THE LONE RANGER RETURNS . . . BUT I'VE KNOWN HIM SINCE THIRD GRADE

            I must admit that I’m excited about the new Lone Ranger movie starring JohnnyDepp as Tonto (you notice I mention his name first) and Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger.  My history with cowboys started the summer before third grade, when I had my first crush.

It happened in the back yard behind our house on Dysart Street in Springfield, Missouri.  That’s where my neighbor Karen and I had imaginary meetings with Gene Autry, Roy Rogers . . . and their horses. 

Me in my snazzy cowgirl outfit

            When I was in elementary school, cowboys and horses were all the rage on T.V.  There was the Cisco Kid and his pinto, Diablo. Hop-a-Long Cassidy’s horse Topper was a pure white stallion.   So was the Lone Ranger’s horse, Silver.   But Karen and I liked Roy and Gene the best.  Their horses, Trigger and Champion, were beautiful. And we liked how both cowboys sang. 

Saturday afternoons, after our chores were done, Karen and I met on my patio.  We spread a moldy canvas cover (left over from the lemonade stand my dad made me) over a rusty, Ping-Pong table frame.  This smelly tent represented the ranch house where Karen, Roy, Gene and I lived.  The playtime always began with a fight over who was married to whom.  Roy was known as “The King of the Cowboys.”  He was top pick because we both thought his golden Palomino, Trigger (The Smartest Horse in the Movies), was every horse-crazy third-grade-girl’s dream.  This gifted and talented horse could untie ropes, count, dance and even shoot a gun. 

  Gene Autry was known as the “Singing Cowboy.”  His horse, Champion, (World’s Wonder Horse), was a beautiful sorrel with white stockings and blaze.  He could dance, play dead and jump through a hoop of fire.  But he wasn’t quite as flashy as Trigger.

We pretended that we fixed our cowboy husbands flapjacks and fried potatoes for breakfast.  Then we waved goodbye as they galloped across the prairie.  When they returned home, we pretend-kissed them very enthusiastically, and asked them how their day had been. 

After a week, we cowboy wives were BORED!  Roy and Gene didn’t let us ride their horses.  We weren’t having any adventures.  Our cowboys and their steeds were out roaming the range most of the day while Karen and I sweated in that stinky old tent.

When the berries appeared on the mulberry tree in Karen’s back yard we escaped from the ranch house.  Karen and I perched on the tree’s branches and feasted on the fat, juicy fruit. The berries were kind of like raspberries, but not as sweet and with more seeds.

My parents drank a sweet wine called Mogen David on holidays.  Sometimes I was allowed a sip.  I didn’t like it very much.  Karen’s parents (who were originally from Poland) drank martinis most nights.  A Martini is a strong alcoholic drink with an olive floating on top. 

 When we finished eating our mulberries, we made cups from mulberry leaves.  Then we filled them with olive juice drained from a jar of martini olives that Karen swiped from her refrigerator.   “Cheers,” we’d say, as we secretly sipped the nasty stuff.  Karen and I agreed it must be a very grown-up drink because it tasted so bad.   We decided that we were very, very sophisticated women. Those cowboys were history.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not looking forward to Johnny Depp’s next film.  

Update:  Who was that masked man?

BFFs WENDY SHANG AND MADELYN ROSENBERG REVEAL WHAT'S ON THEIR FRIDGES, PLUS A FEW OTHER THINGS!

What better time than "Valentine's Day month" to celebrate friendship.  So, today I'm honored to acquaint you with two uber-talented children's book authors and fellow book-writing critique group members, Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Shang.  As an added bonus, they will answer the burning question, "What's on your fridge?"

Madelyn and Wendy keep stacking up stellar book reviews and awards.

Tell me about yourselves.

Madelyn:  I grew up in Blacksburg, Virginia, and after college in North Carolina I went back home and became a reporter for the Roanoke Times.  In 2000, I went back to grad school in creative writing at Boston University, and eventually landed here in Northern Virginia.  My first two picture books, The Schmutzy Family (Holiday House) and Happy Birthday, Tree: A Tu B'Shevat Story (Albert Whitman & Co.), came out just this past September.  My first middle-grade novel, Canary in the Coal Mine, is due out in April with Holiday House.

