Where Have I Been?

I've been under a rock. There is no excuse for not writing as often as I could be. However, the great news: I have a new book on the way! I was 99% certain this morning I'd be approving the new book. Instead, I decided to flip through a section of the book, I rarely focused on in previous editing attempts and was stopped by a glaring error. So I had to fix that. Since I was in the mood for re-uploading the file, I went and tried a little experiment and fixed something that was literally trivial but the fix made my heart feel better about layout.
So "On the Shoulders of Giants", my latest book for The Company (not to be confused with the general Hollywood euphemism for the CIA or any other Federal agency) is actually a 3 part book series. I had started in June organizing all three books, I actually thought I could publish all three books by the end of the summer. But I realized, there were some major holes in my research for the bulk of two of the books--so I focused on this third book, the biographies of people who contributed to science, 43 different people in the field of science and their accomplishments written for students who need modified curriculum. For every 1-2 pages of biography, there are 2 different sets of questions. One direct W/H questions (Who, What, When, Where, How--no "Why"..that's a different level of thinking), and the other more about encouraging research and finding answers to relate to the readings. Every biography had a map of the modern birth country of the scientist, a timeline of the scientist's life in perspective of the timeline of history that modern history recognizes, and then one illustration that relates to the reading of something that the scientist is connected with.
This book was intended to be a capstone on an already epic series. And then when I moved it to be my sole focus, I do think it lost a little edge, and then I went into the publisher to start setting the book up for publishing. And then there was a problem. A major problem. At 200 pages, with about 175 pages that had color, the book would have to be priced at nearly $50 for The Company to make any reasonable money-- our usual royalty is from $6-$10 per book. That amount broke our general rule of trying not to charge more than $30 to every customer.
We hemmed and hawed painfully for a few days. There are some things that aren't worth fighting for, we put the customers first. The book illustrations were redone: all to be in black and white. It was challenging at first, because we didn't know what would translate well in black and white-- it turns out nothing did so we threw away a lot of original illustrations and used some very old, old graphic tricks like patterning to get the effects we wanted, not just removing the color from the graphics. We tried just removing color from the graphics. It wasn't enough to be visually clear.
So right now, we're waiting to hear back from the publisher. We're 99% certain we'll be approving the draft as final tomorrow. (Yes we know we were 99% certain we'd publish to day, but give us our hope!)

Editing

Editing is the bane of my existence. Fortunately, for me, I make either subtle mistakes that I can ponder over, delete, and re-word into a simpler manner, or I make huge errors and freak out that they are giant glaring mistakes.

Today, looking at the manuscript heading to the publisher, I removed three pages and then had to sort through some tricky issues with the index. I have to admit, I do the index in a most strenuous manner, but there's got to be a better way sometimes. But on the upside, this upcoming publication has nearly five pages just of sources.

Almost ready to send to final publish. On a second 24 hour hold. We will see.

Things that make me want to quit

I've been really working on focusing on one part of a project at a time. It helps prevent the waterfall of emotion that comes with looking at the list of books I want to release over the next five years.

Today, for example, I finished the first draft of a new Stick Figure book. I don't have illustrations yet. I just put text together. I haven't figured out how I'm going to handle quotations because of the way this particular story is set up. But the whole story is laid out finally, in a feasible framework.

Over the next year, I hope to start drawing the characters I expect will be in the story and then illustrating the story as I go through.

I sat back, I enjoyed finishing that draft. I put it away. I'm not interested in dealing with that text until next summer. It can sit on back up until then.

Then I moved onto scanning all the illustrations I created. Unlike other times I've illustrated books, especially books I'm publishing, I didn't need that list. Well guess what, I needed that list.

Illustration problems: you go out of your way and create what you think should at least be 55 original drawings for your written work (which is still in the research phase, but the Illustrations are very important to the final product which in early test phases are probably going to be spread out over two books. You spend an hour scanning these original pieces of art to add into your text after digitally adding color. You count your scanned works in the folder. There are 52. 5 of which you can verify immediately as to what they are illustrations of. The remainder will have to individually be checked off a list you thought you didn't need to create. After this series is released: I need to take some serious time off illustration because this drives me nuts.

