the countdown team

Light breakfast, quiet morning in New York City, and good thing. I am still digesting the wonder of meeting yesterday the folks who made Countdown possible.

I want you to meet them:

From left to right: Erin Black, David Levithan, Phil Falco, Els Rijper, and Joy Simpkins: Editorial, art and design, permissions, production. These are the folks who had my back -- and I mean that, quite sincerely -- as I sat in the pink chair all those hours and days and months and tried to deliver a book -- a project -- that held so many twists, so many turns, that none of us could have anticipated.

We couldn't have anticipated them because we were creating something brand new, a documentary novel. We didn't know how to do it. We just... did it. We grabbed hold and leaped. And now, Countdown is here.

I am proud and privileged to stand with this team and show off our new book.

Thank you, Scholastic, and a special shout out to this marvelous, talented, hard-working, creative, long-suffering (ha!) Countdown team.  I salute you!

I'm off to Princeton in ten minutes. Today is Bookazine's Kids Day event, and I am one of the speakers. Indie booksellers, here I come.

Tomorrow, signing at Books of Wonder in NYC at noon -- do come say hi, if you can!