Going, Going…Gone! Seeing Eye Online Auction

Earlier this year my publisher was asked to donate a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound to the Seeing Eye’s 80th Anniversary Online Auction. The idea was to include the book in a birthday party package. Well, Blue Marlin Publications didn’t donate just one copy of Safe & Sound. They sent five. The Seeing Eye was thrilled with the extra books and came up with all sorts of clever ways to auction them off.

One book is being auctioned off all on its own, not part of a package. Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound retails for $17.95. As of today, bids for the book at the Seeing Eye auction are up to $55. Blue Marlin’s generosity must be contagious.

One of the other donated books is included in a birthday party package, just like the Seeing Eye had originally intended:

Children’s birthday party at Seeing Eye downtown center.

Each child will spend time with a puppy to learn obedience exercises and enjoy fun play time. The party includes interactive games with the puppies and their raisers plus activities like “pin the tail on the Seeing Eye dog.” The guest of honor will receive a custom-designed birthday cake from Morristown’s Swiss Chalet Bakery, photos of the event taken by The Seeing Eye’s official photographer and Manager of Instruction & Training John Keane, festive decorations, and a gift bag that includes a book by Seeing Eye grad Beth Finke called “Safe and Sound,” a DVD of Disney’s 1967 series about The Seeing Eye called “Atta Girl, Kelly!”, a plush Seeing Eye puppy, puppy stickers, and other surprise gifts.

Two of the donated books are included with homemade blankets:

• Specially Designed Seeing Eye 80th Anniversary quilt
  

  This beautiful hand-pieced and hand-quilted anniversary lap quilt features star blocks in cranberry red, burnt orange, and forest green on a background of nine-patch blocks. Several of the fabrics used are in dog- and dog-related prints in colors of browns and tans. A section along the border reads: “The Seeing Eye – Leading the Way for 80 Years 1929 – 2009.” As a special bonus, the winning bidder will also receive a copy of Seeing Eye graduate Beth Finke’s award-winning children’s book, Hanni and Beth: Safe and Sound.

• Crocheted Afghan Plus Award-Winning Children’s Book
  

  Curl up under this cozy, hand-crocheted afghan made by the mother of a Seeing Eye graduate. The afghan measures 48″ x 48″ and was created in shades of midnight blue, azure blue and white diagonal stripes. As a special bonus, this package also includes a copy of the hardcover children’s book by Seeing Eye graduate Beth Finke. “Hanni & Beth: Safe & Sound,” is the winner of the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award of 2008.

The piece de resistance, however, is that our book is included with a package that lets the winning bidder name a Seeing Eye dog after him-or-her self!

The Seeing Eye Breeding Station Tour for 2

This, of course, will include some play-time with puppies in the special playroom designed to introduce pups to the sounds, textures, and experiences
of the world they soon will encounter.

And be sure to decide which puppy most pulls at your heartstrings, because you will have the chance to name one of the puppies you meet on this special day. You and the pup will be photographed, and you’ll receive a framed photo of the event.

Additional gifts with this item? An overnight stay at the Westin Governor Morris Hotel in Morristown, dinner at the hotel’s Copeland Restaurant, a chocolate dog bone from Morristown’s Enjou Chocolat, and a gift bag that includes, guess what? An award-winning children’s book by Seeing Eye grad Beth Finke!

There’s all sorts of other cool stuff being auctioned off, too: getaway vacationss, passes to see the Colbert Report, lunch with Betty White, baskets of gourmet chocolates, even a year’s supply of Eukanuba dog food! Bidding Ends on Sunday, September 13 at 10:00 pm EDT – sign up now to jjoin the fun, donate to a GREAT cause and…bid up the price on our book!

Hanni and Bobbie: Two Award-Winning Guide Dogs

Last Friday Bark Magazine sent me the link to a story in the Daily Telegraph about a blind Border Collie who has his own guide dog.

Black and white hound Clyde is totally blind and relies on his partner and fellow collie Bonnie to guide him everywhere.

She stays inches from Clyde’s side while guiding him on walks or to food or water, and lets him rest his head on her haunches whenever he becomes disorientated.

The blog editor at Bark wondered if I had anything interesting to say about the story. “If so,” she wrote, “would you be willing to write a guest blog for us about it?”

