One thing I loved (still do) about yoga is that it’s a form of meditation in action. These days, however, I get my meditation-in-action in different ways. Cooking is pretty frenzied, with one child “helping” and another yodelling in the background. Ditto baking. But look what landed in our back garden today!

Two cords of seasoned firewood. And it all needs to go into the shed (that blue building on the right). Stacking firewood is only very distantly related to yoga: both require a gentle warm-up and no special clothing (regardless of what lululemon would have you believe). Both leave you feeling sore and smug the next day. And until things calm down around here, I’ll take my meditation in action wherever I can get it.

What’s your form of meditation in action?

P.S. I recently recorded two audio clips for the nice people at teachingbooks.net. Want to hear them? The first is a short reading from A Spy in the House and the second is a silly one about the pronunciation of my name. Hope you enjoy!

We were in Toronto for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s annual awards gala, and I came away with the best news possible: A Spy in the House won the inaugural John Spray Mystery Award! Here’s what the judges had to say: ““In A Spy in the House Lee has got Victorian London right; this is what Dickens’ world really smelled like, literally and morally… Interesting and unique, Mary Quinn is a strong character who can think on her feet… I loved this book from the first line to the very last… A great read for a young adult of any age…”

I’m astounded, and thrilled, and humbled, and so grateful to a long list of people:

- John Spray of the Mantis Investigation Agency, who created and funds the award;

- My husband, Nicholas Woolley, who is my first and best and most ruthless reader;

- My agent, Rowan Lawton of PFD, who first envisioned the book as a YA novel;

- My editors, Mara Bergman of Walker Books UK and Deborah Noyes Wayshak of Candlewick Press, for honing my manuscript to its present form;

- All the booksellers, librarians, and teachers who are its passionate advocates;

- And finally, I am so very grateful to you, my readers, who are fervent about Mary Quinn and her circle. It’s a joy and a privilege to write these books. Thank you for your support.

Warmest congratulations to my fellow finalists Jan Markley, Allan Stratton, Marty Chan, and Norah McClintock. Long may mystery novels for young people continue to flourish!

First, A Spy in the House has been nominated for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s brand-new John Spray Mystery Award! Can I possibly hold my breath from now until the winners are announced in October?

Second, I’ll be reading, signing, and talking about the Victorians at the Mississauga Public Library on August 27, as their Teen Summer Reading program concludes. I’ll post more details here closer to the event.

And finally, I’m absolutely overjoyed to announce that there will be a fourth and final Agency novel. Its working title is Rivals in the City. There’s no publication date yet (I have to finish the book first!), but I’m so thrilled to be immersed in Mary Quinn’s world, one last time. I hope you’ll agree.

Happy long weekend, Canadian and American readers!

I’m so glad that the organizers gave me a chance to say a very quick hello to the audience. A student will read the following greeting to the audience but I thought I’d post it here, too, so it reaches those who weren’t lucky enough to score tickets to the gala.

Several years ago, my mother asked me whether I’d rather have a baby or publish a novel. I didn’t even have to think about it: “novel” was my unhesitating answer, and The Agency: A Spy in the House, became both my book and my baby.

I’m a doubly lucky person, though. The reason I can’t be here today, celebrating with you in person, is because I’m in Kingston, Ontario, awaiting the birth of another baby – and I don’t mean the fictional type, this time. I’m so sorry to miss this party, and I hope it’s a shining day for everyone. Thank you for being such passionate readers.

Congratulations to all my fellow finalists, and especially to the students who read their way through the shortlists with such verve and enthusiasm! It’s been such a pleasure hearing from you.

I can still do local events, though, and on Friday, May 13, I’ll be reading at Indigo Books & Music as part of the United Way’s Success by 6 Week. I’ll be reading from two of my favourite picture books, starting at 11.20. See you there?

All next week, I’ll be chatting with members of Bookurious, where the Book Club is reading A Spy in the House. The discussion thread opens today, so if you have burning questions about Mary Quinn (oh okay, James Easton – everyone always asks about James!), do join in.

And finally, are you a Kingston-area high school student? There’s a writing contest designed just for you by Kingston WritersFest 2011. (Ahem: cash prizes.) Details are here. Good luck!

Anyway, this week’s blog post, Rebels with a Cause, is part of YABookReads’s Historical Fiction vs Dystopia showdown. Among other things, I argue that “History is about competing stories, rival interpretations, and detective work.” Much as I enjoy dystopia, I think we all know which genre will prevail.

