Friday Five -- Caroline Starr Rose

 It is my pleasure this week to bring you Caroline Starr Rose, author of MAY B., an historical middle grade novel in verse.  I consider myself very fortunate to be part of the Class of 2k12, which Caroline co-chairs with author Megan Bostic.  She is a fearless leader and an amazing author.


THE FIVE:

1.  What is your favorite word?
Alpargatas -- Spanish for espadrille shoes. Way too fun to say.

2.  What word do you like the least?
weevil

3.  What other profession would you like to learn?
I've always thought being an ethnologist would be really interesting. Studying another culture and knowing its people intimately fascinates me.

4.  What profession would you never, ever want to have?
Surgeon. The world is fortunate I was not required to work on the human body.

5.  What is your favorite writing motto/mantra?
E.L. Doctorow's quote on drafting has gotten me through many a story:  It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

ABOUT MAY B.:

From Goodreads:

I've known it since last night:
It's been too long to expect them to return. 
Something's happened.

May is helping out on a neighbor's Kansas prairie homestead—just until Christmas, says Pa. She wants to contribute, but it's hard to be separated from her family by 15 long, unfamiliar miles. Then the unthinkable happens: May is abandoned. Trapped in a tiny snow-covered sod house, isolated from family and neighbors, May must prepare for the oncoming winter. While fighting to survive, May's memories of her struggles with reading at school come back to haunt her. But she's determined to find her way home again. Caroline Starr Rose's fast-paced novel, written in beautiful and riveting verse, gives readers a strong new heroine to love.

Order MAY B. here.

ABOUT CAROLINE:

You can find Caroline at her website.
On Goodreads.
And on Facebook.

Why I Love Great Britain and the British - Part 1

The reasons I'm an Anglophile make a list a mile long.  But because I'm currently on a research trip in England, I feel I need to write a series of posts on the subject.  Just to say how happy I am to be here.

History:  from Ethelred the Unready to Queen Elizabeth.  The Tower of London to the London Eye.  Occupation by hostile forces (the Romans) to occupying foreign lands (half the globe).  Monarchy, civil war, plague, fire, famine, the Blitz - the British have survived it all. 

Culture: Performance art from Shakespeare to Monty Python.  Music - composers like Henry VIII himself to Vaughan Williams, John Lennon through John Lydon and Adele.  Architecture - Warwick Castle and St. Paul's Cathedral and the Battersea Power Station.  Poetry from Chaucer to Ted Hughes.  Actors - Shakespeare and Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman and Kate Winslet and Clive Owen and...too many to list.  The written word - Swift and Austen and JK Rowling.

Food:  No one comes to Britain for the food, right?  What about fish and chips?  A real English curry?  Cadbury's chocolate?  High tea?

Beauty:  Cornwall.  The Peak District.  The Scottish highlands.  The Kentish hop fields.  Edinburgh and Bath and iconic English villages.

I love Britain.  Of course, I love America, too.  I would have a list a mile long describing that, too (The Grand Canyon, Tennessee Williams, the Golden Gate Bridge...)  At the moment, I'm just happy to be here.  I've already had fish and chips.  Now I need culture.  And chocolate.

Tudor Tuesdays!

I'm thrilled to announce a blog tour for GILT, created and managed by the lovely Kathy Coe at A Glass of Wine.  Every Tuesday, beginning April 10, a different blog will feature one of Henry's queens, with a little teaser from GILT thrown in for good measure.  There will be prizes (including finished copies) and I will finish up the tour on May 22 with a post about Henry himself.

To learn more - dates, names and locations - please jump to A Glass of Wine!

Librarians Rock

Just sayin'.