Lindsay Eland - Middle Grade Author

Today I’m with the wonderful Blogger: Pirate Penguin Reads! Hope on over to see what fictional world I’d like to live in if I could and if I have had any romantic disasters myself…

Good morning everyone! Today is Day 4 of my Blog Tour, so check out my interview on The Hiding Spot! where I reveal what my own “hiding spot” is. Thanks again for stopping by these wonderful blogs!

What is my favorite scene (or one of my favorites) in Scones and Sensibility? Find out on Day 3 of my blog tour with wonderful Blog Host He Followed Me Home (don’t you just love that name?). It makes me think of a little dog that followed some girl or boy home after school one day and wound up becoming a part of the family. Here’s a picture of my dog, Cowboy…

It’s Blog Tour day 2 with Books and Literature for Teens! Find out what my favorite pastime is as well as the person I’d like most to meet in the world!

And here is the picture of the Rice Krispie treat that I’m about to eat…yummy, eh?

Did I ever contemplated setting Scones and Sensibility  in The Big Apple or perhaps downtown Pittsburgh (or, as they say in Pittsburgh: dahn tahn)? To find out drop by the wonderful blog, My Favourite Books, which is my first stop on my 15-stop blog tour! Leave a comment or just stop by and say “hello!” Thanks so much!

1. Noah woke me up at 5:40…five minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off this morning, which has to be just about the worst thing ever. “Mommy, I need to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water.” Of course he can do these things fine by himself…he just feels the need to wake me up and inform me of his activities.

2. Dropped the kids off at school and we didn’t even have to run to the front door…we were able to lightly jog to the back door.

3. Went to the grocery store where I bought another dozen eggs and more butter cause I’ve found that I compulsively buy  eggs and butter…I don’t know, I guess it’s some inner fear that I have of running out of those items. I have no fear of running out of toilet paper but the thought of no eggs or butter is just something I can’t handle.

4. Came home and made homemade chicken noodle soup and pumpkin bread for some dear friends who got back from Ethiopia recently with their new adopted daughter…who, by the way, I got to meet for the first time this afternoon and about died at her level of cuteness…really it’s ridiculous.

5. Bought both Yellowstone and Yosemite in National Parks Monopoly (they are the equivalent of the Boardwalk and that other blue one)…but still managed to get my booty kicked by Noah who put a Ranger Station (hotel) on every single one of his properties and completely bankrupted me…

6. Ate an entire carton of strawberries, minus three which I surrendered to Noah.

7. Read all kinds of wonderful news about books that fellow writers have written. Kate Messner’s The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z, Kristin Venuti’s Leaving the Bellweathers (also by Egmont), and Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon are all nominated for the EB White Read Aloud Award! All brilliant books that you should go ahead and buy right now!

8. Made a dark chocolate truffle that I think worked out this time! I’ll know in a few hours when it’s done doing whatever it has to do in the refrigerator for 4 hours…just as long as it’s not doing away with my eggs and butter.

9. Picked up kids from school and was roasting in my long-sleeve shirt and vest…then had to rush to the car fifteen minutes later because it started to snow…ahh, Spring in Breckenridge. Two feet expected over the next few days.

10. Me and hubby are going to watch Avatar tonight, and no, I never saw it in 3-D so I’m just praying that there is actually a good story in there somewhere and that liking the movie doesn’t completely depend on things jumping out at me. We’ll see.

Hey everyone! Here’s some pics from the past few days! On Sunday I attended Meet The Faces Behind The Books author event at the Englewood Library with 60 other Colorado authors! Super-Amazing-Librarian Deb Parker and her fabulous band of book-loving librarians were absolutely wonderful and brilliant and lovely!

It’s so amazing to be able to spend the afternoon with other book-lovers surrounded by smiling faces, yummy food, and books, books, books! And since it’s National Library Week, go out and celebrate your local library and the librarians that champion authors, readers, literacy, and books! After the event, me and my family spent the rest of the day driving around Denver. We ended the day at Casa Bonita where we watched the cliff divers and played enough ski ball to win a few erasers…you know how those things are. 400 tickets for a small plastic car. Anyway, on the drive home we listened to the audio book of Everything On A Waffle by one of my favorite authors, Polly Horvath. It was a brilliant day!

Then yesterday I went down to beautiful, warm Boulder. Fellow Egmont author, Alexandra Diaz and I spent the evening at The Boulder Bookstore, which is one of the most amazing bookstores I’ve ever been to! They were so amazing and kind and accommodating, and couldn’t have been more wonderful to work with. I will definitely be going back when my next book comes out! A huge thanks to everyone at the Boulder Bookstore: Mandy King and the wonderful Amanda who introduced and helped Alexandra and I! Also thanks to Thom from The Laughing Goat Cafe (awesome iced mocha’s by the way, and to-die for chocolate pie) who was kind enough to announce the signing to all the patrons at the Monday night Poetry Reading.

Anyway, here are some pictures of everything!

All in all it was a wonderful two days! What could be better than spending time with librarians, independent booksellers, authors, books, friends, and family!

I haven’t blogged nearly as much as I would like lately and am totally filled with blog-guilt. So here’s my attempt at making it up. Here’s 15  little snippets (I love that word) of what’s been going on!

1. Turned in Book 2 (not a sequel to Scones) to awesome agent who turned it into awesome editor who will hopefully faint at my extreme genious and word-prowess.

