I’ve finally put together a book trailer for Seven Riddles to Nowhere.
Feel free to let me know what you think and to share it with others you think might be interested!
We’ll have copies of both Seven Riddles to Nowhere and Angelhood for purchase.
Amazon and Barnes & Noble are both selling the paperback version at a 32% discount right now. I don’t know how long this sale price will last, but I recommend you grab it while you can!
Also don’t forget about the party we’re having on Facebook tonight! So many great giveaways!
It is now less than a month until the release of my middle grade mystery Seven Riddles to Nowhere!
Where has all the time gone?
Like I did with Angelhood, there will be a launch party on Facebook with lots of fun giveaways! You might win a copy of Seven Riddles to Nowhere, Angelhood, book marks, pens, or one of many other children’s books (from picture books up to young adult books) that my writing friends have generously donated.
So if you’re on Facebook, come join us here on Wednesday, August 31, from 7-9 p.m. Central Time.
I’m embarking on the longest summer I’ve ever known–and will probably ever know. Thanks to construction plans, we started school early this past year, which means we got out early. Furthermore, the construction will last long enough that we won’t be able to start school again until after Labor Day. I’ve never had a summer that has stretched from before Memorial Day to after Labor Day. Over 14 weeks of summer. I should be thrilled. I should be relieved. I should feel excited and exhilarated.
I’m terrified.
As the last few weeks of the school year were winding down, I found myself becoming increasingly anxious about the summer. When you find out you’re going to have a very extended time off of work, you start to think about all the things you can get done, and soon your to-do list is so long, you’re sure you’ll fail miserably. There’s no way you can possibly finish everything you plan to do.
So what does a teacher plan to do when she has “time off”?
Apparently, a lot of work! That’s what I plan to do!
Here’s what’s on the agenda for this summer . . .
I’m taking two. The first one started this past Monday. It’s a six-week, online course on educational research. The good news is that I don’t have to drive anywhere. The bad news is that it’s a semester-long class jammed into six weeks. There’s an assignment due pretty much every day.
The second class will be a two-week course on educational leadership in multicultural schools. This course will be in Rome. Yay!
Those of you who have been around for a while know that I’ve spent at least two weeks during each of the last two summers studying Italian in Italy. This year I’ll have only one week of study tacked on to the end of the doctorate class in Rome. Since I have just one week to study Italian, I’m taking their “Super Inatensive” class, which means having lessons in the morning and afternoon.
Inspired by retiring coworkers who had to clean out their classrooms as well as friends who are following a particular purging program, I’ve decided to do some major cleaning this summer. I have a very small home, which is both a good and a bad thing. It’s good because there isn’t a lot to clean. It’s bad because I have no room for all my stuff. Somehow I need to organize all my teaching stuff, my writing stuff, my church stuff, my doctorate program stuff, and just in general, clean house. My plan is to take one small section per day and really clean it out–just one drawer, or one shelf, or one cabinet. Hopefully, spending just a few minutes a day will keep me from burning out.
Obviously, this is a huge goal, and to make it worse, I haven’t decided yet what that novel is going to be. I have a couple vague ideas, so I’m going to spend time this week discerning between the two.
I have a chance to enter a middle grade mystery story in an anthology that’s being edited by a big name in kids’ literature. There’s no guarantee my story will get picked, but if I don’t at least write one and try to get in, I’ll never know if I could have written something good enough!
I need to read five books for my doctorate classes before July 1:
Oh goodness gracious! I have a new book coming out at the end of the summer!
That means I’ve got to get on promotion. Things to do include the following:
At this moment, I appear to have five for the summer: three are author visits at area schools, one is for the Catholic Writers’ Conference, and one is for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’s annual tech conference. (Did I mention I’m going to California this summer?
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As you can see, that’s a daunting list. My biggest fear is that I’ll succumb to the sin of sloth! You see, I love to sleep! There’s nothing better on a day off of work than getting to sleep in. The problem is that the more I sleep in, the later I stay up the next night. The later I stay up, the more I sleep in the next morning. The cycle repeats until suddenly I find myself wide awake at 2:00 A.M., and the next day I feel so sluggish that nothing gets done.
I can’t let that happen this summer. In order to tackle my to do list, I’m going to need to muster all the self-discipline I can. That’s why last night, I attended a talk by my author-friend Allie Pleiter. She’s written a whole book on how to get your writing done in chunks. (You can check out Allie’s book The Chunky Method on Amazon here.)
