Hey all,

Another snowy day here (and probably where you are, too!)

Warning: if you are the proud owner of a cute pet guinea pig, read no further (and don't look too closely at the above photo.)

Maria Virginia (my co-author for The Queen of Water) sent me these great pics of her parents roasting cuy (guinea pig) for a family gathering a few weekends ago. If you've read The Indigo Notebook, and were curious what roasted guinea pigs looked like, voila:

And an even closer look...

These pics were taken in Maria Virginia's family's house in a Quichua community near Otavalo, Ecuador. Several scenes in The Queen of Water take place in this house...( and yes, guinea pigs play minor parts in this book, too... in the first scene as a matter of fact. ;) I'm so excited to share this story with you-- it seems like forever to have to wait a whole year for it to come out!

All right, that's all for now. I have to clean up my toy-strewn house and clear some floor space and couch space for my friends Gloria and Marty to come over and practice performing a song for the Star in the Forest release party (April 2)! Gloria will sing one of her favorite traditional Mexican songs and Marty will accompany her on guitar... at least, that's the plan. Fingers crossed it'll work out!

Ack! I'm being driven slightly crazy now by Toddler, who is simply refusing to take a nap today. He's finding every excuse in the book to avoid it. He's in his room making mournful noises at the moment. Oof. I'm going to get going now...

Thanks for reading!

Laura