The best part about doing trips back to back is that you just half unpack, add some new things in and BAM, go back on the road again! That's my schedule for this week as we head to the Outer Banks for Spring Break. There is something that I love about Spring Break. I always like going somewhere for a change of scenery, pace and an adventure and this time of year I love an escape from the dreariness of winter. Yes, I know it's spring, but when school is on snow delay like ours was today, it's still winter.

I always love Spring Break. It's the prelude to the BEST vaca of the year --- Summer Vacation. It gives you time to practice just having fun for a change. Many of you will be on Spring Break next week...some are on a break this week...others have it to look forward to later in April.

Is it Spring Break in your house too next week? I use Spring Break as a week to evaluate what my kids are going to do on summer vacation. I find that by Spring Break they are seven months older than they were last summer and this is a great week for me to figure out what might be interesting them over the summer. Both of my boys loathe camp. They loathe most organized summer activities that other children get excited by. So....this time of year I need to get creative so summer has a plan.

I am writing this week from the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville. This is my favorite bookish event of the year. This is the 5th year that I have attended the Festival. This year I am not presenting or moderating a panel; I am just attending readings, talks and enjoying meeting new authors and old author friends. There is something amazingly fun about spending four days in an environment that is completely immersed in books.

Well, this was a rather eventful week at Bookreporter.com. We installed a new server, which had a lot fewer glitches than I expected. I anticipate tech upgrades with all the enthusiasm of a root canal with no Novocain. There were only three moments where I felt the Morse Code and two paper cups and string were a fabulous way to communicate! Our tech guy, Michael Murray at Obelisk Consulting, is the best and my hat goes off to him on this one. What does this mean for you, our readers? The pages on our websites should come up a lot faster and lots more of you should be able to interface with our sites simultaneously. More than 850,000 unique visitors hit our seven websites last month, making this a rather necessary upgrade.

We are sharing three interviews with you this week. I love reading the author replies to our questions. To me, there is still a thrill that comes from reading what an author has to say about a book that I have enjoyed. Right now I have triple that pleasure.