mary e. pearson

Someone sent me this picture in an email and it reminded me of one of my wacky friends. She has four little "snacks" like these--at least that is what my dogs call them--some sort of chihuahua mixes that don't amount to more than a handful of peanuts. She buys them Halloween costumes. She would like this one. Heck, for all I know, that is one of her pups.
She does lots of other crazy things too. You'd think she would end up as a character in one of my books, but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and I don't think anyone would believe that such a person exists. They would be wrong.
For instance, many years ago I had several couples in the neighborhood over for dinner. She arrived with a lampshade on her head. She said, why wait until the party got rolling? Besides, she said it went really well with her skirt. She was right. Later, during dinner I made a comment admiring her skirt. Most people would simply say thank you. Not her. She stood up right there in front of everyone, slipped it off and gave it to me. I had that skirt and wore it proudly for many years.
But if I wrote about a character like that, would you find it believable? Nah.
I have to say, she is the fun and generous heart of our neighborhood. Everyone should have a wacky friend or two.

Craziness has ensued ever since I returned from vacation.

Hunter's "tummy ache" turned out to be quite a bit more. A $1000 and much angst later, it turns out he has a bone spur at the end of his spine which was causing him much pain. He's on meds now and feeling much better, but the meds cause much drinking of water which also means much peeing, which means much letting him out to pee in the middle of the night. As you can see, our life has been filled with "muchness" of late.

Today I remembered a "little" something I forgot--just in the nick of time. Before we left on vacation I tacked my drivers license renewal to the bulletin board in my pantry so I wouldn't forget about it. Uh, didn't work. Still forgot. It expires on Tuesday. I've done renewals through the mail for years, but I guess now they actually want to see that I am a real live body, so I have to trek down to DMV. Oh, joy. And they want to take a new picture too. More joy.

Got the news that final pages of The Adoration of Jenna Fox will arrive on my doorstep tomorrow. My editor's assistant said they look really good. I can't wait to see them. They have to be returned by Tuesday. I guess I know what I will be doing this weekend.

An LJ friend emailed me this yesterday which was in Publisher's Marketplace:

"Author of A ROOM ON LORELEI STREET Mary Pearson's ROAD TRIP, in which a girl whose life has been turned upside down by one fateful coincidence, tries to turn the tide in her favor for a day and embarks upon an unauthorized road trip with three boarding school classmates, only to find that fantasy has a way of bleeding into reality, leaving the question of where one ends and the other begins, to Kate Farrell at Holt, in a good deal, in a two-book deal, by Rosemary Stimola at Stimola Literary Studio."

I hadn't seen the announcment yet so it was very cool to see in black and white. I am not certain the title will remain the same once I finish it. I always slap on a working title and often it becomes the final one, but not always. We'll see.

In other news, I've been reading all the posts about the SCBWI National conference. It sounds like everyone had a great time. I wish I could have gone. I mean, heck, even Lisa Yee's peep went. Next year.

I've been tagged by kimberleylittle for 8 facts about myself. Let's see . . .

1. I surfed in high school. Waves, not the web.

2. Every few years I host the Pearson Labor Day Wacky Olympics. The guests come in the sporting attire of their choice. Here is how one guest arrived last year:


And here are athletes lining up for one of our extreme sports: the very dangeous, Grapefruit Bowling.



3. I am married to a wacky man, which explains the above. It has rubbed off over the years.

4. I used to be very short. When I was a child my mother even took me to the doctor to see why I wasn't growing. I eventually did and now I am very tall: 5'2"

5. When we first moved to our house, I fed the mice in our garage. I was a city girl and thought they were cute. They even had babies. I am not a city girl anymore.

6. Every year when the family gathers at Christmas we play Balderdash. It has become a tradition that my nieces and nephews insist on, that I emcee the first round, because I pretty much can't do it. I laugh. I am talking, embarrassing laughter. Tears streaming down face and snot spurting out nose. Yep, that kind. And my dear family always makes sure that the first round of definitions are tear-worthy.

I only made it to six facts. That's enough for a Friday.
Have a great weekend everyone.