$3.99

That's the price of this blog entry. I'm sitting in a hotel room in Los Angeles, post Oscars, and I decided to shell out the $3.99 for a couple of hours of wireless internet connection. 'Cause you're worth every penny! And also, I wanted to check my email.

We've been hopping around to bookstores, doing school visits, having dinners. I'm with Deb, the publicist from Bloomsbury, and we splurged and upgraded our rental car to a bright yellow convertible Mustang. Oh yeah, today on our free day we drove around LA with the top down on our 'stang. It was much fun and much needed. Then we had room service and watched the Oscars, and I discovered that (like many mothers of toddlers) I hadn't been to the movies this year. I did see Pride & Predjudice (lovely without competing with Colin Firth). But now I have a list of must-see movies. But I have a dozen books I want to get to first. Ay, that's the fun/problem with going to all these bookstores! I come home with a suitcase full of new books I simply must read now, now, now! Excpet that I need to review the typeset copy of river secrets first, and finish my research for the new novel...

The coolest part of the Oscars tonight (besides Jon Stewart and his video clips) was Larry McMurty's acceptance speech. Did you hear how he thanked booksellers everywhere?! I thought that was so great. And putting emphasis on the importance of opening a book put the actors' plea to "see movies in the theater instead of waiting for the DVD" to shame.

But I should get to bed. We've got an early morning and a long day tomorrow, followed by another long day before I can go home to my Max! My sweet boy. As much as I'm honored to be asked to do a book tour and I love meeting the people on the road, it's so hard to be away from my boys. I want to rock him and kiss him and read books with him and run around the stool with him and play drums with him and sing...