The Audience

Last time we had a day off from work, what did we do? Oh yeah. We built another fort. This second fort was much better constructed, thanks to an ingenious idea (from me, of course) to use quilting pins to hold the blankets together. We used my living room this time, but we had just as much fun! We ate yummy treats and made Narnian madlibs and watched one of our most favoritest movies, Prince Caspian. I, for one, felt like a little kid again, which is exactly what I intended to do. I needed to get in touch with the audience of children's literature.

Then, my family swept me off to Disneyland, where I turned into a little boy. It sounds awkward, but I simply mean that I had the whims of Tom Sawyer. I wanted to be a pirate, I wanted to be a knight, I wanted to be a cowboy, etc, etc. And I saw Peter Pan himself! He would be my idol, if I were really a little boy. As it is, he is still very idol-like. I don't believe in growing up completely. At Disneyland, it became painfully obvious that I was getting more in touch with the audience. I was starting to...lose myself in the audience.

The next week, Rachel and I went to WIFYR: the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference. My creative mind exploded. In a good way. It was quite messy, and I'm still trying to pick up the pieces. But I was running to and fro, from class to class, helter-skelter, heebie-jeebie, learning about the children's and YA book markets and about how to get my foot in that wardrobe door.

Guys and gals, the point of this travelogue is that the Magic Portal is opening. To keep it open, I'm going to have to read and read and read this summer until my eyeballs fall out. See, I told you I'm a little boy: in the last two paragraphs, I have mentioned exploding brains and loosening eyeballs. In other words, my plan to be an expert in children's and YA literature is starting to work!