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I recently learned that an Indonesian publisher has purchased the reprint rights for my Martha and Charlotte books. The first two books in each series came out in 2011, and the rest of them are coming out this year, is my understanding. The website is a bit puzzling: the entry for “Mellissa Wiley” shows the three books above, but seemed to be missing Little House in the Highlands. Then I realized Boston Bay‘s cover was there twice, with different titles. Here’s Highlands:

My publisher says I’ll be receiving copies sometime soon. It’s awfully fun to see one’s work in a new language.

I recently learned that an Indonesian publisher has purchased the reprint rights for my Martha and Charlotte books. The first two books in each series came out in 2011, and the rest of them are coming out this year, is my understanding. The website is a bit puzzling: the entry for “Mellissa Wiley” shows the three books above, but seemed to be missing Little House in the Highlands. Then I realized Boston Bay‘s cover was there twice, with different titles. Here’s Highlands, courtesy of Google Books:

My publisher says I’ll be receiving copies sometime soon. It’s awfully fun to see one’s work in a new language.

Got this question in the comments yesterday, and since it’s an inquiry I get often, I thought I’d pull it up into a post here:

“Why have the Martha, Charlotte, Caroline and Rose books gone out of print? As a huge fan of Laura’s books I read all the books and the books about her family. Now being older I want to purchase them all for my own collection as the libraries are getting rid of them. It does not help that I am Canadian and have a hell of a time of even finding them! Do you know of any places that still carries them?”

When a publisher allows a book to go out of print, it pretty much always means one thing: the book isn’t selling very well anymore. Warehouse space is extremely expensive, and there’s a certain point when it becomes more costly for a publisher to store books that are selling slowly than to just remainder them.

The decision to shutter the Little House prequels and sequels happened before social media took off, so if HarperCollins ever decides to bring them back (particularly as ebooks, which has been discussed but doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon), we’d be able to give them a nice big push and I think they’d do very well.

You can sometimes find used copies on eBay or Amazon Marketplace, but they tend to be extremely expensive in those outlets. (I don’t get royalties on used book sales, so please know those crazy prices don’t have anything to do with me!)

The second-ever LauraPalooza—a conference for Laura Ingalls Wilder scholars and fans—will be held in Mankato, MN this July 12-14th. Details at the site:

The theme of LauraPalooza 2012 is “What Would Laura Do?” and will include a mix of scholarly research and Little House fandom. More information, including the full schedule and registration form, can be found by visiting Beyond Little House. Look for the heading “LauraPalooza 2012″. All information that you need can be found there in the pull-down menu.

Events include:

• Special performance by Alison “Nellie Oleson” Arngrim
• LIW biographer William Anderson
• Little House Cookbook author Barbara Walker
• Authors’ reception including Barbara Walker, The Wilder Life author Wendy McClure, My Life As Laura author Kelly Ferguson, and others
• The return of the National Weather Service’s Barbara Mayes Boustead and physics teacher/Laura fan Jim Hicks
• Original research and insight on Laura, her life, and her books
• Conference-ending Spelling Bee and Silent Auction
• Special post-conference field trip to Walnut Grove, Minnesota — the setting for On the Banks of Plum Creek!
• A special presentation by Dean “Almanzo Wilder” Butler and Dale Cockrell of Pa’s Fiddle Recordings about the PBS Little House music special filmed last January in Nashville.

There’s also going to be a camp—Camp Laura—for kids grades K-6 (while parents are attending the conference).

Registration is open through May 31st.

I sooo wish I could go! Alas, it coincides with Comic-Con, a busy, busy weekend for us Bonny Glen folks. One of these years I am determined to get to LauraPalooza, though. If you can make it this year, you absolutely should! And then send me pictures.

Much to tell. Later. We drove all day and reached home before rush hour got ugly, hooray. Boy do I love a road trip with that husband of mine. Or any kind of trip, really. Or just staying home with him. Him, basically.

We had a great time in San Francisco. Lots of pictures and stories to share, as is always the case after a con. For now, just one little sneak peek of one of the best, the very very best, moments of the whole weekend.

That’s right! I MET MISS BEADLE! Charlotte Stewart, the perfectly lovely actress who played Laura’s beloved teacher on Little House in the Prairie, was there at a table in the convention hall, and I totally geeked out when I saw her. Got speechless and stammery and gushed like crazy. And she was so nice and friendly and warm, and I am thrilled to bits to have met her. I told her about my books, and she told me about the Little House Reunion Cruise that is happening in November, with Charlotte, and the hilarious Alison Arngrim (Nellie Oleson), and Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush (Baby Carrie), and Dean Butler (Almanzo), and ohhhh how much would I love to go?!

