Ahem.  From Monty Python:  "Australia, Australia, We Love You, Amen."  A certain Monty of my own is the first piece of fiction I've ever published (very, very excited about it, as you can tell!).  Monty is from Mars is a 750-word story about a first-grader whose new neighbor says he is from Mars, and can prove it!  Forthcoming April 2010 in Explore Magazine, Australia (Pearson Publishing).

Which Martians do you know?

A lovely Friday afternoon email from Margaret at KC Baby in my inbox: a new piece to write!  This one is about Baby Signs, for the spring 2010 issue.  (Sneak preview: yes, baby signs really work, brilliantly!)

My piece called "Breaching Decorum" is in the December 2009 issue of In the Wind, the regional quarterly newsletter of the Kansas SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators).  Subscribe!

My piece, "Dirty Jobs" will be published in the Medieval Times themed issue of Appleseeds next year.  Appleseeds is a social studies magazine for 8-12 year olds.  Coming soon, to a newstand near you!

This morning I interviewed for 2 hours (intermittently, of course) on 99.1 FM, one of our local radio stations.  The new Bluebeard book got a good airing, and it was fun chatting about all kinds of things, loosely related to the writing.  I feel at times that I may have forgotten more than I ever knew about Bluebeard, but it seems he's still in there, somewhere!  We segued at the end into writing for children, and I've been asked back for another day to talk about that.  Bluebeard to children's writing is less of a leap than I thought it was!