When former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack said he was running for president, we knew it was just a matter of time before "the picture" surfaced. (Right now most folks aren't aware that someone besides Obama and Clinton are running.) But it could be tonight! Jay Leno may be the first to give national exposure to Tom V.'s dress-up proclivities. In his ( Read more... )

Check out this Newsweek story about what naps can do for you.

1. Cynthia Leitich Smith, author and extraordinary promoter of kid lit, has sent word that her blogs, Cynsations and SpookyCyn, are unavailable while Blogger is being updated. For the time being, Cyn's talented author/hubbie is loaning her blog space at ( Read more... )

I went to Pennsylvania last December for this new workshop for middle grade and young adult novelists, and I've been wanting to post about it ever since. [I'm tardy because the workshop came just before the holidays and then, soon after, I headed to Saint Paul, Minnesota, for two weeks to be a graduate assistant at the new low-residency Hamline ( Read more... )

There are a couple of things I've been wanting to write about, and I'm wanting to catch up on everybody else's doings. Just no time right now. BUT I couldn't let this go without posting the link.

Bookstore receives protests, cancels reading
The editor of an abortion-rights book was to be at Iowa City's Prairie Lights.

I just returned from two exhausting (but interesting, inspiring) weeks helping with Hamline University's new low-residency MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program in St. Paul, Minnesota. I'll post about that soon. (AND will finally get around to posting about my week at the Highlights Foundation's new novel mentorship workshop that I ( Read more... )

Tonight I reached my goal of reading all of this year's National Book Award finalists for young people's literature. And they were all really, really good. Not a stinker in the bunch. Perhaps you're thinking, "Duh." But the thing is, sometimes a book (for old or young) can win an award (not just the NBA, but any award), and then I'll read it and ( Read more... )

My week in the Pennsylvania Poconos was wonderful. I enjoyed being away from the Internet, news of any kind, email, TV...civilization, basically ( Read more... )

Paparazzi sues celeb blogger for $7.6MAs writers and bloggers, copyright is sometimes a difficult concept to deal with. Although I've enjoyed reading poems on friends' LJs, for example, I think it's probably a copyright violation (unless the author has given permission or the piece is so old that it's in the public domain ( Read more... )

I realize (NOW) that I often felt resistance, then acceptance (happily) when I was in grad school and would receive advisor feedback. So why would it be any different when I got my feedback from Jane for the Highlights Foundation workshop? It wasn't. And now, thankfully, I'm in full-acceptance mode. This coming week is about trying anything she ( Read more... )