I told Charlotte how much I loved the gentleness and patience of her Miss Beadle, and she told me she modeled the character after her sister, a mother of eight. I love that.

Garth Williams‘ original graphite-and-ink cover for the E.B. White classic, Charlotte’s Web sold for $155k at auction. Altogether, 17 bids were made via internet, phone, and mail on the Heritage Auctions item.

Besides the original cover, another three items were included in the lot: “a 14 x 16.5 in. ink drawing of a web that was used to create the decorative end paper design for the book, and two 9 x 8 in. watercolors of the cover design.”

According to The Washington Post, the auction organizers originally estimated it would go for $30,000, but it exceeded expectations by more than 500 percent. 42 of Williams’ art pieces were sold in the same auction and in total, the collection grossed more than $780,000. The New York buyer for Charlotte’s Web preferred to remain anonymous.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. A dream come true for me. We had the most magical time.

I have loads to catch up on and no time to do it now, but I had pretty much the same reaction my good friend Karen Edmisten did just a few days earlier: a lump in my throat and a big ole grin on my face. Pa’s fiddle! Laura’s desk where she wrote all her books! Almanzo’s pink dishes! That big old cookstove he bought her! And oh and oh and oh!

The folks in the bookstore and museum were wonderfully kind to us, and we so enjoyed meeting them. I have much more to tell. Another time. For now, just a few pictures. And another big ole goofy grin.

Chasing butterflies in Laura’s yard. Which totally gives me goosebumps to write!

This coming weekend, Laura Ingalls Wilder fans and scholars from all over the country will gather in Mankato, MN, for the first-ever Laurapalooza Conference. I was invited to attend, but alas, I couldn’t swing a weekend away the week before Comic-Con. When your hubby’s a comic-book editor in San Diego, July is ALL ABOUT Comic-Con.

I’ll be LauraPaloozing in spirit, though, and eagerly following news of the conference on Twitter and at the Beyond Little House site.

Mankato, as you may know, is not only rich in LIW history, it’s the town on which Maud Hart Lovelace based the Deep Valley of her Betsy-Tacy books. As you can imagine, Mankato is high on my list of Places I Absolutely Must Visit Someday.

Laurapalooza speakers include LIW biographers John Miller, William Anderson, and Pamela Smith Hill. Visit Beyond Little House for more information.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has published some Civil War-era letters written by members of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family, including one by Caroline Quiner Ingalls (Laura’s mother) to her sister Martha (who was named after “my” Martha, Laura’s great-grandmother).

I haven’t had a chance to read the letters yet—just got the announcement—but it sounds like at least one of them mentions Charlotte, Laura’s grandmother. This batch of letters wasn’t among the family archive material the Laura Ingalls Wilder estate gave me when I was researching the Martha and Charlotte books, so this is new and exciting stuff for me too.

The long letter from Aunt Martha to Laura full of anecdotes about the Quiner children’s early years isn’t among these. It was written after Caroline’s death and was an important source of information for Maria Wilkes during her writing of the Caroline books. I’d love to see that one published some day. I have a copy somewhere in my files, but I think the original belongs to the Ingalls Wilder estate—or possibly one of the museums? There are Laura-related treasures in many of the home sites and museums that celebrate her work and life.

I’m bumping up this question from the comments because I thought some of you might be able to answer more authoritatively (pun intended) than I.

Dani Joy asks,

“I recomend your books to parents with young girls but do you think my boys might like to read the books? I haven´t thought they would but I haven’t read them yet either.”

The feedback I’ve gotten from parents, teachers, and, yes, boys!, over the years has been gratifyingly enthusiastic. I’ve been told there’s enough grit and adventure in the books that they appeal to young male readers as well as girls. But would some of you parents of boy-children out there care to share firsthand experiences with Dani? Be frank! It’s ok if your answer is ‘my boys thought they were too girly.’

Well, I'm pretty blown away this morning by the photos in this post at Pondered in My Heart—and by the tremendous compliments paid me by her family's enthusiasm for my Martha and Charlotte books. There is nothing more exciting to an author than seeing how her books have come to life for someone. Kimberlee's daughter Mary Rose is apparently a big fan, and her thoughtful big sister made her some Charlotte-inspired goodies for Christmas: a handmade copybook, Blue Back Speller, and gorgeously illustrated alphabet book. Truly lovely work, Lydia. I am very impressed.

