Dallas included:
1) A library talk with very special swag:
Gorgeous AND delicious mini bundts |
Tried to save a few of these at home, but it's futile to hide cookies from a teenager. |
2) Wonderful and smart Texan 5th graders and middle schoolers (No pictures. After submitting to the background check required by Texas public schools, I had a strong feeling that photos were not encouraged).
3) Dinner with the lovely Dr. Rose Brock (Yeah, I said DOCTOR. Yay, Rose!).
My husband asked why they served a hot dog with the steak. (It was a carrot.) |
1) My hotel treated me nicely.
They also noted that if I drank the bottled water, three dollars would be added to my "portfolio" |
2) I got to talk with Jack Gantos and Kate DiCamillo. Too excited to take a picture.
3) I had a fun dinner with writers Jacqueline Davies and Wendy Mass. Too tired and happy to take a picture.
And then I went to London,
Where I had a wonderful high tea . . . and other adventures . . . |
with my friend Kristin, |
visited The (one and only) Guardian |
where these appealing (victimized?) pigs watch over the lobby, |
was blown away by the size and beauty of this window display on the South Bank at Foyles, |
(which was conceived, approved, and designed by these two incredible people at Andersen Press), |
visited kids at a school decorated with 1920s tile (it used to be the children's ward in a hospital), |
shared lunch with some pretty masterful 7/8 students (they serve and clear without ever dropping the thread of the conversation), |
marveled at the new library in Birmingham (now biggest in Europe) |
and rode first class back to London, where I had to say goodbye. |
So that was my fall travel. Obviously, I feel pretty lucky.
Also this fall . . .
I gave my editor, Wendy Lamb, a chunk of my work-in-progress, and made some difficult but healthy decisions about how to move forward with it. There are still a number of big question marks.
So, other than a few local school visits (doing fewer and fewer of these), I'll be at my desk.
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