Keep walking up the stairs–five flights!  Do you feel your leg muscles burning?  Just when you are panting a bit, you will find two glass doors that lead to The Quiet Room.  And there, it is indeed quiet.  You can work for hours undisturbed, take a break to sit on the terrace and eat lunch in the shade of a tree, and then go back to work.

After a busy season of book promotion for Reading Beauty, it’s been dreamy to hide away in the Vancouver Community Library with my computer, hundreds of books, and the sunlight streaming in all the many windows.  Look.  This is where I am working today, at the this table that (I like to think) was waiting for me this morning.

Below, you glimpse of the the Children’s Floor.  It’s a bit like Alice in Wonderland, with the whimsical, hands-on exhibits.  If my younger daughters were here, we’d be spending lots of time there on the third floor!

When I’m not working, I’m exploring.  Martin and I spent a day in breathtaking Hood River, Oregon, and at the Bridge of the Gods (no gods crossing, unless they were all in cars).  Portland’s Alberta neighborhood gave us a morning of interesting people, art, and the best coffee I’ve had in a while.  And there was a bright, beautiful Thai food truck with delicious noodles.

And guess what?  I got this photo of Elena, a reader far away on the east coast, who says she loved my book and that it should be made into a movie.  She wanted to know if the spell had been broken.  Hmm. . .What do you think?

In a few days, it will be time to pack up again and return to Poulsbo, where my daughters and my crazy dog (who opened the window with her paws while I was gone and sat on the roof, probably looking for Martin and me!).  I’ll be sharing Reading Beauty at the second Barnes and Noble in a month, which is cool, and visiting another school.  But for now, I am just another person in a library, working hard, dreaming up stories, and basking in the presence of lots and lots of good books.