Well, that "week" went fast. I leave again in a couple hours for South Carolina.

Let's hit the rewind button, shall we? Yesterday... yesterday was a bit of a fog. I planted my rear end in front of the computer from breakfast until 9:30pm. I ate in front of the computer. Drank coffee and tea there, too. Spend all that time doing one last pass through TWISTED, checking for loose ends, stray mistakes, creeping errors. Now it is DONE.... until I hear from the Editress who may want more revisions. Cross your fingers.

Tuesday was a school visit to the schools closest to my house, Mexico Academy Middle School and the High School, in snowy Mexico, NY.

Many thanks to middle school librarian Linda Rossiter, Kelly Freihofer, and all of the kids and teachers for making the day so wonderful. (This is such an awesome community.) I knew some of the kids and now I know a lot more. The public library provided a yummy lunch (with a fruit tart to die for - thanks, Dorothy!). If you are from Mexico, remember to enter the fiction writing contest that the library is sponsoring this month. (Sorry these photos are so big and scary.)

After the middle school, I ran down the road to the high school (gorgeous old building with a slate roof) and spoke after school to about 50 kids who wanted to hear me yack about the writing process. Many thanks to all the English teachers, especially Joe Shaw who arranged the visit, and handcrafted the lovely sign in the photo. That night, our girls basketball team came within a whisker of beating CBA for the Section III Class A-1 championship. Go Tigers!

Monday... what happened Monday? Lots more writing, I think, email, and the other stuff I hate.

The conference over the weekend, that was much more interesting than squinting at the monitor and obsessively muttering to myself. If you are a teacher or a librarian and you live in the Pacific Northwest, make your plans now to attend the Bond Children's Literature Conference at Western Washington University next year. It is one of the best-run conferences I've ever attended, thanks to the woman in the picture, Nancy Johnson. She rocks. And it is set in a drop-dead gorgeous location, with views of snow-capped Canadian mountains in the distance, and the beauty of Bellingham at your feet. I wasn't the only author there, thank goodness. Attenders also got to hear Deborah Wiles, Emily Arnold McCully, and illustrator Jon Agee.

Three hundred attenders, lots of love. Special thanks to Sara and Tess who were in charge of wrangling me. I hope I wasn't too obnoxious.

The day before the conference it was my good fortune to speak at Mt. Baker JH/SH, thanks to the wonderful librarian Sher Ross. This school is quite close to the foot of Mt. Baker (hence the name), where, I was told, snowboarding was invented. Next time I go back, I'm going to take an extra day there and try to board.

Other impressions from the trip West:
I watched a ferry pull out of the bay headed for Alaska. I wanted to jump in the water and swim out to it.
BH needs to visit because there is a Larrabee State Park.
I love seeing the Japanese language in the Seattle airport.
People about to take long airplane trips, like the guy who sat next to me on the overnight flight home (you were in seat 13A, Stinky), really should bathe more than once a month. Ack, ack, ack.
There is no such thing as a bad cup of coffee in the state of Washington. I think it's a law.

I will be speaking at Mabry Jr. High in Inman, SC tomorrow, and at the Spartanburg SC Jamboread on Saturday, along with many, many other fine authors. If you're in the area, please drop by!