The Elephant In the Room, Literally

Hey, guys, can I crash on your couch?

Well, wouldn't this make for an interesting day? A lost baby elephant wandered into a ranch house living room. Only ten
days old, she was hungry and dehydrated and had walked a long way--about thirty miles--before showing up in Francoise Malby-Anthony's home at the Thula Thula Private Game Reserve in Zululand, South Africa. See the full article and adorable photo in this article from The Telegraph.

After hanging around for a snack, the calf, called Tom by the ranch hand who found her, was reunited with her herd. Of course they were thrilled to see her, especially her mother, who'd been rescued by Francoise's husband Lawrence Anthony years ago.

That's not even the most interesting part--I knew I recognized Lawrence Anthony's name, so I did a search to find out why it was so familiar. There was a story I had in mind but had thought, "No way, that would be too weird." Yet there it was, the elephant "funeral procession" after Anthony's death in 2009.

Anthony was a conservationist was known as "The Elephant Whisperer" for his work with wild elephants in South Africa. After he died, two herds of elephants he'd worked with made an estimated twelve-hour journey to his house. They stayed around there for a couple of days before heading back to the wild. Before this event, these elephants hadn't been to the property for at least a year and a half.

There are plenty of examples of elephants mourning their dead, not only at the time the death occurs but when they come across bones of a former herd member. Making the long trek to pay respects after the passing of a human friend is even more fascinating. I mean, HOW IN THE WORLD DID THEY KNOW???

In answering that question, Rabbi Leila Gal Berner said, “A good man died suddenly, and from miles and miles away, two herds of elephants, sensing that they had lost a beloved human friend, moved in a solemn, almost ‘funereal’ procession to make a call on the bereaved family at the deceased man’s home. If there ever were a time, when we can truly sense the wondrous ‘interconnectedness of all beings,’ it is when we reflect on the elephants of Thula Thula. A man’s heart’s stops, and hundreds of elephants’ hearts are grieving. This man’s oh-so-abundantly loving heart offered healing to these elephants, and now, they came to pay loving homage to their friend.”

And somehow one of their babies knew where to go when she needed help.

Guest Post: How You Can Help Elephants

Today we have a special treat--a guest post from the folks at World Elephant Day, who last year brought us the documentary Return to the Forest.

Now they're at work on a new documentary, Elephants Never Forget, which explores the lives of working elephants (like Nandita in CHAINED), along with other issues like poaching and habitat loss that threaten the elephant population.

So now I'll turn things over to the World Elephant Day organization, with some ways to help elephants and more information about their current project:

Elephants are becoming extinct. Each region has its own elephant issues, ranging from the escalation of poaching and illegal trade, to habitat loss, to human-elephant conflict and captivity issues. In order to conserve these magnificent animals we need to come together and raise awareness of these issues with a powerful global voice. If you are eager to help but don’t know how, here are several ideas:

Become Elephant Educated
Learn about the deeper issues behind the threats facing elephants. In order to find a solution, we need to create alternative, sustainable livelihoods for people who have traditionally relied on elephants.

Support Elephant Organizations
Support organizations who are working to protect habitat for wild elephants, finding solutions for human-elephant conflict, and preventing poaching.

Only Visit Eco-Tourism Operations
If you wish to experience elephants in their natural environment choose eco-tourism operators who support local elephant conservation projects and who treat elephants with respect and dignity.

Support Awareness Projects
Donate and share about projects that are working to raise awareness of the elephant’s critical plight. An advocacy film is currently doing just that and raising money through Indiegogo to complete their project.

The issues facing elephants are complex and involve many different stakeholders. In order to ensure their survival we need the masses to unite and each do their part.




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Happy World Elephant Day!

Yes, it's World Elephant Day, the day where all good little elephants wake up to find presents under their trees and apples in their baskets. Or something like that.



However they celebrate, we can stop by The World Elephant Day website and watch the new documentary, Return to the Forest, about efforts in Thailand to re-introduce elephants to the wild after captivity. Here's the trailer:



And if that wasn't enough to entice you, it's narrated by William Shatner.

