O, Canada!

Been there, done that, loved every minute of it! Once I got on the plane, that is. The sad truth is: I'm thirty years old, and have never gotten myself on a plane before. Not without my husband or parents there to pretty much hand me over to the flight attendants. Sad but true. But I did it! And I went to Canada, and I discovered that Toronto is like New York City, with half the population and no weird smells (that I sniffed at least). And IRA (that's the International Readers Association) is a large, large group of lovely people who are all passionate about reading and getting kids to read. I scored tons of free books (YES! WOOHOO!), and ate some really good food, and got a chance to kick back and talk to my editor about just, like, stuff. And I was on a great panel with Charles de Lint and Jane Yolen, two of my heroes, and also Robert J. Sawyer and Tim Eldred, two very talented people whose books I am now very excited to read. I also got to meet Avi. AVI!!!!!!! And tell him that I've read "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle" a hundred times. And he had ME sign a copy of MY BOOK for HIM! Does that sentence look crazy to anyone else?! So it was just all wild and crazy, and now here I am, back at home, giving the sequel to Dragon Slippers one last go around before sending it to my editor. And this weekend: CONduit!