Friday Five

Here are  five things making me smile this Friday…

1. Burlington’s Discover Jazz Festival – We’re spending tonight on the Church St. Marketplace, enjoying the music (okay…and some Ben & Jerry’s, too). 

2. Saturday plans for a girls’ day with two writer pals and their daughters.

3. The Adirondack Literary Awards this Sunday in Blue Mountain Lake, hosted by The Adirondack Center for Writing.  ACW is a great organization that hosted the first children’s writing conference I ever attended.  I’ve been to some great workshops and other conferences since then, but the ACW World of Children’s Literature Conference will always hold a special place in my heart.  I got my first manuscript critique on the novel that would become Spitfire, listened to Joseph Bruchac tell stories, and sat next to Paula Danziger at dinner.  And I thought, “Maybe I can really do this writing thing.”

4. My kitchen cabinets are white.  They used to be dark, dark brown.  The walls, which used to be a strange gray-brown-mystery 1950s wallpaper color, are a buttery yellow now.  The counter is…a work in progress.  And most of what was sitting on it is now on the floor on the porch.   If I could only find the toaster, I’d be all set…

5.  I’m revising CIRCUIT BOY, the companion book for my MG novel, MAPLE GIRL.  I’m through my second pass of revisions and need to back off and look at the bigger picture now.  Next week, I’ll be shrinking the font to size 8, single spacing, and laying out the pages on the porch (as soon as I move the stuff from the kitchen counter) so I can go nuts with my beloved Post-It notes and figure out where threads are disappearing and where characters need to resurface.  This will be fabulously fun for me in a geeky, writer-girl sort of way.