the final edits

Authors have written extensively on how to start a novel, how to structure a storyline, shape believable characters, and build gut-gripping suspense, but none tell you how much single-mindedness, and patience and cooperation with a good team one needs to get a book to print. You can be sure, I will have quite the tell-all blog post this summer, when everything is said and done, and my forthcoming novel, Crazy String, is finally in your hands.

Crazy String written in the sand

Until then, please send lots of rainbows emojis and kitten pics and a well of unlimited fortitude to buoy me through the final editing process. The best reward, I remind myself, is that readers such as yourself enjoy the novel. To that hopeful end, I must get back to it!

with hope, again

For a multitude of reasons, this post from 2012 has been on my mind all week. Perhaps it is because I am once again reading and scoring AP essays (from home this year), or maybe because I love reminiscing about the beautiful city of Louisville, but I think it has more do with the need for civility in our discourse. Regardless of what ‘they’ are doing, I tell myself, we must continue to face the day with empathy, find our joy in creative outlets, and grant kindness where it is needed most. We must remain the country that our forefathers lived and fought and strived to be, but even more so, because we must now expand their vision to include all people. Read on my dear ones. Perhaps my words will encourage you, as you wake to yet another new day, to do so with more than hope that integrity will be restored before long.