J. K. Rowling and a Dose of Inspiration . . .

1. Did you catch J. K. Rowling's interview on Oprah? So inspiring. Her life was far from easy. She dealt with poverty, grief and clinical depression and still wrote, wrote, wrote. Maybe that's why she wrote, wrote, wrote. And she referred to Arthur Levine as one of her best friends. He's the editor who brought her work to America, and he's such a cool guy that he once dyed his beard PINK when his author, Laini Taylor, was nominated for a National Book Award.

See . . .

(Jim Di Bartolo, Laini Taylor, Arthur A. Levine)

Back to J.K. Rowling. Here's the link with info about her interview with Oprah.

And here's a video of her commencement speech at Harvard. It's so inspiring. She talks about the value of failure. Got to love that!

2. The amazing author and all-around cool person, Mary Hershey, had a wonderful list on her blog, that had me saying, "Yup, me too" and "That's so true." Here's a link to the list. (Did I mention it's funny?)

3. When we write, we hope to make a difference to one reader. Just one. And we feel the same when we speak to a group.

Last Saturday, I had the great pleasure of speaking to a group of adults about something I've been doing for the past 18 years -- parenting!

Today, I received an e-mail from one of the parents in the audience. Here's a bit from that LOVELY e-mail:

"I am working on a children's book and have never finished it just because, well, if I finish it.... then what? I have a book on my computer, period. I have this delusion that I need to "know people" and "have connections" everyday homemaker moms - except for J.K. Rowling of course, don't get published. So I've never finish it. But . . . you showed me that my thinking is backward. I should be thinking "even J.K. Rowling did it, and so can I!"

I have restarted my work."

Now I know that what I said mattered to at least one person. Thank you, Jill, for letting me know you've chosen to "dust off your dreams."

And thank you, J.K. Rowling for reminding us that "dusting off our dreams" can not only save our lives, but can deeply enrich them.

J. K. Rowling, R. L. Stine and Me?

Q: In which newspaper would you find mega-best-selling authors J. K. Rowling, R. L. Stine and, um, me in the same article?

A: The San Francisco Chronicle.

In other news . . .

Banned Books Week is September 27^th through October 4^th. Click here to read a letter from Chip Gibson, President & Publisher of Random House Children’s Books. Learn more here.

And still other book news . . .

Thanks to the people from the Osceola library system who did a great job putting together the Fall into Reading Book Festival.

Here I am at the display table with my goodies. (Notice the voter registration forms in the middle of the table? Everyone I asked was already registered to vote. Are you? If not, hurry it up; you only have until October 6^th!)

I had a blast meeting Chris Crutcher and hearing him speak and read from some of his books.

Lisa Campbell Ernst was wonderful, and I enjoyed our conversation, but unfortunately had to leave before her presentation.

Big thanks to Hubby for waking at 5 a.m. and driving 2 ½ hours with me even though he had a cold.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m off to exercise my right to read a banned book. Hmm. I’ve got one of Chris Crutcher’s right here.

Happy reading/registering,

Donna