Fun Stuff!

I haven't posted in a bit. Lots of stuff going on around here. I'm just about ready to spray paint those leaves around my house that are threatening to turn yellow! I'm certainly not ready for fall!

I was thrilled to get to see the cover of my book. My editor emailed me what the illustrator has come up with - I'm not sure if it's the final version or if there still might be changes, but it was very cool to see that red Scholastic banner across the top and my name at the bottom. They've titled it "Cliffhanger Writing Prompts," which I first thought sounded kind of dull, but after talking to my editor, she convinced me that a teacher picking up my book in the store needs to instantly know what the book is about. "And Then..." wouldn't convey the information quickly enough. Yeah, yeah, Scholastic has done this a bazillion times and they know what they're doing.

Saturday I got to try out my stories on a public audience, as opposed to a captive group of kids in a classroom. I was at the Relay for Life at Sherwood High School and I managed to attract a dozen or so kids to come listen to some stories and venture up on stage to tell the audience how the stories turned out. I loved the aliens from the moon who were afraid of pickles! President Obama had all the farmers in America grow pickles and scared them away. (How do they come up with these ideas?)

Sunday my 14-year-old and I went to the Willamette Writers Conference. We got to go to several workshops, get our manuscripts critiqued, and my daughter got to meet with a publisher and pitch her book (mostly for practice, but still awesome!). She's on the third draft of an 83,000 word novel (approx. 275 pages). I'm proud of her!

Now I just have to wait patiently for a YEAR for my book to be in the stores!