All of you out there, go and hug your favorite furry creature and say how much it means to you. Dog or cat, hamster or rat or wombat, throw your arms around it and say, “I love you and thank you for making my life so much richer.” Do this right away, before you forget or are distracted. Do it in memory

I got an email today from the talented Rhonetta Robertson, a student at the Art Institute of Ohio in Cincinnati, who aspires to be a graphic novelist and enjoys drawing the characters from her favorite books. She’s interested in doing a graphic novel version of The Midwife’s Apprentice but I have way too much going on to take on another

Riley and Leo, musical geniuses   Eva and Camryn, singers No, I wasn’t captured by aliens and transported to a distant planet. I have been on book tour to ten cities, up and down the west coast, where I visited schools, bookstores, and libraries. I met hundreds of people and signed hundreds of books. Now I am home and can

We arrived back home from my book tour (part one) and were greeted by the blooming rhododendrons and one of the apple trees in flower. Arizona is lovely in its rocky, desert sort of way but I missed all the green and the towering hemlocks, the budding fruit and even the weeds. Part one of the tour is over but

I have been in Texas on a book tour: Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. I learned a few things. Texas is very green (no tumbleweeds). No one in Texas wears ten-gallon hats. And everyone in Texas is incredibly nice. The folks at BookPeople took me to lunch. West Ridge Middle School in Austin presented me with a tote bag and

On the radio the other day I heard Gary Snyder quoting poet Robert Duncan. “A poem” he said, “must have music and magic. Otherwise it’s just prose.” Just prose? Just prose? Prose is The Diary of Anne Frank and Goodnight Moon, Charlotte’s Web Jacob Have I Loved, The Runaway Bunny, and The Hunger Games. Are You There God, It’s Me,

I’ve long been half in love with Sid Fleischman. That’s because I was half in love with my father-in-law, Alvin Cushman. Alvin and Sid went to high school together in San Diego. Sid used to get Alvin in trouble. Alvin and Sid were both slight, generous, gracious, kind, courteous, and honorable men. When Alvin died, I thought myself lucky still to have Sid. And now

Thanks to those of you who tuned in for the webcast live from the TOPS K-8 school in Seattle, WA, about Alchemy and Meggy Swann. I truly enjoyed the questions and the time I spent with all of you.

Oh Pete the cat, you are my new hero. When things go wrong, do you cry? Goodness, no. You keep on walking along and singing your song. I need to think of you as I still struggle with revisions of Will Sparrow’s Road. I am complaining and procrastinating and fighting myself instead of singing, “I love my new book.” And,