Fact: The longer a person goes without writing a blog post, the harder it gets to write a dang post.
That being said, here are some updates!
I haven't written anything worth mentioning in...forever. I did add a new chapter to Black Lilies, but I ended up scrapping half of it. So my "Why I'm not Writing a Sequel" post is still very much in effect.
I still teach middle-school, by the way. And it still leaves me feeling like Soggy everyday.
But I haven't been completely stagnant. I just finished creating a literature unit for Chasing Echoes. And it's beautiful! Here it is:
It's not the outside that's beautiful, it's the inside. Just like an ideal human being. Or a book that wasn't judged by its cover. Or...er...okay, back to the literature guide. I originally started creating it because an 8th grade teacher on my campus purchased a class set of my novel with grant money she received, and asked me for curriculum. But now my school just purchased a class set of my novel (40 books) for ME. Long story short, I get to teach my own book next year! This sort of propelled me to finishing this curriculum. It's now available on Amazon for $5.38 for those who want the "nice" workbook, but I've decided to have the PDF available for free. It seems silly to try to profit from learning material related to my novel.
Oh, another cool update: My daughter and I created a children's book titled Jacob Jax and the Watermelon Tree...my first (and likely only) children's book. I'll write more about that in a future post. For now I'll just say that it's all finished, we're just in the throes of publishing-insanity with this one. There are a lot more hoops to jump through for children's lit than YA. This book has been both a sweet little delight and a stinging bull thorn in my heel (I'm trying to avoid saying 'pain in my ass').
That's it for project updates. Unless art counts? If so, here's my latest:
Cheshire Cat for Mom
Charcoal/Pastel on 18x24 charcoal paper
This is the look I have plastered on my face during a typical workday. A grin frozen somewhere between bewilderment and mania.
