My new year's wish for you

Let us read voraciously.
Let us read widely.
Let us read because it allows us to visit new places.
Let us read to better understand the world and the people in it.
Let us read to grow empathy in our hearts and minds. 
Let us read for comfort.
Let us read for pleasure.
Let us read for the beauty of the written word.
Let us read for any reason at all.
Please...let us read.

Happy new year!

From Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

Happy holidays from our home to yours!

Signed Bookplate Offer

I'd like to offer up personalized/signed bookplates along with a couple of bookmarks to people who are giving one of my books as a gift this year.

To get yours mailed to you, please send an email to lisaschroederbooks (at) gmail (dot) com with the subject: HOLIDAY OFFER. In the body of the email, please tell me the first name of the person getting the gift so I can personalize the bookplate, along with a mailing address of where I should send the goodies. This offer is good until Monday, December 19th!!

Happy Holidays!!

Holiday Entertainment

My friend and writer-extraordinaire Sonia Gensler has compiled an awesome list of holiday-themed fiction. You can check it out HERE. 

I'm hoping to read the YA novel THE TWELVE DAYS OF DASH AND LILY by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn sometime this month, as I really loved DASH AND LILY'S BOOK OF DARES.

LET IT SNOW, also YA, by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle is probably my favorite of the ones she listed that I've read.

I've been thinking about favorite Christmas movies and my favorites are pretty unconventional. In other words, weird. But you know, we like what we like and we should never apologize for that. So in case you don't want to watch It's a Wonderful Life for the umpteenth time, here are a couple I love to watch every year.

The first is a class. A classic romantic comedy that I just adore so, so much in all of its black-and-white charm. "The Shop Around the Corner" takes place during the depression and stars Margarat Sullivan and Jimmy Stewart.

Favorite Quote: "The boss hands you the envelope. You wonder how much is in it, and you don't want to open it. As long as the envelope's closed, you're a millionaire."

Next this funny and heart-warming film that probably shouldn't work but really does so perfectly, thanks to spot-on writing and Michael Caine's brilliant acting.

Favorite Quote: "Light the lamp, not the rat!"

We have lots of snow and ice here and more coming next week, so I'll be doing a lot of reading and movie watching I suspect. Hope you can take the time to do the same!

Meditating with Poetry

I find poetry soothing. Especially poetry that has been around a long, long time. There is something about reading words written long ago that have stood the test of time that I find comforting. I was sharing these thoughts with a writing friend the other day, telling her how sometimes I'll take a little break and pull a poetry book off my bookshelf and fill myself with the beautiful words for a few minutes. She said, "It's like meditating with poetry."

Yes. That's exactly what it is.

If you'd like to add some poetry meditation into your day, I highly recommend it. Here is one, from one of my favorite poets, Sarah Teasdale, to get you started. Her work is in the public domain.

THE NEW MOON

by Sarah Teasdale

Day, you have bruised and beaten me,

As rain beats down the bright, proud sea,

Beaten my body, bruised my soul,

Left me nothing lovely or whole --

Yes I have wrested a gift from you,

Day that dies in dusky blue:

For suddenly over the factories

I saw a moon in the cloudy seas --

a wisp of beauty all alone

In a world as hard and gray as stone --

Oh who could be bitter and want to die

When a maiden moon wakes up in the sky?

Author event - Saturday, November 26th

Just want to let Portland/Vancouver people know I am doing an author event this coming Saturday at Vintage Books in Vancouver, Washington.

From their website:

2 pm – 3:30pm Come Mingle with Popular Children's/Middle Grade/Young Adult Authors!

• Heidi Schulz (Hook's Revenge, The Pirate Code & Giraffe's Ruin Everything)
• Laurel Gale (Dead Boy)
• Lisa Schroeder (It's Raining Cupcakes, All We Have is Now, My Secret Guide to Paris, The Girl in the Tower, Sealed with a Secret & The Day Before)

They will be chatting with customers, signing books, & answering questions!

Address: 6613 E. Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver, WA 

Ready or not, the holidays are here!

Lucky, lucky me

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of Skyping with a group of students who are in an English as a Second Language class at a middle school in North Carolina. Their teacher likes to use I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME with his students because he's found the way the verse is written, with lots of white space and not a lot of flowery language, works well for them and where they are at with their reading skills. It was so great to talk to these students and answer their thoughtful questions.

When I'm writing a book, I never know how it will be received or who, if anyone, will end up reading it. I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME has had a reach far greater than I ever imagined.

I'm so honored to have written something these students read and then discussed with each other in class. Even more than that, I'm honored to have met and talked with them. Kids often think that they are the lucky ones when they get to meet an author, but I consider myself even luckier every time I get to meet or talk with one or more of them. They wow me. They inspire me. And they fill me with hope.