The mouse in politics

It was good to hear from Obama's acceptance speech that climate change can finally come out of the closet, politically. No, mice don't have the vote, but if they did. . . (OK, one can't be sure that mice would be democrats. Democmice, maybe?)

Little League and Mice

I’ve been hooked on the Little League World Series, which ends this weekend. It may seem an odd taste for a British-born woman of a certain age, but I tell myself it’s research. My character Joey becomes a Little League star in ‘Mousemobile’–the sequel to ‘Mousenet’ that should be out in a little over a year.

Besides, a local team has a chance of winning. Go Petaluma!!!!

My path to publishing

Had a great time at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. My talk on the ‘Paths to Publishing’ panel went down well, if you count success by giggles. You can read my speech here, but really, I’m told, you had to be there. (We also had some time to inspect the actual Mendocino Coast, which on one afternoon at least was clear of fog.)

The Solution to Climate Change. . .Mouse Version

I wrote the current version of Mousenet in 2007. ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ had just swept the country, and when a friend asked how my mice would benefit the planet once they all had computers, the answer was obvious: They’d stop climate change (to find out how, you need to read the book).

Fast forward to 2011 when Mousenet finally appeared and behold–the subject of climate change had more or less fallen off the radar. I don’t think that children reading the book are affected by that fact–mice present a good enough rationale for concern about the climate. But I’ve had a few sideways looks from adults. Climate change? Really? When the subject is so 2007?

Fast forward again to this year with its many extremes, from massive floods worldwide to the coldest and wettest spring in British history and a slew of heat records in America. And thanks perhaps to financial losses as the corn crop cooks in the fields, some serious discussion of climate change is back.

So maybe it’s time for Washington to ask the Mouse Nation how to fix it. 

Mice in Mendocino

Next week I head north to the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, which takes place every year at the College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg. It’s a boutique conference that has been going for over twenty years and limits itself to 100 participants, who sign up for three mornings of intensive workshop, then choose from a number of discussions in the afternoons.

I’ll be on a panel at one o’clock on Friday July 27^th talking about ‘Paths to Publishing.’ And unlike the rest of the conference, this will be free and open to the public. So y’all come.

Feedback on Mousenet

It’s always wonderful to hear from readers, and I’m delighted to have gathered up some more “likes” recently on Mousenet’s Facebook page. And it’s great when good reviews trickle in on Amazon. One otherwise very favorable review that arrived recently from Texas failed, however, to give the book a perfect score. As the reviewer wrote, “I took off one star because there were a few sections of the book that pushed climate change pretty hard, and I strongly dislike political messages being pushed so overtly in children's books.”

Climate change? Political?

In my view, and that of both the National Academyof Science and the BigCheese, leader of the Mouse Nation, climate change as a result of human activity is a matter of scientific fact. If the subject is ‘political,’ it’s only because certain politicians have chosen to make it so, for whatever reason.

Back to work

Mousemobile went off to the publisher in late April (due now to come out Fall 2013 at the earliest–sorry to those who were hoping for it in summer next year). And I took off for a few weeks away from all things mouse. Specifically, I was on vacation in Britain and then Turkey, which is a relatively mouse-free zone because of the hordes of feral cats that patrol the city streets.

For a few more photos, see “Travels with Feet” on my website at mousenet.org