August Round-Up

It’s time for a little August Round-Up of news.  A couple fun things for STAINED GLASS SUMMER

STAINED GLASS SUMMER is now available at the San Juan Islands libraries. This includes, San Juan, Orcas, and Lopez Islands. Orcas Island is the Island which inspired Jasmine’s Island, and I’m thrilled that the Island readers will be able to find the story at their library!
STAINED GLASS SUMMER is also available at the Navy General Library. Yes…that is the U.S. Navy’s library! Very fun!
September Book Signing: I’ll be at Uppercase Bookshop in Snohomish on Sunday afternoon, September 16 for a book signing of the limited edition, print copies of STAINED GLASS SUMMER. I am signing with my very good writing pal, Carole Dagg, author of THE YEAR WE WERE FAMOUS. The exact time is to be announced soon.

On a personal note, my Grandfather passed away this month. He was 94 years-old. My Grandfather was a huge supporter of my writing. When we cleaned out his apartment in the retirement community, I found multiple copies of SUMMER SHORTS (The anthology for my first published short story, “Hurricanes,”), multiple copies of THE FIRST YEAR IN THE CLASSROOM (another anthology with a personal essay I wrote about a challenging student my first year of teaching), and copies of the detention center poetry books I’d once given to him and my Grandmother.

But there was another gift waiting for me. About half-way into cleaning out things, my step-dad found my Grandfather’s camera. On the camera, were pictures taken from an author visit  at the middle school  where I attended in St. Louis. That day was the last time  I saw my Grandfather. My aunt drove him over to St Louis so he could see me present a poetry workshop to a group of eighth grade students at North Kirkwood Middle School. He loved to eat candy corn and had an entire bag sitting in his lap when they pulled into the parking lot.

Here are a few of those pictures of me presenting a workshop at the school in the classroom where I was once an eighth grader. This is the age group I write for and these pictures are priceless. In the hero’s journey, this would be the part where the heroine returns “home” with her gift to share with others.