It's a bird! It's a plane! It's me flying high after attending the Festival of Faith and Writing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Highlights included hanging out with Katherine Paterson and Joan Bauer, two incredible women and amazing authors, and with Amy Wevodau, a young writer whose name you will come to know. The icing on the cake was the play "The Women of Lockerbie," by Deborah Brevoort. This drama is set in the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, site of the crash of a plane brought down by terrorists. The play explores the impact this disaster had on one American couple, and on the women of Lockerbie who lost husbands and sons, fathers and daughters, and how they chose to turn their inexpressible grief into an act of love, reaching out to all the families who suffered a loss, paving the way for true healing. American families were the biggest recipients of this grace. In case you haven't picked up on it already, this play, written as a Greek tragedy by an American playwright, is one of the most powerful stories written for the stage. If "The Women of Lockerbie" comes to your town, run, don't walk. It is a must-see.

So what else is new? Oh, Brother, my newest picture book, published in January, has already gone back to press for a reprint. Yay!

After years of longing to record my own poetry, I learned that I'll get to record an audio version of The Voices of Christmas, coming out in 2009. Yay! I was also asked to record a poem from Bronx Masquerade for an audio anthology for teens. Can you say "feast or famine"?

April was a month of frenzied writing as I completed a new draft of my latest young adult novel. Now I get to sit wringing my hands until my editor lets me know what she thinks. My new editor, that is. The editor I've worked with on this novel for almost two years has left to set up shop with another publisher. Sigh ... I hate when that happens. Cries of abandonment lodge in my throat! Eventually, the feelings of panic subside, and the lonely author returns to her pad and pen, confident that God will work it out.

Oh! I almost forgot. I won a free trip to Hawaii. It's only for a couple of days, but still. It was one of those time-share offers. I listened to a 90-minute talk, bought nothing, and got a free trip for my trouble. I'm still smiling! The trip is months away, but I'll let you know how it went.

Okay, time to get back to work.

Nikki