Just finished a grand day at Slingerlands Elementary. It’s a wonderful school, and the teachers and students all made me feel right at home. (Thanks especially to Mrs. Collen for being such a wonderful host.)

One project the Slingerlands kids worked on was to write a pages recommending ideas for what my next book should be. They were, by and large, genius. Here are a few of my favorites.

The next book should be about…

…the pig’s F.B.I. motorcycle.

…two jelly beans that talk and almost get eaten

…a special seed that can turn into a tree that can move and can change into anything.

…dinosaurs vs. Backbeard.

(and my favorite)

…Backbeard sells donuts.

I’m happy to report that the Lion’s Share DVD is now available from Nutmeg Media, perfect for school libraries everywhere. The people at Nutmeg did a great job with this, and I’m really pleased with the results.

Back to Farnsworth Middle School to do another series of presentations with Larry Tuxbury about Benjamin Franklinstein. Larry’s a language arts teacher at Farnsworth, and we’ve been working together on writing the book for the past couple years. It’s finally just about complete (due this September from Putnam) and we were able to share the whole process of writing and illustrating with the students.

In spite of the fact that we presented on the three days before Christmas vacation, everything went great. The kids had terrific questions, and Larry was on his best behavior. To top it all off, they fed us the most amazing sandwiches for lunch. A grand way to end 2009!

People ask me all the time where I get the ideas for my books, and I don’t have a good answer. A good idea isn’t something that can be conjured up at a moment’s notice. It has to be stumbled upon.

Here’s an example: Last week I woke up in my hotel in Corning, NY, half asleep, one eye pinned shut by the pillow, and noticed this unusual knob on middle of the wall. It was old, no doubt left over from a previous incarnation of the hotel, and it was labeled the McQuay Seasonmaker. What a beautiful name! And what possibilities it suggested!

Needless to say, I didn’t turn the knob, or you, and the entire east coast, would have noticed. But what if I had?

Now there’s a good idea for a story.

I was in Corning to visit two schools, H. Gregg Elementary and Kent Phillips Elementary. It was a great trip, and my two hosts, Mrs. Robarge and Mrs. Wukovitz, took terrific care of me while I was there. The kids were amazing, well-prepared and full of good questions, and the walls of the school were lined with really fun artwork. There were digital paintings, a line of pinch-pots each containing precisely thirteen miniature beans, and drawings and paintings inspired by Andy Warhol and Wayne Thiebaud.

It was an absolute treat from beginning to end, and I thank everyone, especially Mrs. Robarge and Mrs. Wukovitz, for all the hard work they put in to make it happen.

One of the fun things about this author job is that sometimes I get to try out other jobs. Today, I went to the recording studio to record some audio for the upcoming Lion’s Share DVD.

The studio had pictures of Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa, and Duke Ellington on the walls. Technically, these musicians never actually recorded there, but the idea is that they could have, if they had been in town and the studio had been around when they were alive. So there were lots of good vibes in the room.

The engineer, Jason, was really cool and patient with all my stupid questions. For some reason, though, he didn’t ask me for a photo for the wall, even though there was a big empty spot right next to Jimi Hendrix. I’m sure it was just an oversight. I’ll send him one.