To continue the party, here are a few more of my favorite elephant stories found online:

Rajan the elephant retires after thirty years of working as a water taxi. He's been replaced by motorboats, which wouldn't be nearly as much fun.



Speaking of swimming elephants, Ricky Gervais talks about elephants "caught swimming" in the ocean:



A hotel was built on this elephant herd's migration path, but that doesn't stop them:



The article "A Mother's Determination: Elephant Rescues Baby Trapped in Mud" has amazing photos of an elephant freeing her calf from a mud hole.

And here's an article with pictures of an elephant funeral procession, not for another elephant but for the human known as "The Elephant Whisperer."

Enjoy your Elephant Day, but don't overdo the peanuts!

Cover Reveal & Giveaway: So Happy I'm Flinging Poo

...And that's even more fun than it sounds.

A couple weeks ago I got to see the cover art for my midgrade novel CHAINED, which comes out next May, and I've been dying to share it with everyone. I mean really, everyone. I had to stop myself from running up to strangers at the gas station to show them the picture on my phone.

I was not-so-patiently waiting for word from the publisher that I could go ahead and show the cover, and then I got home Tuesday afternoon to find these guys on the front porch:

Well, hello there

Aren't they gorgeous? Until those advance copies arrived I didn't know what the tagline on the cover would be; if you can't see it in the picture, it reads "Deep in the jungle, a young elephant keeper plots an escape from a dangerous circus."

Here's a picture of the cover art itself--this is from before the tagline was added, but it shows the colors more clearly:

I might have hugged it a few times. The awesome people at MacMillan asked the super-talented Chris Sheban to do the cover illustration. When I first saw the many rough sketches Chris sent of his ideas for the cover, I knew I'd be thrilled with the result.

And here's the back!

Nice close-up of the elephant's sweet face. And the tagline there looked familiar--back when I was querying agents, the book description in the query letter ended with "...the two friends discover the bond that links them together is stronger than any shackle, lock, or chain."

Now for even more fun stuff. Before I had a cover, I made some business card bookmarks using card stock made from elephant poop.

Who knew elephant poop could be so adorable? And if you get some of these bookmarks and your friends don't believe you when you tell them what they're made of, well there it is, labeled on the back:

And as soon as I got the cover art I ordered some stickers and miniature business cards from Moo:

The Moo cards are about half the size of a business card & make cute little bookmarks

Also I made bookplates on Office Depot's website by uploading the book cover to one side of a blank mailing label:

Here's where I totally steal an idea from Sarah Prineas, because I loved the contest she did for Anne Nesbet's CABINET OF EARTHS cover reveal. So, if you'd like to win some of the stuff I've shown here, plus a a blank journal made of elephant poop paper or an advance copy of CHAINED, leave a comment and mention a page number from 3 to 242; I'll reply with a line from that page of the book. Include your email address too so I can notify you if you win. When the contest ends next Thursday, I'll randomly pick two winners. (U.S. addresses only).

Here's package 1, with two of the handmade elephant poop bookmarks, one elephant poop bookmark from Rainbow Gifts, three signed bookplates, two cover art stickers, two Moo cards, and a blank journal made of elephant poop paper from elephantdungpaper.com:

The paper in the blank journal is a little rough for writing on (must be all that hay), but I think it'd make a great scrapbook. The silver square on the front is a metal elephant medallion. The handmade bookmarks might be different colors than those pictured here, but I have a wide variety of card stock, so I can probably make some using your favorite colors.

And pack 2, with one of the Rainbow Gifts bookmarks, three of the handmade bookmarks, two Moo cards, three signed bookplates, two cover art stickers, and a signed ARC of CHAINED:

Quick rules for entering again: leave a page number from 3-242 in the comments. Contest ends Thursday, November 3rd at 11:59 PM.

Good luck! Hope you all love the cover as much as I do.

