Thank you very much to all the teachers who turned out last night to my presentation in Dewitt! There were more than 80 people, including some old friends from schools like Fabius-Pompey, Chittenango, and J-D. It was a really fun night, and my projector/computer hook-up worked perfectly. Now I just need to figure out the best way to carry it all on the airplane.
I don’t have a link, but I was told yesterday that CHAINS earned a Starred review from Booklist, which brings the total to THREE. That is a very nice feeling. Extremely nice. Whipped cream and cherries on top, with nuts and sprinkles nice!
Do you know anyone that lives in the Minneapolis, MN area? If so, please, please let them know I am heading their way. Next Tuesday, I’ll be speaking at St. Bernard’s School and the Roseville Area Middle School during the day. My public appearance that night will be at the Barnes & Noble in Roseville.
A week from today I’ll be visiting Valley View Middle School and Southview Middle School. That night (am VERY excited about this!!!) I’ll be speaking at Wild Rumpus. I have been looking forward to visiting this store for years! Please notify all residents of Minneapolis to come and join us. And if you could, make the gentle suggestion that they car-pool to save gas and be kinder to the environment.
I got an email back from my county election board explaining the delay in producing absentee ballots. “The ballots are held up due to a court proceeding in Albany on the Independence Party line for Supreme Court Justice. The case is being heard today and hopefully the judge will render a decision today, although that may be wishful thinking. The ballots have not been printed because if we print and the judge rules differently than the way the ballot is printed, we have to reprint at considerable expense. With a ruling today, we will have ballots by the end of this week.”
Seems to me that there should be a deadline trigger for these kinds of rulings to ensure that ballots are sent out in a timely basis. We’ve decided that when my ballot arrives, BH will overnight it to me wherever I am on the tour. But I am still grumpy about it.
National Coming Out Day was last Saturday (yes, I am always late with these things) and in honor of that, and in honor of every American’s right to go about their lives without being the target of stupid hate-speech, I bring you the Think B4 You Speak campaign. My favorite video is the one in the middle with Wanda Sykes. I would love to sit down with her with some pie and pot of coffee. (Thanks, Bookavore, for the link.)
Which one of the three videos is your favorite?