A little writing, a lot of reading

I'm heading into this weekend boosted by exciting developments on a couple of manuscripts -- one old, one new. One of my favorite editors wants to see the old one, and the new one no longer stinks -- unlike some drafts I could mention. (I'm looking at you, version 1.1.)

This week, I'd hoped to catch up on a lot of set-aside reading, but so far have managed only to get to Cynsations' interview with National Geographic Children's Books editor Nancy Feresten and three recent issues of Children's Writer. Still on my plate are:

• A pair of 7's: the Seventh Carnival of Children's Literature, at Wands and Worlds, and the Edge of the Forest #7
• Two issues of the SCBWI newsletter
• That Maurice Sendak interview on NPR. Technically, this is not reading, but it does involve sitting somewhat undisturbed, which makes it just as hard to get around to.
• The fine print about BlogBurst, which I've been invited to join
• A Day-Glo-related article from the journal Nature that Anne Bustard clued me in on: "Here we describe an internal light-filtering effect in the flowers of Mirabilis jalapa, in which the visible fluorescence emitted by one pigment, a yellow betaxanthin..."

My hunch is that the time I spend not sleeping during the sleepover that S is hosting tonight will give me time to catch up on lots of this, though that last one may be more than I'm up for.