FOR THE LOVE OF JUNE

What a giving month June is!

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to hang out with amazing author-friend Ginger Rue, author of BRAND NEW EMILY and JUMP -- and her daughters -- at Alabama School Library Association conference.

It was so great to see familiar faces of those wonderful librarians I've already had the great fortune to work with and to meet so many new and fascinating folks too!

Here's me with Ginger:

Also this week I attended a meeting of a book club who had chosen LEAVING GEE'S BEND as their monthly pick. Hostess Lisa Ramsey is such a generous, creative spirit... check out this centerpiece of the books the group has read:

...and here is a close-up of the branch that Ludelphia now perches upon:

And that's not all! Book arts lovers, wait till you see the lovely I got to take home with me:

It's made from book pages! NOT from LEAVING GEE'S BEND. No, that would be hard to do to a hardcover! Lisa bought a book at the dollar store. She said it had "leaving" in the tile. HOW COOL IS THAT?!

For dessert, Lisa served a fresh-from-the-book recipe:

Then I told the group lots of behind-the-scenes stuff about writing and my experiences since the release of LEAVING GEE'S BEND. They were a wonderful audience. Here I am with some of them:

Finally, here's the sweet young person who's kind of the reason for it all: it was because of Hope that Lisa (her mom) chose LEAVING GEE'S BEND. (Hope's teacher read it to the class.) What a sweetheart! And she's a great assistant, too:

Thanks to ALL! May our paths cross again very soon. xo