From My Studio Window

Outside the leaves are changing color overnight and falling faster than I wish with the coming of winter. I would like to hold onto fall awhile longer, but just today a few scattered snowflakes floated across my window. I am spending a lot of time in my studio this time of year. Writing begins at 6AM for an hour before getting my son up and off to school, then back to writing some more, then drawing. It is a fertile time and as fleeting as the last leaves on the trees. I cherish it as much as I cherish those leaves.

Red Wing Calling

This is the tower at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, Minnesota where I spent the month of September working. The house where our Spud retreat will be held in April is on the left. I am so glad that this is going to happen and so are the people at the Anderson Center. Spudtreat 2014.

I'm back from a great two weeks in Boston/NY, presenting at schools, receiving a Boston Globe Horn Book Honor Award, pitching new projects and spending a day at the NY Hall of Science with future builders. Fun times!

Cow behind the wheel

At the publication party yesterday for my new picture book Moo!, extraordinary children's librarian Kim Faurot gave both the illustrator Mike Wohnoutka and I a cow in a remote control car. Kim shaped each cow so that it looked like Mike's illustration, complete with windblown tuft of purple hair and green cowbell necklace. Even the license plate of the car, MOO!, matched the illustration from the book. Kim is a wonder.