Pumpkins, clouds, and superheroes

I love autumn! Love, love, love autumn. And this year, we've had the most delicious, leaf-crunching, cider-drinking, sunny-shining, breezy, easy autumn ever. I was so afraid when I left for Chicago last week that when I came back, autumn would have already been pushed aside by winter, but it's still lingering. And I've been celebrating by wearing sweaters and sandals, eating apples and drinking hot chocolate. Mmm...

The tour is over until January when I go back out with Libba Bray. It was terrific, as always. What's better than meeting readers and booksellers, librarians and teachers, kids and old fogeys who all love books? It's wonderful to crawl out of my house and see the world this way, one book store and school at a time. Traveling is tough though, and I'm glad to be home and getting the kids back on routine. I got home on Halloween, in time to take a nap to try and recover from a bad night, carve a pumpkin, and watch the cutest little Green Lantern ever go trick or treating. Max would ring the doorbell himself and when the door opened, say, "Trick-or-treating!" After obligatory candy was placed in bag (a book bag from Andersen's Book Shop in Naperville, Illinois), he'd always say, "Thank you. Happy Halloween!" Who's got the cutest kid in the world. Me. That's right. Maggie was Wonder Pig (dressed as a pig with Wonder Woman arm bands and tiara, from an episode of Justice League were Circe turned Wonder Woman into a pig. As I'm sure you're aware. Clearly.).

Take a gander at these pumpkins my friend and pumpkin carving enthusiast Laura Middleton made. She and her family do like fifty each year. If you were with us at the time, you saw a princess academy one she made a couple of years ago, and outdid herself again with a homage to book of a thousand days and austenland. Outstanding.

Comments

[Fantasy]

That's so cool! The pumpkins! Really, really awesome. And i think that Max sounds so cute!

[Jillian]

Oh, Max is so adorable! It's rare nowadays (unfortunately) for [people in general] to be so polite and courteous, and he's only a toddler!
I think it's so cool how you can be a famous, tour-traveling author yet still take your children trick-or-treating.
By the way, those pumpkins are fabulous. Pass my compliments on to your friend. (I went all-out this year and attempted to carve Captain Jack Sparrow on my pumpkin. It's as him on the Curse of the Black Pearl cover, with his sword and pistol crossed by his face. It's the most elaborate pumpkin i've ever done before, and I think I did alright, lol.)
I agree, don't you just love the weather here?!

[Calliope1of9]

Awesome pumpkins. Max is so polite! That's lovely to see a little kid with manners, unlike half the kids I saw running around last night. :(

Any more info on the Janurary tour? Like dates and cities?

[Sycamore]

I'm with you, Ms. Hale -- fall is the best season! Cool pumpkins.

[australiangirl]

Wow! I want one of those pumpkins. We don't really carve pumpkins during Halloween in Australia.

[elizabethbennett]

Go LittleRed! :D And Max sounds so cute.

[Holly]

Oh my word! The B1000 pumpkin is marvelous, but the Colin jack-o-lantern is well night unbelievable!

I'm really starting to like Anderson's...and remembering just how weird Wonder Woman episodes could be.

It was so wonderful to be at your event! I loved hearing what you had to say about B1000, and I feel like I am really a full-fledged self-identifying Shannon Hale nerd now...

P.S. I flipped through GG several times while I was in line, and I'm pretty positive I know what scene it is that you were talking about where you gave away a character's lines. I knew remembering everything I wanted to tell/ask you would be a miracle.

[Holly]

*nigh. Sorry!

[Enna Isilee]

The pumpkins are even more amazing in person! Holy cats!

[Enna Isilee]

Though I will say that it's like the world knew it was November today. It got A LOT colder. And it just kinda seems dreary. I'm waiting for the crispness to settle in.

[elizabethbennett]

My world didn't know it was November today. :D Fall is my second favorite season. I love the leaves!

[Kelsey]

Mmm, fall. It felt wonderful today, about 50 out, much better than it was for a while. Ohio rocks. :)

Those pumpkins are incredible! It'd be fun (if messy) to try that trick of scraping off the skin of the pumpkin...but I'm not quite that daring yet.

[Humph]

Theology Algebra
Hallowe'en=Holiday(Pagan)
Holiday/observers=Faith
Hallowe'en/Trick-or-Treaters=PAGAN

[maribeth_kayla]

Woah. LittleRed carved those pumpkins? Awesomeness! I'm glad you had a good halloween, mine was fun too! *goes to get candy*

[jen w.]

A Colin Firth pumpkin!!! I LOVE IT! Took me a while to figure out it was him. For a minute, I thought it was ELVIS! They're awesome!

[Bohae]

That's so cool :) I miss the changing seasons...here, it's either dry/rainy season ;)

[Sylvia]

Oooo! I've got a Halloween Party I'm going to tomorrow and I can't wait! That pumpkin was AMAZING and so was the Colin Firth lantern, (I recognised that it was him straight away!) Er... that doesn't mean I study Colin Firth's face or anything. Well, not exactly. I don't gawk at him over a piano like Lizzie. Just glance and smile. I swear.
:)

[Q]

We may need to start a Colin Firth addicts support group... :)

Those pumpkins are amazing. Truly amazing.

[Jane]

A Colin Firth jack-o-lantern!
::swoons::

[Jen]

I can't believe those pumpkins. They are incredible. Almost as incredible as your sweet writing skills!

