I drove over 300 miles round trip yesterday—exhausting but worth it.

The Albany Children’s Books Festival was a hit! The organizers were warm and helpful. And I met a lot of wonderful people, eager children, talented artists and writers and so many avid readers. Some of my high points: meeting an 8-year old true fan of No Castles Here and reading his favorite chapter; eating a delicious lunch with the best rice pudding for dessert; and making origami boxes with countless children, and watching them show them off to family and friends.

My thanks to the organizers at the Albany Academies for pulling the day together.

I’ll be at the Albany Children’s Book Festival tomorrow.

See you there!

As part of the 2nd Annual Albany Chidren’s Books Festival on May 15 (where I will be appearing), there will be a picture book writing contests for tweens and teens. (No, I won’t be one of the judges.) Here are the specifics from the organizers. Good luck to all:

THE ALBANY CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL
PICTURE BOOK WRITING CONTEST

The Albany Children’s Book Festival is sponsoring a picture book writing contest for students in grades 4 through 12. Students will be judged in one of two categories:  Tweens (grades 4-8) and Teens (grades 9-12). Our goal is to promote writing skills and the creative process in young adults.  There is no fee for participation, but we do have some rules and guidelines:

What to submit:
*An original, unpublished story with original, student created illustrations.
*Illustrations should compliment the storyline.
*The story and its illustrations must be created by one individual; joint efforts will not be accepted.
*Submit the entry in picture book format sequentially arranged.
*The picture book should be bound in some way (stapled, spiral bound,in a report cover, etc.).
*A book cover with title and illustration should be bound to the text; do not add authors name.
*A cover sheet listing the entrant’s name, grade, school, school address, and teacher’s name should be attached.
*No specific length is required.
*Handwritten entries must be legible; all typewritten entries must be double spaced.
*Entries may be fiction or non-fiction; accuracy will be weighed when judging non-fiction material.
*All submissions will be displayed at the book festival.
*Submitted entries may be picked up at 3:00 p.m. on the day…

The Hudson Children’s Book Festival was a smashing success. Over 50 authors were present. Some 4,000 people from the Hudson Valley came. Over 2,000 books were sold.

Awesome!

And I’ve been busy writing a new novel. I’m in that hairy middle part where I get stuck all the time. But I love my characters. And I love the concept. So I’m plugging away.

My editor is getting my next published novel ready for copyediting — now if we could only come up with a title we’d all agree upon! I’ll announce it as soon as it’s been decided.

And then a chunk of my time has been working with some amazing authors — Kate Duke, Deborah Freedman, Kathleen Kudlinski, M.W. Penn, Sanna Stanley, Leigh Ann Tyson, and Cat Urbain. I promise to give you more news about the project we’re working on, next week.