Just a few words — and not merely to justify the Friday in The Friday Book Report.

Next weekend, I have the pleasure of speaking on a panel about literacy at Channel 13’s Celebration of Teaching and Learning, March 6-7, held at the Hilton on 6th Avenue in New York. It’s a conference attended by educators, including teachers, librarians, sociologists, and the interested public. The panel itself is called “Keeping Kids Turning Pages: How Authors Connect with Young Readers.” As an author, I always feel at a disadvantage among professionals in a discipline and a bit of an outsider (having something, I suppose, to do with the “art” of it); I’ve discussed this before. But authors — more properly, writers — are certainly part of the equation of books and readers, so I am very excited to have been invited there — to listen, to learn, to speak, and to celebrate.

I’ll be joined by fellow authors Shana Corey, Sandra and Myles Pinkney, Dr. Kylene Beers, current President of NCTE, and Francie Alexander, Senior Vice President of Scholastic Education and Chief Academic Officer of Scholastic. Coming at the giant topic of literacy from these different angles, and from picture books to chapter books, should result in a creative and lively discussion.

I’ve learned not to try to compete with the specialist’s knowledge or stray too far into the territory of their expertise, but visiting schools and speaking with teachers and librarians, thinking about my own past as a child and a parent, and adding all these to the stew of writing and publishing for children aged 6 to 14, is, I hope, enough of a grounding to say a few things. I’ll have more to offer here after the event.

Up now, however, is a little bit I was asked to add to the pre-conference blog site (http://thirteencelebration.org/blog/edblog/thoughts-on-literacy/1130/). Apologies for not yet understanding how to add a link.

Let it also be known that the desk is clearing somewhat. I’ve finished the second revision of The Ghost Road, the fourth installment of The Haunting of Derek Stone. It is the longest of the books, as it needed to be, and, as series folk know, had to tie up a bushel of storylines. I am delighted to have done it. Also, with other burdens completed, though with more Droons to come, I see a space, a clearing ahead. Still some way to go before I reach it, but when I set foot there, I shall finish my next novel. Until then, hush up.

So I just returned from Reno, where I workshopped with teachers and librarians in Washoe County, down there in the shadow of the vast Sierra Nevada mountains.

Ellen Fockler, Library Coordinator of the Washoe County School District, is the elegant and tireless organizer of the Conference, now in its 33rd year. With a registration in the 250 range, only a tad down from last year, the conference was by all accounts a resounding success. It certainly was from my point of view; I was lucky enough to deliver a keynote to the entire group on the morning of the second day of the event, and I realized once again that writers simply don’t get enough opportunity to talk with, and listen to, classroom teachers, reading teachers, and school and public librarians.

As writers for children know, the creation of the story is merely the beginning of a long journey that ends, one hopes, in a reader’s hands. In all cases outside of the rare trade success, the penultimate hands in that process are those of a librarian or teacher.

The day before, I had the pleasure of visiting Huffaker Elementary, as the guest of Doreen Penrose, the school’s firecracker librarian. What a lovely bunch of kids and so excited about reading and writing. As much as air travel ages one, there is nothing like moving among the minds of tomorrow in far flung parts of our country. The Huffaker crew — from preschool to sixth grade — were imaginative, intelligent, and friendly and were the perfect inspiration and springboard for the Reading Week get-together.

Thank you, Doreen, Ellen, and all of the amazingly devoted staff at both school and conference, for a weekend to remember.

And we apologize for missing a Friday or two, but, you know.

Today The Friday Book Report visits the studio of Greg Leitich Smith, author of Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo and Tofu and T. rex (Little, Brown, 2003 and 2005, respectively) and Santa Knows, written with his wife Cynthia and illustrated by Steve Bjorkman (Dutton, 2006). Greg, a Texan from Texas, owns cats, and we are reminded from previous posts that the species is only partially compatible with literary pursuits. Nevertheless, Greg graciously invites us into his home, a holistic literary den if there ever was one. Read on!

My writing workspace has tended to wander a bit, depending both on where I am in the manuscript and which sites are available.

My wife, Cynthia, and I live in a 1920s arts-and-crafts style house in central Austin.

Until fairly recently, I had been writing first drafts on my laptop computer in the “library,” an extra bedroom with barrister bookcases on every wall and a 1940s-style metal desk in the center, underneath a black ceiling fan. Unfortunately, however, the influx of books (personal, research, and review copies for Cynthia’s Children’s Literature Resources web site) has overwhelmed the shelving – volumes are now stacked several feet high on nearly all horizontal surfaces, including the floor (yes, we could move some of them to the attic, but then we’d never find anything).

Consequently, I’ve been driven into the guest bedroom.

That room has a queen-sized bed and a restored arts-and-crafts schoolhouse desk that’s only large enough to hold the laptop and a small legal pad, which can be awkward when you have four cats who don’t respect the sanctity of the keyboard.

I’ve also recently (at least on weekend mornings) started taking the computer down to the café at BookPeople – it’s a bit loud, but I’ve always been able to tune everything out and concentrate on what I’m doing. And the change in scenery makes me feel like I’m getting away with something.

For second drafts and revisions, I tend not to write on the computer. I print out the manuscript using two-pages per sheet (a novel somehow seems more manageable that way) and work off that. If new scenes are required, then I write them out longhand using an ultra-fine point pen and a yellow legal pad (Yes, the pen has to be an ultra-fine point; no, the pad need not be yellow or legal). And with that, I can work anywhere, typically and preferably stretched out on the bed (once I’ve moved the cats out of the way).