From Walker Books, June 2012
Amazing to see two different cover takes on the same novel. Here is how my novel will look in the UK when it pubs in June!
Wow! UK cover 4 The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind
March 22, 2012
A good looking bunch of University of Richmond students in the audience March 21!
For my librarians, teachers, book club members. Character list, synopsis, and some questions for readers. (Thanks Greg Weatherford for the edits!)
Discussion Guide The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind by Meg Medina
The Hope Tree is Growing
March 20, 2012
Just a little update about The Hope Tree Project. (Details en español here.) Student artists are working out their answer to What is a dream you have for yourself or for our community? I got a sneak preview of their milagros thanks to Megan McConnell, art teacher at Meadowbrook High School, who brought a few to share at my book launch party for The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind this past weekend. (Thanks, Megan!)
I’m also happy to announce that the fabulous Latin Ballet of Virginia will be joining us for the launch on April 30 and will perform selections of Verde. This work celebrates nature, hopes and dreams. What could be more perfect? (And check out these costumes!) Let me know if you are interested in an invitation to the opening.
Can you guess what she represents in Nature?
- Latin Ballet of Virginia, scenes from Verde
Where I’ll be next:
March 21, 2012: University of Richmond, Gotwald Science Center, 5:30 pm. Lecture, reception and book signing.
March 23, 2012: The Steward School 11600 Gayton Road, Henrico, VA, 9 am. International Day presentation
March 28 – 30, 2012: National Latino Children’s Literature Conference: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Presentation on YA and community building — The Hope Tree Project!
Another Reason to Love WriterHouse
March 10, 2012
I had a glorious day working at WriterHouse in Charlottesville. We ran short on time, but managed (I hope) to start sifting through some memories and figuring out how to reshape them for our work. A sample:
Gravel on the driveway — and a long black car delivers a first look at The Terrible Grandmother.
A boy stays out all night, shivering on the streets, too afraid to ring the doorbell.
A hair-do that opens a child up to love.
A girl plays innocently as her family waits for the train to leave their Nazi-occupied city.
A mother and daughter try to make sense of an addiction.
Trapped in a windowless building, a schoolgirl is lured by flowers blooming near the roof outside.
Poets, journalists, children’s book writers, aspiring authors. Thank you Bea,Sandy, Warrick, Bev, Doreen, and Connie. 
Truly a wonderful day. Be fearless and let me know how your projects keep evolving.
P.S. Shout out to James Madison Regional Library – this means you, David Plunkett — for inviting me.
Just wanted to give you the heads up this morning. I’m on tour. Yep — and I’m still in my pajamas as I’m telling you this. That’s because it’s a blog tour – the single most author-friendly invention since the pencil. Eight YA bloggers have invited me to answer questions — some serious, some funny — about my novel, The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind. For me, it’s a chance to channel my inner Where’s Waldo without ever leaving my kitchen computer. I meet their readers, talk about my project, and get the word out in anticipation of the March 12 pub date. For the bloggers, it’s a chance for fresh content and connections. For you, it’s a chance to win stuff (sometimes) and get the scoop on what is behind the book you’re reading.
Today, you can catch me on Waste Paper Prose, where I did a v-log (video version) at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens here in Richmond, VA. Don’t make fun of my hair in the last section. It was windy, okay? Visit at www.wastepaperprose.com.
I hope you’ll make time this week to stop in on these blogs and get to know some rabid book lovers. You can see the dates and stops on the skyscraper that I’ve posted in the sidebar to the right. A big thanks to: Waste Paper Prose, Book Briefs, Muggle-Born.net, The Book Cellar, Teen Reads, A Cupcake and a Latte, Joyousreads, and The Hispanic Reader.
You’re invited to Meg’s book launch party for The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind. Saturday, March 17, 2012, 1 – 3 pm, bbgb tales for kids, 3100 Kensington Avenue, Richmond, VA
I just saw the official press release announcing that I’ve won the Ezra Jack Keats New Writers Award for 2012 for my picture book. I’m still a little stunned, but very happy. This is an enormous honor, and I am so especially proud that it comes for a story that pays tribute to the valiant women in my family. Thank you to everyone who was involved in finding and sharing this story, those I know, like Gigi Amateau, Kate Fletcher, Jen Rofé, and Laura Rivas, and those who have been secret cheerleaders in far flung places. I’m sending you all muchos abrazos fuertes!
Here is a little snippet from the release to tell you about the award:
“Fifty years ago, Ezra’s book The Snowy Day, which featured an African American child, broke the color barrier in mainstream children’s book publishing when it was embraced by families across racial, economic and ethnic lines,” said Deborah Pope, Executive Director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation. “Like Ezra, this year’s Book Award winners have, in their own way, celebrated the similarities—and differences—of people whose life experiences are dramatically varied.”
Since 1985, the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award has been awarded annually to an outstanding new writer and new illustrator of picture books for children (age 9 and under) by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by the late Keats and dedicated to enhancing the love of reading and learning in all children. The Book Awards come to the de Grummond for the first time this year from the New York Public Library.
