Randomly...

Did you miss me? Haven't blogged in a while due to a crazy last week here at the office getting Novel & Short Story Writer's Market out the door. (Long story short: server crash fallout + editor on vacation = madness.) Here are nutshell versions of the things I would have posted on if I would have had two seconds to rub together:

• SCBWI Conference: My room is reserved, my flight is booked. Only 38 days until I leave for LA for the SCBWI event of the year. I hope you're coming. It will mark the debut of the 2008 CWIM which will be shipping straight from the printer to the conference.
  
• Mark McVeigh relocation: It happens every year--as soon as the CWIM goes to the printer, I get news of editors moving. This year's first is Mark McVeigh who has moved from Dutton to S&S imprint Aladdin to serve as editorial director. (I had a brief conversation with Mark in LA last year--actually he was talking to the people I was sitting with and I was listening--during which he said he was staying in LA after the conference to hang out with pal Janice Dickinson. I was hoping some of the the cool would jump off of him and land on me.) We should be able to update this in proofs, so no need to mark up your 2008 CWIM when you get it. Oh yeah--Mark will be presenting at the SCBWI conference.
  
• MySpace: I now have 290 friends. You can't have too many friends (or two many pairs of shoes) so visit my profile and send me a request.
• F+W in PW: The parent company of my imprint Writer's Digest Books is featured in Publishers Weekly. There's even a handy chart (which I learned a lot from reading). I've worked at F+W for almost 16 years, and the times, they have a-changed (in a good way).
• Book Espresso Machine: Have you seen this? Amazing technology. And it seems to be smaller than those massive first computers.
  
• I love this blog: Check out Three Silly Chicks. They offer interviews with authors and illustrators, books reviews, and more--and they truly live up to their name.
• My latest shiner: For the sixth time since he came into this world, my adorable little not-quite-three-year-old son has given me a black eye by accidentally bonking me with his hard little head in what can only be described as a freak book-reading accident. (We were looking at some new board books we had just picked up at B&N.) I have to say, however, that this is the best shiner I've ever had. It's a thick deep purple swish above my lid; it's looks like punk/runway eyeshadow. It's rather beautiful. Good thing--I should have a month or so to enjoy it.