Cynthia Lord

Cynthia Lord (born New Hampshire) is a children's author. Lord's debut novel Rules was published by Scholastic, Inc. in 2006, and was a 2007 Newbery Honor book ^[1] and winner of the Schneider Family Book Award.

Beginning/Childhood

Cynthia Lord’s life as a writer began at age four with a song collaboration with her sister. The song was called “Ding Dong the Cherries Sing,” and they forced anyone within a 12-mile radius to listen to them sing it, over and over and over. Lord says that she was a day dreamer, a shy child, and she will always be grateful for the time and room that her parents gave her to be by herself. Lord’s favorite books when she was very young included Happy, Peppermint, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne.

College & After

In college Lord had some short stories published, and even won a contest with one! After college Lord got married and became a teacher. As her children grew up, she returned to writing fiction. Now she gets up most mornings between 3:30 and 4:00 A. M. and tiptoes through the dark and sits at her desk. Lord says that: That’s my just-me time to open my heart and spill it across the white pages. Lord says that she still loves watching words jump onto the page, and she still loves making people laugh and cry and shiver with her writing. She still loves to read a great story. Lord still has kept "Happy" and "Peppermint" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Winnie the Pooh" all of these years. She keeps them to remind her of the child she used to be, the one who liked surfboarding toads, sang the cherry song, and scared herself silly writing her first ghost story. She’s the one she writes for.

Present

Cynthia Lord lives in an old house with her husband. She has an office and on her desk she keeps a dictionary, a grammar book, books of photographs, a field guide of animals and plants, and other reference books, as well as objects and pictures of her settings. On top of her computer she keeps an object from every book she’s written. She even has a fortune from a fortune cookie stuck on the front of her monitor that says: “Your talents will be recognized and suitably rewarded.” She also has a quote by Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Lord says that the quote reminds her to keep writing everyday, even when she doesn’t feel motivated. Lord says that some of her best writing comes from the days that she does not feel especially inspired.

She lives in Brunswick, Maine.^[2][3]

Awards

1. 2007 Newberry Honor Book
2. Schneider Family Book Award^[4]

Works

• Rules, Scholastic, 2007, ISBN 9780545036405
• Hot Rod Hamster. Scholastic Inc.. 2010. ISBN 9780545035309. http://books.google.com/books?id=mW-hQ2oGJqUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=cynthia+lord&hl=en&ei=-rG5Ta3zGKjV0QGb6dXQDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Touch Blue. Scholastic Inc.. 2010. ISBN 9780545035316. http://books.google.com/books?id=pdyhoPjFqXAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=cynthia+lord&hl=en&ei=-rG5Ta3zGKjV0QGb6dXQDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Happy Birthday Hamster, Illustrator Derek Anderson, Scholastic Inc., 2011, ISBN 9780545255226

References

1. ^ "Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922-Present". American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal.cfm. Retrieved 11 March 2010. 
2. ^ http://www.adamsliterary.com/clients/lord/lord.html
3. ^ http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=3144
4. ^ http://www.whbeck.com/2007/11/10/cynthia-lord-and-the-schneider-award/

Interviews

• "Author's Talk, Megan McCarthy
• Interview: Cynthia Lord", Bildungsroman, April 3, 2006
• 2008 Audio Interview of Cynthia Lord
• An Interview With Debut Author, Cynthia Lord, Debbi Michiko Florence
• Author Interview: Cynthia Lord on Rules, cynsations, March 10, 2006

External links

• Authors website
• "Rules by Cynthia Lord", Maw Books

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Name	Lord, Cynthia
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