Library Visits and Writer-y Advice and DOGS

Hi everyone!

I got to do a lovely and fun library visit yesterday in Brentwood, NH (yay!):

At the absolutely gorgeous Mary E. Bartlett Library…

And everyone who came was SO AWESOME!  It was great to meet you all!  Yay for people who read!  :)  :)  :)  There were such wonderful, smart questions and lots of terrific ideas for future Warriors, Seekers, and Pet Trouble books, and you were all very, very cool.  :-) 

(Plus, check it out, my name on a sign by the road!  How neat is that?):

It was so much fun, I’m even going to break my rule and include a picture of me signing, since I’m fortuitously mostly hidden by a table here and therefore not as gigantic-looking as in other recent photos.  😉

Whee!  AND I got a beautiful baby quilt, too!  Super-awesome fabulous library!

In other news, for those of you who didn’t see this link on my Facebook page (come join my Facebook page!), I was interviewed for the Inkpop blog last week, and I think Amy did an amazing job of condensing my long-winded answers into something succinct and useful-sounding!  At least, I hope it’s useful to you guys — it’s all about creating characters, which is my most most most favorite part of writing. 

If only I could design this impending baby like I design my characters!  Knowing the kinds of heroes I like, he’d be bringing me cupcakes by the time he was two.  ;-)  Right now he’s mostly flailing around and it’s ridiculously fascinating (yes, OK, only for me!), because I can actually see little bumps and bulges and bubbles rippling across my stomach as he kicks and wriggles.  It’s SO WEIRD!  It’s like being at the beach and seeing little things popping up and moving around under the sand.  Except it’s inside me!  WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD!

Well, I should get back to this manuscript — must finish soon so I can prepare for Thanksgiving!  Hooray!  Yes, we’re hosting this year, and two of the guests have ALREADY ARRIVED!  Can you believe it?  Whatever happened to "fashionably late"?  Or "politely late"?  Tsk tsk, VERY shocking:

Are you talking about meeeeee?  Because I’m adoooooooorable?

And me!  And me!  I’m adorable too!  Aren’t I?  I am, right?

Aw, Mom, when are they going home?  

Hee!  Craziness!  Dogs all over the place!

Thanks again to the Brentwood library and all the awesome readers who showed up!  🙂

Quote of the Day:
S:  You’re fired!  You’re fired for costing this company millions of pounds!  You’re fired for insubordination!  You’re fired for lack of moral character!
P:  Very good!  Happy Christmas!  [hangs up]
— Mad Men