recapping

A few weeks ago, I had the distinct honor of addressing the winning entrants of the Letters About Literature contest at the Massachusetts State House. Thousands of entries were whittled down down to dozens and I worked with a great panel of judges to place them in a hierarchy to determine top prizes. It was no easy task! It was fun to meet the young authors in person and congratulate them and their families on their accomplishments.

The Massachusetts Center for the Book hasn't uploaded any pictures yet, but here's a pic of the podium that I snapped with my phone. I felt like a Senatah'.


We are also just back from Book Expo. Man, oh man! Talk about seeing/meeting a lot of people in a very condensed period of time. I saw many booksellers and librarians from book tours past and future. I bid unsuccessfully on a piece by Dan Yaccarino at the ABC Mostly Silent Auction. I speed dated. (Which was a blast!) And I signed a boatload of copies of Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute. And I ran into Lane Smith, Jon Scieszka, Holly Black, Matt Phelan, Katie Davis, Peter Brown, Jane Yolen, Mo Willems, Betsy Lewin, Matt de la Pena, Michael Rex, Kate Dicamillo, Alvina Ling, Chad Beckerman, John Lind, Jesse Joshua Watson, Eric Wright, Dianne deGroat, Ruth Sanderson, and probably shared an elevator with more. You know, you're every day kind of book event. After reading a few blogs, I realized that there were plenty of people that I missed. And of course we missed some people because they left the party too early . . . (I'm looking at you, Tomie!)

Zoe had her first publisher's brunch with her daddy's editor and book publicist, had a power lunch with her daddy's literary agent and she also met the President, Vice President and Director of Publicity of Random House Children's Books. She has no idea what's going on.

Lots of exciting excitement going around here these days. Stay tuned for more info! Lunch Lady is less than two months away!!!