Angieville

I woke up this morning a bit flummoxed to realize that today marks my blog's ten year anniversary. How . . . how did that happen? The lovely thing is that the bemusement was almost immediately followed by a palpable thrill of wonder at the fact that I've been doing this thing—this thing that I have come to love, that has become an integral, limb-like part of me—for a decade. There are only a few other things I've been doing that long. I've been married to my husband for just a few years longer than that. I've been a mother for almost exactly two years more. In fact, ten years ago on this night I put my little boy (only had one then) down to bed after a satisfactory night of trick-or-treating, climbed into bed with my notebook, and Aaron sat down and started telling me about how he thought I should start a blog, how it would be a good place to . . . oh, you guys. Talking about this brings the emotions precariously close to the surface. He told me he thought it

Something new from Sarra Manning is on the horizon! After the Last Dance is set in two time periods and places and follows Rose in 1943 London and Jane in present day Las Vegas. I really require no more in the way of persuasion, but if you do you can read the rest of the synopsis here . I'm used to straight contemporaries from Ms. Manning, so I'm quite eager to see what this change of scenery has in store. Due out in the UK on December 3rd (and who knows when in the US), I'm thinking I'll be making a little order from The Book Depository right about then . . .

I just have to publicly note that last night I handed my boy Alanna: the First Adventure . That's right. The time is finally here. This morning, the first words out of his mouth were, "Mom, I read the first chapter last night and it is soooooo good. I'm taking it to school with me!" And off he went. Carting my original battered 90s copy with him. Nothing can wipe the smile off my face today. Not a damn thing.