I Love a Parade

Yesterday was White Bear Lake's annual Manitou Days Parade. This year's theme was "Bear Tales," a celebration of books, writing, and local authors. I had the honor of riding in a float with other area writers...and I had a ball. I brought along the dragon puppet from my picture book "The Best Pet of All" and it was so much fun to watch both the kids and adults smile and wave back when they saw the dragon. My summer is off to a good start.

Two Potatoes....

The first week of June I was excited to go back to Spalding University in Louisville where I got my MFA in Creative Writing in 2003. Edie and I served on a panel with other alumni who have been published in the YA genre, and we each had a chance to speak. Here is our panel, from left to right:
Marjetta Geerling, Corinne Jackson, Kelly Creagh, Edie, Myself, and Roland Mann.
(Rumor is, the director Sena Jeter Naslund called it the best panel ever in the ten year history of the program.) I think we rocked, anyway:)

And me and Edie: