Last week, I ran (literally, since I was out for a run) into a colleague who teaches with me at Marianopolis College. I asked her, "What are you going to be doing for the next three weeks?" and she answered, "As little as possible!"

I have to admit her answer got me thinking. That's because I plan to spend the next three weeks (before classes start) by WRITING UP A STORM! I'm only about five chapters from the end of the manuscript I've been working on since May. It's just a first draft, but my goal is to get it all "out" before school starts. Then, in the first few weeks of school, I'll slowly start the first revision.

I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I WASN'T OBSESSED WITH STORIES! Maybe I'd be spending the next few weeks doing as little as possible, too. All this storytelling is hard work -- and it does cut into my socializing opportunities. (Lately, I've had to decline a number of coffee and ice cream dates!) On the other hand, NOTHING I DO MAKES ME FEEL AS HAPPY AS WRITING. Not even cooking -- or running -- or even boxing! (You do know, don't you, that the new manuscript is about a girl boxer?!)

So, just on a day when I was wondering about my driven-ness and why it is I can't seem to live without having a story in my life, a lovely package arrives in the mail. And inside this lovely package, which comes from my friends at Orca Book Publishers, is an even lovelier thing that seems to me to be a message that I should keep on telling stories: the most amazing beautiful new edition of my novel, Finding Elmo. On the cover is a glossy black cockatoo -- the Elmo of my imagination! I'm posting the pic here too, so you can join me in admiring Elmo!