Book Tour Day 4 – catching one’s breath

Saturday! There is no school on Saturday! This is both the bad and good news for me. Bad news because I have been having a blast at the schools I’ve visited. Good news because I have a massive mountain of email to deal with, and – oh, that’s right – I want to write. That is, after all the point, right? Write?

Before I share my Denver highlights, three exciting headlines.

Headline 1: Awesome review in the Chicago Tribune compares and contrasts CHAINS and OCTAVIAN NOTHING, VOL. 2. I have been waiting for a reviewer to do this and I am so happy with the result!

Headline 2: The teens of America voted TWISTED onto the 2008 ALA Teen Top Ten List!!! It was one of only three non-fantasy/alternate reality titles on the list, which is very interesting. I keep thinking I should try my hand at a fantasy, but there are so many people out there writing imaginative and gripping books, I think I’ll stick to my corner of the sandbox.

Headline 3: Vet Volunteers is going to be translated into Polish! OK, maybe it’s not quite as exciting as the first two headlines, but I had such a lovely time in Poland last year that I am totally stoked my books are going to be available to Polish readers.

TODAY’S EVENT: Saturday, October 25 at 1:00 pm: The Bookstall of Chestnut Court, Winnetka, IL 847-446-0882

TOMORROW’S EVENT: Sunday, October 26 at 2:00 pm: Center for Teaching through Children’s Books, National-Louis University, Skokie, IL. This is at 5202 Old Orchard Road – 3rd Floor Public Forum Room. Sorry, I don’t have a contact phone number, but I do know that lots of teachers and grad students are expected to attend. There is also a discussion group meeting about teaching historical fiction at 1 pm, so you might want to come early to be a part of that.

And now, the Denver summary. The people in Denver are so nice, they arranged the weather patterns so that everytime I stepped outside, I could see the mountains. I can’t imagine a person would ever get tired of that sight.

My last Denver day was simple: One school, one stock signing, one bookstore event.

The school visit was a 2-hour visit to the 7th-grade creative writing classes at the Denver School of the Arts. We can all rest easy knowing that there is a very talented generation of young writers rising up behind us, preparing to supply us all with great stories well into our dotage.

They play with word magnets when bored.

A good sentiment to live by.

The evening event was at Tattered Cover, a legendary independent bookstore.

The crowd was a mixture of teachers, librarians, and a cool mother-daughter book club. The girls in the club promised me they’d email me their comments about CHAINS. It’s very nice to have reviewers like the book, but the true test is the opinion of real readers. I’ll let you know what they think.