And look! It’s an Agency collage!

by Zoë Lehoux, age 11

I love that Zoë sought out an image of Mary’s jade pendant (near the top, left of centre). What do you think? Is it like you imagined? Thank you for letting me share your hard work, Zoë!

Here’s the cover:

And the full dustjacket:

What do you think?

I also have a few lovely announcements. Some French readers have asked when the third Mary Quinn novel (The Traitor and the Tunnel in English; I don’t know what the French title will be), will be published by Nathan. There’s no firm date yet, but it’ll be early in 2012. Hurray! I’ll update this as soon as I have a date for you.

This month, The Body at the Tower is the Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children‘s Book of the Month! Their review is here.

Deborah Sloan just told me that A Spy in the House is on the Bank St College of Education’s 2011 Best Books List! If you’re curious, their picks are here (as downloadable PDFs), grouped by age. Spy is on the 14 and up list.

And finally, a truly fantastic announcement that’s not about me or my books: Stephanie Burgis‘s debut novel, Kat, Incorrigible, is published this week in North America! Huzzah!

I’ve raved about Steph’s novel before. If you love Jane Austen, magick, sly wit, and sibling solidarity, you will adore Kat’s adventures. But don’t just take my word for it – read the first three chapters here! Congratulations, Steph!

In this case, a Facebook friend shared a link to a terrific slam-poetry performance. Then I read Peggy Orenstein’s Cinderella Ate My Daughter. After that, generous friends gave us 3 enormous bags of sweet, tasteful, hand-me-down clothes.

And you know what? Our girl isn’t even born and I’m already experiencing Pink & Pretty overload. I avoid the pink aisles in children’s stores. I know that Barbies, Bratz, and yet more bumptious dolls await. And I’ve noticed that clothing for small girls is relentlessly – even furiously – feminine: pink and purple, frills and tucks, flowers and hearts. Depending on the day, I sigh, shudder, or rant.

What I’m less certain of is why this bothers me so. Little boys are equally stereotyped: blue and more blue, trucks and dinosaurs, “action figures” (can’t call them dolls, or society will collapse!) and toy guns. But to me this seems less dangerous, less toxic, less generally loathesome. Also, less compulsory. Am I under- or over-estimating boys, or being unfair to them in some way?

These questions churned in my brain as I read Cinderella Ate My Daughter. The pretty/pink conundrum torments Orenstein, too, as you’ll see if you read her book (I recommend it). And here’s where I think Orenstein really gets it right. She says:

It would be disingenuous to claim that Disney Princess diapers or Ty Girlz or Hannah Montana or Twilight or the latest Shakira video or a Facebook account is inherently harmful. Each is, however, a cog in the round-the-clock, all-pervasive media machine aimed at our daughters – and at us – from womb to tomb; one that, again and again, presents femininity as performance, sexuality as performance, identity as performance, and each of those traits as available for a price. It tells girls that how you look is more important than how you feel. More than that, it tells them that how you look is how you feel, as well as who you are.

That’s it, right there – the core of my anxieties, uncovered.

And the slam-poetry performance I mentioned earlier? It’s Katie Makkai’s “Pretty”. I think all girls should hear it – as mine will, one day. (Thanks, Coco.)

—

On a completely different subject, The Agency: A Spy in the House was recently shortlisted for an Agatha! These are readers’ choice awards (yes, named for Agatha Christie) and the members of Malice Domestic will vote for a winner at their April convention. (Check out the full shortlist here.) I’m so very honoured. Thank you, mystery fans!

This is a reader’s choice award for ages 11-15, it’s linked to a great reading-promotion program in Ontario schools, and the whole thing culminates in a 2-day gala at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. The craziest part, though? Being in the company of writers I think of as superstars, like Kelley Armstrong. And Gordon Korman, for crying out loud, whose work I loved as a kid. Plus, there are writers on the shortlist whose work I don’t know, but am really looking forward to discovering (click here for full shortlist). It’s all a bit dizzying.

But enough diva-ish fluttering. There are thousands of resources, both print and online, that I used when writing the Agency books. This is because my research began long before I thought of writing a novel, back when I was working on a PhD thesis in Victorian literature and culture. And that’s the beautiful, maddening, addictive thing about research: you start in one place and end up light years away, with pages upon pages of facts and anecdotes that probably won’t make it into the finished work. And it doesn’t matter, because you’re the richer for having read them. It’s brilliant.

But it’s also a pretty unhelpful thing to say here. But there are some books and sites that I go back to very regularly, and those are the ones I’ll share here today. Without further ado:

Online Resources (no particular order)

I adore Lee Jackson’s Dictionary of Victorian London, a compilation of primary sources (that is, sources from the Victorian era). It’s addictive reading; I dare you not to spend four times as long there as you’d intended. Don’t miss the “Flash Dictionary” of slang!

