Falling toward Winter

This week has been a long, busy week.

The first part of the week, Dan had events (college research fair, recruitment) that kept him out until after the kids were in bed. Andrew and Evelyn had gymnastics and Tae Kwon Do as usual, so we were grateful Bubby and Poppy could help him get home on Wednesday after Oliver and Evelyn were in bed.

Then, just as Dan's schedule slowed down, I took Oliver up north with me for a book signing at the King's English (Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, with local author Dan Wells). I know I've been doing these more recently, but they are kind-of work related: they're a chance to network with other (better known) authors and they also give me a better idea what to do if (when?) I get asked to do similar signings on my own. And in this case, Amie and Jay have not only the same agent as I do, but the same publishing imprint (Knopf/Random House), and I was hoping by meeting them I'd get a little better idea what to expect--except, of course, that their book was huge (it's been on the NYT bestseller list for three weeks running), so it's sort of out of my league. But I did get to go to dinner with them (and several other author friends) at the Dodo after the event, so that was fun. I can now say I've had dinner with bestselling authors.

Friday the kids had school and Oliver and I hung out with grandma (i.e. we did lots of shopping we can't do at home). Saturday, the kids helped Dan rake the yard, and then they went with Poppy to the dump--and generally  had a good time hanging out with Poppy.

I went to a board meeting for the upcoming Writing for Charity conference, which I've volunteered to help with, and then Oliver and I drove home.

Not a spectacularly exciting week, but we got through it--and through the brief spurt of extremely cold weather (though we have another coming this week). I don't love the early dark nights--it's only mid-November and already they feel oppressive.

Hoping everyone reading this is safe, warm, and happy!