News on the job front

Well, after months of waiting, we finally got some news about our office and personnel. I still have some waiting to do, but there is an end date in sight.

Here it goes.

The San Diego office of Harcourt will be closing June 30. All personnel in the SD office will know the status of their employment by the end of this month. If offered a job, employees would be relocated to either the New York or Boston office.

Second, some of you have heard me talk over the years of Lori Benton. She was my second boss at Holt, and for the past five or six years, she has been VP & Publisher of Harcourt Children's Books. It was announced yesterday that she would be leaving Jan. 31, and the publisher at Houghton would be taking over. I do not know of Lori's plans after this month.

Lastly, we were also told that the three divisions now under Houghton Mifflin Harcourt would remain separate. Which means, they are not going to combine our list (books) with Houghton's. Harcourt will remain an imprint of HMH, as will Houghton Children's Books and Clarion. This is good news.

So what does all this mean? Well, it means I may loose my job at the end of this month, or I'll be kept on. Duh. It's gotta be one or the other, right? In either case, chances are very good I will be moving back to New York. Or Boston. If I don't get to keep my job, I'll definitely relocate to New York. Jobs are more plentiful there. I have no idea what will happen if Steve is offered a job (which I strongly suspect he will be) and I am not. It's best not to think too much about it since there are so many different scenarios. I find that often the scenario I don't even think of will be what happens.

I will keep you posted about my job and where I'm going to land. But if you haven't visited me in San Diego, you're running out of time!

I'm in Philadelphia right now, and it's hard not to be in the office with my colleagues and friends. The announcement about Lori was made on Wednesday, and the office closing announced yesterday. It's been quite a bit of news in less than 48 hours.

2008-ready or not, it's here

Hello everyone. Thanks for the Christmas cards and holiday greetings. Hope you had a nice holiday and got to catch up with friends and family. Many of you received a card from me. I planned to include a photo sheet in the card but when I found out color copies are $2 apiece at Kinko's I nixed that idea. BUT, thanks to technology, I am able to post some of those pictures on a flickr account and you can see them. Click here to see some highlights from my 2007.

Many of you also know that my company has been sold to Houghton Mifflin-Riverdeep. This is still true and we still don't know anything regarding the San Diego office, our jobs, etc. I think things are happening at the higher-up levels right now, but I don't expect to be affected by things until February or March. I'm off to Philadelphia this week for the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting. It's going to be cold. After that, I'm going direct to Maine. Steve does Christmas with his family in January ever since he moved to CA. He'll be there when I get there, and we'll stay another four or so days. It's going to be cold.

Right before New Year's, David and Allison visited. They flew into LA and stayed with Mom and Dad a few days before we met them at the half-way point, San Juan Capistrano. Picked them up and spent the day at the zoo and Coronado beach. It's fantastic when one can go to the beach in December.

Christmas in LA was spent cooking and eating. Steve and I went up armed with our Wii and recipes. We made tamales for Christmas Eve, a very complicated chocolate panna cotta cake, and rack of lamb for Christmas dinner. Everything was a group effort. We all helped make everything, and everything tasted great.

I've also spent *a lot* of time playing Word Whomp (www.pogo.com) thanks to Allison and my mom. I'm so addicted. And now you will be, too. Hahahahahahaha!