I also have another picture book coming out with Holiday House next fall. It is The Longest Night, which, to my great good fortune, has been illustrated by Ted Lewin. Ted's illustrations are stunning, and I'm eager to hold the final book in my hands. (The day I get my first look at the illustrations for a new picture book is always a bit like Christmas, because I seldom know much about what they will be until they're done. Some editors let me see sketches as the art develops; others don't send me anything until the final art has been approved.)

And I mentioned last time having just finished another picture book, In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb. That has been purchased by Holiday House. A publication date won't be set until an artist is confirmed.

I've done two other small books since I wrote last time, preschool biographies of Christopher Columbus and Martin Luther King for a new series by Scholastic. These, like my nonfiction early readers, were both challenging and fun. I'm still working on revisions of Martin Luther King now...or I will be when I quit writing this.

I spoke last time about beginning a sequel to Runt. I did begin it, got a few pages into it, and ran out of energy. What seemed to be standing in my way was the decision I made when I wrote Runt to allow the animals to talk. I was very intentionally following a pattern set by a writer I loved as a child and one whom I still admire today. That is Felix Salten, the author of Bambi. (Think the novel, not the Disney film.)