Next week I am going to NCTE (National Convention of English Teachers) in Boston. This is my first-ever teacher/librarian conference I'll be attending as a speaker...and I'm terrified. I regularly get in up front of hundreds of kids to talk about writing, and revising, and working in my pajamas - but I rarely speak in front of crowds of adults anymore. Adults are kinda scary. Worse yet, my topic is "Keep them laughing, keep them reading," which makes me feel the need to be funny. Whenever you stand up and try to be funny, it always fails. So right now, I have a pretty earnest talk planned - but I'm hoping I'll win 'em over with cute pictures, like this one (entitled "Oops, I got a puppy"):



While I'm in Boston, I'm looking forward to meeting a ton of authors I admire. I was lucky enough to be invited to join Kate Messner in a morning jog/run/walk with other authors and teachers and librarians. I said yes, because it will be fun, but it's BEFORE 7 AM! I do not usually do anything before 7 am, so I really hope librarian and teacher friends show up and make the early morning extra rosy. If you happen to be in Boston next week for NCTE, wouldn't you love to get up early and join us for some crisp Boston air? If you snap a picture of yourself with one of the authors hobbling along that morning, bring it to the Bloomsbury booth on Saturday during my signing (2:30-3:30) and they will give you a copy of THE QUIRKS! Yay! Free books and exercise. A true score.

Later,
E.