 I suppose I could always apply and try to get this manuscript taken and published "for real" but I would still have the issues of incomplete data and the fact that everything is just too dense in the real world for the subject matter I create.

Meanwhile, I'm carefully cropping and preparing the illustrations I do have, trying not to go figure out which drawings I'm missing. Who am I kidding? I will be doing that tomorrow.

Four Hour Work Window

Because it is summer time, in order to conserve electricity for more important uses like air conditioning, I tend to only have a four hour work window. This is from around eight in the morning until noon. During this time I also have things like doctor appointments, getting things set up for the work day, or other errands that tend to occupy my time.

So, those are pretty big stumbling blocks considering I've only been out of official work since Thursday afternoon. But apparently chipping away at a revised edition since last September has finally paid off. Six days after getting out of work: one book is at the 99% completion mark as per my publisher's requirements right now.

Some things I regret about the second edition: I pulled out the beautiful, yet useless, map art work pages. There were ten pages dedicated to just pure artwork. And it took some convincing on my part to let those pages go. They were pretty, as far as computer art without depth goes. But since they didn't really contribute to the book, and they were taking up valuable physical space, they were pulled. I also removed over fifteen pages of communication icons. Those were useful, however, due to the nature of the publisher I am using, I can't leave more than two pages blank and then, the communication icons wouldn't be as accessible as possible. However, they are published through another website and are easily purchased for a few dollars.

I also took advantage of some formatting changes and aligned the glossary to look more like the glossary of the Just the Words series and the upcoming books that may partner with Finding It in the World: Geography.

But I'm pretty excited. I should be able to "sell" the book soon. Meanwhile, my four hour work window has closed. Time for me to find non-electronic work to focus on.

How many times? And for what integrity?

The thing that frustrates me the most about non-fiction is the amount of detail that needs to happen. With fiction, of course, as an author, "Well that was explored, but not important to ultimate outcome." But with non-fiction, if a little hair is out of place, it's questionable.

I've spent the last week fixing errors after error that were minor. And the things that should have been minor that exploded into reformatting.

What have I learned?

1) Apparently with my multi-platform set up, I can only handle 240 pages total. Anything beyond that, and the document dies.

2) My thoughts for the History set up is going to change a little because of this lesson. In addition, History will be approached with different purpose.

3) Early complaints about the new book included, "It looks like busy work" And unfortunately, yes, busy work does have a purpose in Education. And busy work can lead to some other things. I will defend later. I apologize for being vague, I'm really tired of trying to stand on this leg of defense of busy work.

4) I _really_ hope that this is the last update. I'm glad I've been vigilant in fixing the errors, it'll look better long term. But otherwise, I'm at the desperate "please let it be done" of the design and finishing.

A Ride On A Rollercoaster

I'm pretty honest with this: as a child, and even as an adult, I have a lot of anxiety surrounding things that are considered adrenaline boosting. I don't like being frightened. I don't like things out of my control. And I've only actually ridden 2 real roller coasters my entire life, neither of which I enjoyed.

Last 24 hours has been a wild ride. Actually, the last 3 weeks have been a huge wild ride, but last 24 have been pretty important. And I still don't know when the next loop or drop is going to come.

Most authors can blog AND write on their manuscripts, unfortunately, I let my blogs languish when the pressure is on because I want the moment to be cool when you realize that I've published.

That's right, as of this morning, my company, ParaEducate, has announced the pending publication of Finding It In The World: World Geography Level 2.

Last night with nearly 20 emails as I collaborated with my business partner to finish the first volume of "Project Alpha", I'm certain she was ready to find a way to cut me off digitally. Catching up on comments for edits and then choosing a cover and dealing with the fact that this book had many demands, especially within the last two weeks.

