Bill's Letter

Hi gang.

Hope you're staying cool. Up here in New England, we have mold growing in every crevice – more rain than we've ever seen. But last night, we went to a baseball game at the nearby AAA park and I ate disgusting hot dogs and sang “Take Me out to the Ball game”, so summer, my favorite season is truly here.

 

Around the home front, my bees are buzzing happily (mostly without any help from me) and I've only been stung twice. I'm in the middle of working on a new recording of songs, that will probably be out at the beginning of the new year. A bunch of new songs and some much requested ones, too (like “Barbie's Head is Missing”, finally!)

Bill with the kids chorus singing "@ Your Library" at the ALA conference.

Thanks to Stephanie Bange for sending us the photo.

I performed at the American Library Association conference in New Orleans in June, singing a song I had written for a new campaign to get kids into the library. The song “@ Your Library” will be on my new recording, but you can also here it at the ALA website www.ala.org/kids. It was wonderful to be in New Orleans. We were so busy, we saw little of the city, but were welcomed with open arms by New Orleanians who were unbelievably hospitable, and touched that 17,000 librarians (and one singer/storyteller) were there. Let's hope the season is kind to everyone on the Gulf Coast. They still need our help!

 
 

 

 

While at the ALA conference, I also signed proofs of my new chapter book for middle-grade students, The Amazing Flight of Darius Frobisher (aka Bill's online novel “Flyboy”), which will be out this October on Peachtree Press. The book looks great, with wonderful cover art, and I am very, very, very happy it's coming out.

 
 
 

On-line reviews

My office (well, that would be Michele, Debbie and me) have noticed that we're a little short on reviews by fans on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and itunes. Some of the reviews that are there are pretty odd, including one by someone who is really into gangster hip-hop and not much impressed with me. Oh well. If you visit those sites, we would really appreciate it if you could put a few positive words about your favorite recordings. It makes a difference. Thanks!

 

New video

We're currently talking with Montana Public Television about shooting a special for PBS. It would be an hour long concert video, featuring favorites with a family audience – the scheduled shooting is next May. More as it gets closer!

In other video news we are releasing Who Made This Mess as a DVD! Production work on it should be done soon and we anticipate it's release in early September (around the same time as Bill's book!)

  
     
 

Books we've read

Tom Friedman of the New York Times can drive me crazy, but his book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century is really eye-opening and thought provoking – I recommend it. I've also read and enjoyed American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Other books I've enjoyed recently are Waiting For the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee and In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathan Philbrick. Philbricks book, about the whaling ship that inspired Melville's Moby Dick, will curl your hair. Yikes.

 

Dylan, having finished his first year at college, is doing summer reading that includes Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury and the hilarious Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle (including The Commitments – made into one of Bill's favorite movies)

Noah has recently read Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald, The First Man by Albert Camus and Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright. He also recommends An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (it's both a book and a movie).

 

And here are Deb's recommendations and thoughts: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - a wonderful and unusual love story - this book took me awhile to wrap my mind around but I couldn't put it down once I did... The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella - this book made me laugh out loud - a quirky and wonderful story - great writing - a great summer read! Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop - a very moving accounting of children working in the mills before child labor laws were really enforced - a great, well-written story (I think it's a young adult book) but 50 is young - right? Next on my list is The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger - highly recommended by two friends!

Music? Too much!

Around my desk and in my car, Ali Farka Toure's last recording, In the Heart of the Moon, is getting played a lot, along with Jesse Winchester's A Gentleman of Leisure (I love that guy's songwriting) Springsteen's versions of Pete Seeger's work, The Seeger Sessions.   I'm also enjoying Mitsuko Uchida's recordings of the Schubert piano sonatas. Interesting compared to my old favorite, Alfred Brendel. My dad just gave me of all of Artur Schnabel's Beethoven sonatas, which should keep me busy, I guess. Let us know what music you like (well, in addition to You're in Trouble, I hope).

 
     
 

From the Office

A Bill Harley Contest!!!

We have found a great site that will produce Bill Harley T-shirts, but we have one small problem: we don't know what the T-shirts should look like and we need your help. We would like you to design a Bill Harley T-shirt for us and here are the rules:

  • Your idea should be based on something Bill Harley related (a picture of one of Bill's characters or illustrating a scene from a song or story, or even a picture of Bill himself.
  • The picture must be no smaller than 5 inches by 5 inches and no bigger than 10 inches by 10 inches.
  • You can either mail the pictures to us (Round River Records, T-shirt Contest, 301 Jacob St, Seekonk, MA 02771) or you can email it to us (Michele@billharley.com), but try to make the picture high resolution, what people refer to as 300 dpi or higher.
  • The contest ends September 15th, so please get your pictures into us by then. We will announce the winners by the end of September. (We will chose the 5 designs which will we use for T-shirts. In addition the winners will received the Bill Harley CD or Book of their choice.

The Adventures of Darius Frobisher

As you all know Bill's book will be in stores at the end of October. But did you know that you'll be able to buy it on our website sooner than the release date? Or that you can get a discount if you pre-order it from Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com? So if you want to be the first to own a copy of Bill Harley's new novel, keep an eye on your email and our website. Or if you want to save some money, place your order now and keep an eye on your mailbox.

Calendar

Remember to keep an eye on Bill's online calendar. We are always adding dates and you never know when Bill is going to be in your community.