Getting In For the Long Game

It took me three years to get off my butt and finish converting all the images from "The Bard In Stick Figures" into true graphics. The downside, the print on some of the images became too small to read as a result for digital publication. But the good side of all of this, it means that the graphics are ready to go for the new publication. Other issues we ran into include that the publication works best in horizontal and not so awesome for black and white only tablets which still represents about 60% of the market base (including me!). But it's still better than "nothing".

In my personal writing endeavors, however, I'm stumped. My characters have one sided relationships, they do not share what they like about each other, I suspect that one of my characters, no matter who she would end up with, it would not be easy for anyone.

Despite setbacks, one of the things I really like about writing is the process. Just getting the words on the page and not worrying about the artful imagery, though at times, that proves to be useful. Knowing what I see in my characters and needing to bring that out and share with others is very important to my work.

And I did not win any lottery. So back to the salt mines to do taxes.

Stalled out but not down

So I've been puttering around with no less than twelve pretty serious works in progress.
I had settled that my last year's NaNo would be cut down into a short story, but then I stalled out into making some serious decisions for my characters and I just did not feel like that was organic enough to address.
Then I have this huge math book project and I couldn't decide whether or not to put work samples in or not. But that was actually a 'little' problem compared to getting information in there correctly. That project is slowly coming together.
I have six geography projects in progress. The problem there is trying to gather enough research to be credible. Plus all the map illustrations are currently still in progress.
Then there's my newest Stick Figure book. Yes! I have another Stick Figure book in progress. Today's breakthrough there was actually really profound. I'm partnered into an art class this last part of the term and today we introduced proportional facial feature drawing. And all the information I learned nearly twenty-five years ago came back. Unlike my last Stick Figure book, which was based on Shakespeare, it's a lot harder when the same character is at the center of the story and his outward appearance changes because it's literally years of abuse his body takes in the story. So how do you know it's this guy and not another guy? It's the face. It will always be the face. I finally had a breakthrough about facial shapes looking at the options given. I reviewed classical proportions, appropriate due to the content of the book, and was reminded the stress of facial expressions had in classical sculptures. On the plus side, it's also encouraging me to draw larger, which is all right, I can have a few views of much more detailed faces.
There are assorted works of fiction and non-fiction all demanding different attentions from me and I still have yet to address them all. But I will. And I need to publish this summer because I don't know when I'll have a chance ever again.

When the Push Isn't the Story

There is no secret, I'm constantly churning out at least a short story or two. But lately, my work hasn't been as fruitful. And it's definitely slowed. Certainly my life situations do really limit my productivity. Between the fact that I'm trying to find a grad school that will take me and testing for other issues related to getting into the grad programs I wish to get into.

So this is the first year in a long time I have access to the required reading block in my academic schedule where it's required that all students come in and read at the beginning of class. And to my unexpected pleasure, the teacher with whom I am partnered with this year, has a wonderful book collection. I am in book heaven. I spent the first three weeks of the school year devouring a new book and then I realized there was a book I "should" read. I picked up that book, it is a biography.

The medium of biography is not a focus of the type of writing I do: general descriptive non-fiction and fiction. But as I read this story and look at the life of another person who just had an opportunity like no one else could have ever believed. I haven't even gotten to the primary focus of the biography yet.

But this reminds me of two things: writers need to read everything and then reading helps writers get clarity in directions of the ways their fiction or non-fiction need to be able to appeal to a variety of readers.

Yes I am still writing. I am still reading as well. I hope to become more open to reading more genres.

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.

Copy rights and other things

A good author should always be writing. The problem with my life: I'm not always doing so. Some of it is there are parts of my life that are not involved with writing; sleeping, eating, self-entertaining (TV/media), friends, and stuff writing related (research, illustrating, and editing).

So when I announced at the end of last month I had finally produced a second edition to a book I had written two years ago, I was over the moon with joy. Today, I'm sitting and waiting for the physical proof of a second book in a series to arrive so I can check it for publishing. 

I have also started five new projects, two of which I sent to a pay to use publisher that was about a week of work for both. The remaining three non-fiction projects include intensive research one that requires reading Homer. I've got to say that while I am versed and highly skilled in research, even before the advent of Google, research is a pain. You've got to be extraordinarily organized and prepared for anything that you will uncover.

