AMAZING NEWS!

Eeesh! I am embarrassed by the time lapsed since my last post - but to be fair, I have been hunkered down (with Zeus in my lap) working to finish the first draft of the "new book" which is due right about...NOW.


But even with the final chapters in sight, my train of thoughts has been derailed by the BEST NEWS EVER... MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE just won the 2011 SCBWI Sid Fleischman Award for Humor!


This is a really bid deal for me and I am still hyperventilating from the news (and it's been a few days since I heard). The list of past winners is beyond amazing and it befuddles my wee brain to think that I am in the company of Lisa Yee, Donna Gephart, David LaRochelle, Gennifer Choldenko, Sara Pennypacker, Allen Zadoff - but most humbling, is the man who received the first honor, the amazing Sid Fleischman. Wow!

What makes this extra sweet for me - not only was I able to combine my text with my cartoons, but MILO tells a very personal story. It's the story of loosing a parent when you are young and the ways a young adolescent goes about trying to remember his mom, even through the fog that has settled inside him. It's a heart-warming story, and yes, I've heard some tears have been shed reading it.

But I'd always set out to write this book with a sense of humor leading the way - and to have that side of me, and Milo recognized proves that I was able, in my own way, to highlight that a painful life event doesn't have to wipe away the funny parts. It truly can be a tandem dance between the sadness and the laughter because that was always my own experience...and now it's Milo's too.
Thank you so much SCBWI for honoring the funny and heart-felt part of me that is MILO.