touring in N.Bend

Last week I gave readings, along with other Oregon Book Award winner/nominees, in N Bend and Eugene. The picture above was taken in N. Bend: Ben Saunders, Paul Merchant, myself and Shannon Riggs. The tour was fun. (As fun as something like that can be for an agorophobic like me.) The best part was the other authors and their wives and Susan Denning, who arranged everything.
ps support the arts: buy their books

Today a woman told me that she had borrowed my second novel, Twenty Questions, from the library. She decided to read it on the recommendation of a friend who said it was a "good, light read." Yikes. Oh, thank you, I said.

concerned 4th grader

Feb. 24, 2001
Louise McDonald left a Jehovah Witness pamphlet on my desk today. "For Alison," it said.

ps Of course her name is not really Louise McDonald, don't worry.

Yes, it was sad all right.

I was reading the preschoolers a book called My Dog, Toby when 4 year old Brennan interrupted to say that he had a dog one time but his father threw it out the back door and it died. He said, "That was sad, huh."


ps I don't write about kids who are in my school now. The stories I use when I write about my school are from journals I've kept over the years.

no witches, but food

We went to a town near the volcano called Fuego, which means fire. People say that there are witches in the town. We didn't find any, but we did find a good restaurant.