[Ellenboro]

Oh! I completely adore fall.
J'adore l'automne!
(Hmm... I wonder if Mme Law would give me extra points for using a French exclamation on this... And for conjugating a verb we haven't even worked on yet, only heard...)

Max sounds so cute! And he's so polite. I took my little brother around the neighborhood and at one house I noticed he had just taken the candy and walked away. When I asked him if he had said thank you he gave me a guilty smile and said "ummm... oops. I forgot." (I made him go back solely to say thanks. He's nine! He should know better.)

And the pumpkins are magnificent! Totally. Tell your friend she outdid herself.

[Burning]

Nice pumpkins, LR.

I love fall, too.

Where will you be going with Libba Bray?

[Faith #2]

Aw, sounds like Max was adorable. (In ten years, he's going to read all of our "Isn't he adorable" comments and pretend to throw up. Ha.) My sister looked at the Colin Firth pumpkin, got really dreamy-eyed, and went to watch P&P.

[Burning]

Ha ha. I bet Max will think we're crazy. A bunch of people, mostly ones he doesn't know, talking about his adorable-ness. Imagine.

[Marcus Aurelius]

I was a little bit upset with you Halloween night, Shannon.

My car's engine died going up 33rd south (no, I wasn't just leaving Dr. Volts! Why would you even think that?) I used my special buddy ring to summon the local Green Lantern, but apparently his mom and dad had him out TRICK OR TREATING!

I had to push the durn-blasted thing m'self!

I hope you are satisfied.

(P.S. For anyone doubting? Allow me to testify that the Hale children are indeed frikkin' adorable.)

(And, yes, I said "frikkin'". Strewth.)

P.P.S. Awesome pumpkins! Great job, Middleton!

[hwalk]

Awesome pumpkins. I want one.

[Jenna]

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!

What did she use on those pumpkins? And was this freehand?
We used a drill one time to get a nice round hole in a pumpkin, but this...

[Burning]

Wow, there are people that can testify that the Hale children are apparently "frikkin'" adorable. Not that we didn't believe you, Shannon. It's nice to know. :)

[Gretchen]

Count me in with all of the fall-lovers! I can't decide which I love more, the sweaters or the way everything smells so good outside! It's a toss-up, really.

So I showed a friend the Darcy pumpkin and she gave me this look that clearly stated, "It's a picture of Mr. Darcy. I know we both love him, but I've seen him before."
Then I pointed out that it was a *pumpkin carving of Darcy* and we both marvelled for some time at Laura's talent. Kudos!

[MAYday]

Ah, yes, fall is loverly! Leaves, pumpkins, fooball (my HS team is the playoffs YAY!). And you gotta love all the fall colors!
WOW, those pumpkins are AMAZING, especially the Colin Firth one. It hardly looks like it IS a pumpkin! My best pumpkin had triangle eyes and a square nose. What talent, huh?

[Ellenboro]

MAYday, your pumpkin is better than mine have ever been. My best pumpkin shattered into only three pieces! Hooray for me! My worst is best not explained. (It's too embarassing)

I have a story to share. It's completely random but, oh well. Yesterday, during our last school period, the 9th grade volleyball team and the football team had a volleyball match and all 9th graders were excused from their 8th period to watch it. My history teacher, who is also the fotball coach, was talking a lot of smack about how the boys would beat the girls at their own game. The girls just talked smack back. Well, the boys won. All the girls were mad (especially the preppy girls) and I was laughing my head off. Don't get me wrong, I was rooting for the girls. It's just that I couldn't help it. My history teacher had taken off his button-up shirt, and stayed in his t-shirt, and had thrown it on the floor, stomped on it, and waved it around all through the game. It was hilarious!

OK. I'm done with my story. I'm feling random today. That's rather interesting, in my opinion.

[Q]

They weren't kidding when they said Sherwood Smith was awesome! I finished Crown Duel last night and am half a page away from finishing Court Duel, but I'm savoring it. Hooray!

[Ven]

i should be sleeping right now. i was just going to check my email and go to bed. but no. now, i'm sitting here reading this blog, drinking hot chocolate (okay, maybe it's pepsi) and wishing i could carve a pumpkin into looking like more than a heap of melted orange marshmellow. also, sweaters and sandals are the perfect combination and people have been looking at me like i'm crazy for the last month because of said combination. and i've been peeking at your lastest hardcover at the store where i work, but i can't stand there reading it for too long at once cause i'm on camera. here's to randomness and too much sugar!

[janalee]

Go Green Lantern! And I am quite familiar w/the Wonder Woman as a pig episode. There's a 4yo boy at my house who's fascinated w/the Justice League. :)

[Ellenboro]

Go Ven! Ha ha. I should be doing homework right now but instead am posting yet again on this blog. I am also eating a kit kat bar,drinking a cup of cold milk with CHOCOLATE Nesquick, and, as soon as my mother gets home from work, we're going to Dairy Queen to enjoy one last Moolatte before the snow shower that is supposed to come tomorrow. Fall didn't seem to last very long this year.
Hmmm.

[Talia Briscoe]

Oh, you got him to be GL? I'm so jealous! That's what I wanted our boy to be, but we could only find the muscle chest version in the size we needed and then a certain somebody noticed that there was a Bob the Builder costume and that was that. At least we got to be Robin, Supes, Bats and Flash before the hero streak was broken. (the first two were all in one year, as Mommy got one and Daddy got one and the costumes had to duke it out.)

Sounds like Maggie was precious, too. You'll have to try Zatanna or Hawkgirl or such next year.