I’m in one of my favorite places: Portland, Maine.

The reason I’m here is that this evening my lovely publishers are hosting a dinner for some of the town’s booksellers (Portland has a disproportionate number of excellent bookshops for its size, which is one of the reasons I love it.) Tomorrow we drive down I-95 to Boston and do it again. It’s such a privilege to go on these trips and meet people who sell books for a living. Talk about being among one’s people!

I flew in from New York this morning and, as always, the view of the Maine coastline as we came in to land lifted my heart, all the more so since this time there was a ton of snow on the ground, which gave the view out of the airplane window an exotic, otherworldly feel. One of the reasons I set SETTING FREE THE KITES in Maine is that I love the place so much. We try and make it up here at least once a year. I first came here eight or nine years ago – the precise year escapes me, but my daughter was tiny – and I can still recall from that first visit a peculiar sense of arriving home. It didn’t make any sense at the time, and still doesn’t now, really, but I know it to be true. Some truths may not make a lick of sense but they are, as somebody once wrote, self-evident. I’m happy to be here.

Also, just a reminder that the Goodreads giveaway of galleys of SFTK is still going on, but not for much longer. It ends at midnight tomorrow. If you would like to enter your name into the drawing to receive one of twenty-five free copies, go over here and sign up. (And while you’re there, you could always, you know, add the book to your “Want to Read” pile.)

Stay warm! More anon.