Lovely Librarians, Dorkmobiles, and a Little Angst

A few weeks ago I was the honored guest at The Austin librarians' first ever book club meeting. After the lovely ladies did "flash talks" of new books such as Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson, and Pants on Fire, by Meg Cabot, they proceeded to discuss Brothers. (My editor had supplied them with ARCs.) The very charming leader of the group, Allison O'Reilly, posed some interesting questions that had me thinking. The whole experience was fun and a bit surreal. All in all, a great way to spend an afternoon.

But the really big news (at least for me) is that I am no longer driving a dorkmobile. Yes, we have officially given my son Daniel the family van and I am now sitting pretty in a zippy little phantom blue Mazda 3. Very happy.

The not so good news is that after a starred review from Kliatt, I got a mean one from Kirkus. Which goes to show you what a crap-shoot reviews are. Anyway, at first I thought I would ignore it, but since that's probably not healthy, I decided to announce it via this blog, then plunge back into my serial killer story and make the next victim a mean-spirited children's book reviewer. Just kidding. Not.