What I like most about writing:  The freedom (though sometimes it's too much for me and I don't manage my time the way I should).  And I love that it gives me a reason to feel justified for eavesdropping on people.

Wendy:  I grew up in Northern Virginia, and went to the University of Virginia for undergrad and law school.  As an attorney, I worked on access to quality counsel issues in the juvenile justice system for the American Bar Association.  After the first of my three children was born, I decided to stay at home,

and began writing when me third child was six months old.  My first book, The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, was published by Scholastic in 2011.  What I love about writing is that it fills a creative need for me, while providing a way to look at the world.

The paperback version was released in January.

How did you two meet?  Was it in our writing group?

Madelyn:  I remember congratulating Wendy on winning a grant from SCBWI, just before she joined our writing group.  It was at the fall conference and I think she was carrying a Hefty full of garbage at the time.  But writing group is where we became friends.

Wendy:  I was a bit intimidated after going to my first writing group, but Madelyn sent me a very kind note, saying not to be scared and giving me lots of encouragement.  Little did I know it would be the first of many, many e-mail exchanges between us!

Madelyn:  I have saved a huge number of Wendy's e-mails, though not all.  Currently, on my computer, I have 1,227.)

What do you like best about each other?

Madelyn:  Wendy is wide open and true -- I think that's the word I'm totally looking for.  She has an easy laugh that I love and I confess to being totally jealous of her writing ability, particularly the way she can squeeze so much emotion out of the simplest sentences.  She also gives good advice such as:  stop obsessing.

Wendy:  Madelyn is wicked smart, funny and incredibly generous.  She never takes the easy way out.  Madelyn is also a trained journalist, which means that she knows how to listen with an open mind and ask the next question - rare talents these days.  Madelyn is also the one who says we should try X - and X is usually something that never would have occurred to me.

How are you the same?

Madelyn:  We both obsess.  Also, neither of us sleeps very well.  Wendy was one of the only Asian kids in her school and I was one of the only Jewish kids in mine, and I think that gave us some similar formative years, only with different foods and different ethnic slurs.  We're around the same age so we both have the same high school soundtrack.  Also, we recently found out that Rona Jaffe's Class Reunion was the first adultish-women's -fiction-illicit-romance-paperback novel that we both stole from our mothers.

Wendy:  The Class Reunion thing was TOTALLY FREAKY.  Yes to all the things Madelyn said, and the fact that we tend to want the same things out of life.  Also, we both tend to freak out about events that require grown-up clothing.

Different?

Madelyn:  We write very differently.  I'm one of those throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks people.  Wendy's much more careful and deliberate.  I suspect she has fewer drafts than my usual 18.

Wendy:  Madelyn is a Jedi-level writer and editor.  She writes:  newspaper articles, magazine features, picture books, middle-grade, young adult, poetry and adult fiction.  I write:  middle-grade.  Madelyn will forget more about music than I'll ever know.

What's on your bucket list as a writer?

Madelyn:  I have an incredibly long list, but here are two:  I want to publish a story that everyone tells me is "too quiet" to publish.  I'd like to finish a novel Wendy and I are playing around with (read:  just starting).

Wendy:  I have no bucket list per se.  The joint novel is a lot of fun - getting the manuscript back from Madelyn is like getting a new toy to play with.  I've also been thinking aobut writing about my mother's life; she has an incredible story that I'd love to share.

If you two could take a trip together, without your kids, where would it be?  Why?

Madelyn:  If it's a writing trip, that would be a retreat someplace in the woods where we would get in long walks and copious amounts of work.  If it's someplace purely for pleasure:  London, maybe, so we can walk in the steps of famous writers and take a ghost tour.   I'm a lousy planner.

Wendy:  ROAD TRIP!!!  Maybe some crazy kidlit themed road trip -  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Eric Carle Museum, a "Little House" site - anywhere we can find good food, great people and inspiration.  Drive all day, write at night.

What do you two see yourselves doing in ten years?

Madelyn:  Still hanging out, I hope, in about the same place we are now, only with more books under our belts and maybe not worried about finances?

Wendy:  You know, Madelyn and I started a few years ago with the same literary agent, and when that agent called me to tell me she was leaving the biz, the next person I called was Madelyn (actually, maybe Madelyn called me before I had a chance to punch the numbers).  We freaked out together, mourned and strategized.  I was so, so grateful to have Madelyn, the one person who kew exactly what I was going through.  This is a tough business, and in ten years, I hope we're still getting through the rough patches (fewer of those, I hope) and celebrating the good times (lots, lots more).