The Old Bailey Online archives the proceedings of London’s central criminal court, from 1674-1913. Again, utterly addictive and a fantastic window into Victorian crime. My friend John Nicholls first told me about to the site. Thanks, John!

The Times Archive is just that – a searchable archive of every article published in that newspaper, from its launch in 1785. You have to pay for access, unless you belong to an institution (eg, university) that subscribes.

The Victorian Peeper (I know – sounds vaguely rude) is an truly wonderful blog written by Kristan Tetens, “a historian of nineteenth-century Britain based in twenty-first century America”. It’s an endless delight and offers links to previously unknown sources, such as the one below.

Hidden Lives Revealed is a sometimes heartbreaking archive of case files and photographs of orphans at the Children’s Society, 1881-1918. The photographs are particularly illuminating.

The Victorian Web is an academic site with about 40,000 short articles on the Victorian period. Many of these were written by Brown University undergraduates and some aren’t 100% reliable, but it’s a terrific starting point and most of the essays have a partial bibliography for further research.

Print Resources (alphabetical by surname)

Ackroyd, Peter. London: The Biography. 2001. An authoritative history of the city.

Flanders, Judith. Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain. 2007. Wonderful social history and a window into real people’s lives.

—. The Victorian House: Domestic Life from Childbirth to Deathbed. 2004. You wouldn’t think a book about domestic life could be gripping, but this is. One of my favourite non-fiction books, period.

Picard, Liza. Victorian London. 2005. A lively general overview, but if you’re already deep into the era, you can skip this one.

Ross, Ellen, ed. Slum Travellers: Ladies and London Poverty, 1860-1920. 2007. Letters and reports from reform-minded ladies of the period. Great for contemporary flavour.

Smith, Stephen. Underground London: Travels Beneath the City Streets. 2004. Useful chapter on Victorian burial practices.

Sweet, Matthew. Inventing the Victorians. 2002. Debunks a lot of tenacious myths about Victorian culture and morals.

Tomalin, Claire. The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. 1990. Definitive biography of Dickens’s long-time mistress. It’s also a sparkling social history and portrait of theatrical life.

Wilson, A.N. The Victorians. 2002. Authoritative, sometimes infuriating, interesting.

Wilson, Bee. Swindled: From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee – The Dark History of the Food Cheats. 2008. Gripping stuff – the chapters on “food adulteration” are wonderfully, horribly vivid.

This is a longish blog post but a very short bibliography. Don’t forget the goldmine at the back of nearly each of these books: the notes and bibliography, which will lead you in all kinds of wild new directions. I hope you have a blast!

Also, I’m featured at Books on the House this week. Enter there to win copies of A Spy in the House plus an Agency t-shirt.

When Misa Ramirez of Books on the House interviewed me, she asked, “Are your books serious, or does your wit come through?” I’m not really happy with the answer I gave then, so I thought I’d try again here. Ahem.

Long answer:

The Mary Quinn novels are dramatic novels that include comic moments. I write them in the tradition of two serious genres (historical fiction, mystery novels) but also joke about the expectations and conventions of those categories.

Having said that, one of the delightful things about novels is that nobody reads one the same way. What’s funny, dramatic, bland, or ridiculous to me will be quite different to you, dear reader. So while I wrote some scenes with the intention of providing comedy, some readers won’t find them funny. Some scenes, which I consider serious, will seem absurd to others. But it doesn’t really matter whether I think my books are funny. The question is, do you?

Short answer:

No.

Also, thoughts on author branding

Did you read Maureen Johnson’s Manifesto? It was much disseminated on Twitter this week but if you don’t want to click over, here it is in brief: Maureen Johnson spoke at a conference where her co-panellist endlessly declared, “I am a brand. I am a brand. I am a brand.” MJ begs to differ: she is just herself and uses social networks to have conversations and create connections with people. She also likes loves snacks.

MJ’s position is entirely reasonable and sane. But what really stayed with me was the unnamed co-panellist’s proud and frequent declaration: “I am a brand.” It’s one of the saddest things I’ve read lately. Not: I am a writer. I am a thinker. I am creative person. Not even, I am a lover, a believer, a human being with valuable and passionate relationships. No, the co-panellist (as depicted by Maureen Johnson) has reduced herself to a few key search terms and the smoothest veneer possible.

I take it back: it’s not one of the saddest things I’ve read lately. It’s one of the most grotesque things I’ve ever read.

I’m off to fetch MJ a snack.