Finding It In The World is an entire adapted curriculum for students with disabilities to use in inclusive education settings for Geography. It reviews the 5 Themes of Geography, the continents, types of maps, natural hazards, geographic features, and selected countries of the world and their cities. We are very excited to have this available for the general public very shortly. I expect it to be available in the next two weeks.

We did choose a cover.

The first book of "Project Alpha". Property of ParaEducate

And as of this morning, we've sent this through social media. The book is now sitting on computers at our publisher waiting for final edits. There will still be work ahead of us, there is publicity and just getting our supporters to understand the material available. But the book is done. I think we're ready to step off this ride.

It Takes A Community

I want to say, as a writer: you can't write what you don't experience. You can anticipate emotions, but you might not know the depths of despair or the heights of plateaus truly until you have lived through it. A few years back, one of the short stories I wrote for my NaNoWriMo was a collection of letters written by fictional parents to their unborn children. I don't think I really captured the depths of worry, sorrow, and fears that parents could bring as well as the joy and the hopes that parents often have. Just around the corner, a co-worker of mine would be a parent for the first time the following year. And then in February, we got a letter from the co-worker about the baby, the baby was going to have a pretty serious birth defect. We rallied around her. And when the baby was born extraordinarily premature, we were as supportive as we could be. When the baby died a few days later, we all came together and helped the family out the best we could.

Again, at my feet lays an experience I never wanted to have. A good friend of mine from high school lost her little boy on July 4th in an accident. And I've challenged some thoughts in another blog and he was a wonderful little boy, but again, the depths of loss leave me floundering for the words to share the truth that community comes together, even a small one for this little boy.

This taints my look at things. And yet today, something else came my way that was much more mundane. One of my NaNo groups had an author who was flustered over the fact that his work was lacking in gender diversity. I am not sure how old this author is, but I was struck by how much he was troubled by this conceptually. He had tried adding more characters, even supporting characters but they weren't nearly as interesting and they were only shells as he had described them. He wanted fully participating characters.

As an author, and especially one who participates in NaNoWriMo, I usually don't give a rip what genders my characters are. Gender eventually comes to the surface and it all balances itself out, though admittedly: I have never written a gender neutral character or a transgendered character. But again I could not ignore the idea that an author had wanted to make sure that his story lived in a gender balanced world.

I look at my own constructed life: I spend a lot of time with women, but I have spent a lot of contact time with men. But each individual representation had elements of stereotypes on both sides of the gender. However, my last 3 published stories all had main characters that were female, with a heavy dose of women surrounding them. The stories that have yet to be published that contain male main characters are surrounded by men. But that is also a result of things that I know about how deep secrets are comfortably shared within genders. A greater trust has to be met to share across genders be it marriage/partnership, siblings, or a long time of friendship.

I sometimes wonder that my own writing is too lacking in diversity due to the fact that my world is the world that I see. To be honest, I have only know 3-4 practicing Muslims, and only 1 Pagan. Of those 5 people, I think only the Pagan would list me within their good friends (a significant difference of best friend). I also do know that in my experience, I am all too aware of the contrived racially, gender balanced writing (High School Musical and upcoming Teen Beach Movie--I realize that these are screenplays, but they address the same things). There was a presentation to me that discussed the limitations of popular media with regards to racial equality (that there is no equality for races), but I am also struck that I know of shows that are specifically targeted at certain ethnicities and yet they are not at all racially balanced. 

As a concept: diversity I'm flummoxed by it as a writer. I know diversity, I've lived it most of my life even in its limitations: I socialized with people with multiple ethnic identities and religious choices, I know the difference between being the leader and knowing when to take a supporting role, and I have friends, good friends of several genders and gender preferences. I'm lucky: I live in a state that has a lot of representatives of both mainstream and minorities.

This becomes a sticking point though as I am on the precipice of preparing materials for social sciences to be used with students with developmental disabilities. I know it's the point of educational materials to be as politically correct as possible and be the introduction to the world beyond the four walls of school.