And then there are no less than three fictional works in progress. I realized last year during NaNo, I was feeling rusty, as if my written work was suffering from my lack of connection to the worlds I was building, even if the world as we see it wasn't that different than the world in the piece I was writing. The good news is that these written works have been started, yet they are hardly publishing level. I don't know if they will ever be ready. I worry about that because that is my goal, to have work prepared for people to share. 

Then there is blogging, I need todo more of it, and hold myself to the deadlines because clearly that works during the 8 months a year I blog for the Company. I am getting better. 

An announcement of no small proportions, I've just formally registered for a copyright for one of my books. I'm thrilled and scared all at the same time. Hopefully the Office of Copyright will see fit to bestow one of their precious certificates on me. I won't know for 8 months. Previous works are actually protected by common copyright law. Having been published is enough to generally protect the work but this last step is an important legal step.

There is a lot going on in the world of writing. I enjoy [almost] every minute of it.

While I have you here: I'm now a part of a campaign #BetterTogether. Using this hashtag is meant to help promote inclusive communities for people with disabilities. Hopefully I will have cause to use it soon.

Long Plot Line of Continuity

A general I have three little "plot bunnies" for fiction work I'm working on. One of which, yesterday, I was about to let out for someone else to claim as their own but I was thinking about how vividly I dreamed and how much I thought the ending would be an interesting twist. So I kept the plot bunny. I'm looking at these three and realizing how much I love the short story. Even with twists, they are to the point, and they don't require elaboration in the case of no one cares what they eat for lunch on Tuesday. Unless it really matters to the plot.

Other important issues before I get to the point of why I'm writing today, I finished submitting and the process for publication of yet another book for the company. Since having finished that book, I continue to bounce around ideas for releasing the second book this summer. I have yet to finish setting it up, I'm afraid of finding a huge error right now. To complicate matters, though I backed up everything and the old hard drive is still accessible, I got a new hard drive in the laptop, but it isn't the old set up which is its own problem. I can't quite find if there was a "D" file and gaps in my research show that I may need to hold onto this book just a little bit longer.

I have eight active projects I rotate through these days. Two on similar topics but are presented differently and the rest are all history based. I will eventually return to science, I have a whole new section to add, but it's also going to be much harder. I am also working on finding illustrations to accompany each section. It's a lot harder than it sounds because I'm mostly preparing all of these photographs for each chapter. Right now, I have an estimate on my hands that one of my books will be 300 pages--pushing its retail price into the $60 range. I'm hoping to bring down the cost, and yet every time I think about cutting a corner somewhere, I realize I'm short changing some piece of the layout.

But all of these are minor plot points in my goals of publishing and writing. Both professionally and informally, my writing forms this grander story arc. Unlike my writings: I don't know where this is headed ultimately. It certainly isn't for fame. And it isn't bound for riches. I've made my peace with those two points. Maybe one day, but certainly not now.

But TV plot lines have gotten a little crazy lately. Sometimes they remember the point of everything. Sometimes they make you remember information from three seasons back. And sometimes, each season might as well be its own thing and have no basis in reality. Some shows are very disjointed from reality to begin with, but others make you wonder how many times they will fire the entire writing team and start over. Just because the writers preserve the characters and their background stories does not mean that the writers understand what they've done the last forty episodes, or even the last two weeks of filming.

I also realize that most people no longer watch an episode a week, instead turning to 'binge' watch in a batch. But then: even having all the episodes with quick turn around means that some things may make even less sense. I am very bothered by this.

What Is My Brand?

I've been entrenched in branding for the better part of nearly four years now. I had to "brand" a company when I first created it. This means I had to (and my partner would have to agree at the time),

• What colors would be used in the company logo?
• What direction would the company head?
• What social media platforms would we use to communicate with the world and why?
• How to convey messages through the platforms?
• When to update and why?
• How to document the journey of being a really small business doing some pretty big things.

This is completely separate, and why we bothered to set up the company, and why when my business partner left, I continued on and had to do the extra leg work to get the company back up to speed as a sole proprietorship.

