Here's a time-lapse of the mural that I just painted on a local trail here in Florida. Also, I wanted to share another very special thing about this mural. It's dedicated in honor of my friend, Shelley, who we lost to cancer. I honored her wishes to not share about the day-to-day of what she was going through, but with what would have been her 55th birthday last week, and just finishing this mural in her honor, this feels like the right time to share this story.
Wormo!
I met such great people at the Venice Beach Book Fair — what an amazing day — thanks so much for having me!
Alright, disclaimer: I get a little overly excited about critters. But, I had a very special visitor traveling all over my booth for about 4 hours. The one and only WORMO!
Hold On
In our family, I tend to be "the person who holds stuff." The half-eaten sandwich. The keys. The sketched-during-the-school-day treasure that one of our kids doesn't want to get crumpled in the bottom of their backpack. Rubik's cubes. Water bottles. Also, any- and every-thing that's deemed too gross to hold. Thank you family.
Little, Magic Stickers
I've always loved back-to-school. Admittedly, an embarrassingly disproportionate amount of my excitement orbited around the school supplies. I gushed over every last new (and nerdy) tool. Click erasers. Pointy crayons. Lively, start-of-year markers (nothing at all like the parched, crooked, end-of-year versions they become). Pencil sharpeners. Fresh notebooks. Eek!
Blazing a New Trail
Hi Friends — just a quick update to share that Lulu's doing something new! Naval Station Everett in Washington state is having their summer reading program and Lulu was invited to be part of their story walk (as they talk about salmon spawns and beaver dams). I'm sure you can imagine how excited Lulu was to tell Jack! :D
News, Balloons + Jet Packs!
Well, if there's one good thing about getting sick right now, it's being stuck in bed, and therefore catching up on typing! hahahahah. Anyway, the end of the school year was a ton of fun and activity (complete with our fifth grader graduating elementary school)! So, it's taken me an extra bit of time to get this out — but here we go:
Getting Schooled
So, it's been another busy couple of weeks! That publishing conference that I'd mentioned last time just so happened to be having the in-person portion of their national conference in Orlando. While I hadn't initially intended on going to both parts — I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet everyone in person, have more conversations and even experience attending a book award ceremony for the first time with Kyle.
Boots on the Ground
Hey everyone — this last week has been crazy — I've been visiting library after library bringing in copies of Lulu's story along with the free Author Visit pages I made. Imagine how fun this is for me. I mean, I can be gregarious, and I do love people. But at the end of the day, I have major introverted proclivities and handing strangers a piece of paper with my face on it and a book that I poured my heart into makes the thought of rolling around on razor blades (or maybe being trapped in an elevator with a hive-worth of bees) sound like a vacation.