Midwest Moments

This will be short - it's late. I wanted to think about all the great times I had in the Midwest with Illinois SCBWI, Chicago members of Class of 2k9 and Authors Now, librarians and students from Des Plaines, Illinois, Homer and Lemont libraries, students at Bright's Grove and Errol Village Schools in southern Ontario and at Chippewa Middle School in Okemos, Michigan. Oh, and the book sellers - particularly the crew at the Book Stall who made me so welcome and also at Anderson's in Naperville who took time to show me around their great store. My friend Jude made sure I took just a little time out to play and we saw some great live improv theater in Lincoln Park and I ate frozen custard and cheese curds with my daughter Mara in Milwaukee. Luke and I did two jigsaw puzzles and he even played Scrabble with me - which none of our kids like to do. OK, off to see the finals of American Idol. More tomorrow, maybe with more details, photos? who knows. It's beautiful here in Reno, so I might end up weeding until I drop.

Home Again with LOTS to Say

OK, when I don't blog for two weeks I end up with lots on my mind and not enough time to share it. Starting with an e-mail I got from Chris in New Mexico today about a collection that the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators made for a library that burned down during the horrible Australian wildfires this spring - my friend Ellen Fockler at Washoe County School Libraries asked if SCBWI was doing anything and how the community could help. She posted the collection to our Reno libraries and the kids raised $800. People can be so cool - espcially kids and especially book people. Chris just let everyone in our organization know about the Reno donation. I'm proud to live here.

Next, I met so many really nice and exciting people on my trip to Chicago, Southern Ontario, and Lansing, Michigan. The book signings were great, the weather was mostly fabulous, the schools and kids were energizing. I'm happy to have met you all and look forward to more time in the Chicago area in the future. If you missed getting Bull Rider there should be copies at the Book Stall in Winnetka, Anderson's in both Naperville and Downer's Grove, and at the Barnes and Nobel in Overland Park. If you are in London, Ontario, the Chapters at Richmond Centre has copies. You can ask for it at any bookstore and order online.

Last, I have photos and stories from the midwest trip. I'll be posting some of them. If you met me in this last two weeks and have photos, e-mail them to me and I'll post some of them here. This is a great ride that we are taking together. Yeehaa!