I leave Sunday for a couple weeks to Europe. The whole trip is one long book and writers fest and I am really looking forward to meeting all the writers who have sent me their work for critique and the mentorship program. I'll get to see a lot of author friends--it's an odd thing, the writer tribe. We are tight, in a nomadic way.
Last week, at a literature conference at the University of Northern Illinois, I got to have a real conversation with David Wiesner for the first time, after loving his art and "wordless stories" for years. I got to see my friend literacy expert/librarian/author Michael Sullivan and watch him inspire a few hundred librarians and give them ways to en-literate more boys, Sylvia Barzei and her amazing science/grossology, the kind and peaceful Joseph Bruchac, whom I had never met, but whose work I admire, Mark Crilley, a very nice guy, who was spit-your-milk funny and Robert Burleigh whose presentation I missed half of , because I was freezing and had to leave to go fetch a sweater, then got stuck on the phone. I shivered much of the time. IL apparent has a season called winter?? I grew up in snow country, but southern California often skips cold weather altogether, it so I have become a weather wuss. . .
