I know the festival was on Saturday and it is now already Wednesday but do forgive me as it is end-of-the year crunch time with teaching and I managed to turn in 3 Chapters and a synopsis for a new historical novel on Monday!! Hooray!

The festival was jam-packed with authors and talks and good food.  I met two household names for kids- the lovely Margaret Peterson Haddix and R.L. Stine ("Bob," who knew?) Margaret and I are also both graduates of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is also the client of one of my dear friends, Tracey Adams. 


I met many librarians and teachers and all the wonderful Ohioana book people, especially Linda Hengst. I finally got to meet Sharon Draper in person. I love her writing, especially COPPER SUN which is the best slave narrative I've ever encountered and can get any reluctant reader to gobble it up.
 
I also spent time with the talented Jaime Adoff, his wife, dad, and beautiful daughter at the governor's residence. Here I am with Frances Strikland herself (she told me the governor was in Cincinnati at an official event where he was undoubtedly picking at his dinner and then eating at first Frisch's Big Boy on the way home to Columbus, his favorite restaurant )



The gardens around the residence were simply AMAZING! I still know the names of most plants after writing Reaching for Sun... a skill my kids find amusing since I kill most of them who come to live with me.

 I made a new friend sitting next to Carmella Van Vleet who writes the most amazing non-fiction project books about Egypt, Inventions, Polar Regions, just about anything!  And I can't wait to read BENEATH MY MOTHER"S FEET by Amjed Qamar who was on the "Not Just Harry Potter" panel with me about her time living in Pakistan.  There were more than 60 authors in attendance on Saturday. Is it something in the Ohio water or is it the long winters that keep us huddled over our keyboards? I don't know but this Ohioan is proud to be a part of al of it and SO honored that The Floating Circus is a finalist for the state award!