The Rules of Survival is a 2006 National Book Award finalist. I'm taking my new digital camera to New York for the festivities, and the plan is to post photos and details while I'm there.
Photos and comments for Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Morning.
Very well. We begin the day at 7 am, with just a small anxiety attack. No doubt it was the dark chocolate at midnight. (See Monday.) A call to a friend, who advises deep breathing (and says, no, I am not going to have a heart attack, not today), is the answer.
I have also decided that the lighting in this hotel room is rather fantastic, and I need to learn a few things.
Item 1: Bathroom:
You see, these are just dangling light bulbs! Gorgeous. There's another one on the other side of the sink, but carefully assymmetric.
Item 2: Bedside:
It's the accordian thing! How perfect!
Also, they are both on dimmers. The insect man who accompanied me to my room last night described this feature ("Every light is on a dimmer,") but at the time I did not take in the full glory of this. Now I understand.
All right. Time to get going. Have bathed. Am in hotel bathrobe (If you take it away with you, they charge $95; Penguin, do not worry, I shall not steal anything from this hotel room, not even the bathroom lighting). Must dress.
This morning's shoes:
More later....
Donnell Center Teen Press Conference
No time really to annotate well, so I'm just going to put up a lot of pictures ... most of these were taken by Anjulee Alvares of Penguin.
That's Lauri Hornik, my long-time editor, and me, Nancy Werlin.
That's all five NBA finalists. Left to right: M. T. Anderson, Nancy Werlin, Martine Leavitt, Patricia McCormick, and Gene Luen Yang. Hmm. I see I was shorter than I realized at the time.
I probably still am. Huh.
Anyway. Sherrie Young from the National Book Foundation doing the introductions.
M. T. (Tobin) Anderson, Martine Leavitt, and Patricia McCormick at one table.
Nancy and Gene Yang at another table.
Tobin Anderson read first, from the beginning of OCTAVIAN NOTHING. The bit about the asbestos frock coats got me again.
Then Martine Leavitt and Patricia McCormick. Martine read the scene from KETURAH AND LORD DEATH in which Keturah tells her two best friends that she has to identify her one true love in the next 24 hours. (Gasp! from the audience.) Patricia read two vignettes from SOLD in which Lakshmi learns "everything a woman needs to know" and in which she comes to understand why she's never going to earn enough money to buy her own freedom back. You could hear the effect on the room.
I do not have pictures of Martine and Patricia reading. I might be able to get them tonight, though, when we all read again. This is my plan!
And now that's me. I really do wonder what that expression on my face means. Anyway. I read chapter 6, the description of Nikki, from THE RULES OF SURVIVAL.
Here, we are all watching the screen on which Gene Yang's graphic novel is being projected while he reads:
In this scene from AMERICAN BORN CHINESE, the Monkey King is waiting on line (in line? prepositions sometimes drive me mad) to get into the gods' dinner party, to which he has not been, er, formally invited. The kids in the audience did the sound effects.
The Monkey King knows kung fu.
Afterward, there was Q&A. [Click here to go to an article by School Library Journal about the Donnell event and the Q&A.] The kids asked some amazing questions. I was particularly struck by the kids who asked Martine Leavitt about the role of death; she mentioned that they understood the book's theme better than some of the critics had. I was asked some probing questions also, about inspiration and about living with fear, and about becoming the characters you write about.
Then, a book signing. Each of us was segregated to our own table, and we only have pictures of Gene Yang and me because of the alphabetical thing. That's Gene, of course above.
And that's me.
There was a line.
And that's Jack Martin, coordinator of teen services for the New York Public Library System, and me. (Okay, I'm not sure that's Jack's actual title, but I think it's very close. He is off to London on vacation tonight. Have a wonderful time, Jack!)
What a great program it was. I am happy to report that I completely recovered from this morning's panic attack and was entirely comfortable. Loved listening to the readings. How lucky am I, eh? That is a rhetorical question.
Hooray and thanks to the New York Public Library and to the participating schools (I got to say hello to Jen Hubert from Little Red School House for exactly one minute) and the kids, and the National Book Foundation, for setting up and running this marvelous event. There were sponsors, too. ConEdison. Yay, all!
And now, a wee nap? Festivities begin again at 5:30.
Finalists Medal Reception and Medal Ceremony
Your photographer, again, is Anjulee Alvares. I had not realized when I conceived this idea that I was mostly going to be impinging on her good nature.
