Alison's Journal

Today I went to my last meeting of the Austin chapter of SCBWI. Our regional advisor, Julie Lake, spoke on revision, a topic I always need to learn more about (and need to do more of!). I got a little sad drving there down Loop 360, a gorgeous route through the hills, with a steel arch bridge over Lake Austin and a beautiful view. I realized, for the second time this week, that I'm really going to miss driving through the hills when I move to flat Florida! I'll also miss this SCBWI group. I've been involved with the group since 1997, when the founder of the chapter was still the regional advisor--there have been 4 more since her, and I've been around the whole time. Florida only has one SCBWI chapter for the whole state, and it won't be doing anything near me. I'll probably travel for some Florida conferences, but I hope I can also come back for occasional Austin conferences, because Austin throws some of the best ones!

I finally saw the Narnia movie last night. I really enjoyed it. I can't think of anything I would have changed about it, although the book isn't fresh in my mind, so there could be something. I've really only read the book once, back when I was 11 years old, but I fantasized about going to Narnia for years after that, and last year my husband and I read it aloud to our older son at bedtime. However, we took turns reading on alternate nights, so I only read every other chapter and didn't get a sense of the whole book! I need to read the whole set again. The kids also liked the movie, though I had worried it might be too scary for them. Kyle, who is 4 (turning 5 in a week!), even said he liked the battle scene best, though Ryan, 7, kept his head to the side and his eyes averted for most of that scene. Oh, and speaking of Narnia and our local SCBWI chapter, the founder of the chapter has a Narnia room in her house! It's kind of like a closet, but the only entrance is through a wardrobe, and it has murals of Narnia painted on the walls...one of the coolest rooms ever!

On the subject of rooms, the moving company walked through our house yesterday to get an idea how much stuff we have (still way too much!). We hope to move in just over 2 weeks, though the guy said it might take 2 days to pack & 1 day to load the moving van! I hope not, because that doesn't work with my intended timeframe for the kids starting school in Florida, and I still hope to purge more stuff before the move date, but at least it's starting to seem real that we may actually move.