I was tempted to write something about training Hanni to let me rest my head on her haunches when I become “disorientated,” but I resisted. The post I ended up writing is titled Guide Dogs for Cats and Dogs? and was published on their web site this morning. A few paragraphs from the Bark blog post :

I’ve heard a number of stories about dogs acting as guides for blind animals. One news story—about a dog who guided a blind cat to safety after Hurricane Katrina—was even made into a children’s book.

I learned about Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival at the ASPCA Henry Bergh Childrens Book Award ceremony last month. Named in honor of ASPCA founder Henry Bergh, the award honors books that “promote the humane ethic of compassion and respect for all living things.”

Unable to resist an opportunity for shameless self-promotion, at this point in the Bark blog I point out that my own children’s book won a Henry Bergh children’s Book award in 2008.

As difficult as it was to give up our crown, Hanni and I were thrilled to learn we’d be handing it over to the likes of Two Bobbies.

The post goes on to describe the newest Henry Bergh book award winner:

During Hurricane Katrina, evacuating New Orleans residents were forced to leave their pets behind. Bobbi the dog was initially chained to keep her safe, but after her owners failed to return, she had to break free. For months, Bobbi wandered the city’s ravaged streets, dragging her chain behind her, followed by her feline companion, Bob Cat. After months of hunger and struggle, the two Bobbies were finally rescued by a construction worker helping to rebuild the city. When he brought them to a shelter, volunteers made an amazing discovery about the devoted friends—Bob Cat was actually blind! He had survived the aftermath of the storm by following the sound Bobbi’s chain made as she dragged it along the ground.

You can read the Guide Dogs for Cats and Dogs? post in its entirety
at Bark’s Dogblog. Enjoy!

Doing a Trade Show? Bring a Dog Along!

A suggestion to anyone trying to lure conventioneers to your trade show booth: Perch yourself at a table between a beautiful dog and a gaggle of enthusiastic women. People will rush over to meet you.

That’s how it worked at the American Library Association convention this week, anyway. My publisher, Blue Marlin Publications, generously donated 80 copies of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound for me to give away there, and I signed books for librarians who visited the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) booth on Sunday, and then again at the booth for the Illinois chapter of the Society of  Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) on Tuesday morning. Hanni’s pawprint was rubber-stamped into each copy, too, and a flyer titled ”Hanni and Beth Love to Travel” was slipped into each book. The flyers gave librarians details on what Hanni and I do during author visits to schools and libraries. Librarians flocked to see Hanni, and the women working both booths were so helpful that I didn’t have to lift a finger. Except to sign books, of course.

Our time at the ASPCA booth on Sunday was especially entertaining — so many people came up to tell the staff how much they love the ASPCA, how they weep when they see the ASPCA commercial with singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan, how they got their own cat/dog/rabbit at a humane shelter, how they named that animal {FILL IN BLANK HERE} and how much they love {FILL IN BLANK HERE}. The staff member would listen appreciatively, then ask, would you like a signed book?” She’d point to our book cover, and then to me. Saving the best for last, the staff member would finally point down at Hanni, nodding off comfortably on the carpet. “We’re asking for a ten dollar donation for each book,” the staff member would say. “The donations will go to PAWS Chicago and Chicago’s Anti-Cruelty Society.” How could they resist?!

Signing books at the ASPCA booth.

In my one hour time slot at ASPCA, I signed, brailled and rubber-stamped between 15 and 25 books. My publisher was delighted – this meant that their book donation had resulted in somewhere between $150 and $250 going to those humane associations.

Our time slot at the Illinois SCBWI booth on Tuesday was two hours long, the very last two hours of the entire convention. I was afraid everyone there would be sick of books by then! But I was wrong – the time slot turned out to be perfect. There was such a vacuum at that time –no other authors signing, no sessions going on — that Hanni and I were a major draw. Librarians actually stood in line to meet Hanni and have their copies of Safe & Sound signed. Thank goodness my friend Colleen and the SCBWI-Illinois staff were there to help — I was busy the entire two hours, signing books for librarians from the Bronx, Atlanta, New Jersey, even Hawaii! I had time to talk with each librarian one on one, which is what I enjoy most about doing book signings: I love meeting new people. And from a book promoter’s point of view, being last on the docket might have been the best time slot of all. The encounters librarians had with me might have been the very last (and hopefully, the most memorable) one they had with an author during the entire ALA convention.

