Release Party Recap (plus an upcoming event and good news)!

 

Hey guys!

I'm happy to report that 1)  we're mostly settled into our house now, 2)  I happily dove back into writing my next book, and 3) my allergies are worlds better. 

Thank you so much to everyone who came to the book release party (for THE JADE NOTEBOOK) -- aka The Lauras Party, since I joined forces with my friend Laura Pritchett who was celebrating her GREAT BEAR STORIES release.  We had a blast!

Here's Laura Pritchett, signing away...

Below is Teagan selling books at the party,  from Old Firehouse Books, the awesome local indie bookstore that always keeps my books well-stocked, which I'm very grateful for.  (In fact, if you don't live near me, but you want to buy autographed books of mine, you can email them at oldfirehousebooks@gmail.com and see if a signed copy of the book you want is available to buy online.  It probably is, since I just went in and signed a giant pile of books!)

 I always intend to take a bunch of great pics at these events, but then I get sidetracked with blabbing away to friends and I completely forget about my camera... until the end, when most people have gone home and there are just a few wonderfully devoted stragglers left... like swordfighters. (I brought dress-ups and toys for Lil Dude and friends, which were enjoyed by some grown-ups as well...)

We had a really nice turnout-- a friendly, happy crowd.  Here is Amanda Rose Adams, whose memoir called Heart Warriors just came out! (It sounds really wonderful and moving and I'm excited to read it.)

So great to see old writer buddies.  Laura Katers (yes, another Laura writer friend-- there are many) came to town, and I hadn't seen her for ages...

Here are me and Ian (hubby), who'd just come back from a business trip in Portland and was completely beat, but stuck it out (except for when he decided to go home to sleep, and walked the six blocks home, only to realize he'd forgotten the key, and then walked six blocks back to the party, poor guy)...

Another event is coming up! If you're in the Boulder area, read on.

My friends Amy Kathleen Ryan and Todd Mitchell and I are having an event on Sat, May 5 at 2 pm at the Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, CO. Here's the official blurb:

Join acclaimed authors Amy Kathleen Ryan (GLOW), Todd Mitchell (THE SECRET TO LYING), and Laura Resau (THE JADE NOTEBOOK) for a fun, informal discussion of their young adult books, writing processes, and journeys to publication. Free and open to everyone! Tell your friends!

Oh, and some good news that recently came in:  THE QUEEN OF WATER is now a Colorado Book Award finalist... hooray! The winner will be announced in Aspen this June.  QUEEN was also selected as a Bank Street Best Book of *Outstanding Merit*... double hooray! It's so exciting to have this good QUEEN news rolling in...

 

Okay, thanks for reading!

xo,

Laura

 

Announcing the NOTEBOOKS Contest Winners!

Hello, everyone!

I'm so excited to announce the winners of the contest I ran last week! First, thank you so much to everyone who entered... I absolutely loved reading about all the places you want to go (and of course, I was taking notes, adding your destinations to my own dream-destination list).  And I have to say that taking in your enthusiasm about the Notebooks series felt like reading a great big Valentine's card!  Even if you didn't win, please know that you made me smile BIG and smile  LOTS!

So, this morning I wrote down everyone's names on little slips of scrap paper and dropped them in a tin (one slip of paper per person, regardless of number of comments, to be fair :).

Then I drew the first winner...  WINIFRED! (Who happens to have the same name as my grandmom!)  Here was her entry:

"Hello! My name is Winifred. I would love to go to Italy, specifically Venice or Rome. I just think Italy is beautiful and has delicious food. I would hike, eat, dance, do everything there!"

Congrats, Winifred! You won a personalized copy of INDIGO!

And the next winner is MISTY!  Her entry:

"Me, me, pick me! I've always wanted to go to Iceland, land of trolls and legends. (and very different from Arizona!)  --Marianne Mitchell (aka Misty)"

Yay, Misty! You've won a personalized copy of RUBY!

And the winner of JADE is OONA! Hooray!

Oona actually made three lovely comments that made me smile EXTRA-BIG!:

"Hi I'm Oona! I live in Baltimore! I REALLY want to go to Paris! It's so awesome and beautiful! I cannot wait for The Jade Notebook! Happy Valentines Day!"

"I've already left a comment, but I wanted to say I'm only on chapter two and already in love with The Jade Notebook. This is Oona :)"

"This is Oona. I JUST finished The Jade Notebook. I am speechless. Now one of my favorite books. Thank you Laura! I'm sad to see the series end. I recommended the Notebooks series to my math teacher. Everyone should read them!"

And the international winners... since we only had two entries here, I've decided to make you both winners! You'll be getting personalized bookmarks and home-made Valentines. <3

Congrats to ISABEL of Colombia!

And BEE of India!

I'm so happy for all the winners, and can't wait to send off your prizes!

*If you won, please email me asap at Lauraresau [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject heading NOTEBOOKS CONTEST WINNER. Please let me know (this week!) who you'd like me to sign the book/bookmarks to and what address to send them to. If you don't get an email back from me, that probably means I didn't get your email for some reason, in which case you could contact me via a facebook message or blog comment.)*

Thanks again to everyone who entered!

