My Summer

This has been an eventful summer filled with joyful moments.

The summer began with me deciding to give this blog a new design. Cathy at Wheelhouse Collective agreed to help me and she sent me weekly to-do lists to keep me focused so we could finish the website by the end of summer. I have a feeling she’s worked with authors before because just when I thought I had completed my list, a gentle reminder appeared in my Inbox. Thank you, Cathy and Wendy for this beautiful new website.

While I was working with Cathy I was also trying to find the right publisher for ELLE & BUDDY. Thanks to the help of an editor and an author/illustrator, I was introduced to Peter E. Randall Publisher. I’m happy to announce that Elle & Buddy will be part of their spring catalog with a release date of March 2, 2015. I get to see a proof in a week and after two years of collaboration with Muza, a very talented illustrator and all-around wonderful person, I’m going to be jumping with joy when I get to hold our book in my hands.

So, while I was working on my blog and finding a publisher for Elle & Buddy I was also writing a young adult (YA) romance. Last October, I attended a conference with Emma D. Dryden and Lorin Oberweger called YBB (Your Best Book). By the way, Lorin has a new book out titled Boomerang, you should check it out. Anyway, I thought I went to the conference to work on the sequel to Mystic. Then during a discussion with an editor it was suggested to me that I write a YA romance. That’s all it took because apparently I was itching to write a love story. I began that night. What fun! Yesterday, August 30th, I completed the first draft and celebrated at Ciao Wood Fired Pizza & Trattoria. Their chocolate cream pie is incredible! Now, I’m going try very hard to not even peek at my novel for at least four weeks. It’s a good thing I’ve agreed to fill in as a 6th grade Language Arts teacher for two months. Those 5 AM mornings will keep me sufficiently worn out and  when I sit down at the keyboard I’ll be studying 6th grade Language Arts Standards.

So, while I was working on my blog, finding a publisher for Elle & Buddy, writing a YA novel, and agreeing to teach for two months, I was also traveling with my daughter, Arielle. First we went to NYC, then Vermont. A week later I drove her back to the University of Illinois and moved her into her new apartment. She’s a junior this year and I’m still getting used to the good-byes. For all parents with college freshmen, I feel for you.

Oh yeah, I also fostered abandoned kittens and a shelter cat who, luckily for me, took the kittens as her own and fed them. We’re keeping Sydney because she raised kittens that weren’t hers, is a sweet cat, and I can’t bear for her to have to go back to a cage at the shelter. She’s staying. Because the kittens are adorable, and I already have several cats, the kittens will be up for adoption next week at Lee County Domestic Animal Services. We’ve named them, Yonce (after Beyonce), Luke (after the character in Modern Family), and Bear…well, because he looks like a teddy bear, is shy and needs to be cuddled.