We did it! Katy Jensen called in from Colorado Springs, Guy Guthridge hopped off his boat long enough to phone in, and  Karen Joyce and David Ainley called in from the Ice for the  virtual book tour. My first ever. It was a fun experience and I could have talked all night with these four writers who contributed to Antarctica: Life on the Ice. We covered a lot of topics--climate change, sunrise at the South Pole, penguins and their lives and the fact that it's now 40 degrees in McMurdo (warmer than here in New York). You can listen to the interview by visiting my website. There were more questions than we could answer so I'll try and tackle a few here in the next few days. In the meantime, here's one response from my friend Sue Pierce, from Philadelphia:

"The virtual book tour thing was really cool to listen to. . . it

helped me understand better why so many of the essays in your book

sound so heartbroken, why there are planes taking off from the Ice full

of people sobbing. It's kind of amazing, because when I got the book

and started reading it, the last thing I expected was stories filled

with heartsick longing for a place seemingly so inhospitable to humans.

And the funny stories were a surprise, too. Since I was raised on tales

of Scott of the Antarctic and later Shackleton, I figured Antarctica

was all about noble sacrifice and freezing digits off and eating sled

dogs."

Thanks for this, Sue! Any other comments are welcome!