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The best part about being sick but not too sick is having lots of time to read. I just finished One Crazy Summer, which I had read before but didn’t much like. I hated the title, and I found two of the main characters unbelievable. Delphine was way too responsible, competent, and nearly perfect for an eleven-year-old. And there was her cold, selfish mother. I didn’t buy them. Hearing and reading so many positive reviews, I thought I’d try it again. And indeed I liked it better this time. As I lay in bed blowing my nose, I found myself thinking about the book long after I closed it. And I decided that I didn’t believe in those characters not because of the way they were written or described but because I was lucky. I never had to be so responsible and perfect nor did I know anyone else who was. My mother and the mothers I knew were not selfish and cold. But that’s because I was lucky, we were lucky, not because the characters were unbelievable. I had to step outside, far outside, my own experience to accept the situation and the characters. And isn’t that opportunity the mark of a good book? Read it and tell me what you think. But I still hate the title.

I love autumn in the northwest. Lots of color, lots of rain, and the landing of tiny little space ships. No, in truth the space-ship looking things in the photo are mushrooms. Really. Mushrooms. The biggest I’ve ever seen. Near the size of dinner plates. I can imagine a whole family of fairies finding shelter from the rain under one of these.

Happy anniversary to Neil and Kirby Larson, married thirty-five years ago today. I urge you to go and read her fabulous books. A new one for the Dear America series, The Fences Between Us, is splendid and available now.

And here is a repeat from last year. It is still true: On this day in 1969 Philip and I were married in the backyard of my parents’ home in Orange, California. A rabbi in an African dashiki recited the words to the Beatles’ “In My Life.” Philip wore a brightly colored velvet vest that I made him. I carried the dog, Dog, who wanted to be part of the celebration and I wore daisies in my hair.

There have been joys and struggles, the usual ups and downs, but forty-one years later he is still the love of my life. I am a lucky woman.

Barleycorn the wonder dog has just qualified as a registered therapy dog. He’ll take over from his co-dog, Siena, who—if there is such a place as dog heaven—has surely gone there. I’m glad my brother keeps me up to date on doings because all that is happening here is work, work, work—and an occasional episode of Inspector Morse or Foyle’s War. The autumn will be easier. I am already looking forward to a fire, cups of hot milky tea, and lots of rain. Ahhh….

All of you out there, go and hug your favorite furry creature and say how much it means to you. Dog or cat, hamster or rat or wombat, throw your arms around it and say, “I love you and thank you for making my life so much richer.” Do this right away, before you forget or are distracted. Do it in memory of Siena, the therapy dog, who just died at age ten.

I got an email today from the talented Rhonetta Robertson, a student at the Art Institute of Ohio in Cincinnati, who aspires to be a graphic novelist and enjoys drawing the characters from her favorite books. She’s interested in doing a graphic novel version of The Midwife’s Apprentice but I have way too much going on to take on another project. She kindly sent me her drawings anyway for Alyce, Jane the midwife, and Will. Aren’t they splendid? Don’t you just love that snippy midwife with her sharp nose? Oh, how I wish I could draw!

Riley and Leo, musical geniuses

Eva and Camryn, singers

No, I wasn’t captured by aliens and transported to a distant planet. I have been on book tour to ten cities, up and down the west coast, where I visited schools, bookstores, and libraries. I met hundreds of people and signed hundreds of books. Now I am home and can do my laundry, answer emails, and write thank you notes

The highlights of the tour were Riley and Leo, musical geniuses from TOPS school in Seattle, who played old Irish tunes to open the May webcast; Eva Cyra and Camryn Kim-Murphy of Vashon Island who sang harmonies so beautifully at the farmers’ market and before my presentation at Books By the Way on the island; and the fabulous folks at Brook Haven Middle School in Sebastopol who were a great audience, asked interesting questions, and then fed Philip and me a pizza lunch. I’ll go back there any time they ask me. But now I must try to remember how to be a writer and not a performer.

We arrived back home from my book tour (part one) and were greeted by the blooming rhododendrons and one of the apple trees in flower. Arizona is lovely in its rocky, desert sort of way but I missed all the green and the towering hemlocks, the budding fruit and even the weeds. Part one of the tour is over but there are a number of events yet to come. Next Tuesday is the webcast—be sure to sign up so you can participate. And Wednesday fifteen booksellers from Seattle and Vashon are coming to my house for tea and a tour. Then it’s off to Portland, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. Stay tuned.

I have been in Texas on a book tour: Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. I learned a few things. Texas is very green (no tumbleweeds). No one in Texas wears ten-gallon hats. And everyone in Texas is incredibly nice. The folks at BookPeople took me to lunch. West Ridge Middle School in Austin presented me with a tote bag and and a tee-shirt (go Wildcats!) At Housman Elementary in Houston, Guusje Moore and her girls had a tea for us: tea and lemon tarts, fizzy punch and cucumber sandwiches. It was lovely and very generous. And in San Antonio it rained. Rained and rained. You should know by now I love the rain and was very grateful for it. Thank you, Texas, for everything. Now it’s on to Arizona.

On the radio the other day I heard Gary Snyder quoting poet Robert Duncan. “A poem” he said, “must have music and magic. Otherwise it’s just prose.” Just prose? Just prose? Prose is The Diary of Anne Frank and Goodnight Moon, Charlotte’s Web Jacob Have I Loved, The Runaway Bunny, and The Hunger Games. Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret, is prose, and Walk Two Moons, The Snowy Day, and The Graveyard Book. That’s prose—and there’s music and magic in there, too. In the prose. Just prose? Feh.