Behold: This year’s jack-o-lanterns.  We carved them with friends on Saturday, and mine is already starting to look a bit backward-leaning and droopy (it’s the one that appears to depict a cat crossed with a chubby lizard), but Ryan’s creepy face just gets creepier as it shrivels.

If anyone’s looking for a last-minute literary costume, check out Books Together.  There you’ll find step-by-step instructions for assembling your own Olive Dunwoody costume, and links to several other book-based costume ideas.  (You can also enter to win a set of seven fantastic Halloweeny books published by Penguin, including The Shadows!  Go!  Go NOW!)

Speaking of giveaways: the Facebook All Hallow’s Read giveaway ended this morning, and I’ve contacted the randomly selected winner.  (I asked entrants to name the fictional character they’d least like to encounter in real life, and there were a slew of great responses: multiple mentions of Cthulu and Count Olaf, as well as votes for Randall Flagg of Stephen King creation, Commander Woundwart from Watership Down, Eric Cartman (I agree–he’s terrifying), and Snooki.)  Thanks, everyone.

Poetry news:  My poem, “Wendigo in the 21st Century,” was a finalist for this year’s SFPA poetry contest.  You can read the winners and see the full list here.  The SFPA is also hosting a Halloween poetry reading; visit their Halloween page to hear me reading my Rhysling-nominated poem, “Escaping the Dawn” or to listen to other great poems and poets.

And, finally, my super-cool new t-shirt:

(Here’s the local paper’s write-up.)  Two days until showtime…

It’s time for my favorite new gift-giving holiday!

If you aren’t familiar with the coolness that is All Hallow’s Read, click here.  If you are, I hope you’re already on the hunt for creepy, wondrous books to give to your favorite readers for Halloween.  Last year, I hosted a giveaway on this blog.  This year, I’d like to try something a little bit different: If you visit my Facebook page, you’ll find an All Hallow’s Read thread, in which I’ve asked readers to share which literary character they would be most terrified to meet in real life.  On October 31, I’ll pick a winning commenter at random, and he/she will be sent a signed hardcover copy of THE SECOND SPY.  (And if you share the giveaway link, you’ll be entered twice.  Got to get around that new “promoted posts” malarkey somehow.)  Go!  Comment!  Win!  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jacqueline-West/112573782122159?ref=sgm

Last week, I got to attend another rehearsal of “Under the Bed.”  The actors now have their lines memorized, and getting to see and hear words that I wrote coming out of REAL people’s mouths, without any papers or print between us, was truly something special.  Plus, the kids are smart, and heartbreaking, and so, so funny.

Here they are, being bullied by big sisters/being bullying big sisters and getting trapped by fear-collecting spiders.

I’ve also just learned that THE SHADOWS has made the list for the 2013-2014 Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award, which makes me very,very happy.  Thank you, young readers–Hoosiers and non-Hoosiers alike.

I’m leaving in just a couple of hours for the Waupaca Book Festival, and I still have to pack and put on grown-up-person clothes (I’m currently wearing my writing uniform of black pajamas and giant fuzzy socks), so this will be brief.

From now until the end of the month, you can win a free copy of The Books of Elsewhere, Volume One: The Shadows through Freado’s Halloween Book Festival (check the CoverMatcher page to see the available books–there are some great ones!).

I’m also planning an All Hallow’s Read giveaway for this year… Details to come very soon.  Stay tuned.

If you’re near River Falls…

And if you’re near Waupaca…

The 2012 Waupaca Book Festival

October 12 – 13, Waupaca, WI.

Authors

• Terese Allen
• Erica Bauermeister
• Judy Bridges
• Darien Gee
• Peter Geniesse
• Geoff Herbach
• Brett Laidlaw
• Eric Litwin
• Marissa Meyer
• Wendell Nelson
• Michael Perry
• Lowell Peterson
• Pat Schmatz
• Jasia Steinmetz
• Matt Tavares
• Jacqueline West

I like to record things.  I write.  Preserving events and impressions and experiences in words is just what I feel compelled to do.  So I get the compulsion to record things in other ways–with phones, with cameras, with all those fancy and increasingly tiny gadgets.  But for the last few days, I’ve been thinking about the times when maybe recording isn’t quite enough.

