Is it always like this?

Summer ends, and suddenly it's as if I'm staring down the end of the year. (Thanksgivukah is right around the corner!)

This fall was pretty busy with a trip to Dallas middle schools, the Boston Book Festival, and - last week - a trip to London to talk with kids, librarians and booksellers.

Dallas included:

1) A library talk with very special swag:

Gorgeous AND delicious mini bundts 

Tried to save a few of these at home, but it's futile to hide cookies from a teenager.

2) Wonderful and smart Texan 5th graders and middle schoolers (No pictures. After submitting to the background check required by Texas public schools, I had a strong feeling that photos were not encouraged).

3) Dinner with the lovely Dr. Rose Brock (Yeah, I said DOCTOR. Yay, Rose!).

My husband asked why they served a hot dog with the steak. (It was a carrot.)

In Boston . . .

1) My hotel treated me nicely.

They also noted that if I drank the bottled water,
three dollars would be added to my "portfolio"

2) I got to talk with Jack Gantos and Kate DiCamillo. Too excited to take a picture.

3) I had a fun dinner with writers Jacqueline Davies and Wendy Mass. Too tired and happy to take a picture.

And then I went to London,

Where I had a wonderful high tea . . .
and other adventures . . .

with my friend Kristin,

visited The (one and only) Guardian

where these appealing (victimized?) pigs
watch over the lobby,

was blown away by the size and beauty of this window display
on the South Bank at Foyles,

(which was conceived, approved, and designed by
these two incredible people at Andersen Press),  

visited kids at a school decorated with 1920s tile
(it used to be the children's ward in a hospital), 

shared lunch with some pretty masterful 7/8 students
(they serve and clear without ever dropping
 the thread of the conversation),

marveled at the new library in Birmingham
(now biggest in Europe)

and rode first class back to London,
where I had to say goodbye.

The driver who took me to Heathrow chatted with me the whole time about New York City politics, discussing Bloomberg and the upcoming mayoral election in detail before shifting to national U.S. politics, Obama, healthcare policy, and the recent government shutdown. He had never even been to the US.

So that was my fall travel. Obviously, I feel pretty lucky.

Also this fall . . .

I gave my editor, Wendy Lamb, a chunk of my work-in-progress, and made some difficult but healthy decisions about how to move forward with it. There are still a number of big question marks.

So, other than a few local school visits (doing fewer and fewer of these), I'll be at my desk.