It's Saturday morning and I've been catching up on comments and questions posted here this week. Tamar asked what is happening with the George River manuscript (that's a book I was busy with all summer, set in George River in Nunavik, Quebec). Here's the latest update: the first draft, due December 1, 2008 is written -- but I have it out now with an Inuit friend, whom I hope willhave comments for me some time in November. At that point, I'll do another rewrite before I submit it to my editor.

Now for Kim's question about having to submit an outline to a publisher. She wanted to know whether I am obliged to stick exactly to the outline. The answer is no, no, no!! The outline is more to give my editor a sense of where the manuscript is going. And here's the latest update on that project, which I'm currently calling Junkyard Dog -- the folks at Orca seem to like my outline since they want the manuscript for this winter... only that feels a little too soon for me as I expect to be busy with the rewrite of George River by January. So you see, being a YA writer is a bit like being a juggler -- and it feels like I have quite a few balls in the air lately!!!