The only actual writing I am doing right now is on a variety of speeches I am giving over the next 30 days. And a few poems, the first of which will be written on November 1 for the 30 Poems in 30 Days project I am taking part in to raise money. And if any of my journal readers want to get in touch with me and pledge a certain amount for the poetry Nov 1-30, I will send you  each poem as it comes outbe email. No guarantee of quality. Contact me at janeyolen@aol.com

On the 28th, Yolanda Leroy, editor at Charlesbridge and her assistant Jill arrived around 4 p.m., as did Barbara Goldin. Barbara and I are working on The Girls’ Bible (provisional title) for them and we needed some strong guidance. So the four of us worked for two and half hours, then went off to dinner at the Green Street Cafe and did some more brainstorming. It was very helpful.  It is a difficult book, looking at both the Biblical text of women’s lives: Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Deborah, Leah etc. Using rabbinical commentary, alternate stories, historical information in boxes, headed by a poem of mine and footed by a meditation of Barbara’s. We needed to talk things through, and Yolanda was very clear about the layering as she saw it.

Yolanda and Jill stayed over my house and in the morning, the 29th of October, over breakfast we talked with Heidi about the editing stuff on Bad Girls. Again, Yolanda was so helpful, especially when she had trouble with the same editing program that Heidi and I had! We felt vindicated for all the whining we’d done.

That evening, Heidi and Maddison and I, in costume–Heidi as a truly wicked witch, Maddison as Dorothy of Oz, and me –dressed in black with a pirate hat on my head and a plastic cutlass in hand–met Yolanda and Jill (angel editor, devil editor) at Ralph Masiello’s house in West Brookfield for  WMIG illustrator’s Halloween meeting, potluck, and costume party. We had an absolute ball, though got home much too late since Maddison had school the next day.

Friday, I drove off to Keene, NH for the Keene State Children’s lit conference. I was speaking along with Loin Lowry, Katherine Paterson, Lita Judge, and this year’s Caldecott winner, NEw Hampshire artist Beth Krommes. In the middle of Lita’s talk (she led off the conference) a squirrel evidently got into a transformer and blew all the electicity throughout the campus. We were told there would be no electricity for over an hour. I suggested we break up into small groups in different areas of the auditorium, and the 500 attendees could speak personally with each of us. That worked well until conference dirctor David White’s minions located a battery-powered mike. Since it wouldn’t power Lita’s power point presentation, I stepped into the breach and gave my speech. About 3/4 of the way through, the lights came on. I finished my talk, Lita finished hers, and we got back on track, finishing up on time. Amazing.

I stayed for the faculty dinner but left early into the teeth of a huge rainstorm which luckily slowed just as I got to the Massachusetts line. Got home in time to fall into bed, exhausted.