Hoo Boy. Inside Story was yesterday, the last day of Children's Book Week and smack dab in the middle of the U District Street Fair. I love the smell of sweaty patchoulied college student in the morning.

The Inside Story presenters, however, smelled delightful and fresh. They all did an excellent job on their short, but sweet presentations. These people are so awesome! I know they are talented, gifted, thoughtful creators, but I love to see them toot their own horns in public. All the books presented last night are wonderful books they've written or illustrated or both. Like lovely lovely lovely Laura McGee Kvasnosky. That is her adorable dog and girl above that graced our invites and programs.

The main goal of Inside Story is to get our amazing local talent in front of booksellers, librarians, teachers, and the media with the hope of providing connections between the two groups for future speaking or workshop opportunities. And getting these great books into libraries, classrooms, book reviews and stores.

But being none of those invited professionals I still LOVE listening to Inside Story presentations because it reminds me that in Washington alone at least 15 people had their dreams of making children's books come true this spring:

BONNY BECKER
JENNIFER BRADBURY
ERIK BROOKS
ANDREA HELMAN
KATHLEEN KEMLY
LAURA MCGEE KVASNOSKY
RICHARD & STEFFANIE LORIG
MARGARET READ MACDONALD
CRAIG ORBACK
L.L. OWENS
DEBORAH REBER
CAROLE LEXA SCHAEFER
SUZANNE WILLIAMS
PAM WITHERS

Great job you guys!

And yes, we moved! We are still unpacking and haven't found all our stuff quite yet. For breakfast this morning I ate cereal out of a flower pot with some BBQ tongs.