But as an author who publishes separately from the company: what is my brand?
Is it me?
Is it the professional me?

Sure, me the person and me the author share a LOT in common. For example: we are both HIGHLY motivated by awesome chocolate chip cookies. I like to write. I've enjoyed it even when I didn't know which words were going to come next on a page or when I typed. And yes, I'll say "we", went to architecture school.While I currently Tweet as myself online, it doesn't necessarily mean I've tweeted as an author, nor does it mean I've set up a Page as an author through Facebook or even Google+.

But how much of "me" am I sharing? Did something I do with my characters resonate with the way my life went? Certainly not always.

"Me the author" really likes to write romance. And it took "me the person" a while to come to terms with that fact. In fact, perhaps, this may be the first time I've publicly admitted that fact although I've not made that the focus of my previous publications.Look, there is no more poerwerful force on earth than love. Love between family, love between people willing to tough it out and start a life together, or love between a person and their pet. [Please do not confuse that previous statement with "having sex with".] Love is a binding force of our universe. Perhaps greater than all four of the types of gravity that are recognized in physics. (Oh, by the way "me the person" is a pretty astute geek and nerd on the side in case sometimes you forget.)

I can also admit, "Me the person" often decides that "me the author" will just have to "wait" while I play video games, run a million errands, or spend time with friends.

I find that my brand as an author takes a different roll every time I open the first draft of my latest work. And I am writing again. Perhaps it will work out this time and I will get a chance to publish. But first come ParaEducate's publications. I publicly announced two months ago, I would be releasing at least one book. I'm nearly ready on a second book which means I should probably start designing covers. Or other projects. Or video games. Or family, eating, sleeping, working jobs that pay a regular paycheck, or friends.

I think I found my brand: Always busy.....

When You See Characters Go Wrong

Originally, when I was composing this post, I was thinking of a specific movie. A cartoon that recently came out. And as I thought about it, I wasn't ready for the emotional backlash that would come with mentioning the specific movie, so I thought I'd talk around the issue at hand.

I'm looking at the composition of the male v. female balance in media as drawn out by the Geena Davis Institute and also considering the Bledchel Test when I write these days. One of my newer projects is larger in scope than initially anticipated because it is non-fiction and crosses over several issues with regards to race and gender. But that ignores characters, fiction, where my heart lies.

So in the aforementioned movie, the character is forced to physically change to take on the challenge that is placed before the character. The character does so reluctantly. And the character gets the challenge and wins and everyone celebrates. And in the sequel, because what is life these days without a sequel, the character changes physically yet again.

What I object to: a character having to physically change. Emotional changes come and go, and yes, sometimes they physically change because of the emotional change, but the removal of some part surgically. Apparently the only way to achieve your goal is to change physically. And it's not always about getting to feeling attractive, or having someone in your life, or being accepted. But here it is, the story as it is laid out.

So how do I respond as an author?

• I look at the character I have in my folders and try to make sure that should they need to physically change that it may be against their will. 
• I have characters that do physically change because they age or are gravely ill.
• I have characters that understand the physical changes are permanent and there is nothing to reverse the changes
• My characters see the benefits and succumb to the evils of their changes.
• My characters find their happiness without the physical change.

As for gender balancing, it is hard, my primary fictional work usually has a romance component. It is easier in family stories as I can always find a model family, regardless of gender balances.

As for addressing the diversity of characters, I find this probably the most challenging. I find there is little I am interested in outside of the creation of a period piece and even then, because of my lack of first hand, or even second hand, knowledge, my worlds are sometimes too ideal in the diversity world.

I have three major projects in my lap right now. I seriously wrote my opening scene in my newest work into a corner and so I decided to look at my characterizations. And I realized I had no motivation beyond very simple old hat tricks and I wanted my character to be better than that.

Hopefully, my character will change. I will find the answer eventually. Characters are those voices that speak to me, they may have a path I can see for them, but they have to get on that path and go. If I chose the wrong character, I'll find another.

Writing is demanding. I have more to finish.