That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

The other day I wrote about several recent and upcoming elephant books for kids. Thankfully, you can never have too many elephant books, and none of them look similar to my own book. But maybe you've had that problem--you had a great idea for a book, then discover that someone else (or a few someone elses) wrote a book a lot like it. Now what? See Jen Nadol's guest post on the Cynsations blog, "Oh No! Someone Used My Idea!"

A trending topic on Twitter that's funny for some reason we can't explain and might have stolen some of my productivity this week is #replacebooktitleswithbacon. Some favorites: Are You There, God? It's Me, Bacon, How Stella Got Her Bacon Back, and Something Bacon This Way Comes.

One thing that keeps me reading a book is wondering how in the world the character is going to make it through his predicament. Are the stakes high enough in your own book? Not until the reader can't see a way out. Kara Lennox has a great article, "Is Your Black Moment Enough?" on Anna DeStefano's blog.

If you're interested in author marketing, be sure to bookmark Kristen Lamb's blog. We authors are really good at networking with each other, but it's harder to reach out to our readers online. "The Secret to Selling Books Part I--Let's Get Sticky", shows how we can better connect with our audience.

Here's a video I just saw today, but I have a feeling it'll go viral. Perfectly captures the emotional stages a writer goes through when writing a novel. I especially love the editing stage:


What happens to an elephant who survives a land mine explosion? If she knows the right people, she gets a giant prosthetic leg! Edited to add: Just saw that there's a documentary being made about the hospital that cares for this elephant and others injured by land mines. Learn more and see the trailer on the Eyes of Thailand website.

In other animal news, how can you not love a girl who punches a bear in the face to save her dog?

Have a fun and safe holiday weekend! Watch out for bears. But if you do see one, you know what to do now.

Elephants: The New Vampires

It seems like elephants are everywhere lately, and not just in my house. They're showing up in a lot of books. (And an Oscar-worthy movie you may have heard of.)

The upcoming elephant books for kids I've seen all look awesome, and thankfully not too similar to my own (like what happens in the "Oh No! Someone Used My Idea!" experience).

Since you can never have too many elephant books, here are some to look for:

THE MASTERWORK OF A PAINTING ELEPHANT by Michelle Cuevas (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, October 2011)
I remember seeing the listing for this one back when it sold and thinking it sounded fabulous. Here's the description from the publisher's website:

Ever since he was an infant, Pigeon Jones has lived on the back of an artistically gifted white elephant named Birch. Birch is a loving father, but that doesn’t stop Pigeon from wondering about the human parents who abandoned him. Birch has dreams, too—of being a well-known artist, and of finding the acrobat he fell in love with while they performed together in a circus years ago.

And so, on Pigeon’s tenth birthday, their search for fame and lost loves begins. Pigeon and Birch paint their way across the world, dodging an evil circus ringleader, freeing zoo animals, and befriending singing hoboes along the way. But when they reach the end of their journey, Birch must master the most difficult art of all: letting go and allowing his beloved Pigeon to stand on his own two feet.

Switching from fantasy to historical fiction, one that's completely different but from the same publishing house (Macmillan's leading the herd in the elephant trend) is the young adult novel AN ELEPHANT IN THE GARDEN by WAR HORSE author Michael Morpurgo (Feiwel & Friends, October 2011).

Lizzie and Karl’s mother is a zoo keeper; the family has become attached to an orphaned elephant named Marlene, who will be destroyed as a precautionary measure so she and the other animals don’t run wild should the zoo be hit by bombs. The family persuades the zoo director to let Marlene stay in their garden instead. When the city is bombed, the family flees with thousands of others, but how can they walk the same route when they have an elephant in tow, and keep themselves safe? Along the way, they meet Peter, a Canadian navigator who risks his own capture to save the family.

As Michael Morpurgo writes in an author’s note, An Elephant in the Garden is inspired by historical truths, and by his admiration for elephants, “the noblest and wisest and most sensitive of all creatures.” Here is a story that brings together an unlikely group of survivors whose faith in kindness and love proves the best weapon of all.

