Weaving through the snow

I flew to Denver a day after an ice storm closed airports here, and left on Saturday, a day before the next storm. (More about Denver in a moment.) Yesterday, I finally managed to get to the twice-postponed visit at Spring Garden Elementary in Bethlehem, PA, the 4th school in the great 2011 Travel Challenge. I'm heading out for the 5th one, today. The snow predicted for this morning seems to have missed us, and the snow for Thursday is also looking like it won't arrive. SO, big thanks to all who have used their mental powers to push the clouds away.

As for Denver, the Colorado Council of the IRA really knows how to celebrate books, and how to treat authors. I was stunned to walk into the hotel and see a banner for The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies hanging from the mezzanine. There were banners, made by school kids, for all of the Blue Spruce nominees. I get a fair number of state nominations, but almost never for my story collections, so this was especially nice. Here's a bad cell-phone shot of it:



I had a chance to see lots of old friends, and meet some folks I'd only known online. But the big fanboy thrill for me was to not only meet Lawrence Yep, who is the author of one of my favorite books, Dragon Wings,, but to also be on a panel with him. Larry, as he asked me to call him, was amazinly gracious. (In my experience, all the really good authors are like that.) The third member of the panel was Dom Testa, author of the Galahad series and famous Denver radio guy. He posted a great picture of the three of us on Facebook, but I have no idea how to link to it from here. It's on my wall. Whatever that is.