Me and my agent, Ginger Knowlton, at the NBA finalists' reception at the New School. I look pretty happy, huh? That's because I am. This was a magical night
This photo is just so everyone can see I am wearing The Shoes (see Monday). I may never wear The Shoes again, but I love them and I am glad I wore them, and I won't keep anyone in suspense -- there were no trippings, no fallings, no pratfalls, no ungraceful moments. Hah! (None of which means I'll be wearing 4 inch heels regularly.)
This is the part where they call your name and summon you up and put the medal around your neck (you have to sort of lower your head and bow) and then they give you a big goodie bag full stuff from Levinger. Perhaps later on I will photograph the Levinger Loot.
And then they make you wear the medal, plus they give you this framed citation. I got a little teary reading it. There is nothing quite like feeling your work has been completely understood. It says:
"With riveting intensity, Nancy Werlin captures the inner turmoil of a boy trapped in his own frighteningly dysfunctional family. Matthew Walsh's voice carries the reader into a world of divided loyalties, betrayals, and obsessions. Werlin explores the nature of sickness and evil, and children who struggle to understand and to break free of a mother's controlling, suffocating, threatening grasp. This book might have been simply a compelling thriller; in Werlin's skillful hands, The Rules of Survival becomes a tender and moving story of a survivor." (Benjamin Alire Sáenz)
Note: Each of the five judges wrote the official citation for one of the finalists.
Tobin Anderson, Martine Leavitt, and me. Okay, okay. I know. I'm in the four inch heels, and I still look, er, short.
Perhaps I should mention that I am the tallest woman in my family.
National Book Award Finalists' Public Reading, New School University
After the private reception and the medal ceremony, the twenty finalists in the four categories moved on to the auditorium for the public reading.
The "adults" read in the poetry, fiction, and nonficton categories. They were good, but let somebody else talk about them. I'm only really interested in our team, the "young people." Tobin pointed out that we young people were the only finalists that showed up at the reading right on time and sat down where we were supposed to sit when we were supposed to sit there. This is true.
Not that I don't like the adults.
We were all sitting in the first two rows of the auditorium. This is when they made us all stand and turn around in our medals and be applauded. It was embarrassing and fabulous.
Our master of ceremonies, Nicole Kraus (author of THE HISTORY OF LOVE, a novel which I can recommend strongly ... not that it doesn't have its flaws, talk to me privately, but still, it's pretty great).
That thing next to her is Gene Yang's laptop. He was the first reader, but we didn't get a picture. However, we got one of him earlier in the day. He read the bit from AMERICAN BORN CHINESE where Jin says he wants to be a transformer when he grows up, and the woman with the abacus tells him he can be anything he wants ... so long as he's willing to pay with his soul.
Then three adults read.
You can listen to Gene, and the three adults of Group 1, here, via podcast:
That's Martine Leavitt, reading the part from KETURAH AND LORD DEATH where Keturah visits the village witch, looking for a love spell that will help her find her true love.
Then three adults read.
You can listen to Martine, and the three adults of Group 2, here, via podcast:
That's Patricia McCormick, reading the two vignettes she read earlier today, plus (we had a little more time) a third in which Lakshmi realizes how desperately she wants to learn to read the language of the strange country (India) she's been abducted into from her home of Nepal.
Then three adults read. Really, they weren't bad. It was just that our team was so much better. At this point, I have to say, I was thinking only that I really, really hoped that my reading would keep up to the standard set by Gene, Martine, and Patricia. I felt like a batter about to go out of the dugout, and if I didn't smash one into the outfield, I'd be disappointing everyone.
You can listen to Patricia, and the three adults of Group 3, here, via podcast:
A little blurry, but here's a close-up (also blurry):
I read from the beginning of THE RULES OF SURVIVAL, where Matthew and Callie first observe Murdoch in a convenience store, saying, "Hit me instead." And. Well. You could have heard a pin drop. I did not let the team down.
You can listen to me, and the three adults of Group 4, here, via podcast:
And neither did Tobin Anderson, batting cleanup for the young people after another three adults. He read from the beginning of OCTAVIAN NOTHING, this time including that heartrending dinner-time scene, when Octavian is denied dinner when he fails to logically prove that a Daddy-Long-Legs is a spider.
You can listen to Tobin, and the three adults of Group 5, here, via podcast:
I am proud of us all, and proud to be here.
And now I wonder if they might just possibly have put a replacement dark chocolate bar in the minibar.
Good night, all! See you tomorrow.
-Nancy, 11:03 pm