One of the biggest downsides to being a writer is too much sitting!  Training for a 10k run is a great way to combat one of the main downsides to my career choice. I’ve been working up to running the 10k since January, so am so excited to be running it…and it isn’t even raining!  Here’s my number with high tech time chip built in…and here I am with my running partner Trish.

  There were more than 14000 of us at the start line!  There were lots of people cheering us on and we had music at every kilometre to keep us going.  Here are the Tyko Drummers that were near kilometre 6.  Talk about motivation! 

This year is the 20th anniversary of my second picture book, Jessie’s Island, and I’m delighted to tell you that it’s still in print.  Here’s a letter I received earlier this week from a grade two/three teacher, Melody Watson.

This is why I write…

Dear Sheryl

I just wanted to drop you a note to tell you how very much my students and I enjoy your books.  In particular, we love Jessie’s Island.  We live on a very small island on the north end of Vancouver Island.  We feel very connected to your story and feel a lot like Jessie does about her island.  We connect with other classes around the world through our blog and they are often intrigued with the idea of living on a little island like we do.  They always have a lot of questions to ask, and like Thomas they often wonder what on earth we do here for fun.

Recently my students wrote about our island for our school paper.  We have added their writing to our blog and we thought you might like to see the work you inspired.

Thank you for your beautiful words and  inspiration!

Can’t think of anything I hate quite as much as doing my taxes, especially when it’s sunny…

😦