For a few weeks now, I’ve been just days away from beginning work on the revisions of my YA (possibly upper-middle grade) nonfiction project for Dial. I expect to be just days away for at least a few more days.

How have I managed to avoid getting started? Let me count the ways…

Preparing for and attending a most wonderful daylong manuscript-critique workshop (details here and here) that satisfied so many of my writerly needs — feedback, camaraderie, shoptalk, pastries…

Writing and submitting a polished first draft of a brand-new picture book biography.

Visiting Austin’s BookPeople to sign another batch of copies of The Day-Glo Brothers.

Relishing the great notices the book has received from The Washington Post, Egghead Marketing, and Simply Science.

Preparing my presentation on biography writing, which I’ll deliver in one form to Austin SCBWI at our September 12 chapter meeting and in another, longer form, to small groups of aspiring young writers in Central Texas.

Celebrating my friend Liz Garton Scanlon‘s starred review in the Horn Book — one of three she’s received for All The World, coming next month and illustrated by the marvelous Marla Frazee.