Tokyo

This has been a busy week for me. Tomorrow morning we are leaving for South Carolina so I've been scrambling around, trying to get my Christmas shopping done, my New Year's cards written, the house cleaned, and our suitcases packed. Oh, and I had to finish that book review. But it looks like we're ready to go.

Last weekend I made a rare trip to Tokyo to make a presentation to the Tokyo branch of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Editors. My talk was about writing for children's magazines. I was a little nervous beforehand, knowing I would be speaking in front of people who were well established in children's publishing in Japan(notably Naomi Kojima and John Shelley), but everyone seemed to learn something. One of the attendees was a guy I met by chance in the library in Tokushima about ten years ago. He is now living in Tokyo and remembered my name! I also got to meet Holly Thompson, whose wonderful story "Bloodlines" appears in my anthology, The Broken Bridge. Everyone was so friendly and interesting. It made me want to move to Tokyo.