The average working life for a Seeing Eye® dog is 7-8 years. Hanni turned ten in February. I was supposed to head back to the Seeing Eye next month to train with a new dog, but I postponed the trip. I can’t let Hanni go. I had a hard time letting my first Seeing Eye […]

When Hanni and I showed up to do a session at the bring books to life Book Fair last night, we were told that Grammy-award winner Ella Jenkins had confirmed with the Chicago Children’s Museum at the very last minute. “Do you mind sharing your presentation space with her?” Mind? You gotta be kidding. It […]

Our eight-hour train trip to Minnesota on Thursday gave me lots of time to think. Doing the math on my fingers, I counted one, two, three, four years since our last trip to Minneapolis. Our 2006 trip was all about meeting Anthony LeTourneau, the artist Blue Marlin Publications had chosen to illustrate Hanni and Beth: […]

Some teachers struggle to get students to take part in class. Not me. My blindness sometimes makes class participation necessary. I take advantage of that. Take the How to Get a Children’s Book Published session I gave this morning, for example. My publisher at Blue Marlin Publications generously provided me with handouts she uses during […]

Almost forgot to tell you about our trip to Burbank last Thursday! Would love to tell you that Hanni and I flew to sunny Burbank California for the gig, but, alas, the library we visited was in snowy Illinois. Burbank is a blue-collar suburb of Chicago, not easy to get to via public transportation. Billy […]