The students were wonderful! In turns insightful, curious, and attentive, they asked terrific questions, and were very patient with me as my voice croaked and squeaked (leftovers from a cold and allergies). I had really good time!

I want to particularly thank Pricipal Jim Cavalieri and Media Specialist Shanon Pimentel for making me feel so welcome, and all the teachers who helped and asked questions, too. What a great school!

Wednesday, April 18 at 1 p.m., I’ll be appearing at the Barnes & Noble in North Haven, Connecticut with Amanda Marrone, for a talk and book signing.

Friday and Saturday, April 20 and 21, I’ll be attending A Celebration of the Picture Book conference at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Rosemary Wells will be one of the keynote speakers, and my friend, the author/illustrator Deborah Freedman will be presenting at one of the panels, along with many other talented folks.

Saturday, April 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., I’ll be at the Albany Children’s Book Festival in Albany, New York, signing books and schmoozing with over 70 children’s books authors and illustrators.

Saturday, May 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., I’ll be at the Hudson Children’s Book Festival in Hudson, New York, signing and schmoozing with over 85 children’s books authors and illustrators.

If you are at any of these events, come by and say hello!

The line up for the other Author Days is also quite impressive. On Tuesday April 17, author/illustrators Deborah Freedman and Nancy Elizabeth Wallace are scheduled to appear, and on Thursday April 19, authors Leslie Bulion and Leslie Connor.

Stop by and say hello!

Twenty eight years ago, when rumor went around that Woody Allen planned to show up for a screening of his new movie, Broadway Danny Rose, she asked me to go with her.

“Sure,” I said.

She turned to her boyfriend’s roommate. “How about you?”

He said, “Sure.”

And then she told us, “Oops. I forgot. I’m supposed to be somewhere tonight. Why don’t you go without me?”

Lying is not Amy’s strong suit. Neither of us believed her, but we knew she meant well. So, standing there awkwardly, I asked, “Uh. You want to go?”

He seemed equally awkward. “Sure,” he replied.

I know I’ve had more disastrous dates, but this one was memorable. It was a cold February night, the rumor was false, and we searched for the screening site, going from one university building to another, in vain. We finally decided on an arts flick, Born in Flames. Let’s just say that a feminist movie about the lives of prostitutes isn’t exactly conducive to romance. He did get points though for not making fun of it afterwards, and we warmed up over ice cream. Somehow our sense of humor meshed, and we agreed to see each other again. We have been together, ever since.

“I knew it’d work out,” Amy told me.

A lot of things have happened since then. Amy and I worked side by side, for years. We attended each other’s weddings. She came to the rescue when I needed help during one of my pregnancies. She stayed with us when her newborn needed to be kept safe from the flu coursing through her house. We’ve celebrated holidays and marked milestones.

So when No Castles Here was published, Amy told me, “I’m throwing you a party!” And what a party—friends, great food, good cheer. We had such a good time, that when Come Fall came out, she threw me another one. “We do this again for the next one, too,” she said. So, on Sunday, we celebrated Gil Marsh: we laughed and schmoozed, ate awesome food and had a grand time, the way good friends know how.

I hugged Amy more than once.

“You’ve got to publish another book,” she said. “These parties are so much fun!”

No arguing with that.

Thank you Amy, Steve, and all those who came. It was a blast!

It does its job really well. Congratulations!

P.S. I’ll be at the festival, too.

P.P.S. If the embedded video doesn’t come up on your screen, click on the Read more. . . link below.

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to do a fun reading at the Alphabet Garden Bookstore in Cheshire, Connecticut. I read two chapters from Gil Marsh, the crowd had some great questions for me about the book and my writing process, and we all got to eat some tarte au sucre (sugar pie).

Thank you to Karlene Rearick and Renee Geiger of the Alphabet Garden for helping me make the event such a success!

Today’s New Haven Register features a lovely article about Gil Marsh, and says some nice things about me. The online article embeds a YouTube video by video blogger CapsLock179 who also says some really nice things about the book.

Thank you both!

You can read my answer here, along with Shaun Smith’s and fellow-authors’ Heather Birrell, Julie Cross, Megan Crewe, Ursula Poznanski, Tess Fragoulis, Jill Williamson, Hilary Davidson, R.J. Harlick and C.C. Benison.

And thanks to everyone who signed up for the giveaway. It was fun.