While you, dear readers, are hungrily reading The Travelers’ Market, I’m already with Sarah, Timothy and Jessica on their next adventure and learning about maps—ancient maps, fantasy maps, map ciphers, maps with dragons and sailing ships. Yes, maps figure heavily in the, yet to be named, third book of the trilogy. And it means I get to use my map shop!

Ever since visitng Zurich several years ago, I’ve wanted to use the little shop I discovered on a side alley. It isn’t really a map shop. But that’s what authros do, right? Reconfigure ideas.  That’s me in the skirt peeking in the window with my niece, Liz. There’s a big green enameled stove in the corner and every beam holds books and rolls of mysterious papers. I want to work there.

Speaking of maps— Don’t forget the Map Your Way into Story Workshop at Kennewick Barnes and Noble

Sat Sept 6th at 2 pm. Bring your colored pencils.

“I am definitely putting McQuerry’s books on this list. I got a chance to look through her newest, Traveler’s Market, before the workshop. It has gorgeous illustrations, and the few paragraphs I read as I flipped through were engaging and well done. I’m really looking forward to reading this, right after I read the first book in the series, Wolfproof.  (These stories include green men and the Wild Hunt and all sorts of wonderful mythic elements–I think they’re going to be fabulous!)…” read more

“What the best stories awaken in us is yearning and recognition, yearning for something longer ago, further away or yet about to be. Recognition of something we have never met, but have always known.”

Such a good word. Okay, I never knew it was an acronym unitl I just checked out Wikipedia. Did everyone else know that already? It’s just is one of those words that is fun to say when everything else around you is not fun at all, when situations have gone awry, off kilter, catiwampus and generally deflated like a popped balloon.

So what is the bad news, you ask? The first round of Travelers’ Market had typesetting errors. Words are hyphenated in odd places, double periods, backwards quotation marks, the list goes on. As soon as I realized this, changes were overnighted and a new printing is in place, but books went out. All the books were pulled and labeled as uncorrected proofs. So, if you, dear reader, received one of the snafu copies, you can return it for a new unsnafued one or you can keep it and consider it a collector’s item or use it to teach your kids proof reading–25 cents an error?

How embarrassing.

with my agent, Sandra Bishop.

See the glazed look in my eyes? I gave two presentations, a book signing and six critiques in two days, and loved every minute of it–really! Okay, I don’t love the roar of the planes at PDX starting at 6 AM, but other than that… There’s something about the Willamette Conference that feels comfortable. You know writing conferences can be intimidating, all those NY people dazzling us with their professionalism, and that feeling of competition–so, just how many books have you sold? But I never feel those things at Willamette. Everyone seems to be in your corner cheering for you. No wonder I come back every year.

Presented: “Scene By Scene, Writing the YA Novel” with my good friend Renee Riva and “Fantasy, Myth and the Reluctant Hero” on my own.

Heard:Virginia Euwer Wolf read the opening paragraph of Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. Doesn’t get any better than that! Yes, there really is literary YA fiction, despite much evidence to the contrary. And every time I read or hear that description of August days like the slow climb of a ferris wheel I am reminded of why I wanted to become a writer.