You Can’t Judge a Librarian by Her (or His) Cover

Hanni and I are signing copies of Safe & Sound at the American Library (ALA) convention in Chicago this week. I swim at a lap pool in a Chicago hotel, and when I went to swim laps today I figured my eavesdropping along the way would tell me that the librarians had arrived. No talk in the lobby about which bobbie pins were best at holding hair back in buns, though. And nothing said in the elevator about which rubber stamp vendor to go to for stamping books at the check-out line. The people in the elevators didn’t all sound old and mousy –- a lot of them were young, and hey –- some of them were men!

From the conversations I heard, there could easily be a technology conference in town this week. Or a business convention. An academic conference. An arts convention. Because, if you think of it, libraries can be all of these things – a place to go for technology, a place of business, somewhere to find books, videos, music. And the professionals who work at these places? They’re as diverse as the libraries, all dedicated to providing information for others.

This is the second ALA convention Hanni and I are privileged enough to attend. Last year my sisters Marilee and Cheryl joined me at the ALA convention in Anaheim. Every day we went to author presentations, visited the exhibit hall, signed up for contests, picked up free pencils, post-it notes, books and catalogs. We made sure Safe & Sound was displayed front and center at any booth that carried this award-winning book. We knew librarians would love our book if they noticed it among the thousands of others featured at the convention! Cheryl couldn’t make it to the convention this year, but Marilee is coming in from Orlando — she’ll be with Hanni and me at our signings, making sure the lines flow quickly and I remember to include author visit descriptions and bookmarks with each book. We’ll be signing at three different locations Sunday, Monday and Tuesday:

• Sunday, July 12, 11 am to noon at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) booth in McCormick Place.
• Monday, July 13, 5:30 to 7:30, ASPCA Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award Ceremony in the St. Gallen Room at the Swissotel on E. Wacker Drive in Chicago. This one is a cocktail reception, and it’s free and open to the public.
• Tuesday, July 14, 11 am to 1 pm, in booth #1626,the Illinois Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators booth, sandwiched right between Scholastic and Charlesbridge – they get lots of traffic, so it’s a great location!

For more details on these signings, check out the schedule on my Web site. Hope to see (okay, hear) you at the convention!

Martha Speaks…Again!

Remember my post last April about the kids TV show Martha Speaks? WGBH in Boston had contacted my children’s book publisher back then to order copies of our book for a new program they were testing out in Boston and New York City. Hundreds of paperback copies of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound were given to students in city schools, and our book was added to Martha’s list of recommended picture books about dogs.

Well, that pilot program in New York and Boston must have been a hit — WGBH just ordered 180 more copies of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound For their sister station, WGBY. WGBY is public television for western New England, located in Springfield, Massachusetts. And this time, they ordered hardcover books!

If you’ve never seen Martha Speaks on TV, you can link here to watch videos to see what Martha’s show is like. I also found a good description of the show in the Club Kids Quarterly newsletter from the PBS station in Springfield, Illinois:

What happens when a dog accidentally eats alphabet soup? She learns to talk! Martha in Martha Speaks is outspoken, confident, smart and has an amazing vocabulary. She loves learning — and using — new words.

The goal of the series is to increase children’s oral vocabulary — the words they use when talking. It is also designed to encourage children to practice using new words on a daily basis.

Produced by the creators of Curious George and Arthur, Martha Speaks is based on the children’s book series by Susan Meddaugh. The series targets children ages 4 to 7.

People tell me Martha looks a little like Hanni –I can’t vouch for that, of course. You’ll have to check out the show on PBS to see for yourself!

Obama’s Book Club

An NPR story called Obama: A New Force in Publishing describes how our president is helping authors sell books.

When he’s seen reading a book on a plane or carrying one in his hand during his travels, it can create a stir. When Obama was photographed holding Fred Kaplan’s Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, the book’s sales bumped immediately, and requests for media interviews with the author surged.

Now, that’s the sort of surge I’d love to experience! So here’s my plan: I’m going to send a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound to the schools the Obama kids go to. Both Obama daughters attend Sidwell Friends School, but Sidwell’s lower school is in Bethesda, Maryland — that’s where Sasha attends second grade. Malia is in fifth grade, and that’s part of the middle school, located on the same campus as the high school in Northwest Washington.

