A delightful writerly weekend

BOOKOLOGY, Children's Literature Network, Nov. 3, 2012

With my buddy Kirstin Cronn-Mills (new novel: Beautiful Music for Ugly Children), Molly Beth Griffin (Silhouette of a Sparrow), and my dear friend Pamela Klinger-Horn, who supports writers and all good books! 

With Pamela and John Coy (Crackback, Top of the Order and many more). I got to sit at the same table with John and three librarians/teachers. We had a BLAST and tied winning the identify-the-author-by-"ten-things-you-don't-know-about-me" game!

See more photos at http://www.facebook.com/childrens.literature.network

It's Mary Tyler Moore! Back in St. Paul! (the hat is so high it's out of the picture, maybe?)

Oh, no. I guess it's author and my buddy Kirstin Cronn-Mills, on the street outside ADDENDUM book store, where she read Saturday afternoon. I loved the event. Not only did our friends Justin and Brian show up (below, listening attentively), but every single person in the store was "sucked in" and listening or asking questions by the time Kirstin was done! 

November

I finally broke down and rode my bike on the trainer today.

The wind is howling, Freya is snoozing, and I'm trying hard to get some writing done on the newest project. Too much to do, even on a long weekend.

I need to grade for a few hours, too.

The DVD player didn't work when I got on the trainer, so I couldn't do a workout video. I read instead, and it's hard to keep my cadence and heart rate up when I'm lost in a story, but I managed most of the time. Most, I say.

I'm reading John Coy's Top of the Order because I read Kurtis Scaletta's Mudville recently. All this is because my newest complete novel, Slider's Son features a 12-year-old who wants to be a major league pitcher. I wanted to see how other Minnesota writers whom I admire handle their baseball stories. I love both of these books, by the way.

Back to work. This time, on my Iowa political intrigue and romance story...with religion and race mixed in. I hope I can make it all balance into a coherent story.