And then I take a breath.

It's the community that will give rise to the work. Both fiction and non-fiction. I can strive for the diversity without purposely putting it to task. I can ask myself to consider to have my characters step outside of prescribed stereotypes, that they will rise to the task. And I know they all will be okay. Because my friends have 2 special angels on their shoulders. And I have more experiences, albeit, experiences I hope no one ever has to see.

90% mark

I have to say, one of my favorite parts about having access now to regular publication: I can publish whenever I am ready. Except when my material isn't ready.

This isn't about the reluctant artist. I will deal with that later.

I'm sitting here with my unedited manuscript knowing that I have to edit it, deal with the issues surrounding the final pages and potentially cutting the introductory chapter because it's a little flat.

I worry about the issues surrounding the fact that I don't have a full publishing house to back me up and I'm entirely stuck with my work being what it is and what I could potentially be missing to support my work.

The worries of what I still am missing are there, but also at this point, I lack motiviation to finish things that I think aren't important or as important as they were when I started the book in the first place. After all, who cares if something didn't make the final cut? I have the finished product. And by hook or by crook: it's done. I have to accept the deadline, even self-imposed deadlines.

Other things keep sucking away my 100% focus, but I suppose my business partner and co-authors from other projects will be thrilled with that knowledge.

But 90%. Missing 5 pages, 8 maps, a complete editing, and citiations. So close.

When It Is Ready, You Will Know

Since I was in college, I've been writing a series on about government service. And most of the short stories there had never really went many places. They were about character development and looking at the past of characters.

Until this week. A reoccurring photo kept creeping up on my Facebook feed. And while I've seen the photo a thousand times, for whatever reason, this week it made sense, this was the image I was going to write about to tie the entire series together.

I find that the one thousand words produced by the picture that emanates silence and reverence was perhaps the most soulful addition to the series. So my next book, not due for at least another year will focus on service and sacrifice both publicly and politically. I can't promise stand alones, but I'm looking at the short stories I generated and perhaps this might be the better way to imagine that these stories all share a common thread.

There have been multiple requests for updates and the companion story to "Putting It On The Line", and while I have been sitting on the manuscript for over 15 years at this moment in time, I am not interested in releasing the continued stories of Jessie and the rest of the Bakers.

I would, however, like to request that if you had the pleasure of reading my books, any of them to date, that you would offer up a good review on Amazon.com. And by good reviews, I mean something that is sincerely useful to someone who might be looking to buy a new story/book. I don't really care if you liked the book, but it is somehow much more useful. The reviews help validate my work, and as much as I like hearing from my readers personally, I think it's infinitely more useful that someone reviews my work honestly and understands that there are all sorts of different readers that I come in contact with.

So to sum up: 1) new book in progress. 2) if you like my work, put a review on it. (Sorry Beyonce!).

Thanks! and stay tuned for more updates on Project Alpha as the summer begins, because now I'm fully immersed in the world of CCSS...

Final Stretch

So I'm sitting in front of the computer staring at the completed manuscript I'm getting ready to publish. I have an "acceptable" cover though that may change shortly pending my mood next week when I finalize all my materials to the publisher.

I cannot tell you how hard it is to sit and summarize a book I've written about for the better part of over a year in only five sentences. Especially since the published version is nothing like the version I spit balled through my writing in a NaNoWriMo over two years ago. But the characters stand, and that's the most important part to me. My characters can weather the changes of editing for any reason. 

And all I know is that this is all (editing, designing, going to regular work) harder than it is supposed to be to upload the final materials and tell the publisher to green light the project. After all, this is my baby. What sort of part of me will now be vulnerable once people start reading my newest book?

I'm also sitting on about three middle drafts for the different volumes of ParaEducate's newest round of materials. This is a different sort of vulnerability as I try to organize all the sources I have for my materials.

