Melissa Thomson

It’s true. I am a terrible blogger. I think it’s because I let so much time lapse between posts that I feel like I have SO MUCH backlogged information to share! But I really don’t. It’s just school, TV, dog park, lather, rinse, repeat. But just for kicks, here are some mundane anecdotes and book-related updates. Happy Weekend!!

Mundane Anecdotes

Dog park: I jogged with the dog to the dog park yesterday. Belby is not the greatest jogging partner. I get annoyed because she doesn’t understand how to keep a steady pace, and she gets annoyed because I don’t understandSQUIRRELOHMYGODSQUIRREL.

But we made it to the dog park nevertheless. Belby made a new friend. I learned the names of lots of dogs and no people. That seems to be the way it works…

Today we watched Julie & Julia. I liked it, and it made me want to learn to cook for about 2 minutes. By which I mean it made me want to cook something for two minutes. So I microwaved a bag of popcorn. Seriously, I do not have the cooking gene. It’s weird, because my mother is an excellent cook.

On Friday night I had a late-night Slurpee craving and drove to 7-11 to get my fix. Typing about it makes me want another Slurpee.

Book Info!

I found out that Keena Ford and the Field Trip Mix-up was named one of the Best of the Best Books of 2009 by the Chicago Public Library! Hooray!

Keena Ford and the Secret Journal Mix-up will be released on September 16, 2010. Hooray!

Congratulations to all of the ALA winners, BBYA honorees, and everyone who has seen their books recognized recently. And congratulations to everyone who has celebrated publication recently or is working toward it. With so much social media to connect us, this is a really fun time to be part of the online community of writers and readers, don’t you think?

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to read a book a week this year. This sounds like nothing to lots of readers, but between my school schedule and writing efforts, it’s not easy to find the time! Plus I’m taking guitar and am terrible at it, so I need lots of practice. Plus I have a very jam-packed TV-watching schedule. Anyway, enough excuses. My book for this week is Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani. In seven days or less I should report that I have finished it!

Some updates, in no particular order:

1. I (We) got a dog! Her name is Belby. She’s part beagle, part feist. I think I talk about her too much at school, because on a visit to the Nature Center the other day, the Nature Center lady asked my students for examples of mammals, and one of them said, “A Belby!”

Here is Belby as she waits to get dressed up for Halloween (she was a princess):

2. Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-up won the transitional fiction category of the Blue Crab Young Reader A ward! Thank you VERY much, Maryland Library Association!

3. I received a wonderful letter in the mail from a young reader yesterday, which reminded me that I have yet to list an address on my Web site for any readers who are interested in writing to me. I love to hear from Keena’s readers! The best “snail mail” address is probably my school:

Melissa Thomson

c/o William Ramsay ES

5700 Sanger Ave

Alexandria, VA 22311

Happy Friday!

• Keena Ford and the Field Trip Mix-up is now available in hardback and was reviewed in The New York Times on Sunday, July 12. I’m not even lying! The review is here. Yippee!
• Keena Ford and the Second Grade Mix-up is now available in paperback.
• We are moving back to the DC area in a few weeks, and I will be teaching in Alexandria, VA, in the fall.
• I got slapped by a sea turtle.

I don’t have any particular topic to post about, so I‘m just going to whine about my personal shortcomings for a few paragraphs. Enjoy!

First shortcoming: I’ve been trying to stick to a new writing schedule where I get up extra early and write in the mornings, but I haven’t been too successful yet. (I’m going to try it for a few more weeks before I downgrade “not too successful” to “miserable failure.”) It’s so hard! Bed v. computer is a comically lopsided battle. My computer is like, “I have a polka dot case! And an adorable background image!” and I think, “Sounds good. Computer it is.” But then my bed is like, “Awww, computer. You’re so cute. But are we really even pretending this is a competition? Seriously.” The bed is impossible to beat. It’s like that episode of 60 Minutes and the bed is Michael Phelps and the computer is Anderson Cooper. No, it’s like the bed is Michael Phelps and the computer is me at swim lessons at the Y in 1982.

Second shortcoming: I went to what I thought was a cardio kickboxing class on Thursday, but it turns out it was like an actual kickboxing class where instead of kicking and punching the air, you kick and punch a piece of foam that a real person is holding. I was partnered with a girl who goes to the class all the time and even had her own boxing gloves. She was nice, but man was she powerful. I found the whole experience terrifying and not empowering in the least. So now I know I’m not missing my calling as a boxer.

I DO like Zumba, and it was right after the scary boxing class, so I stuck around for some more exercise. This was a huge mistake. I should have known when my legs started twitching. Both class involved many, many lunges. Friday I was okay, but yesterday I could barely bend my knees. I was supposed to go for a long run yesterday in preparation for a race I’m running next weekend, but given that I couldn’t even walk correctly, the long run was out, and by the time I regained sufficient range of motion today it was like a thousand degrees outside. I decided the best way to get the long run done is to  make someone else run it for me. And that person is my favorite person to dump things on: Tomorrowmelissa. I delegate all unpleasant or disinteresting tasks to her.  I’m sure she’ll complain about me. She always does.

This break, I read God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian by Kurt Vonnegut and Defining Dulcie by Paul Acampora. I also began reading Pure and Reading the OED.

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