Hello, friends, and Happy Monday! How was everyone’s weekend? I returned from my agent’s annual creative retreat (only barely, due to some travel glitches) and spent yesterday running errands, unpacking, and settling back in to home life.

The retreat was amazing, as ever. I reunited with old friends, made quite a few new ones, talked shop, drank a LOT of bubbly (of course), and started a new project. Yep, you heard me right. I just turned in my Bland Sisters 2 revision two weeks ago, and I’m already on to something else. And so it goes. It’s something I’ve never tried before, so it’s in that exciting and fun and hopeful phase. Fingers crossed that it lasts, and that I can make some headway before vacation.

Yes, I am going on vacation! We are going to Camden, Maine, my son’s namesake. If you’ll be in the area, and you’re free on Sunday, I’ll be doing a reading and signing of THE INFAMOUS RATSOS at 1pm at Sherman’s with Ratsos illustrator Matt Myers and brilliant author-illustrator (and Camden native) Chris Van Dusen!

A few things happening here this week…

I just found out that THE INFAMOUS RATSOS was named Rhode Island’s submission for The National Book Festival in Washington, DC! Huzzah!

Recently, I finished DARING GREATLY by Brené Brown, and boy oh boy did it resonate. This is the third BB book I’ve read and loved, so this Wednesday, I think I might write a bit about my response to her work. (Next on the docket: I am finishing a book I started and loved a while ago, but set aside for unknown reasons: The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones (aka the editor who discovered Julia Child, among many other culinary luminaries).

Now that the Bland Sisters 2 revision (and the all-consuming mania a revision brings to my life) is off my plate, I’m trying to get back to a more balanced routine: getting up each morning to work out, taking regular showers (which I’m sure everyone around me will appreciate), eating more healthily (instead of whatever takes the least amount of time to prepare/can reach my mouth easily and still allow me to type), and going to bed at a decent hour. We’ll see how long it lasts…

How’s your week shaping up?