2. Last week we went to the School District Art Show where both of my daughter’s had a piece in the show, and went to the awards ceremony for my kindergartener who won 3rd place in a C0unty-wide writing contest. She won 2 tickets to the movies and my husband and I are thinking up ways to con her out of them so we can see a movie for under $20…I’ll let you know if it works

3. My three school-aged kids all have ideas for the school talent show. They are as follows: running around the stage on all fours like an animal, juggling a soccer ball, and drawing a large picture of a rat…

4. We went on a hut trip with some great friends this past weekend. Definition of hut trip: hiking all of one’s supplies (food, clothing, toiletries, blankets, snacks, games, toys) on John and I’s back whilst walking up a 2.8 mile trail covered in snow to a cabin filled with laughter, friends, and more hot chocolate and peanut M&M’s than a person could eat.

5. I’m brainstorming ideas for another novel and if you don’t know already, I tend to bake excessively when brainstorming. Monster Cookies, homemade honey wheat bread, a chocolate sheet cake, and raspberry breakfast bars are sitting in my kitchen and the only reason I didn’t make the carrot cake is because I can’t bring myself to put walnuts in a cake…it’s just not natural.

6. Getting ready for two events this weekend! I’ll be at the Meet the Faces Behind the Books: Author Open House at Englewood Library on Sunday. And me and author Alexandria Diaz will be doing a joint Author Signing/Presentation at The Boulder Bookstore on Monday from 7 till whenever they decide to kick us out. I’d love to see you there! I’m also doing a 15-stop blog tour at the end of April! I’ll give more details in a bit!

7. I suceeded in completely ruining not 1 but 2 flourless chocolate espresso truffle cakes that were complete disasters and wound up sulking in a chocolate mass in the trash can

8. My dog, Cowboy has me trained to take him with me in the car where ever I go (my husband LOVES this). If I don’t, he retailiates by knocking down the trash, eating anything on the counter, and opening up the cabinets…all without opposable thumbs.

9. Our oldest rat, and Ella Jane’s favorite of the four, died two weeks ago in her arms. Very traumatic for all of us, but we can see his gravestone from the back window.

10. I’m pretty-almost-for-sure that me and my entire family (mom, dad, sisters and their families) are going to the best place on earth this summer: Ocean City! Not only do I plan on doing a book signing (Scones was set in OC) while there, but I plan on eating my weight in Mac and Manco’s pizza, running it off in the mornings on the boardwalk where I hopefully will NOT trip, and hugging my family as much as I can.

11. Watched Into the Wild and fell in love with Eddie Veders voice once again, and vow to never forage for food…ever.

12. I saw two spiders in the last two weeks which is both exciting and terrifying. Exciting because that means the snow is melting and spring is here despite the five feet still sitting in our yard. Terrifying because I cannot seem to muster up any Charolette-type love for them or their eight legs when they’re in the bathroom (see About Page where I delve into this very subject).

13. I found out that all the boys in Gracie’s 3rd grade class listen endlessly to the eighties classic, “Eye of a Tiger.” Now I can’t get it out of my head…”When the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night…”

14. The World Cup is coming up soon and as a family, we’re so excited for it that we plan on getting cable for the month of June and John has actually spoken the words “I’d like to watch it on a bigger, nicer TV” which, in our 10 years of marriage, I have never heard before. Noah is cheering for Argentina, Gracie is for Italy, Isaac is for the USA, and Ella Jane is a German fan.

15. I’ve gotten over my fear of pistachios that has lasted these 31 years and now love to have a bowl around to snack on. I still however, will not eat pistachio pudding and refuse to put them in chocolate.

And that’s all folks!

I remember my parents obsession with antiques when I was younger…and it wasn’t necessarily something that I shared…at all.

My three sisters and I would sulk out to the car as our Mitsubishi Montero roared to life. My dad would back out of the drivewary, narrowly (or sometimes, not-so-narrowly) missing the basketball hoop, pull onto the street, and then we’d be on our way. Across the winding green rolling hills of Pennsylvania, dotted with fields filled with lolling cattle, the occasional horse and buggy clopping along, and the groundhogs peeking out of their holes every now and then as if to yell, “stop that racket!”

And we’d drive for what seemed like forever until a small antique shop showed itself or we came to a small town that was antique in and of itself. I remember walking onto creaking wooden porches and into the store packed from floor to ceiling with antiques.

Mirrors dusty and splattered with time, old jewlery tinged a different shade, metal lunch boxes rusted in the corners, a delicate dish perfectly etched with flowers, books with crinkly pages that seemed like they could turn to dust if you weren’t careful, stuffed animals worn under their arms and on their cheeks and noses–all the places where they were held tightly when their owners were still young and still alive.

I admit that the stuffed animals caught my eye, they always did back then, but otherwise, I found the shops a bore. It was too crowded, and my parents always spent way too much time weeding through every article of furniture. And it smelled.

Now, I know the smell was of memories.

My perspective on antiques and antique shops slowly changed over the years.

I realized that antiques weren’t old useless dicarded things, but were items filled with stories of their own…a life of their own.

The beautiful woman looking at herself in the mirror before riding with her beau to a church meeting.

A necklace given to her daugther on her sixteen birthday.

Washing out the crumbs of her son’s lunch from off the metal, the water pooling a little bit in the corners.

The dish her grandmother gave her that she placed on the mantel far out of reach

The books her daughter read laying in the hammock in the front yard

The stuffed animal ruined with love

And I think there are all types of magic.

The magic of words, music, nature, love, sorrow.

The magic contained in the moment, as well as in the hopes for the future.

But the magic of the past is my favorite right now.

These seemingly meaningless objects have so much significance and life and stories inside them.

So much so that I want to pick up the old rusted lunch box and hear what it has to say. Or go to sleep with the mirror underneath my pillow and add my reflection to the others inside.