When All Else Fails...

You know what's great when you draw a blank about what to post on your blog? Photos. Yay for easy, slacker solutions! So here's a roundup of recent events via visual shortcuts:

Photo by Elizabeth O. Dulemba

That's moi with the inimitable Adele Geras, and the wonderful Tracy Barrett at The Carlos Museum this past Sunday. We held a panel on historical fiction in YA. Adele was in Cambridge and joined the convo via magical techie fairy dust.

Photo above and below, by Donna Bowman.

This shot is from Springmingle in February, our regional SCBWI conference, after our mutual love fest also known as book launches.

I thought about ixnaying this picture of my book launch at the conference because of the embarrassing chin(s) situation, but I couldn't resist because you can also see my Egyptian 18th Dynasty replica earrings. It's the little things.

Finally, I received the German edition of Cleopatra's Moon earlier this month! Thanks to Ashley Parsons, I now see Rachel Weitz's face every time I look at it (she's the acress in The Mummy, which I have been barred from watching given that I tend to yell and throw pillows at the TV over its ridiculousness). Still. Rachel Weitz with a funny hat!

Photo Updates

I've been busy writing so I haven't posted much. Fortunately, I have the lazy--er, I mean "busy"--writer's solution to ez-blogging: photos! 

Check out Drag-Queen Cleo posing with tiny Harry Potter books in (my editor) Cheryl Klein's office. Someone gave her those adorable booklets because, um...she worked on the real ones!  See how stately Cleo looks? Yeah, I can tell ya that despite my best efforts, I was not able to pull off the same level of dignity.

I did, however, try to keep the squeeing and jumping to private moments. (I mean, come on--I was at SCHOLASTIC people. In NYC! I met Arthur Levine!) Though now that I think of it, I sure hope that ladies room was empty. (Hmmm, this might explain the sudden appearance of security...)

While at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my friend, Diane Capriola, I stood before this portrait of a Egyptian/Roman boy (right).  It's one thing to see Fayum portraits in art books. It's quite another to stand before them knowing that they were actually used as mummy covers.

This painting in particular touched me because of the boy's soulful eyes.  I also love the hint of a smile playing on his lips.  In my upcoming novel, CLEOPATRA'S MOON, this is what I imagined Cleopatra Selene's youngest brother, "Ptolly," looked like. 

Drag-Queen Cleo, as you can imagine, became quite melancholy in the Ptolemaic/Roman Era wings of the museum.

The only thing that cheered her up was gold. And lots of it.

During Memorial Day weekend, I was delighted to spend time at Mingei World Arts signing books and hanging with the delightful Egyptian artist, Mohamed Elganoby, whose gorgeous paintings Mingei featured during the Decatur ART WALK.  I was totally sold on his work when I initially saw them but I became a true fan when I learned that he uses the same technique in his encaustic paintings that the ancient Egyptian painters used for Fayum mummy portraits.

If you missed seeing his gorgeous work, come back to Mingei during Labor Day when Elganoby returns for the Decatur Book Festival.

Finally, I am preparing to help run "Camp Kane" at Little Shop of Stories next week (Camp Half-Blood is in July). The camp is based on Rick Riordan's best-selling books about Egyptian gods and monsters. Riordan is an amazing person. Not only is he genuinely nice, but he also has the Midas touch. Whatever he writes turns to gold.

So, there you go. All caught up now.