Drum roll . .  . Now our BFFs reveal what's on their fridges!

Madelyn:  I have a Kitchen-Aid.  The date on the inside says April, 1996.  I would have sworn it was older.

Wendy: We just remodeled, and so I have a 2012 Kitchen-Aid with the fancy drawers and bottom fridge.  I expect this fridge to last the rest of my life.

What is your favorite thing on your fridge?

Madelyn:  Aside from family pictures, I'm having a hard time deciding between my mother's chocolate chess pie recipe and my magnet of Elvis and Nixon.  Or Brandon.  I think those are pretty self explanatory, no?

Yes, Madelyn, I can see your dilemma!  Chocolate pie or cute guys!

Wendy:  I am really trying to keep the front of my fridge clear, but it's just not meant to be.  Some papers are just too important to put anywhere else!  I do love those sleek little magnets that my kids found at the office supply store one day - they're playful and elegant at the same time.

Wrap it up by sharing your philosophy of life as demonstrate by WHAT'S ON YOUR FRIDGE?

Madelyn:  Chaos rules!
Wendy:  It's what's inside that counts.

MY TRIP TO CHARLESTON TO HONOR FRIENDS, ANCESTORS, AND NEW BEGINNINGS

A few days ago, my husband and I traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, to celebrate the marriage of our dear friends Jeff and Sheila.  It was a joyous affair that we will always remember.

This was my first time in Charleston.  Christmas wasn’t over yet! 

I marveled at the beautiful old city’s history and . . . porches!

I also made a pilgrimage to honor my great great grandfather, August Thomas DeLaPorte.  He emigrated from France to Charleston in the 1840’s.  He was a confectioner, dance instructor, and stonemason.  What a Renaissance man!  I wanted to see the place where he set up his confectionary shop. 

I made my way down King Street.  The old storefronts scalloped the sky. 

Unfortunately, his shop is gone. Here's the lot. But I’m sure many of the neighboring buildings were there in 1861 when August concocted his delicacies.

Later August moved to Hannibal, Missouri, and joined the Christian Church.  Legend has it that he was baptized in November in the muddy and probably very cold Mississippi River.

August cut the stones for this church.  He also donated the windows and doors.  That’s my next pilgrimage.

New beginnings . . . 

Jeff and Sheila’s.

August’s—when he so ingeniously used his talents to make a life in a new land.

2013 for us all. 

May your New Year be filled with hope, love, and new beginnings!

THE TAPIOCA TEST

I recently completed a complicated writing project that involved quite a bit of research.  Now I’m waiting to see what my editor thinks.  That might take a while.

The right thing to do is to tackle one of those other research piles (for three prospective children’s books) stacked on my desk.  But I’m still a little “tired.” Can paper stare at one accusingly?  Maybe. 

Yesterday I decided to escape.  The kitchen seemed like a good place to spend some quality time that didn’t involve writing.

After perusing my food supply I found a cheerful little box of tapioca, that pearly stuff made from the cassava root, tucked behind my spices.

To me tapioca pudding is comfort food—just what I needed.  But there was no regular milk in the fridge, only almond milk.  I’ve been trying to shed a few pounds and most almond milks have less calories and more calcium than good old cow’s milk.  I decided to perform a cooking test that would provide the answer to this burning question:  Does tapioca pudding taste as good if it’s made with almond, rather than cow’s milk?

Well, that required a really necessary trip to the grocery store to buy some regular milk for the other pudding—plus spray whipped cream and maraschino cherries to decorate the “winner.” (I’ll use any excuse to buy spray whipped cream.)  Oh my, this cooking project was really keeping me away from my writing.

I modified the recipe on the back of the tapioca box and added two eggs instead of one.  The extra egg white makes the pudding light and fluffy—usually.

That just didn’t happen when I substituted the almond milk.  The result was gray, leaden and unappetizing.  No whipped cream and cherry for that pudding!

The pudding made with cow’s milk was delightful, as expected.  Think I’ll save the almond milk for my smoothies from now on.

The winner!

Guess I might as well clean my bathrooms today.  Then, if I have time, maybe drop by my dentist’s office just to say “hi.”