The paperback of White Sands, Red Menace is now out, so to whet your appetites, here's an amusing and relevant little video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVPjuiABp_E

I've been down with the flu for the last couple of weeks, but my spirits were buoyed considerably this morning when I found out that White Sands, Red Menace had won the New Mexico Book Award for YA!

(Following in the footsteps of its older sister, The Green Glass Sea, which took home the same prize in 2007, the first year of the NMBA ( Read more... )

If you're going to be at the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose next weekend (Oct. 29 - Nov. 1st), here's where I'll be, officially. (The rest of the time, I'll just be around, or in the bar with the Aussies....)

• Reading my short story, "A Practical Girl" (from the BRAND-NEW anthology Eclipse 3), at 1:30 pm, in The Garden Room.  (Following the ( Read more... )

Below is a map of the state of Nebraska, with my week-long journey super-imposed. The green dots are the places I spent the night, and the yellow line is an approximation of where we went. (Approximate because I wasn't driving, so I wasn't paying close attention to the actual routes, especially on days when we were on two-lane state and county ( Read more... )

Boulder, Colorado

"Klages Tours Nebraska" ended on Sunday afternoon with a small gathering at the Omaha Public Library downtown. I repacked my bag with all my school visit materials, my heavy jacket (it was 70 degrees in Omaha), and all the goodies I'd been given, including the official state cookbook, signed by the governor and his wife. (I'll post ( Read more... )

Omaha, Nebraska

Last full day in the Cornhusker State. I'm wearing my new sweatshirt, and trying to pass for a native. Richard Miller of the NE Library Commission picks me up at 8:30 and we drive to Elmwood, home of Bess Streeter Aldrich, who is the author of 2009's One Book for Nebraska [Adults], A Lantern in Her Hand.

It's a little eerie to notice ( Read more... )

Lincoln, NE
(still the state capital)

Late night blogging, and in the middle of a really interesting dream when I was jangled out of slumber by my wake-up call at 8:00. After I picked the phone up off the floor, I repacked my suitcase again, got tea at the Breakfast Bar, and met Sally in the lobby of the Super-8. Our first stop was the West Point ( Read more... )

West Point, NE

I left the luxury of the Cornhusker at 9:00 am, armed with a Decaf Chai from the Starbucks in the lobby. Didn't get to see much of Lincoln except a view of the capitol building from my window, but I'll be back tomorrow evening. (Staying at a different hotel, because the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers are playing Texas Tech --  a ( Read more... )

Lincoln, Nebraska
(the state capital)

Got up at 7:00 in Grand Island, and Sherry drove me to Hastings for a 9:00 am event at the Public Library. Two avid groups of readers, one from Hastings Middle School (Go Panthers! Go Tigers!?), and one from an adult book group that had read Green Glass Sea. (And a family of three home-schooled girls.) Lively ( Read more... )

Grand Island, Nebraska

This will be a fairly short post, because it was a long day, with an evening event, and when I got to my hotel room, the wireless was down. It's up again, but almost midnight, and my wake-up call is for 7:00 am.

Started the day in North Platte, and woke to freezing rain. Snow mostly gone, but still only 35 degrees, gray and ( Read more... )