February 2003

Dear Kids:

I am writing to you from the Northeast where it seems to snow a little bit every For the first times in ages, the sledding hills are packed with both snow and sledders!

I have been as busy as ever revising one book and dreaming up Last time I wrote, I told you about my new middle grade novel. (No, it's not the third book in the CASTLE series, although I promise you that's high on my list of new In my next newsletter, I hope to have good news about a possible movie deal for the CASTLE

The new animal fantasy novel is called THE RED-HOT RATTOONS and it's a wild adventure story about five dancing rats who make their way to the big city to pursue their dreams of fame and I think you'll love these characters and all the crazy friends and enemies they meet along the way.

Just as I was finishing this novel, another idea popped into my head so I started making notes for that It's a novel about a ten year old girl named Grace who works in a Vermont cotton mill in I got the idea for the Rattoons from the illustrations Betsy Lewin drew in my book, DUMPY LA RUE, of five dancing This new story was inspired by another picture, a photograph taken almost 100 years ago by a man named Lewis I am "cooking the book" every day now which means the character is taking shape and beginning to speak to me.

I hope wherever you are, in snow or in sand, in sunshine or rain, stories are growing in your imaginations Thank you for coming to visit me on the Even though I don't have time to answer each of you individually, your notes on my guestbook and the message board remind me that I have an audience out there waiting for more and that keeps me writing! web.too.Hine.rats.1910.one.glory.books!)projects.another.day.

Elizabeth Winthrop