And wait until you see the handcarved toys and spindles Kimberlee's sons made for their sisters. What a family!

By the way, the original "Blue Back Speller"�Noah Webster's American Spelling Book, originally published in 1783 and used by generations of American schoolchildren—has been republished in a facsimile edition. That's what I used to help me write some of the scenes in Charlotte's schoolhouse. You can read most of it online at Google Books.

But I have to say, I think I prefer Lydia's version!

I was reading a lovely post about St. Andrew by Elena at My Domestic Church and, to my surprise, stumbled upon my own name. Elena mentions that St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, and adds:

Our family has been reading Melissa Wiley's Martha Books for almost nine months now and these stories are set in Scotland. Young Martha, the laird's daughter, is always helping in the kitchen with baking bannocks, or eating bannocks, so the kids and I have decided to actually make bannocks tomorrow in celebration of the feast day. I'll post pictures and let you know if they turn out okay!

I look forward to seeing those pictures!

I posted a recipe for bannocks here a long while back.

And here's a Martha/Scotland-related resource & activities page.

One of the books I read during my research for the Martha Books was Dorothy Wordsworth's Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland in A.D. 1803. The time period was just about right; Little House in the Highlands is set in 1795, and change came slowly to those remote glens.

Dorothy traveled with her brother, William, and their friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. (Ooh! Now there's an idea for a novel!) In her journal she wrote,

"It was harvest-time, and the fields were quietly (might I be allowed to say pensively?) enlivened by small companies of reapers. It is not uncommon in the more lonely parts of the Highlands to see a single person so employed. The following poem was suggested to Wm. by a beautiful sentence in Thomas Wilkinson's Tour in Scotland."

And then she copied out William's poem (written two years later), "The Solitary Reaper."

A note in my Wm. Wordsworth collection tells me that the line from Thomas Wilkinson is this:

"Passed a female who was reaping alone; she sung in Erse, as she bended over her sickle; the sweetest human voice I ever heard: her strains were tenderly melancholy, and felt delicious, long after they were heard no more."

I love to know the story behind a poem, a novel, a painting. Here is William's poem, all the lovelier to me for knowing what sparked it in his mind.

The Solitary Reaper
by William Wordsworth

Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so shrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;—
I listen'd, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

This week's Poetry Friday round-up can be found at Hip Writer Mama.

What's Poetry Friday? Susan Thomsen explains at PoetryFoundation.org.

UPDATED! A reader reports that the Loftus Store shipped her one of the old (unabridged) books, and one of the new (abridged). If you order from these sources and you want the unabridged editions, be sure to request the versions with the illustrated (painted) covers. The photo covers are the abridged editions.

Alicia, aka Love2Learn Mom, has just returned from a trip to South Dakota. One stop on her route was De Smet, the town Charles and Caroline Ingalls settled in during By the Shores of Silver Lake. Alicia writes that she found

two gift shops that still had quite a few copies of the [unabridged] Little House prequels available for sale (and were willing to ship telephone orders).

Here's the info in case you'd like to pass it along...

The Loftus Store
www.loftusstore.com
1-866-335-3271

Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society
1-800-880-3383
This one had at least five copies of most of the books

They have Caroline books as well as my Martha and Charlotte novels.

Alicia, aka Love2Learn Mom, has just returned from a trip to South Dakota. One stop on her route was De Smet, the town Charles and Caroline Ingalls settled in during By the Shores of Silver Lake. Alicia writes that she found

two gift shops that still had quite a few copies of the [unabridged] Little House prequels available for sale (and were willing to ship telephone orders).

Here's the info in case you'd like to pass it along...

The Loftus Store
www.loftusstore.com
1-866-335-3271

Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society
1-800-880-3383
This one had at least five copies of most of the books

They have Caroline books as well as my Martha and Charlotte novels.

All kinds of wonderful coverish news came out recently. Children's Illustration found all these covers on the Look, See blog from the past, sans dust jackets. Definitely seek out the What's Inside of Me? portion, dated August 11, 2006. Old school creepy and cool.

Then from the Raising WEG blog is a look at the new Little House covers. The author of the post has a remarkably good point when she says that Almanzo looks more than a little bit like Orlando Bloom on These Happy Golden Years. See for yourself:

And finally one of my Judges on my Middle Grade Fiction committee of the Cybil Award, one Eric Berlin, has just seen the cover of his new book. We are all very proud, Mr. Berlin. Well done indeed.