1. RE: KidLit Con. The booklet is very nearly done and more importantly in the capable hands of Sarah Stevenson who saved my butt on Friday after I sent her an emailed with the words "Panic Commencing" in the subject line. Let's just say there were a lot of jpegs that needed to become part of a pdf and after weeks of getting everything together I had reached the end of my capabilities and, um, panicked. Sarah saved my butt and the beauty that is the booklet will be largely due to her.

2. There has been a ton of other KidLit Con related happenings but I won't bore you with those. Suffice to say it is all coming together and more importantly, this week should see things coasting along a bit with all the big decisions made and only a bit of monitoring (for continued registration) and printing (of booklet) left to do. Whew.

2. RE:Map of My Dead Pilots. In celebration of last week's fabulous first review of MAP (and the first report from someone who isn't an agent or editor type or, um, married to me), I bought a new watch! Now when something not so fabulous happens with the book, I can look at my watch and remember the first fabulous moment. This is something every writer should do, I think. It helps you weather the tough times.

3. I also turned in the pictures for my postcards and all the book excerpts for the back. (This ended up taking awhile as it wasn't so easy to get my hands on the pics.) (We're talking photos from pre-digital camera days.) There will be six different designs: one of the cover and five of photos from AK. I'm hoping they make folks look twice, especially reviewer type folks at a variety of magazines where I will be sending them to stir up interest.

4. And I'll be sending emails to different people this week about the book and the e-galley and all that sort of promo stuff. We are in the trenches now, kids, and all the grunt work is truly commencing.

5. RE: Ballou High School. Some great news to report from the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Ballou HS earlier this year. I recently heard from school librarian Melissa Jackson and they now have four books for every student! As they started the year with less than one for each student, this is quite the improvement and she is really excited. Go us! (More on all this at GLW, shortly.)

6. And the KidLit Con/RIF partnership continues with the fundraiser still going strong. We crossed the $1,000 mark (which was our goal) and now are looking to do even more for this most excellent organization. Give all you can, please, and help spread the word.

7. As to reviewing, I have read three books for the October "Bradbury Weather" column: WHITE CROW by Marcus Sedgwick (I've already posted on my love for it), RIFTWALKER by Susan and Clay Griffith (Book 2 in The Vampire Empire series - awesome!) and ALL ABOUT EMILY by Connie Willis which will be my "Cool Read" and a mash-up of artificial intelligence and the history of the Rockettes. I adore Willis and this novelette is everything she does well. Totally.

But I still need to find some more titles from the piles downstairs. Working on it.

8. AAAAAAND five books for Booklist due by the 15th which include one on climate change, one on plastics in the ocean, one on the doomed Scott expedition, one on Alaskan politics (ouch!) and one on girl geeks (yea!). That's a lot of Booklist reading; it must be fall.

9. What's left.....well all kinds of stuff good, bad and otherwise. We are hoping to go to Providence & Boston this weekend but that all depends on power being back on and that kind of thing. I'll keep ya posted.