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September 2010
August is usually a sleepy month for me, weighed down by the heavy desert heat of Southern California. Not this year. August was the coolest it's been since I moved to California 20 years ago, and it turned out to be a busy one for me. I launched "Nikki Sounds Off," my occasional blog, with a three-part piece on celebrity children's book authors, wrote a blog for Zondervan, publishers of my new YA novel, A Girl Named Mister, and wrote an op-ed piece called "Color Me Perplexed," which will be published in the online magazine, Hunger Mountain, this month. I received beautiful advance copies of Mister and the reissue of Dark Sons, both of which will hit stores this month. A launch party will be held at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, so I hope all you locals will join the celebration. And, trust me, there are reasons aplenty for celebration. A Girl Named Mister went through three editors, two publishers, and took more than two years to bring to term. My newest baby is big, and healthy, and I am ready to toast her arrival! For my fans in Cali, I'll be doing an event at the Frugal Frigate Bookstore in Redlands on October 2nd. August also brought me happy news. My tween novel with Bloomsbury, Losing It at Planet Middle School, will be released in Fall 2011! There was also great news from Jessica Doyle, First Lady of Wisconsin. Every month, she recommends fie books to be featured on the online book club, Read On Wisconsin!. In February 2011, one of those books will be Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel! I couldn't be more pleased.
Travel? I stayed close to home for most of the month, but I did make a short trip to Chicago. I was invited to address 700 teachers at the Opening of Schools ceremony in Evanston, Illinois. It is always an honor and a privilege to share my work with teachers and to talk about the power of poetry and its use throughout the curriculum. It was especially rewarding to participate in an event that encourages, applauds, and empowers teachers to go out and make an impact on the children in their community. While in Evanston, I had the pleasure of spending time with uber librarian, Junko Yokota. When my return flight was suddenly cancelled, and I ended up with time on my hands, she spirited me off to Chicago's lovely Botanical Gardens, at my request. We found lots of cozy little places one might curl up and read a good book! And we lunched at a funky little restaurant called The Lucky Platter. If you get a chance to dine there, try their pumpkin soup! Yum. Thanks, Junko! Fall is already nipping at my heels, and I've got work to get to. Bye for now. |
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