All of these things are coming out in the next five to six months right on top of each other. It will take a small miracle to keep them all organized but I'm getting there. And hopefully, they'll all find the audience that I've intended them to be seen by.

There is quite a bit of vulnerability as an author and running a company whose goal is to publish to a specific industry. And it can be confusing at times, even to me as I consider all the parts of my public life. But the best part of my growth as a writer, is the chance to share the stories and materials with more people. And that's where this is all headed. Non-fiction or fiction, that is the greatest joy I have when that finished book is in my hands. That is really what the final stretch is about.

Where have you been?

It has been a wild ride the past few weeks.

My writing has been subjected to the highs and lows of a multiple job schedule. I literally just counted: In my day I deal with literally 4 different jobs in a given day.

So for the next 7 days, I'm 100% immersed in the facts surrounding the U.S. Civil War.

The story? Actually, amazingly: this has NOTHING to do with Project Alpha. It has a lot to do with me opening my mouth and spit balling over two years ago.

In drama club two years ago, it was probably November, the kids asked simply, "What can we do with our season?"

We talked about it, and then someone thought it was a great idea to do something in service for the school. And then a few minutes later, I had pieced a couple of ideas from other parts of the campus and offered up the idea of taking some existing pieces of the Civil War simulators we had and acting them out.

The kids didn't want that. They wrote their own Civil War Script. We did try to produce the show the first year and then it didn't work out.

So we had to do it this year. And here we are, a few bumps away but we've gotten it ready for production.

7 more days and the curtain rises.

And then I can go back to writing as my 3rd job for about 2 weeks before I return to Auditions. For a show that doesn't have anything to do with at least the United States Civil War. But Project Alpha will be in the middle of the Civil War.

Plot Hole So Big, You Can Write A Plot About It

Plot Holes.

Not as nice as pot holes. Not as useful as pin holes. But certainly, no less deserving of attention.

Right now, I don't know why my hero and heroine need each other. The problem is,  the story was originally a romance. Which makes things harder when you get rid of the interesting hot guy that you spend HOURS trying to create and make at least plausibly interesting to the reader.

The funny thing is, I've fixed all the other plot holes. This one is huge. Neither one is vapid, but they ultimately need each other. Mean while, I will continue to work through all of the other issues as they arise.

What else has been keeping me from updating? I'm about 75% ready on Volume 3 US History of Project Alpha. I have to ultimately go through and add the index, the sources, and then all the pictures I have been gathering and documenting where I got them from. In addition to each hand drawn map and then series of icons that will be created based on each section. That's still a lot of work. Even for normal people.

I just came back from AZ-TASH's AZWINS, 9th Annual Inclusion Institute. That was awesome! I got to meet people that I've been meeting online. And we got to talk about special education and try to inform people about things that can do to help make inclusive environments in schools.

I think Megan, my business partner, got to the reality of what is going on with our company before I did. And yes, we do write to a specific population, and no, we're probably never going to be a top 200 book sales, but we needed to get this stuff written. Because, like the baseball stadium, if it isn't built, they won't come.

But the plot hole won't fix itself. So back into filling in the hole. Maybe, it'll just have to be left to the side, for a while.

A Writer's New Year's Resolution

Being a writer, one would imagine that resolutions are all about documentation. They're actually not. So here are my goals for 2012.

• Actively take more time to write. This isn't about writing. I write all the time. What I need to write are coherant sentences. Which then leads to...
• Publish regularlly. I think once a year isn't too much to take on. Even with a multifaceted day job.
• Be mindful that not everything is going to work out.
• Enjoy the breaks that come with having worked on something for more than 5 minute stretches.

I am going to publish a new story like I said in my last post. The title is evolving as are the subplots. I've found plot holes so wide that it's a little scary how I thought that this book would be ready to go in a few minutes. But that's the nice thing about having things ready to go.