"And..." The Compounding Compound

I really do not like 'and'. When struggling for words or ideas, I really go for those long lists and eventually I do hit the requirement for an 'and'. But, 'and' is such a quantifier.

I am female and I am an educator.
I like music and I can read music.
I draw by hand and on the computer.

And.

And.

'And' is about the more. The more things I can do or say adds this layer of complexity that sometimes isn't necessary at all. When I leave the house I like knowing I have twelve or fifteen things on my list to accomplish for the day. That's it. When then there is an 'and now we have to go...' or 'and now I have this idea/desire for', this inhibits the list there is a sudden growth of more. And that's anxiety causing.

And it is lonely.
And it is frustrating.
And it is stressful.

'And'.

'And' is the loading of an argument. 'And' is the fear that things will be unnecessary.

As a writer, the 'and' is a requirement. My characters need to fulfill my desires and have their own voice. My characters have to make the plot points and get there in interesting manners. My story needs to be original and be interesting.

I am working on three books right now. Two are for Project Delta, looking at vocabulary building. The third is probably never going to get published, but another foray into romance writing. I know the market is saturated, my voice is hardly going to get heard, but it is time to get into some writing where I can build a world again.

And remember to blog more often.
And remember that my blogging = writing.
And enjoy the journey.

The Post NaNoWriMo Blog Wrap-up

My NaNoWriMo has been validated. And an impressive 55, 118 words was the final count.

What I learned this year: I have gotten rusty when it comes to fiction. I am not reading enough different materials anymore and I am not developing my characters the way I need them to develop into deep creatures of habit.

So what I may end up doing next year is finding characters I have already worked on or at least tried to work on previously and finding a deeper story to provide the depth and the generous story quality I know I can create.

I also happen to know that I am not creating those moments for my characters, moments that I hold in deep emotion. Those have been harder to create this year.

The best news: the growth out of the deep dark that I can write was not nearly as bad this year. I could write a dark, emotionally haunting scene, and as an author I could walk away and not feel the emotion boiling over limiting my ability to recover.

I don't know if that is a reflection of maturity as a writer, or the fact that I did not care about my work this year.

As for my company books that are pending: I have five or six books lined up and I just need to get them to be organized.

So new goals:

1. Write more. This isn't a quantity, this is a discipline. And more in fiction.
2. Remember that I can only improve. Or at least that is my goal to continue to improve.
3. Ignore the goal of publishing. It would be great if I was worth lots of money from my writing, but it is not the only thing I can do.
4. Know that I am in this for the long haul. I like writing. I always have. 

NaNoWriMo 2014: done. And now a little time to relax while I prepare some books for my company for publication.

Two books, one summer, and onto other things

First, don't let the title scare you. I'm going to keep going here.

But my "paying job" has begun. I use the paying term losely. While I make more than minumum wage, I shouldn't complain as I am employed, but I honestly don't make enough at a shade under 40 hours a week to be successful and financially careful.

But here to announce book #2 of this summer: The Bard In Stick Figures. It has 130 illustrations, of which 110 are original illustrations. By the third story, I had a really good method for getting the characters into the scene and into position.

It includes both interpretation and direct quotes.

I might be able to re-release that book I wrote last summer in a second edition, but not before December.

I've started the first new books, prepping for release next summer.

This life of publishing is awesome.

Onto NaNoWriMo.

What it's like to solve problems when you're a writer AND an illustrator

My primary background is in graphics. Which is odd because I have this degree that says I can build things that people can live and work in. But the thing I walked away having learned and evaluated the most of, was simply graphics. The visual way of convincing someone I'm right. If I can fool you with what you're looking at, then I've done a good job. And I need to do it in the most professional way possible.

So when I moved into the world of illustration for Project Beta for ParaEducate, it was sort of a no brainer. Part of the beauty of "Bard in Stick Figures" is that it literally looks slapped together. this accomplishes two things.  The first is reminding my primary target audience, that some of our work needs to be "slapped together" at the last minute. The second is addressing the fear most people have about drawing. If I had a penny for every time someone said, "I'm not very good at drawing"; I'd be insanely rich at this point.

