Five E-Words On Friday (way less Enticing than F's, sorry)

1. Escape

Last night, I took my son out to dinner. We've both been cooped up in the house all week and we finally decided we had to bust out. It was lovely.

2. Escapades

Tomorrow, I am taking off for the night to help a friend celebrate her 40th birthday. Based on the planning e-mails, we will be eating and drinking for the full 24 hours. I can't wait!

3. Expression

I am so grateful to everyone who weighed in yesterday on my dilemma. I think I sounded rather whiny in that post, and I'm not sure I really explained what I was feeling very clearly. Blah. Sorry. But anyway. I said YES. And it'll all be good. Thanks for your support and for putting up with me. I love this community so much!!

4. Energy efficiency
After I made my decision to say yes to the freelance work, those of you who said I'd stop stressing were right. I revised 5 chapters! Maybe taking on this work was the boost I needed to be more efficient! But my real big goal, and what The Year of Being A Writer truly means, is that I/We take our craft seriously and do the work that must be done to create the stories our hearts are longing to share. blackholly gave me this postcard for Christmas but I share the message/reminder with all of YOU


5. Enterprise

(Note: I got this cover from GoodReads. I don't know if it's the final.)
Are any of you attending ALA? If you are interested in my new book, head on over to the Holt/Macmillan booth and request an ARC of PEARL. I don't actually know if they'll have any, but I'm hoping yes. If not, please report back here and I will have a contest to give my copy away. :-)

I hope you all have an ENCHANTING weekend! Once again, I am going to write my Printz and Newbery picks on a heart. Last year, I was half right. This year, I'm hoping for a full!

:-)