I often have said that my life is like a sitcom, with a twist. While in a sitcom there usually are three different storylines running through a half-hour show, each relating to different characters, with me the three storylines usually all involve me and each can get me spinning in a new direction. Sometimes the three scenes get doubled, like today!

Today was the last day of school for my younger son, the first day of graduation practice for my older son, and the delivery of dirt for the redux of the front lawn. All of this was running underneath the other three scenarios that I had planned for the day: pulling together some contest prizes and shooting pictures for them, planning agendas for upcoming trips --- and, oh yeah, writing this newsletter. I am getting to the newsletter opener at 5:30. From that, I think you get the picture of how well the sitcom came together today.

The last day of middle school was handled swimmingly well since I spent yesterday delivering teacher notes and gifts --- determined not to do this at my usual 11th hour. Remind me to do that again next year. My older son moaned about practicing in the sun, but informed me that they had beat the class of 2005 that previously held the record for fastest first practice. I knew this was a bright group! The dirt was delivered and landed on the lawn exactly where it was supposed to be. Of course there was an empty bucket noting the spot, so even Zippy the chimp could have gotten this right. Nonetheless a trifecta.

I am sure that many of you can commiserate on days like this. I also often say that my work days can be summed up as a comic strip like this:

Panel One: I lie in bed making an organized mental checklist of things to accomplish for the day. I feel confident. I feel energized.

Panel Two: I sit at my desk at the house and open my email. Therein lies emails with things like URGENT, MUST HAVE ANSWER, NEED YOUR INPUT, HAVE YOU READ MY BOOK YET. I bang on those for a while.

Panel Three: I drive to the office doing calls and then hit the office where I manage to have meetings, conversations and emails about everything but what I planned in Panel One. I think of my life as that of a firefighter with a fire extinguisher handy at every moment! Hit my office and the spray goes on. Emergency eradicated. Or so I hope.

Panel Four: I drive home thinking about what I planned for the day and how it did not happen, but somehow I am resigned to this and resolve to make it all happen the next day. I am an endless optimist. There is a point to this little story.

Last week at an event at McNally Robinson, a really terrific bookstore here in the city, I had the opportunity to meet the author/creators who we are interviewing this week, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, who wrote a book called DRAWING WORDS & WRITING PICTURES. It's actually a 15-week instruction guide on how to create comics, but as I read through it I also saw it as a great guide on how to READ comics.

I knew I wanted to talk to the authors since reading this book changed how I looked at comics and graphic novels. While before I had just seen pictures and words, now I saw how the layout of those words and pictures --- and even panels that do not have words or pictures --- all play into the creative story.

I learned about thought balloons and word balloons and other dialogue features. I saw that the box outside a text can be as important as the words --- and the size of a panel can factor into a story. And while I always had thought of comics as needing pictures, the 25 of us in the audience that night were challenged to create a comic with just words. I did my four-panel life story; many others pulled together ideas that were much more imaginative --- without ONE drawing. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I appreciated this thought-provoking and creative evening.

That night I saw a stark difference between prose and graphic novels. While authors may have input on cover design, I cannot think of one who has worked on the entire layout design for their book, page by page, thus ensuring that every single component told the story that they planned from pagination to chapter headers. As we continue to explore this format in the months to come, what I learned that night will be kept in mind.

Something else happened that night. I saw a listing of the store's events for that month and realized that I had missed an event with Nancy Horan, the author of LOVING FRANK, and her editor the night before. With that in mind I encourage you all to sign up for your local bookseller's newsletter, if one is available, so you will not miss opportunities like this to enjoy the authors who come to town.

Our Beach Bag title this week is THE BEACH HOUSE by Jane Green, which is set on the island of Nantucket, a place where I always have wanted to visit. My older son was up there last month and pronounced it just wonderful. I would love to spend time in a home like the house described in this book. Reading it, I was seeing the wonderful space that makes a house like this a home. We have a number of Nantucket-themed items in our beach bag this week as well as a candle with a wonderful hydrangea smell. I love those flowers. Our bushes in the backyard will be yielding a particularly big crop this year...it's going to be wonderful. It will make up for the peonies that came and went!

