...at least here in Cambridge, where I live. In Maine there is some, not much. and the ski areas must be wringing their collective hands (as is my gardener who says the gardens need snow cover)

But here are my grandsons, in Portland:

I remember many happy hours of sledding in the hilly college campus across the street from my childhood home, and much later I used that location, and those memories, in an autobiographical book called AUTUMN STREET.  And of course THE GIVER contains a sled (though the Chinese translation seems to think it is skis, and uses a skier on the cover of the book.)

I am home now from Kansas City (where indeed the final scene of the opera has a red sled on the stage) and revving up for the Patriots/Ravens game on Sunday....have given away my theater tickets and will stay home to watch the game instead.

Yesterday I met with my publisher's book promotion person in order to hear plans for fall when the book SON will be published. Many cites once again!  I was glad to hear San Francisco, since I have friends and a daughter there; and surprised to hear Iowa City, which is not on the usual list. I'll post the whole schedule when it is finalized.

ON the right hand side of this page you will see a changing exhibition of my books in translation, and I have just been notified that there will be a new translation of THE GIVER...in Latvian. It takes a while until publication, and then they send a couple of copies to me...so it will be some time until I can add the Latvian Giver to that display...and even then no one (except those who speak Latvian!)..will know what it is.

Cat Lulu stayed with a friend while I was gone, and here she is, cuddled up with the friend's German Shepherd, the lion and the lamb lying down together for sure.

Sophie, the shepherd, will be here this weekend while her mom is away; so I will have a house full of beasts, as well as, I hope, friends here to watch the game.

www.symphonyspace.org

This (above) is an event coming up which sounds like fun. I'm sorry that I never knew Madeline L'Engle. I wrote her a letter when I read that her son had died, since I had also lost a son and felt that sharing those feelings might be of value...  But I got only a form reply and doubt that she ever saw my letter. So be it. I admired much of her work (did not care much for her adult novels) and wish that we had had a chance to meet. Maybe next time I am asked a "If you had a chance to have dinner with..." kind of question, I should mention her name. Usually I just say the Dalai Lama. And once, when I was startlingly asked, "If you could have had an affair with..." I replied Pierre Trudeau.  It's the kind of Q and A that you mull over later, blushing, for years, thinking, "I can't believe I said..." and want to revise, creating a new and maybe more interesting response..

PIerre Trudeau???