A Little More from Oklahoma

It's been an interesting few days in Oklahoma, and we've been going non-stop. By we I mean me and a few other authors: Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray), Gennifer Choldenko (Al Capone Does My Shirts. And Laundry. And Homework) and Sonia Gensler (The Revenant).



The thing about children's book authors is that they're nice. (Well, most of them are, anyway, and all of these were.) And it was fun to get to know each other a little bit and spend time together.



We all participated in a conference, but also did assemblies and presentations at schools in the towns that were hit by tornadoes. Between school visits we toured places where houses and stores used to be, and heard stories from kids and teachers about where they'd been and what they'd seen and how frightening and devastating the experience was.



To the left is an image of what the gym at Highland East School school looked after the tornado. Yes, that's the basketball hoop, upside down. "Loud and terrifying" was the way the tornado was described by most people, which is probably an understatement if you were part of the group gathered in the gym.



I'm getting picked up to travel to Edmond, OK to do two more days of visits, so I'd better pack up! Just wanted to check in with a little more info--see you in the comments!