TUA AND THE ELEPHANT by Randal Harris, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo (Chronicle Books, March 2012).

Not much online about this one other than the Publishers Marketplace announcement where it was described as "...a middle-grade novel about the remarkable journey of a young girl who rescues and befriends an elephant."

And a couple of this year's elephant books that are already out:

I loved SMALL AS AN ELEPHANT by Jennifer Richard Jacobson (Candlewick, March 2011). It's a midgrade novel, but one that I think teens and adults would enjoy too. This was a hard one to put down, because I had to keep reading to find out where Jack was going to go next and if he would find his mom.

Ever since Jack can remember, his mom has been unpredictable, sometimes loving and fun, other times caught in a whirlwind of energy and "spinning" wildly until it’s over. But Jack never thought his mom would take off during the night and leave him at a campground in Acadia National Park, with no way to reach her and barely enough money for food. Any other kid would report his mom gone, but Jack knows by now that he needs to figure things out for himself - starting with how to get from the backwoods of Maine to his home in Boston before DSS catches on. With nothing but a small toy elephant to keep him company, Jack begins the long journey south, a journey that will test his wits and his loyalties - and his trust that he may be part of a larger herd after all.

Ann Downer's ELEPHANT TALK: THE SURPRISING SCIENCE OF ELEPHANT COMMUNICATION (Lerner, 2011) is fascinating nonfiction book about elephant communication.
Here's a bit about the book from Ann's website:

Everyone has heard a bull elephant trumpeting, in a Tarzan movie or at the zoo. When we think about elephant communication, we think about that call. But elephant communication is much more complex and much more interesting that what we can hear with our human ears. Did you know that elephants also communicate through low-frequency rumbles we can’t hear? Or that they read vibrations in the ground through pads on their specially adapted feet? Or that they send signals to rivals and mates using chemical signals and body language?

Share your favorite elephant books in the comments, if you have some I haven't mentioned here. Any others you know of that are coming soon?

Then go on and write that elephant-lion romance book. I know you're thinking about it.

That's What (S)he said: Weekly Round-Up

Hi, people!

It's an exciting time around here lately, with moving the daughter in to her new place for her sophomore year of college, listening to colorful descriptions of what it's like to assemble Ikea furniture, and maybe seeing a sketch of the cover art for CHAINED. (Nothing to share yet, but if I did see such a sketch, it's really awesome.)

Meanwhile, here are last week's favorite things found on the Internet:

I hope everyone on the East Coast is staying safe from the hurricane. Those who still have electricity (or plenty of battery life) are staying updated and sharing storm humor via Twitter. Here are a few funny tweets about Hurricane Irene from The Huffington Post.

Do you keep meaning to connect with people online, but feel like you don't have the time? See "7 Tips For Finding Time For Social Media" from Inkling Media.

Getting an agent is a huge step toward getting published, but what happens if your book doesn't sell? Edan Lepucki has a great "Shutting the Drawer" post on The Millions blog about that heartbreaking problem.

Now, a couple of fun elephant videos. This is fascinating-- an elephant's problem-solving when the fruit on the tree is too high:



And I love Ricky Gervais' take on elephants who have been "caught swimming:"



Reminds me of the cat who was caught barking:



I feel like a big tease giving you book recommendations this week, because the books I've been reading won't be out till next year! A perk of being in the Apocalypsies is that I'll have a chance to read some of the books before they're released. But put THE MAPMAKER AND THE GHOST by Sarvenaz Tash on your list if you'd like a good midgrade adventure, and FRACTURE by Megan Miranda for a young adult paranormal thriller you won't be able to put down.

Speaking of awesome paranormal YA novels, Gretchen McNeil's POSSESS was just released, so pick up that one if you haven't yet! But you'll probably want to sleep with the lights on.

Have a great week!

I Can Stop Anytime I Want, Really

I've mentioned before that I've always loved elephants, but I wasn't until I was writing CHAINED that I started hoarding collecting them. They sit on the writing desk as inspiration. Certainly I have enough, but it seems like I always find another one that really, really wants me to take it home.

