Here’s the final Friday clue about the contents of THE SECOND SPY:

Now, on to the events!

OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE: Thursday, July 5.

ONLINE RELEASE PARTY: Thursday, July 5th.  Keep an eye on the  blog Novel Novice; they’re planning some surprises to celebrate the release of THE SECOND SPY.  Read the announcement here…and then please join us for the big day!

ART FESTIVAL: Saturday, July 7th, from 12:00 – 6:00.  You can find me at Red Wing’s Anderson Center for the annual Summer Celebration of the Arts.  I’ll have all three volumes of THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE (and Cherma too) with me to sell and sign.  I won’t be giving a reading or a talk, but if you feel like spending that Saturday wandering around a gorgeous estate, listening to live music and browsing local art, please stop by my table and say hello.

BOOK RELEASE PARTY: Friday, July 13th, at 7:00 p.m.  I’ll be at the Red Balloon Bookshop (891 Grand Avenue, St. Paul), and I would love it if you were there too!  There will be an art contest for kids, I’ll read from the THE SECOND SPY, I’ll chat and answer questions,  books will be available for purchase and signing, and there will be CAKE.  That’s right.  CAKE.

BOOKSTORE EVENT: Saturday, July 28th, at 2:00 p.m.  I’ll be visiting the beautiful Valley Bookseller in Stillwater, Minnesota to read, talk, and sign books.  Join us!

First things first:

I have a slew of good news to share…

– SPELLBOUND has been selected as a Midwest Booksellers Choice Award finalist!  You can read the list of amazing nominees here: http://midwestbooksellers.org/book-awards/.  Winners will be chosen in October.  Whee!!

– THE SECOND SPY made the Summer 2012 Kids’ Indie Next List, where it’s in incredibly exciting company (See ‘Ages 9 – 12’): http://www.indiebound.org/kids-indie-next-list

– A new interview, conducted by Anne Nesbet (author of THE CABINET OF EARTHS) is available for your reading and commenting pleasure at The Enchanted Inkpot.  Please check it out, and then wander around in the inky depths for a while.  There’s a lot of great stuff to discover.

I’ve just wrapped up a revision of the soon-to-be-titled Shakespeare-ish YA project, which taught me not only how many different ways I can approach and reassemble one story, but how many words I can type in a single day without starting to misspell EVERYTHING.  (Apparently my maximum is around 20,000.  Then my arms start to go numb, and I can’t remember how contractions work anymore.)  Now, I return to Volume Four of THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE…

Just got back from a fantastic visit to Fairfax Villa Elementary School here in northern Virginia; tomorrow we head for home.  Thanks again to all the students and educators who made this week possible!

Now, without further ado, your Friday SECOND SPY photo clue:

Ray Bradbury died yesterday.  The thought of him being gone followed me throughout the day, turning the whole world a different, darker color.   I never met him in person, but his work had such a profound impact on my life that I’m not sure I could separate it from myself now, from the way I think, the way I write, the way I look around me.

There’s the powerhouse that is Fahrenheit 451, of course, and the gorgeous nightmare of Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the classic Martian Chronicles.  “A Sound of Thunder” is still one of the most memorable short stories I’ve ever read, and “Zen in the Art of Writing” is packed with inspiration and wise advice.  But it was Dandelion Wine, which I first read when I was twelve, that turned me upside down.  The way it depicts the inner and outer worlds of a child growing up in a small Midwestern town (just like I was), and makes those worlds so rich with magic and danger and romance and wildness, was a revelation.  It showed me that everything–a new pair of running shoes, a jar of fireflies, an unusual flavor of ice cream, playing shadow tag, even mowing the lawn–was layered with life and meaning and possibility.  I reread it every summer, and when I’m done, I look around with brand new eyes.

Thank you for this, Mr. Bradbury.

I’m currently in the middle of week of school visits in Fairfax County, just south of Washington D.C.  (Eagle View and Laurel Hill: Thank you!  Union Mill and Fairfax Villa: I’ll see you soon!)  This means I get to visit with wonderful relatives and wander the city in between book events.  Here I am on the National Mall…

…and at the Hirshhorn Museum, about to be eaten by one of Ai Weiwei’s Zodiac Heads.

Yesterday afternoon, I stopped by Politics & Prose to sign their in-stock copies of The Shadows and Spellbound.  If you’re in the D.C. area looking for a signed book of your own, this is the place to find them (and you should stop in even if you don’t want my books, because the store is absolutely amazing).  While you’re there, you could pre-order The Second Spy.  Just 28 days to go…

Voila.

Readers may already know what this is, but it will be important again, in a whole new way.   (I know you can’t see me, but I’m smiling with knowing smugness.)