Today is Day One of the 2021 Global Read Aloud! It’s exciting to know that kids all around the world are about to meet my three dragons. I’m taking a much-needed break from school visits this fall but look forward to joining the #DragonPals21 Twitter chat on Friday morning and having my November conversation with GRA founder Pernille Ripp. Imagine—one educator had an idea to connect students around the globe and eleven years later, Dragons in a Bag is one of the titles bringing kid readers together. I try to read at least half an hour a day and am looking forward to curling up with one of the books I just checked out with my new Chicago Public Library card. I’ve been in my new home for one week and haven’t yet established a routine. Today I got up and moved things around so the electrician would have access to all the two-prong outlets that need replacing. Put the kettle on to make a cup of tea and two fuses blew, leaving the fridge and microwave with no power. The electrician got everything fixed when he arrived a couple hours later, but I came home from the library just now and the sleek new ceiling fan he installed today wouldn’t turn on. The manual says to check the fuse box but I don’t feel like heading into the basement right now. The wifi was a little spotty today while they were working but that actually helped me to focus on The Enchanted Bridge. I’m trying to write a thousand words a day to meet my 10/15 deadline and today I wrote nearly two thousand words (which is why I’m treating myself to a little HGTV tonight). I finished watching A Discovery of Witches over the weekend and felt relieved that my kid audience had no expectation of romance in my books. I am SO not a romantic and found myself zoning out whenever the lead witch was on screen, professing her eternal love for her vampire husband. Ugh. Sometimes you hear a story and tune out because you’ve heard it so many times that you know how it’s going to end. But then the storyteller introduces someone new—Satu, the weaver-witch from Finland—who’s just as powerful but isn’t blond and has no love interest and she’s SO much more interesting. And, of course, she got next to no screen time. I started a new novella the other day: The Boy in the Lake. What if Emmett Till lived in Lake Michigan? What if, what if, what if…that’s how all good stories begin…of course my head would fill with new story ideas just when I need to finish this dragon book. But once that spark is lit, there’s not much you can do…