Finally, my second novel has a title! Come Fall. There’s a chance it could still change. But for the moment, at least, Random House is very pleased about it. And so am I.

The story answers a question that had been bothering me for a long time. Whatever happened to that changeling/page that Queen Titania and King Oberon of the fairies argued about in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream? We find him one autumn, placed in yet another foster home, when he meets a girl from a family with too many boys (as far as she is concerned), and a remarkably insightful boy with Asperger’s. It is a story about friendship. And about fairies who, if they’ve interfered with your life once, are bound to interfere again.

I promise more updates as they come in.

We’re eight of us: Kate Duke, Deborah Freedman, Kathleen Kudlinski, M.W. Penn, Sanna Stanley, Leigh Ann Tyson, Cat Urbain, and me. Collectively, we’ve spent decades in the writing business, publishing over 75 children’s books. We write in different genres, covering nonfiction, picture books, middle grade novels, educational materials, historical fiction, YA, poetry. Despite our variety, we’ve discovered how many things we have in common.

We care about quality literature. And I don’t just mean our books — books that matter and that kids will enjoy. Our works explore similar themes, crossing age groups and genres. And more than anything else, we all want to get kids to read.

So we decided to form a group, Write Up Our Alley. We’ve pooled our knowledge and experience, and are building programs and resources for others who share our passions. We’ve put up a website — a work in progress — and on it started a blog where we will share what we’ve learned in the business, what we know about reaching kids, and our love of books. We post about once a week. It’s still an experiment, but we’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Come join us.

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.