I’ll send a letter along with each book, explaining the visits Hanni and I make to schools. I’ll tell them about our dear friends in Alexandria, Virginia. “We visit Pick and Hank a lot,” I’ll write.” Next time we’re in town, Hanni and I would love to come visit your students.” I suppose the Sidwell Friends School gets barraged with offers like this, but am hoping my letter might stand out:

• I live in Chicago, and that’s where the Obama girls are from.
• it’s rumored Melee and Sasha will be getting their new dog as an Easter present tomorrow, so dogs will be all the rage at the school.
• Because I can’t see, I won’t know which of the kids in the school are the Obamas. This means I won’t gawk.

I came up with this great idea (to send a book to Sidwell) months ago, when the Obamas first announced that the girls would be attending that school. But as Thomas Edison liked to say, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” So far I haven’t worked up one bead of sweat composing the letter, much less addressing the envelopes or asking Hanni to guide me to the post office to slide the packets into the mail. Now that I’ve put this idea out to the public in this blog post, though, I have to do it, right?

My fantasy, of course, is that Sidwell asks Hanni & me to come. Malia and Sasha love our presentation so much that they take Safe & Sound home from the school library. Their dad greets them on the White House lawn when they return from school, and they hand the book over to him before receiving their hugs. Snap! Snap! Snap! The cameras start clicking, and next thing you know President Obama is pictured hugging his girls with one arm, the other arm hugging a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound. This could be bigger than…well…bigger than Oprah.

From the NPR story:

Perhaps, Seroy (Jeff Seroy, a publicist for the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux} likes to say — only half in jest — Obama will have the kind of influence on book sales that his supporter Oprah Winfrey has had.

“I think there’s room for two Oprahs, and I think if there is a new Oprah, Oprah will be happy that Obama is the new Oprah,”

Martha Speaks, Hanni Listens

That's Hanni and me at Daniel Street School in Lindenhurst, NY.

Is it March 31 already!? Seems like an April Fool’s joke! This sure has been a busy – and rewarding — month for Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound. In one month, Hanni and I visited five elementary schools, two libraries, one health education center, one teacher education center, and appeared at one author-illustrator night. We traveled by planes, trains and automobiles to New York, Michigan and various Illinois locations. Somehow, we always managed to make it home, you guessed it: safe & sound! While Hanni and I were traveling around talking to folks aboutSafe & Sound, experts behind the scenes were giving our book some attention, too. This month Hanni and Beth: Safe & sound was included on a new American Library Association list of about 25 or so “outstanding books that portray emotional, mental, or physical disability experiences.” It’s a thrill to have our book listed with all those other sensational titles. But the thrill doesn’t end there: in this same month of March, my publisher at Blue Marlin Publications got a message from the kids TV show Martha Speaks at WGBH in Boston. If you’ve never seen Martha Speaks on TV, you can link here to watch videos to see what Martha’s show is like. From the Martha Speaks web site:

Martha Speaks is an animated series on PBS KIDS. Aimed at viewers between the ages of four and seven, Martha’s educational goal is to teach kids new words. Based on the children’s book series by Susan Meddaugh and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the series stars Martha, a beloved family dog. She is accidentally fed alphabet soup — this gives her the power of speech and the chance to speak her mind to anyone that will listen.

The educational outreach program folks from Martha Speaks contacted my publisher to order copies of our book for a new program they’re testing out in Boston and New York City. Our book will be given to students in city schools, and if the pilot program works, a national rollout will feature Safe & Sound online activity guides and other online materials in conjunction with a Martha Speaks recommended book list. So if all goes well, more libraries and other organizations across the country will hear about Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound — as they say in TVland…stay tuned!

We Win! Happy Birthday, Hanni!

It’s Hanni’s ninth birthday today, and she just received a terrific gift: a message from an iPhone telling us our book won another award!

This one comes from the Dog Writers Association of America — Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound won the 2008 DWAA Maxwell
Award for Best Picture Book.

The iPhone message came from Jude and Francine Rich at Blue Marlin Publications. Blue Marlin Publications is the brilliant publisher who took on our book, and Jude and Francine are at the Dog Writers Association of America (DWAA) annual meeting in New York City tonight. The meeting is held every year just before the Westminster Kennel Club show–that’s when DWAA announces award winners. About DWAA from its Web site:

The best known aspect of the DWAA is its annual writing competition, which is meant to encourage quality writing about dogs in all aspects of companionship plus the dog sport. The competition is open to all writers, photographers, editors and publishers…

Happy Birthday, Hanni! You’re a real winner!