This is where my life gets dicey. Publically, I have always been RHM, since I could have my own email back when I just left my first year of college. But my life today is about both RHM and ParaEducate. And sometimes, they cross over. Project Alpha and Project Beta wouldn't happen if I hadn't been RHM first. ParaEducate depends on that element.

I will work on the identity crisis in my life. Until then, I will work on my resolutions.

In other news: ParaEducate is on schedule for multi-city locations over the next few weeks. So keep an ear to the social media taps, we're on the move.

No, Seriously, I Am Always Writing

As someone who works in a public school 5 days a week for over 190 days a year in the past 2 years,  I have tried to convey to my students that one really does need to know how to write. While the English teachers that I work with admire the direction I have tried to put a spin on the importance of skill building, I sometimes get the idea that no one really knows exactly what I do and how much of "it" I do.

Seriously: I am always writing.

• I write emails for the company, I write emails to my co-workers, I write emails to my friends
• I write short stories
• I write reviews for items and books for a variety of stores
• I write modified texts to let my students access the curriculum
• I write process charts (somtimes also called scaffolds or task charts)
• I write for 4 separate blogs (yes I am crazy)
• I write at least two status updates to FB daily.
• I write text messages to my friends
• I write sample items for my students to refer to when  am not with them
• I write
• and I write
• and I write.

I write as I am falling asleep. I write as I'm going to work, even when I cannot write, whole chunks of sentences form in my head before I even get a chance to pick up a pencil and actually write them down.

I used to write poetry quite a bit.
I still write short stories and novels.
I will always be writing on Project Alpha, the project with no end in sight darned illustrations.

Pictures still are valued at 1000 words. At least. My own hand is much more steady these days.

But I'm always finding an outlet forcing myself to express the ideas in my head that have been placed there by something I've seen or trying to experience or put words to an expeience that I do not quite understand.

The nebulous way my mind wants to work is not much unlike a web one might teach students to use to write with. But it happens in clearer and clearer chunks the more I work at my craft.

I was most recently asked why I hadn't gone into the English department as a major in college instead of heading to Architecture school. And I will be honest: there isn't a lot of money there. But I don't care about making money, not in the way that I don't want to make money, but in the way that money is not the primary decision guide. Architecture was a means to another skill of communication. And I have been able to control a lot of things that I probably would not have been able to without having been formally trained in the visual skills that are required of architecture.

I always was mistified by my friends and aquantances being stimied by the direction to write. I always found it the easiest thing in the world to string words together. I'm not an expert at it and sometimes my direction is more of a stab than a gentle curve. But the words will come.

But always looking for a chance to explain is what is in my head is always the goal. So I am always writing.

They Aren't Always Good Ideas

My primary training is as a designer. My training had me learn ways people figure things out and how to get the results I wanted. Basically, in the world that I now work in, I'm not only leading the horse to water, salting their food, but there is only one (maybe two) ways to get that horse to the water.

So as I work through new projects to engage my students at work, I'm still a designer.

• Are there too many words on the page?
• Did I call attention to the important details?
• Does the font lend itself to easy reading?
• Is the spacing right?
• How many different ideas am I presenting?
• What are the new words that my student needs to learn?
• (and perhaps the most important question of all) How do I get my student to even care?

This is all secondary to things in a standard classroom. But this is the background of evaluation for each step I'm trying to accomplish.  Meanwhile, I'm also looking at things like, what software do I have available (usually just Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).

And there are good days and bad days. The nice thing is, kids are brutally honest. I will know quickly if they aren't going to be successful at what I have tried to provide.

Bottom line: Project Alpha Volume 3 is being piloted. So far, working well. Need more pictures, need vocabulary highlighted, and now to start ways of assessing if the students totally engaged in the lessons.

The Project Alpha Update

So here's a drum roll please:

The text for Volume 2 Level 1 is done! Which means the book is at 40% complete. Illustrations are in progress.

I've started what I thought was Volume 3, Level 1 (US History). After careful consideration: I'm looking at Volume 3 Level 2. Which is rather surprising on my part but I'll figure it out.  Volume 1 is still in outline and the introductions for each chapter are being prepared.