Last week, we went to First Avenue for the final show of Amanda Palmer’s Theatre is Evil tour, which was packed with one amazing act on top of another.  And one of those amazing acts was Neil Gaiman, in person, telling a story. He’d just finished a storytelling tour, and that’s what this was: Not a reading, not a recital, but a meant-to-be-told-aloud-by-the-person-it-happened-to STORY.   In the car on the way home, we talked about the story–about how it was very, very different in style and structure from Neil’s written work, and about how dependent it was on the voice and inflection and charm of the teller, and the audience’s reaction, and Neil’s timing and facial expressions, and about how if you put those spoken words on paper they wouldn’t have quite the same life.   They might not work at all.

The funny thing was: All around us, people who were hearing this meant-to-be-told-aloud story were recording it.  They were watching it through screens, even though the real thing was happening ten feet in front of them.  They couldn’t clap, because their hands were busy.  After the storytelling was over, they compared the clarity of their shots and the timing of their starting points.

I wonder how many of them have gone home and watched that little video again.  I wonder if it has the same life.  I wonder if it works.

(WARNING: NORTHERN EXPOSURE DIGRESSION.) In one of my favorite episodes of Northern Exposure, “Things Become Extinct,” would-be filmmaker Ed starts to make a documentary about Ira Wingfeather, the only person around who remembers how to carve traditional wooden courting flutes.  But after filming, Ed realizes he doesn’t just want the living picture of the thing; he wants to preserve the thing itself.  He goes back to the old man and asks to learn how to carve the flutes.  When Ira wonders why, Ed asks him, “Would you rather see a picture of a condor, or a condor?”  and the old man answers, “A condor, no question.”

I don’t want condors to become extinct.  I don’t want photographers of condors to become extinct, either.  I’m not sure the real version of a thing is necessarily better than the recorded version of a thing.  My life revolves around recorded versions of things.  But I try to remind myself that sometimes it’s good to stop recording. It’s good to simply listen, and watch, and participate with your full consciousness, and let the moment end without attempting to preserve it.

Then again, here I am, recording all of this.

(My just-waking-up view: The maple tree through our stained glass window.)

Happy autumn, everyone.  This is my favorite time of year: Rich colors, Halloween preparations, getting to wear long sleeves again… By the end of September, I’m practically euphoric.

I spent the last beautiful week visiting all nine elementary schools in Stillwater, Minnesota, courtesy of the Valley Bookseller.  Kathy, the store’s amazing children’s specialist, coordinated the entire tour, and she took care of everything from scheduling the stops and arranging sales to keeping me fueled with sandwiches and caffeine.  (Kathy: You rock.)  At each school, I gave talks, read aloud, answered questions, played guessing games, and signed books and signed books and then signed a few hundred more books.  Whew. Writers may not be known for impressive physical strength (something to do with sitting at desks and staring into space for hours each day, I suppose), but we’ve got wrists of steel, I tell ya.

Getting to talk with so many enthusiastic young readers and writers was a pleasure.  Thanks again to the staff and students at Lake Elmo, Withrow, Andersen, Rutherford, Stonebridge, Oak Park, Afton-Lakeland, Lily Lake, and Marine Elementary Schools, for making us feel so welcome.

(Signed and personalized books waiting for their readers at Afton-Lakeland and Rutherford Elementary.  Yes, Rutherford. If there had been a Dunwoody or Horatio Elementary, I would have started to think I’d dreamt the whole thing.)

Speaking of fall fun: On Sunday, October 28, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., I’ll be at Karma Gifts in River Falls, WI for a special Halloweeny open house.  I’ll read and chat and answer questions, books will be available for sale and signing, there will be art and spell-writing projects for kids, and as anyone who came to last year’s event knows, Val’s autumn treats and decorations are out of this world.  Please come join us!

Now back to work on Volume Five.