Lots o' love,
Laura

Take me away...

It is officially here.... my uncontrollable mid-winter longing for sparkling blue water and sultry tropical air and all manner of jungle creatures-- I wouldn't even mind the skeeters at this point.  But there's none of this for me this year, as we're at the tail end of a house renovation (we've been in rental homes for 8 months now!)...which means we have a distinct lack of time, money, and energy with which to plan a Mexico beach trip.  And just to rub it in,  two of my  closest friends (you know who you are) just went to a beautiful tiny coastal town in Mexico only accessible by boat.  Argh!  (Okay, I'm *mostly* happy for them...)

Playa Mazunte

Whenever I feel jealousy creeping in, I try to transform it to inspiration.  So,  this is inspiration for me to make sure that *next year* we take a delicious beach trip. In the meantime, I've been looking longingly at these pics from my last trip to Mazunte, where I did research for The Jade Notebook (which comes out on Valentine's Day!!)


Here are bits of reviews that have been coming in... this first one's from Kirkus:

"In this third in a series of novels focusing on Zeeta and her wanderlust-stricken mother, readers are immersed in the details of a lovingly described coastal town in Mexico and an action-filled mystery surrounding the poaching of ancient sea turtles that make their home there...  a graceful conclusion to Zeeta’s story."

This part of the review made me smile.:

"... Resau’s skill in evoking an almost visceral experience of setting firmly anchors the story...."


I really love writing setting details... this is something I practice, scribbling observations in my spiral-bound notebooks.  I try to use all or most of my senses in every scene. And this setting of beach-meeting-jungled hills is such an intense sensory experience in real life-- the thick, humid air, the constant hum of insects and bird calls, the rush of ocean, pounding of water against rocks, taste of salt everywhere- on your skin and hair and damp clothes... it was fun to try to capture that on paper.

On the porch of my cabana.  Perfect writing spot.

The first official blogger review  came in this past week, too... Marjolein, a YA book reviewer, calls it "an amazing conclusion" to the series in her 5 star review. (Thanks Marjolein!!)

And a lovely librarian review from TATAL Online:

"This book transcends travel or mystery to instead be a book about growing up, learning to trust and let go, and finding belonging within a family and a community. A fitting end to this unique trilogy."

I love the  landscape of Mazunte....  little beach coves you can hike to, where you feel completely alone.

 

Some of the action in the book takes place here, on Punta Cometa (Comet Point.) See how it's shaped like a comet, the tail trailing into the ocean?

Here's what "downtown" Mazunte looks like... I think this is the only paved road.

And here's the dirt road leading to the cabanas where I stay:

Some of the most exciting scenes in the book take place on the rocky crags around Punta Cometa... It's such a dramatic setting-- seawater churning and beating against the cliffs... just begging for a story climax to happen here (hint hint...)

From these pics you can't really tell, but this chaos of water is several stories below--it's dizzying and scary to be near the edge...


The water is crashing, booming here...


A giant cactus on Punta Cometa, referred to in the story...

Sunsets viewed from Punta Cometa are stunning... I spent an evening perched there with my notebook, recording my sensations minute by minute as the sun sunk.


If you look closely, you can see the silhouette of a sweet couple watching the sunset together.



Okay, enough beach-longing...time for me to get to work on some other things-- like preparing the presentations I'll be doing at the CCIRA conference next week. But before I leave you, I'll mention some good news with The Queen of Water... it was selected as a title on the 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults, announced a few days ago by the ALA (American Library Association).  I also found out it was selected as a Recommended Title by the ALA-affiliated Amelia Bloomer Project, which focuses on feminist literature for young people. Maria Virginia and I are happy and grateful for these honors!

Thanks for reading!

xo,
Laura       P.S.  If you want to see more of my Mazunte pics, visit this older blog post.

Personalized Books for Holiday Gifts...

Hey everyone!

A few days ago, I walked around to my favorite indie bookshops in Old Town, Ft Collins, and signed their stock... so if you want to give an autographed copy of one of my books as a gift, and you live in this area, you can go to Old Firehouse Books, Matter Bookstore, or The Clothes Pony.

If you live out of my area, you can still get signed copies sent to you (or to your giftee)! Just go to the Old Firehouse Books website here (this links to The Queen of Water, but if you're looking for another one of my books, just scroll down on that page and write the title in the "search" field on the right sidebar.)  I'll come into the store within the next few days and personalize the book to whomever you'd like!  During checkout, in the "comments" section, note that you'd like an autographed copy, and the name you'd like me to sign it to.  The only catch is that if you need these to arrive before Christmas, you need to order them by *Dec 15*!






If you are in Ft Collins, check out this great article (by Kerrie Flanagan, new literary arts columnist for the Coloradoan!) with recommendations for books by local authors-- it's a handy list for holiday shopping...

