A great distraction

Here in England, we are riding a rollercoaster with Brexit. No one knows how it’s going to turn out. Two weeks from now, will we still be in limbo? Will there be food in the supermarkets? Will medicines be in short supply? Will planes to Europe be flying? Will we have blackouts?

As a dyed-in-the-wool worrier, I’m grateful for distractions right now. And one of the best has arrived this week:

It’s the Advanced Reader Copy of Ra #2!*

I loved writing The Great Tomb Robbery. It was a lot of fun to have Ra and Khepri tackle another fur-raising mystery, complete with ferocious jackals, dastardly thieves, and some super-spooky goings-on. (Not to mention snacks and naps!)

I won’t say the book wrote itself, but Ra and Khepri did sometimes take over, and it was great to spend more time with them.

The book also features dozens of Sarah Horne’s fabulous illustrations. And of course there’s her great new cover! One of my favorite bits is the lower left corner, where you can spot Khepri waving a precious clue.

Getting this has really brightened up my week — and I’m looking forward to sharing the book with the world when it officially comes out on October 8th!

 

(* ARCs are expensive to make, so the supply is quite limited. I only have one myself! But if you’re a librarian, reviewer, or book blogger who would like to review the book, get in touch soon, and I’ll gladly pass your details on to my publisher. Pharaoh’s Cat thanks you for your interest – and so do I!)

 

 

 

Excited and scared

The first-pass proofs for the next Ra mystery have arrived, and as always the first glimpse gave me a jolt of excitement. It’s going to be a BOOK. You’d think I’d have realized that some time ago, and of course there’s a sense in which I have. But there are many months, when I’m deep in drafting, when a book is all mine, and sharing it with the world seems a distant prospect (and sometimes an unlikely one). But that time is over now for The Great Tomb Robbery. Now that it’s typeset and the illustrations are in and you can see the cover page, it’s incontrovertible: this book is on its way into the world.

Like Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods, I’m “excited — / Well, excited and scared.”  Or maybe I’m more like Little Red’s mother, who probably had some of the same complicated emotions. Who wouldn’t, sending a child into the woods? Will she be all right? Will people be kind? Will she find her way?

Yet both books and children need to find their way into the world, and with luck they’ll find friends and have adventures that you never foresaw. At any rate, that’s what I hope for with The Great Tomb Robbery.

Still, it’s hard not to worry about all the pitfalls and misfortunes that can befall a good book. So it was especially wonderful to hear some great news about the first Ra book last week. The Mystery Writers of America have named Ra the Mighty an Edgar Award Nominee for Best Juvenile Mystery.  There are seven wonderful finalists in all, and I’m thrilled that Ra is among them — doubly so, since I know that humor is often overlooked when it comes to awards.

But there’s work to do yet on those proofs. So now I’m headed back to them.

 

 

 

Thanks, news, and a sequel

Congratulations to my friends who did NaNo this year! Whatever your final word count, you deserve a medal for taking the leap and pouring so much time and heart into your stories. I hope you can rest up now — and catch up on whatever you’ve missed most.

My own November was the opposite of NaNo, so I have no great leaps or impressive word counts of my own to brag about. But I’ve been doing steady work on several different projects that tug at my heart, and I’m looking forward to doing more of the same this month.

I also have some RA THE MIGHTY thank-yous and news to share:

First, a big thank-you to Allison at Allison’s Book Bag for a fantastic review of RA THE MIGHTY! Allison’s blog is a terrific resource for anyone who loves children’s books, and I’m honored that she enjoyed spending time with my Great Detectives.

I also want to thank another champion of children’s books, @mrsreadforfun (Shendel Haimes), for featuring RA THE MIGHTY in her terrific book trailer.

And now for the fun RA news:

• RA THE MIGHTY will be published in Russia! The publisher Eksmo has bought the rights to the book and its sequel.
• The sequel has a name… RA THE MIGHTY: THE GREAT TOMB ROBBERY. As you can guess from the title, our Great Detectives are up against a dastardly thief who is robbing the sacred (and spooky) tombs of the Pharaohs. Out in Fall 2019, it features sneaky jackals,  fabulous treasure, spine-tingling suspense, and more cat snacks than you can twitch your tail at! I hope to share the cover soon.

Ra the Mighty – a giveaway

I’m delighted to tell you that the lovely folks at Purrington Post are offering a giveaway of five free copies of RA THE MIGHTY.  As you can see, their gorgeous cat Newman is a fan:

 

You can enter the giveaway here: https://www.thepurringtonpost.com/ra-the-mighty-book/

To win, you need to be in the US or have someone in the US who can accept a package for you. (Apologies to my friends who live elsewhere.) Five giveaway winners will be chosen on the 26th and will each receive one book.

If you love cats, Purrington Post is a great place to visit, especially when the rest of the internet gets to be too much. It features lots of good cat info and cat stories, plus a range of cat-related products. (A word to the wise: check out Captain Ginger, the cats-in-space comic!) And of course it has lots and lots of fabulous cat photos, including plenty more of Newman.

Good luck to everyone who enters the giveaway!

In other news, I’ve seen the draft cover for RA #2, and it is wonderful. I’m grateful to Sarah Horne for doing such an amazing job with all the art for the book. The cover is still being tweaked, so it’s under wraps, but I can’t wait to share it with you.

Libraries, Lifelines, and Funny Books

In 2015, I was asked if I could save our town’s school library. It was in desperate shape, and we had no librarian and no funding. Getting it back on its feet was a major job.