Her talk last night was very helpful. I’m feeling a little less panicked because I have some tools for facing my daunting to do list.
Now if I can just keep myself from hitting the snooze button in the morning, I’ll have a fantastic summer!
I’m so excited to share with you the cover for Seven Riddles to Nowhere!
What do you think? Tell me in the comments below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
All seventh grader Kameron Boyd wants to do is keep his little Catholic school from closing. It’s the only school where they’ve made life as a selective mute somewhat bearable. As the school faces financial distress, Kam learns he is one of many potential heirs to a fortune large enough to keep his school open.
With the school’s bully as one of the other potential heirs, Kam and his friends race to solve the riddles first. Their journey takes them through the churches of Chicago to decipher the hidden meanings in artwork all while avoiding the mysterious men following them. But creepy men in trench coats won’t stop them! They’re on a quest–not only to keep the school open, but to help Kam recover his voice.
Last weekend, I went out and did some photo shoots of some of the Chicagoland locations used in my upcoming middle grade mystery Seven Riddles to Nowhere.
In this video, I take you behind the scenes of the Chicago suburban location that started it all!
For more behind-the-scenes peaks, be sure to sign up for my monthly newsletter!
Hope you are enjoying a great Easter week! I successfully pulled off co-hosting Easter dinner with my dad. We had 19 people for dinner. For those of you keeping track, I’ve now hosted Thanksgiving dinner and Easter dinner in less than a year. Who knew I was such a domestic diva! 😉
I even made Mom’s famous lamb cake even though her cake mold didn’t come with any instructions! See my Facebook page for video.
In case you missed it, I was honored to write the Gospel reflection for Holy Thursday over at the CatholicMom.com website. Here’s what I wrote:
A number of years ago, I taught at a Catholic school where I also ran the student council. This school had a beautiful tradition for Holy Thursday. Every year, the student council members would “play the role” of the twelve disciples and have their feet washed. However, instead of the priest or deacon washing all twelve sets of feet, he would wash only the feet of the student council president. Then the president would turn and wash the feet of the vice-president, and so on down the line until each student council member had washed the feet of the next officer or homeroom representative.
Every year, I got the same reaction from the kids: “Huh? We have to do what? I don’t want anyone touching my feet!” I would smile at them and tell them they were doing this to show that they were not just student leaders, but actually student servants meant to be of service to their classmates. But the truth is, I’m not sure which freaked them out more: washing someone else’s feet or having someone else wash their feet.
Let’s be frank, it can be rather humbling to have someone touch your dirty, smelly, and/or funny-shaped feet. We’re an independent kind of society. If our feet need to be cleaned, we can do it ourselves, thank you very much. But that’s not what Jesus is calling us to do. He’s calling us to be humble servants and to let ourselves be washed clean by the good news He has to offer. We need him to wash our feet as much as the apostles did—and that takes some humility.
In January, I had the pleasure of speaking with the Chicago chapter of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) about how to use Pinterest as a marketing tool for authors.
If you missed it, you still have a chance to hear my talk–and you don’t even have to leave your home! I’ll be presenting on how to use Pinterest to sell your books at the Catholic Writers Online Conference March 4-6! You can sign up here!
This faith-focused authors conference offers presentations covering all aspects of writing from finding your calling as a writer to publishing and marketing your books. There will also be online pitch sessions with noted Catholic publishers and secular publishers.
On my talk on Pinterest, we’ll discuss how to optimize your personal profile, why you should convert to a business account, how to make your website Pinterest-friendly, how to use a free service like Picmonkey to create super shareable pins, how to grow your following, and why you should be joining and using group Pinterest boards.
The conference will be held using webinar software, making the experience more personal and immediate.
This year’s sessions include an emphasis on the faith aspects of writing no matter what the genre. Speakers like Gary Zimak, author of Faith, Hope and Clarity; Joe Wetterling, President of the Catholic Writer’s Guild, horror author Jonathan Ryan and others will speak on writing as a calling, a literary revolution, and an evangelization. In addition, there are practical workshops including legal issues, techniques for characterization and plotting, how to journal, and time management.
Pitch sessions give authors with finished books a chance to personally interest a publisher. Pitch sessions include well known Catholic publishers like Servant Books, smaller presses like Liberty Island, and ebook publishers like eTreasures.
This year’s conference is $40; $25 for members of the Catholic Writers’ Guild. To register or for more information, go to http://www.catholicwritersconference.com.
