time the storm blew through (it took only about fifteen minutes where we are), most of the neighborhood to the north of us (one of many, I gather) was without power, and hundreds of trees were down. The streets and sidewalks were a green carpet of leaves and branches. So far as I can tell, there were no actual tornadoes, although there were wind gusts of up to 70 mph.

This morning, the schools in our neighborhood are closed due to power outages.

More here from the Statesman. And Time Warner. And KXAN.

Writer Conferencing

Last weekend was the Spring conference of the Austin SCBWI chapter. Speakers included editors Alvina Ling and Deborah Wayshak; agent Erin Murphy; artist's agent Christina Tugeau; writing professor Peter Jacobi; and retired educator Naomi Pasemann. Many thanks to Regional Advisor Tim Crow and all the volunteers for their hard work!

Cynthia and I had the pleasure of co-hosting the Friday night reception for speakers and volunteers. Alvina blogs about the weekend at bloomabilities, while Cynthia has more at spookycyn.

Then, this weekend, Cynthia and I received and prepared the twenty-seven manuscripts for a writer's workshop we're hosting at our house at the end of next month. (We're calling it the "Awesome Austin Writers' Workshop" :-)). Author Julie Lake was kind enough to come over and help collate and package the manuscripts. Afterwards, we hand-delivered the more central authors' manuscripts, while Julie took several for delivery near her neck of the woods. Now all we have to do is read and critique the things...

A weekend of writing, dining, bicycling, and prom

Okay, so Cyn and I only did the first two of those things.

We took a working weekend at the new Hyatt Lost Pines Resort in Bastrop, just outside Austin. The place is less than two years old and features Colorado River frontage, golf (if you’re into that), horseback riding, a winding (artificial) river pool, tennis, and various gardens. Because it’s spring in central Texas, this also means an excellent array of wildflowers.

We drove up Friday afternoon and spent a few hours in the room and on the balcony working on our current projects (Cyn was doing the graphic novel for Tantalize). Then we went for a walk along the river and changed for dinner. We ate at Stories, where I had the crispy poached egg and venison, and Cyn had the tuna tartare and lobster. Service and food were outstanding. After dinner, we had a drink at the Scribes' Club.

Saturday, we got up early: Cyn went for a spa treatment at Django Spa, and I went for a run along the river path(s). Afterwards, we had brunch at Firewheel Cafe. Chicken wrap and burger were excellent. Then we worked another few hours on our current projects and went out for a late lunch/early dinner at Sheller’s. The shrimp cocktail was terrific and the “Original cheese pie” was quite good as well, although one wonders why one needs a euphemism for “pizza.” :-)

Sunday morning, we slept in, then I went for another run along the river, and we worked on novels again, before taking a late checkout.

Oh, and the other two references in the header?

It was the weekend of the BPMS 150, the Multiple Sclerosis Society fundraising bike ride from Houston to Austin. A significant number of the teams apparently decided to do the overnight at the resort rather than in sleeping bags at the La Grange fairgrounds. (When I was in grad school, I did the event once with a group of friends and, believe me, we thought staying at a hotel rather than roughing it was the height of decadence (as well as being out of our budgets). :-))

As for prom, well, it was also the weekend of the Bastrop High School Prom. Jeepers. Was I ever that young? :-)

BIG SLICK, by Eric Luper

BIG SLICK, by Eric Luper (Farrar, Strauss, Giroux 2007). Sixteen year old Andrew Lang has skimmed some $600 from the cash register at his family's dry cleaning business to feed his poker habit and bankroll his entry into local tournaments.

Unfortunately, Andrew is not as good as he thinks. He loses the $600, and is cut off by the local poker impresario/drug dealer. But he still has to put the cash back in the register before his father finds out.

After several disastrous attempts to come up with the funds, Andrew, his friend Scott, and his (hot) goth co-worker Jasmine steal Andrew's father's prized muscle car and take a road trip to a nearby Indian casino. There, they hope Andrew's skill at the poker table will allow him to make good the losses and, ultimately, square things with his father.

In BIG SLICK, first-time novelist Eric Luper presents an engaging, suspenseful, and refreshing story of teen sensibility, growth, friendship, and Texas Hold 'em. Luper's use of poker details rings true, provides realistic atmosphere, and adds to the dramatic tension. A winner.

We are greatly vexed...

Cynthia and I were scheduled to speak March 14 at the Illinois Reading Council's 2008 Conference, titled "Unleash the Power," held in Springfield, Illinois. We were to have spoken at three sessions: For two of them, about "Humor in Youth Literature;" for the third, on "Stories behind the stories."

Unfortunately, however, when we arrived at the airport in late afternoon on the 13th, we were told our flight to our connecting city had been canceled, but that we had been re-booked for the next day(!) which, of course, was when we were scheduled to speak. We tried to make alternate arrangements, none of which were acceptable. So, we had to cancel our speaking gig. Apologies to the IRC and anyone who went wanting to hear us speak.

The airline declined several opportunities to explain why they canceled the flight. Since they're usually more than willing to blame the weather or mechanical problems, one can only conclude they canceled it because they didn't get enough passengers (which has happened to us on other airlines). In other words, they simply didn't feel like flying. Helluva way to run a business.

WriteFest books

It's been a couple years since Cyn and I hosted WriteFest, an invitation-only writers' workshop. Still, I'm very pleased that we are continuing to see manuscripts that were workshopped being published.

The first was Laura Ruby's Good Girls. Then, last year was Brian Yansky's Wonders of the World.

Forthcoming novels include Katie Davis's The Curse of Addy McMahon; Kathi Appelt's The Underneath, and Libba Bray's Going Bovine.

Great work, y'all!

SHIFT, by Jennifer Bradbury

SHIFT, by Jennifer Bradbury (Atheneum, May 2008). In SHIFT, first-time novelist Jennifer Bradbury presents a textured and moving portrait of a friendship and lives in transition.

The summer before they head off to college, Chris Collins and his best friend Win Coggans are on the adventure of a lifetime: a cross-country bicycle trip from their home in West Virginia to Seattle. But after two months in the saddle during which their friendship (and sometime rivalry) is tested to the breaking point, they separate. Chris ultimately makes it to the coast without Win and hops a bus back home.

Win, however, isn't there. And he still isn't back when Chris leaves for Georgia Tech.

Win's well-connected father suspects Chris has something to do with Win's disappearance...and then the FBI show up at Chris's dorm.

Making skillful use of flashbacks to tell the story, Bradbury does a terrific job of balancing details of the bicycle trek with development of the relationship between the friends (and their parents), and Chris's attempts to uncover/accept what really happened. Part road trip, part mystery, SHIFT is at all times compelling and thought-provoking.