I haven't been keeping up well with my LiveJournal friends list. Every time I think I might, I get daunted by how long it's been since I've caught up, and of course the cycle continues. And Facebook and Twitter are much less of a time-suck because they're more easily skimmable while juggling other day-to-day responsibilities. But I love the conversations that happen in the children's lit blogosphere, so I've been trying to dive back in and catch bits and pieces, the way I do on Twitter. I've heard the flow of information on Twitter described as "trying to drink out of a firehose," and the way many handle it (including me) is looking at it as a river flowing by: you can dip in and drink from the river, but you can't drink the whole river. You can't fit it all in, but you can grab a little bit as it floats past.

That gave me what I have to share with you today:

Via Janni Lee Simner, we have Jo Walton's giggle-inducing elf policy, which then leads us to elf insurance ("when the seven-year itch meets the seven-year tithe...").

Also, we've got a new post up over at Tu Publishing, interviewing author and blogger Cynthia Leitich Smith on writing cross-culturally, living in a multicultural world, her influences, and new multicultural voices to watch out for.

Originally published at Stacy Whitman\\\\\\\'s Grimoire.