A brief update on the current craziness in my life, in case you're curious: We're in the midst of a GIANT house renovation, and, since it's taking longer than we'd initially thought, we have to move out of one rental home and into another this week.  Not fun, not fun at all.  (Our house will be ready in March.) Lil Dude calls our new apartment a "hotel"... and it will be a bit like a hotel since there's only one bedroom in it (but alas, no room service or indoor pool).  Wish us luck!

Hope you're enjoying winter-- hopefully yours is more peaceful than mine.  Time for me to have chamomile tea and sleep... Lil Dude will awaken me well before dawn, as usual.  Sigh.  Yawn.  G'night...

xo,
Laura

The Magic Stick

Awesome teacher Ms. Nielsen-Drake and me with the Magic Stick! Note her gorgeous shawl from Chiapas, Mexico-- where part of my next book is set!

Hey guys!

I just got back from a fun visit to Steele Elementary in Colorado Springs... the fourth-graders read Star in the Forest and the fifth graders read What the Moon Saw. I absolutely LOVED hearing about all the connections the kids made with the books-- their interpretations and insights-- and most of all, how they took the idea of the Magic Stick (in Star in the Forest) and ran with it!  (For those of you who haven't read the book, the Magic Stick is a kind of metaphor for kindness, courage, and strength in the face of upsetting situations.)

Here's Ms. Nielsen-Drake's explanation of how the stick has become a vibrant part of her classroom!  (I changed the kids' names to first initials):

L wrote that he thought he needed a "magic stick" like Zitlally's. And then wrote, "Just kidding." I wrote back with, "Done!" And put a beautiful stick on his desk that looks like a bird's head. The stick has ended up with a life of its own in my class. Every time someone is feeling sad or in need of some comfort, he/she either asks L for it, or someone else thinks he/she needs it, and it ends up on that child's desk the next day. E's grandpa died. Someone put the stick on her desk. Today it was W's rat dying because his little brother dropped him, and so Will had the stick all day. It is SOOOOO sweet, the life that this stick has taken on! The other cool thing is that kids notice when someone, other than the "keeper-of-the-stick" L, has the stick and become very considerate and kind of that person. Isn't that amazing?

Me again: How cool is that?!  I can't tell you how much I LOVE this!  Thank you, L, for starting this tradition, and becoming the keeper of the magic stick.  And thank you to Ms. Nielsen-Drake and her amazing students for their kindness and creativity!  This is the stuff a writer's dreams are made of!

Manitou Springs

My whole trip was a treat! I stayed in the Avenue Bed and Breakfast in Manitou Springs (giant thanks to the awesome owners, Randy and Gwen, and Natalie of Black Cat Books, and the Manitou Springs Library friends and Author Fest organizers).


 Avenue B n B

Thanks to everyone involved for a refreshing and energizing author visit!

xo,
Laura

PS -- Some nice news-- The Queen of Water has been selected for School Library Journal's Best Books of 2011 list!  Yippee!  It's also on the TAYSHAS list, which is an important reading list for students in Texas!  Thank you, SLJ and TEXAS!!

Starred Publishers Weekly review for Queen!

 Maria Virginia Farinango (my co-author and me... happy!!)

Hey guys,

Nice news to start off my week: The Queen of Water just got its *third* starred review-- this one from Publishers Weekly!  I'm over the moon!

* This compelling collaboration between Resau (The Ruby Notebook) and Farinango--who met while Resau was teaching English at a community college--is based on Farinango's tumultuous upbringing in Ecuador as part of an indígena (indigenous) family, forced to live under the thumb of the mestizos (the Spanish upper class). As is common for indígena girls her age, Virginia is sent to live with a wealthy mestizo couple--in her case, Niño Carlitos and his wife, Doctorita--and she babysits their children and serves as their maid for eight years. While the living conditions are an improvement over her family's small farm, she endures physical and verbal abuse and is denied an education. 

Narrating in a singular, authentic voice, Virginia dreams of escape, but her broken identity leaves her directionless. Along the way, though, she employs her imagination, persistence, and hard-won wisdom to recover her strength and freedom. The authors' candid narrative richly depicts Virginia's passage from a childhood filled with demoralization to a young woman who sees her life through new eyes. Ages 12–up.

 Yay!  So happy about this... I didn't even know what starred reviews meant before my first book came out... Basically, it's a system for recognizing the book as having exceptional merit... and the happy consequence is that librarians, book sellers, teachers, and people in the publishing industry pay more attention to the book.... which ultimately gets the book into the hands of more readers... and this, as a writer, is one of my biggest goals... to connect with as many readers as I can.

Okay, I have to wade my way through the heaps of emails that have been building up since I left for Michigan.  I'm in the midst of planning lots of author visits (virtual and actual) with schools and libraries in Colorado-- Broomfield, Boulder, Fort Collins, Basalt, Grand Junction, and more...

(If I owe you an email, don't worry, it'll be coming soon... my apologies!)  Thanks for reading and keeping in touch-- I'm grateful!

xo
Laura