Here's what the mailman brought yesterday, all the way from an Etsy seller in Greece:

Adorable, isn't he? Tara Lazar found him, actually, and thought I might like to adopt him. So let's blame her, shall we?

Doesn't he look great with the rest of the family?

I should introduce the rest of the herd:
- the dark wooden one I found on eBay
- Horton, of course
- In the back is a leather bank from Bookpeople in Austin
- the light-colored figure is from a shop in Hawaii where the little shop owner nearly tackled my mom when she tried to leave without buying anything
- The set in front are metal, from the Chautauqua bookstore when I was there for the Highlights Institute in 2008
- and the round metal thing is an elephant bell, also from eBay.

That's not even the entire collection--there's also a wooden mother and baby, and a wooden elephant bell I ordered when I was writing a scene for CHAINED in which a character carves one. (So that one was really necessary, wasn't it? It's research!)

And I have enablers. Sometimes people who know I love elephants will pick up elephant things for me...

A few examples

...which is awesome.








So, is there anything you collect that has to do with your writing? Tell me I'm not the only one.

If my behavior escalates, I'll be driving around in an elephant car, inspired by this sweet ride, the hippo car:

Cheerio in the Houston Art Car Parade

  

And at last night's SCBWI meeting. It pees and wags its tail!

I should probably find a sponsor to talk me down from this.

All I Really Needed To Know I Learned From Elephants

Elephants have always been my favorite animal, but when I was doing research for CHAINED I learned a lot of cool things about them I didn't know before.

This weekend I went to the Houston Zoo's Elephant Open House. I'd gone to the event before, but I always love getting a closer look at the elephants and watching how they interact with one another.

They seem to be really smart, so here are some lessons from the elephants!

Don't try to do it all yourself
Elephants are very protective of their calves, but they aren't frazzled moms trying to take care of everything alone. All the elephants in the herd help take care of the babies.

New baby elephant at Chester Zoo

Be loyal to your friends

Hapoor Dam Meet & Greet

Elephants develop lifelong friendships, and even remember friends they haven't seen for years. And your friends don't have to look like you, right? I think Maximus the Elephant Dog gets as much attention as the elephants do during the open house events. And when Bella the dog was recovering from a spinal cord injury in the office of the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennesee, her buddy Tarra hung around outside the office the whole time instead of wandering around the grounds as usual.



...and remember those who came before you
I find this fascinating--elephants are really interested in the bones of other elephants. If they come across elephant bones they'll often pick them up or touch them with their trunks. Researchers have given elephants the bones of other animals to see if they'll respond the same way, but they show interest in only the elephant bones. I'd love to know what they're thinking!

Discovery News

Eat what you'd like, but get plenty of exercise
Asian elephants in the wild eat about 650 pounds of food a day, but they're working for it by walking around almost all day long. Of course, food is readily available the zoo, so they don't have to go around looking for it. The Houston zoo elephants have a pretty big yard to walk around in (soon to be a much bigger yard), but since they're not walking for miles and miles each day, they eat about 100 pounds of food. (But somehow poop 150 pounds).

Make that long-distance call
Elephants use infrasonic communication to talk to elephants who are far away. Some of the sounds they make are too low for us to hear, but an elephant a couple of miles away will respond to these sounds that they hear or feel with their feet.

Take time out for yourself
Here's a lesson from the bulls, really. The female elephants stick together in a herd, but the male elephants keep to themselves most of the time. You don't have to run off to the jungle and live on leaves, but I think it's good to take a little time away from everyone and have some quiet time alone.

African bull elephant

Wear sunscreen
After a bath, an elephant usually rolls around in the dirt. It seems counterproductive, but they know what they're doing--the dirt protects them from bug bites and acts as a sunscreen. Plus, it looks like a lot of fun, which as elephants know, is also important.

Bath time joy

Speaking of bath time, here's a video I made of Tess and her daughter Tupelo at the open house. Remember to get plenty of water, everyone--it's hot out there!