We received great feedback from our readers for I SHALL NOT WANT by Julia Spencer-Fleming. You may read their responses here.

My younger son got off the school bus today and dropped his backpack and a huge stack of notebooks and papers in my home office, with the line, "This is all the stuff from my locker. I figured you wanted to have it." Okay, he knows I am a pack rat and wickedly sentimental about everything, but I think a lot of this is going to be destined for the "garbagio" can.

My older son's graduation is Tuesday night. I assume I will be a puddle of emotion, so I am glad I do not wear mascara! He informed me today that they hand out diplomas in size order...he is about 40th from the end in a class of 500+. Gee, and I thought a last name with F was a good thing. Who knew size mattered?

One more note: Watching the clips of the memorial service for Tim Russert online made me realize that we all really have just one round to make life what we want it to be. I am not sure what struck me most: the poise of his son, the camaraderie of the NBC team or the stories...there were soooo many wonderful stories. Here's to a great week --- make some memories wherever you are!

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

FEARLESS FOURTEEN: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)
Trenton’s most infamous bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, may not have a reputation for keeping her promises. But when it comes to a kid, does she have a choice? Personal vendettas, hidden treasure and a monkey named Carl will send Stephanie on her most explosive adventure yet. Reviewed by Roz Shea.

-Click here to read an excerpt from FEARLESS FOURTEEN.

THE OTHER by David Guterson (Fiction)
David Guterson’s new book is about the friendship between two boys whose lives diverge when one, the scion of an elite family, turns his back on the world. THE OTHER deals with their intricate relationship and the controversial decision made by one of them, reminiscent of Christopher McCandless in INTO THE WILD. Reviewed by Ray Palen.

-Click here to read an excerpt from THE OTHER.

Released in hardcover in 2007, IN THE WOODS --- Tana French’s critically acclaimed debut novel --- won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Now available in paperback and a New York Times bestseller, IN THE WOODS is a compelling psychological mystery. When the body of a young girl is found murdered, detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox find chilling links to a disappearance decades earlier.

-Click here to read an excerpt from IN THE WOODS.
-Click here to read Tana French’s bio.
-Click here to read critical praise for IN THE WOODS.
-Visit the author’s official website, www.TanaFrench.com.
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More about IN THE WOODS:
In the mid-1980s, a terrible tragedy befell a small suburb of Dublin. Two children mysteriously vanished in the woods while a third was found terrified and with no recollection of what happened.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Cassie Maddox --- his partner and closest friend --- find themselves investigating a case with chilling links to that long-ago disappearance.

Christopher Reich is the New York Times bestselling author of NUMBERED ACCOUNT and THE PATRIOTS CLUB, the latter of which won the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel in 2006. In RULES OF DECEPTION, his new thriller releasing on July 15th, a man finds himself the subject of an international manhunt and the target of a master assassin after his wife's death.

-Click here to read fast facts about Christopher Reich.
-Click here to read Christopher Reich’s bio.
-Visit the author’s official website, www.ChristopherReich.com.
-Click here to see our advance copy winners.

More about RULES OF DECEPTION:
Dr. Jonathan Ransom, world-class mountaineer and surgeon for Doctors Without Borders, is climbing in the Swiss Alps with his wife, Emma, when a blizzard sets in. In their bid to escape the storm, Emma is killed when she falls into a hidden crevasse.

Twenty-four hours later, Jonathan receives an envelope addressed to his wife containing two baggage-claim tickets. So begins a journey that will draw him deeper into a world of spies, high-tech weaponry and global terrorism --- a world where no one is who they appear to be and where the end always justifies the means.

BEYOND THE NIGHT by Marlo Schalesky (Fiction)
With the music of the seventies as their soundtrack and its groovy fashions as their scenery, Maddie and Paul are drawn together and driven apart. Then one night changes everything…forever.

A woman lies unconscious in a hospital bed. A man sits beside her. Between them lies an ocean of fear and the tenuous grip of memories long past. Daylight flees. Darkness deepens. And one final mystery awaits…beyond the night.

Poll:

If you are going away for a week of vacation, how many books do you bring?
 
1
2-3
4-5
6-10
More than 10
None

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Question:

What book are you most looking forward to reading this summer?

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