I didn’t make it downtown for the Texas Book Festival this weekend — my boys didn’t want to go, and me insisting “You will go appreciate books amid a massive crowd” didn’t seem like the best way to foster their love of reading. So, I missed Kathy Duval, Nicholas Lehman, Larry L. King, and other authors I would have liked to have seen, met, and/or mingled among.

But worry not — I’ve still managed to do my share of socializing. My wife and I were the last folks to arrive at a Writers League of Texas reception Saturday evening, but we still got there in time to catch up with Annette Simon, Varian Johnson, and Julie Lake, as well as with Gene Brenek and Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, with whom we formed a fivesome for dinner.

On my way home from work a couple of days before, I stopped by the Borders where a passel (or perhaps a posse, or a possel) of visiting children’s authors were making their last appearance in a statewide tour. Before the presentation, I had a chance to visit with Janee Trasler (whose delightful Ghost Eats It All is 2-year-old F’s current favorite) and meet Shirley Duke (whose No Bows is going to the next lucky little girl of my acquaintance to have a birthday) and Anastasia Suen.

Anastasia and I are both serving on the nominations committee for the nonfiction picture book category in the Cybils. Organizing things for that committee (and for the judging committee) has taken up a lot of my time lately, but the upside is that I’m going to be reading a lot of great nonfiction over the next couple of months as we narrow the nominees down to five.

Somewhere in there, I expect to do some writing as well. Maybe right now…