Crossing Fingers — and Pads –for Good Luck

We got some very good news this month about Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound — the book is a finalist for another award! If you read my posts about winning a 2008 ASPCA/Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award, you know how much I love feeling those shiny embossed seals on copies of our book. So it’s a thrill to be a finalist for another award, this one from the Dog Writers Association of America. Hanni and I will be crossing our fingers –and pads – until February, when the winners are announced.

But wait. What? You’ve never heard of the Dog Writers Association of America?! DWAA started way back in 1935, and I’m a card-carrying member. Honest. I really do have a card and everything. DWAA holds an annual meeting in New York City just before the Westminster Kennel Club show — that’s when they announce the award winners.

The best known aspect of the DWAA is its annual writing competition, which is meant to encourage quality writing about dogs in all aspects of companionship plus the dog sport. The competition is open to all writers, photographers, editors and publishers…

Hanni and I won’t be able to attend the banquet – we’ll be in Indianapolis that weekend, giving presentations for the blind children’s foundation and the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually impaired. Not to worry – my publisher will be at the Dog Writers Association of America banquet to accept the award if we win! Jude and Francine Rich from Blue Marlin Publications live very conveniently on Long Island – they can make a NYC night out of the event.

It is an honor to be nominated with the other two finalists in the “picture book or easy-to-read category”: The Mystery of the Stolen Stallion by Karen Petit (Red Letter Press), and W is for Woof by Ruth Strother (Sleeping Bear Press). May the best dog win!

The Shameless Art of Self Promotion

Thursday was Elmhurst Academy Day. Next, the world. Or at least, Longfellow School.

You read this blog. So you already know. I’m a shameless self-promoter. And now, sound the trumpets, ta-da, I’m taking the shameless art of self-promotion to a new level. On this day, in this post, I am promoting an article my children’s book publisher wrote about my skills at, you guessed it: shameless self-promotion!

 

The brilliant, not-to-be-missed article, written by Francine Rich from Blue Marlin Publications, appears in the new issue of The Bulletin, — a bi-monthly publication of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

An Insider’s View (subtitled “A Small Publisher’s Perspective on Why It’s Important to Promote Yourself as an Author AND a Promoter”) is only available online to SCBWI members. If you don’t have an SCBWI membership, though, don’t despair! I’m a member and will sneak in a few “teasers” from the article here.

In 2003, Beth had had an adult memoir published through the University of Illinois Press. Now, in 2006, she was ready to use all her connections to create a marketing campaign for her picture book. And create she did. The minute she signed the Blue Marlin Publications contract, she turned herself into a human network. As the weeks progressed, I learned there was very little Beth wouldn’t do to promote her book.

At this point in the article, Francine mentions an idea she came up with after learning Hanni and I would be staying at the same hotel independent bookstore owners were staying at during Book Expo America last year. Francine thought it might be good to paste the book’s cover image on my butt as I walked around the lobby. Shameless as the idea was, I had to decline. I definitely do have enough room back there to advertise, but trust me, that wouldn’t be a good promotion of my “self.”

In a section of the article dedicated to school visits, Francine wrote:

Since Beth comes from a large family, she offers to visit the schools of her nieces and nephews, cousins’ children, and their friends. She offers the schools the option of purchasing books.
And always, she totes her postcards, extra fliers about her school visits, bookmarks, and announcements about future appearances. Every event is a networking opportunity for a future event.

True to form, Hanni and I will have appeared at three different schools this week, the very week the shameless self-promotion article appeared in the SCBWI Bulletin. Last Tuesday we were at Baranoff Elementary School in Austin, TX; on Thursday we were at the Elmhurst Academy in Elmhurst, IL; and this Tuesday we’ll visit Longfellow School in Oak Park, IL. I never know what future gigs might come from school visits like these, and I get a kick out of tracking it all.
The article concludes with some flattering compliments from Francine:

The bottom line is that Beth is a dream for a tiny publisher like me. In return, I am willing to put more time, money, and effort into promoting Beth’s book than I ordinarily would because I just know my investments will not be wasted. I know full well that authors who promote themselves and their books as wholeheartedly as Beth Finke are not easy to find. But authors wishing to work with small publishers must understand
that a great piece of writing will appear even greater if the author offers specific plans for getting that story into the hands of readers.

Aw, shucks. Thanks, Francine. Truth is, you are the one who is a dream come true for a tiny children’s book writer like me. Happy Thanksgiving!