Looking forward to the ceremony on April 12…
Shameless mining: A free workshop for VA writers
March 4, 2012
“Do you have my teeth?”
That’s what my mother asked me, her mouth caved-in like a dried apple, just as she was being wheeled into surgery last January. I shook her dentures in a plastic cup and chomped my own teeth clownishly, too terrified to say anything as her gurney disappeared into the operating room.
Thankfully, those weren’t the last words my mother would ever say to me. And as an added bonus, I get to keep that weird exchange in my brain for some future use in a novel or short story. Don’t give me that look. Writers are opportunists when it comes to pearls of dialogue like that, and I’m no different. This one is already flagged under the label, “Dialogue, sub-heading Crazy shit people say.
What will I do with it? Who knows? It might find its way into a soul-searching look at helping my mother through illness, but it might take years for me to figure out how to tell that story. Besides, it would work just as well as a line for a hockey player to his girlfriend. Or an actor playing Dracula. Or…oh, I don’t know. One thing is for sure, those. Those dentures are going to get immortalized one way or another.
A wonderful resource for C'ville Writers
I bring this all up because this Saturday, March 10, I’ll be leading a free writing workshop at WriterHouse in Charlottesville on how to take these million scraps of personal events and turn them into fiction — especially fiction that captures culture and voice. I’d love for you to join me.
The workshop is part of the James Madison Regional Library’s Big Read Celebration. This year, the Big Read has a Latino flare; their book choice is the 1972 Chicano classic, Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. So I’m especially happy to drive to the lovely Virginia mountains to talk about those little scraps that give our readers a peek into the world through the Latino lens. After that, we’ll try our hand at using our own family memories, regardless of our cultural background, to shape pieces that cross over for universal appeal. Now that’s where the magic is…
I hope you can come. It’s free, although you do have to sign up by emailing bigread@jmrl.org. Bring along anything you think will jog your memory: a photo, a memento, an old letter or poem. We’ll go from there!
See you then!
Cariños de,
Meg
Mark your calendars for Meg’s upcoming book launch: March 17, 2012, 1 pm, bbgb, tales for kids, 1 pm, 3100 Kensington Avenue, Richmond, VA
¡Tía Isa En Español!
February 28, 2012
Look what’s out today! Or should I say – ¡Mira que se publicó hoy!
The Hope Tree Project
February 24, 2012
There are all sorts of ways of launching a new book into the world. This time around I’ve decided to go big. I’ll have my regular launch at the ever-fabulous bbgb tales for kids on March 17. But when The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind pubs next month, I’ll have about 500 high school students to help me celebrate, too.
That’s because they’re part of a project I’m working on in partnership with The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and eight area high schools here in Richmond. The Hope Tree Project is a connection of art, reading, and community building for young people – a good addition to the Virginia Commission of the Art’s Minds Wide Open 2012 celebration of children and the arts.
The students and their art or ESOL teachers have agreed to create Latin American ex votives — or milagros — that symbolize a hope or dream that they have for themselves or for the community. When they’re done, we’ll decorate five crape myrtle trees in the beautiful children’s garden with their collective wishes.
Milagros are part folk art and part religious votives in Latin America. The tiny charms are attached to statues of saints, to the walls of churches, or even to women’s jewelry. Why? To ask for a favor or to thank a saint for help, of course. It’s a connection of the sacred or mystical to every day needs. Not that this is new, of course. The ancient Romans made them, too, as did many cultures across the world.
The hard part of the project won’t be making the milagros. Over the years I’ve spent working in schools, I know that high schoolers have the technical skill to produce some drop-dead gorgeous work. What will tax them, I think, is the question I’ve asked. It’s hard to be 17 and at the beginning of everything. Exciting, sure, but there are so many unknowns. But what I told students at the Steward School yesterday is that putting your wishes out in the world is the first step in making them become a reality. If you don’t make a dream for yourself, others are only too happy to rush in and fill in the vacuum. It’s what my main character, Sonia Ocampo found out. And really, we should all be asking ourselves this question as we chart a path in life.
So folks, I’m giving you a lot of advance notice. Please mark your calendars for Monday, April 30, 2012 at 6 pm for the unveiling at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens where you’ll meet me and some of the artists from the following high schools: Steward School, Huguenot, Meadowbrook, L.C. Bird, Tucker, Hermitage, Henrico, and Lee Davis. (You’ll even be able to add your own milagros to the collection.) The display will continue through July 4, and then selected pieces will move to City Hall for a display during Hispanic Heritage month in September.
Wanted: Writers under 18
February 16, 2012
Just a newsflash for writers under 18: Richmond Young Writers summer camp has opened registration. Its got all the elements needed for a great time for the literary set: a charming used bookstore, a cool part of town — and Bird Cox and Valley Haggard at the helm. Here’s the schedule. I’ll be teaching July 25 during Julie Geen’s Magical Creatures week. See you this summer!