Volumes 4 (science) and any subsequent volumes are on hold until the first 3 volumes are ready to go to print.

Megan is now caught up and is working on her to-do list. I'm on track now that work has settled into a chaotic pattern.

We have furthered the company image and hopefully ParaEducate will rock the next few weeks.

Stay tuned! We are on the Inclusive Class Podcast October 12.

Why Should I Care About Project Alpha?

It is hard to remember that not everyone understands what is going on inside my head. To be utterly frank: neither do I. But that is part of the writing process: giving the reader a window to my mind so things that I want to see and do are similar to that picture I have in my head.

So why have I spent just about every waking, free, moment in my life writing recently about and for Project Alpha for ParaEducate?

Project Alpha, believe it or not, started over seven years ago. Except it wasn't even a project back then. It was called "treading water" , "getting through the day", or "cutting back work loads for students". It was recognized that not all the students with moderate to severe disabilities were able to do the classwork as outlined by the teacher. So we started stepping back and looking at what really was important for each lesson/unit/life. And that's where this started. We have binders of work.

And then most recently, with Megan and Jenny, we realized, that people all over the country are doing this. Some with more success than others. And so then we started asking ourselves 'how'.
How about doing this so no one has to struggle finding these resources?
How about doing this so a student who has a severe disability isn't just sitting in the corner coloring when they could be helping in a lab experiment?
How about doing this so a student can learn the vocabulary, and be held accountable to learn the same information their peers are?
How about doing this so a student can prove the are as successful as their peers?
How about doing this so a student with a moderate disability can figure out what the topic is really about so they don't feel so anxious about the test?

It has taken quite a bit of research to at least get enough information to provide the framework for a student to read. And then more research to get each page done correctly, providing accurate illustrations. On top of that, we are doing some special things with layout so a student can not be confused by additional information. And then: we have to go through and check to make sure we're aligned with Common Core Standards.

I will be posting an early draft of some Geology we have done back 4 years ago. The reason I'm posting it now, is we've reopened using some of the materials and we've engaged students in a reading class (not a science class). But the fundamentals are the same. The fundamentals are important. The students are showing us that they need this. I'm really glad they are getting to use it.

The Groove

Other than the interruptions that come with living with my family, mostly my writing does take me to amazing places.

And then, you keep your head down, and chip away piece by piece the questions you really have.

You're so consumed by the desire to chip away, that you forget that there is a masterpiece in you hands.

And then, you realize, you're nearing a stage of polish.

That's where I am right now. I just put in the last written section for volume 2. I have endless illustrations to provide, comprehension questions, test questions, notes, and glossaries. But the bulk of the writing is done.

I have also started the final layout for Volumes 1 and 3.

Goal by 2014, to have Volumes 1 and 2 available on Amazon. We (at ParaEducate) are in discussion for providing individual units for sale through other venues.

Illustrations are going to take center stage. But only after next week. From Monday to Friday, my first week back at work. And then, editing and finalization for publication.  Maybe we'll have a fire under this by the time I get back from TASH.

And in the name of progress

I think the solid base that is a good outline sometimes can be stifling. However, with an outline, one can send out calls for help from co-authors.

In addition, when I'm bored, I can go switch to another part of the project and start outlining.

So for Volume 2, so far I have started pictures, and gotten a handle on chapters that I hadn't started. I also have started Resources and References for the entire project so that's quite useful.

Volumes 3 and 4 both have outlines. More importantly, Volumes 3 and 4 also have my trademark unique chapter names. I've looked at them for Volume 2 but I haven't really had any luck being creative.

It's coming along. I suppose the panic that has been setting in is related to the fact that I will be going back to work in two weeks. Of course the progress would be better if I didn't keep taking naps.

Project Alpha

I'm not sure if it is good that my to do list for Project Alpha fits on 3 standard sticky notes.