From San diego 2011

Ideas and walking go together much better than ideas and metabolizing Ho Hos. By which I mean that I often get good ideas when I’m in motion and my cardiovascular system is doing more than trying to keep me alive on a diet of sweet cream-like filling.

Beach walks are particularly good for generating creative thoughts and unraveling knotty story problems. Beach walks with the dog, however, aren’t so much meditative as they are OH MY GOD DO NOT TRY TO EAT THAT DEAD SEA GULL WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??!!??

But yesterday, despite the dog (who turned one-year old yesterday if the shelter’s date-of-birth estimate is anything like accurate and he got a new chew toy and a cookie), I found some moments to stand in the surf and look out over the vast Pacific and figure out some cool things to do with cannibalism in my book.

On Saturday Mysterious Galaxy Books hosted a signing with me and Cynthia Hand and Timothy Power. We each read a bit from our books and took questions about writing YA and middle grade and signed some books, and I had a great time and I hope Cynthia and Tim and the attendees enjoyed it as well.

Here’s photo evidence. I don’t know why I’m listing.