A Dream Goes On Forever
Friday, May 29th, 2009 Posted in Music | No Comments »This song's been in my head for the past few weeks, great lingering melody. A bare bones approach in this live version, just Todd and a piano, two minutes of pure pop for now people. Have a great weekend . ...
Five Haiku
Friday, May 29th, 2009 Posted in the writing process | 2 Comments »I've never written much in the way of haiku. But for some reason, I knocked out these five the other morning, rapid fire. Perhaps I was inspired by a recent second-grade poetry reading, where so many kids, including my Maggie, ...
Sleepover
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 Posted in Family | 4 Comments »My friends, Paul and Caroline, just passed along a few classic photos from this past weekend. My Maggie, great friends with sisters Lucy and Zoe, slept over their house on Saturday night. These girls have known each other all their ...
James Preller Interviews . . . Betsy Bird, of Fuse #8
Monday, May 25th, 2009 Posted in Greatest Hits, Interviews & Appreciations | 12 Comments »It doesn't take long for a book-loving blog-hopper to discover Betsy Bird's A Fuse #8 Production. It is so consistently good -- full of personality and life and enthusiasm for children's books -- that many of us return on a ...
Fan Mail Wednesday #44-47 (Bonus Friday Edition)
Friday, May 22nd, 2009 Posted in Along Came Spider, Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones | No Comments »Today we're all about bullies, and book titles, and bicycles, and the perils of publishing. That's right -- sound the timbrels! slaughter a fatted calf!-- I'm banging out a bonus Friday Edition of Fan Mail Wednesday, absolutely free of charge. Really: ...
Mighty Casey: Editorial Letter Excerpts
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 Posted in Mighty Casey, the writing process | 1 Comment »I've been doing a lot of school visits, book signings, and book fairs over the past two months. It's been a lot of fun, distracting, joyful, happy, hard, and humbly rewarding. One of the highlights of my act -- between ...
Stories Behind the Story: The Case of the Food Fight
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 Posted in Jigsaw Jones, New York Mets, the writing process | No Comments »My wonderful editor at Scholastic, Shannon Penney, suggested this title to me. That happens sometimes, when book club editors will come up with a desired theme or vague concept, and Shannon will be assigned with the grim task of conveying ...
Fan Mail Wednesday #43 (Monday Edition)
Sunday, May 17th, 2009 Posted in Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones | 2 Comments »I spent time last night writing a post on a different topic, but then hit a snag that made it "unpublishable." So I decided to answer this overdue letter instead. That's right, a special Monday edition of Fan Mail Wednesday! Dear: ...
The Yellow Balloon: My Walmart Story
Friday, May 15th, 2009 Posted in Family | 4 Comments »About once a year I find myself in Walmart. It's never a proud moment. But on this day I needed a copy of "Hotel California" by the Eagles, because my son Gavin was practicing the guitar solo. For a variety of ...
Fan Mail Wednesday #42
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 Posted in Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones, Six Innings | 1 Comment »Here's an email that came over the wire . . . all the way from South Korea! Hi, James, how do you do? 안녕하세요? I'm a mom living in Korea (South) with a 4th grade son (Jisuk ) and a 6th grade ...