But even though I had finally gotten the text together for the new book, I had been dragging my feet on the illustrations. And I would have really loved to have the book out already. But such is the life of the author/illustrator/publisher. And I couldn't figure out why. I even started flipping through the original text which I was using to work from to help generate ideas. I thought I might have been too true to the original text [wholly possible as I spent many years in theatrical sets], I thought I didn't understand the text [wholly possible as it is Shakespeare], and I thought maybe this just wasn't as cool as I thought it could be.

One of the signs that bothered me was the book was only 80 pages long (40 pages published). Ambitious yes, but not impossible. But when it comes to publishing, this means that it's going to be really tiny. I thought about adding another section to the book, but then I realized, that I couldn't handle the pages where there were actual conversations. And this made me not want to finish the book. Unlike the first second where conversations weren't really a major element of the story, the other plays I had chosen to illustrate were all wrapped in conversations between characters. And then I realized, conversations happen over multiple pages through the illustrations--like a comic book.. Poof. My book is now extraordinarily viable at around 150 pages with illustrations (which means around 75 pages published).

Of course, I'm not sure how this will translate to publication as there are file restriction limits. But I don't care the book is working out finally. Yes that does mean the illustration count has moved proportionally so of 150 pages, 140 pages are original illustrations. But that's okay. I figured out how to solve the issues for the remaining two of three sections.

To give you an idea of how excited I am that this is possible and I'm making progress: I just finished 5 illustrations since 7 AM. While Facebooking, blogging, and spending 30 minutes walking to the Post Office and back (and not illustrating). Yeah. That means that this is the solution.

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.

Drowning in Work

I think the thing I resent the most about being paid for my non-fiction work is the amount of research I need to do to make the bit of non-fiction be truthful. Or as truthful as I understand the world. And yet, I know I will have opposition as I have the words "Darwin", "natural selection", and "evolution", within my own, modern loving country.

But now I sit on my lap with history, and I know there is yet another controversy going to be lead to my feet. But I publish it anyway.

I have blood and gore in my Project Beta. It's being illustrated. Going to publish it anyway.

I have been toying with the idea of getting an intern next summer. Just to help with the research.

But I'm on the precipice of releasing a new book. I'm waiting to hear back from the publisher and I thought I would actually submit something to my Author's blog.

And I want to send a congratulations to my friend Jane. She has known for a while she's expecting. She and her husband, Tarzan, have waited 13 1/2 years for this to happen. I wish them the best of luck.

As for my adventures when I'm not doing work, primarily between the hours of 12 pm to around 6pm to help conserve electricity, I'll be gaming via hand held devices and writing by long hand or through my ipad (which will hopefully not kick off while I'm using it.)

So much to do, so little time. And I want to release at least 3 things this summer. Some people have babies, I have books.

When Is It Time to Fall Short

I look at the work that consumes my life and I know that every day and every minute I don't work: I'm already behind.

I finally got a chance to review my first book I released this year and I look and I found an error, I won't say where because at this point, my few fans that know the difference haven't actually said anything. But that is the trouble that leaves me feeling like I know all the reasons why I won't "make it to the next level".

I struggle with the needs of the work that I undertake. I hope this is only temporary. NaNoWriMo is just around the corner.

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.

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...

And It's Out of My Hands

I just want to thank you all for your support the past few months as I've prepared my newest book, Sheltered Hearts. It is the first book I've independently published in over 4 years. Sheltered Hearts has just made it to the final check with the publishers, pending a 24 hour review before final publication to go live on Amazon and Amazon Europe.

Sheltered Hearts surrounds Blair Jacobson as she tries to manage the aftermath of her father's recent death. She knows how isolated she is in her life that has been consumed by work, like her father. It is her little inlets to reaching out that helps her and her brothers and sister find that the house they grew up in was more than just a building conceived and built by their father, but the safe harbor they never thought they would ever have.

Still available on Amazon.com: ParaEducate (with Megan Gross, Jennifer Kurth, Ph.D, and Lisa Yamasaki), Putting It On the Line, and Small Voices.

In the next few months I'm preparing ParaEducate's first adapted curriculum book, Geography, and potentially a release of the US History book.

I'm really excited and cannot wait to see what I will get my hands on just around the corner.