At the time, I wasn’t in great shape myself. But how could I turn my back on a library in trouble?

Reader, I said yes.

I didn’t know it then, but that was the beginning of near 1000 hours of volunteer work — and some major life lessons. Today I’m over at MG Book Village talking about what it was like to bring that library back to life — and how it taught me about the power of funny books. Come and visit — and definitely check out MG Book Village while you’re there! It’s a wonderful blog and community for middle-grade writers and readers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something for the weekend: The Ra Race

I have something fun for you this weekend — a game my 11-year-old daughter designed.

My daughter loves to make games, and this summer she came up with one based on Ra the Mighty. Her model was a 16th-century game called Goose that is still a lot of fun to play today. Instead of geese, however, her board featured Ra and his friends:

 

Note the carefully drawn symbols. Some of my favorites are the cat snacks (which mean “Have a snack and miss a turn”), the leopard Aat (“Begin the game again”) and an eye  (“Yay! You found the Eye of Horus amulet! You win!).

She made up instructions, too — and even little game tokens. I loved it!

So she and my husband made a printer-friendly version. Then Ra’s illustrator, Sarah Horne, joined in the fun. So now we all proudly present to you our final game board for THE RA RACE, in full color!

If you’d like to try it out, please download the board and instructions for free on my website. We’d love to hear how it goes!

 

Fun and mysteries

Just a quick post today to say that I’m delighted to be a guest on Elizabeth Dulemba’s wonderful blog today, talking about writing, inspiration, and unexpected story twists. And also about how the BBC is a boon to writers and how beetles make things better. (Ra’s scarab beetle buddy would agree with me there.)

I even take a closer look at a goddess.

Yes, I’m looking at you, Bastet!

 

For more fun and mysteries, come check out my post at Elizabeth’s site. And do take a look at the rest of her great offerings, including her newest book, CROW BY CROW!

On writing a funny book in dark times

Today is RA THE MIGHTY’s book birthday! It’s my sixth book, so you’d think that book birthdays would feel very routine by now. Not so. They’re a cause for celebration every time — and maybe especially this time.

When the idea for this book came to me, I was in the midst of a truly terrible year. I’d had my first emergency ride in an ambulance, multiple hospital consultations, surgery far from home, serious surgical complications, flu, pneumonia, pleuritis, further complications, and a flare-up of lupus. And the year wasn’t over yet.

On top of all that,  I felt burned out as a writer. I’d just finished a YA trilogy written under grueling deadlines, and then I’d written a book that my agent didn’t want. I thought I might never write a book again.

But then one day a cat showed up. An imaginary cat, true — but one bursting with personality. A cat who made me laugh. Soon I discovered he had a scarab beetle buddy, who made me smile, too.

Write a mystery for us, they begged. A funny mystery.

I’m sorry, I told them. You’ve got the wrong writer. Maybe I could do a mystery, if I got my health back and I worked hard. But I can’t do funny.  I wish I could, but humor isn’t one of my gifts. You’ll have to find somebody else.

But the cat and the beetle stuck around. Just give it a try, they urged me. It’ll be fun. You’ll see.

So I finally did. And they were right. It was a joy to write their book.

Happy book birthday, Ra and Khepri! Thank you for seeing me through a dark, dark time. It’s wonderful to see you in living color.

My writing mascot watches over Ra and Khepri’s book

That isn’t the end of my gratitude. All books take a village, and I send warmest thanks to all of mine, especially to Kit Sturtevant and Paula Harrison and my husband and daughter, who read drafts and laughed in all the right places and kept my spirits up. To Sarah Horne, whose art amazes me every day.  To Paula and Mo O’Hara, who wrote such lovely blurbs for the cover. To my agent and editor and the people at Holiday House, who are Ra and Khepri’s champions.

And thank you, dear readers and dear friends. I’m grateful to you all.

 

Something to brighten your Monday

Looking for something to brighten your Monday? Never fear — the RA THE MIGHTY book trailer is here! It’s 47 seconds of pure comedy, featuring Sarah Horne’s fabulous art and some great Keystone Cops music:

I wrote the basic script, but my husband is the genius who put it together. It reminds me a bit of those wonderful old Edward Gorey MYSTERY intros on PBS, only more madcap.

Let me know what you think! And please feel free to share.

 

Double Vision – and a Sneak Preview

My Septembers are almost always busy, but this one has me seeing double.

The impossibly beautiful Tarn Hows, where I went for a walk ten days ago

Why double? Because I have two big writing milestones coming up.

• Later this week, I need to turn in the revised draft of RA #2 to my editor.
• Next week RA THE MIGHTY debuts on September 18^th… just nine days away!

One of these milestones would be enough to keep me busy. Taken together, they’ve made my life  a blur of revisions and website updates and long to-do lists. Even the lists themselves are higgledy-piggledy, with arrows and crosses and jottings squeezed in on the side – all too representative of my state of mind.

All is not lost, though. I’m still making time for snacks. And even the occasional nap.  (Ra the Mighty would approve.)

And I do have something fun to share today:  a sneak preview of RA THE MIGHTY! My publisher has released the first two chapters, so they’re now available for FREE online – and you can see Sarah Horne’s hilarious illustrations, too. If you like what you see, I’d be thrilled if you pre-ordered the book, or asked your local library to order it.

I’m wishing you all luck with your own to-do lists. And if you’re having double vision, too — here’s to a clear-sighted September!