This and That
I am still working diligently on the revisions for The Order of Death and Other Secret Societies. At first I was overwhelmed by the prospect, because it seemed like the publisher and editor wanted the impossible -- namely the secret societies' secrets. But with some rethinking, researching, and rewriting, I think I'm getting closer to the goal. No, I don't know all the secrets, but I'm presenting what I've been able to discover in a more intriguing way. And since the publisher has extended the deadline, I'm feeling a lot less pressure.
On other fronts, things have been smoother sailing. I received the editorial feedback for The Last Superhero yesterday, and the changes were pretty minimal -- mostly just some punctuation fixes, which I whipped through in about ten minutes. Thank goodness! I don't think I could handle two major sets of revisions at the same time.
Just before Christmas I got an unepected cheque from one of my publishers for The Gramma War, a juvenile novel that was published in 2001. Apparently the Maryland Department of Education wants to use an excerpt from it in their reading assessment tests. Neato.
Another first for me will be happening sometime in February. A teacher in Edina, Minnesota has invited me to Skype with special ed students at her school. This will be as close as I come to being a television celebrity. I'm looking forward to it. It should be fun.
Finally, I just found out a few minutes ago that Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers was named to Resource Links Magazine's Best Books List for 2009.
All in all, things are going pretty well.