Author Journey: June 11, 2021

 Guess what! I have some awesome news to share with you.

Summer Reading Program at the Library

I'm going to be reading to middle grade students at our local library this summer. I'm super excited and also crazily nervous.about it. I love reading to my own kids, even now they're almost all grown. Interestingly enough, they still enjoy listening to me read to them, too. I hope I can encourage these growing young people to embrace reading and see where the next book will take them.

So Whatcha Readin'?

We're going to be working our way through a series called The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. It was a library find for me when I was growing up. I was probably around their age when I discovered it, though possibly a little younger. My elementary school was a small country one that taught grades K-8, so it's difficult for me to remember when I discovered different books. But for some strange reason, I remember which books I found in our school library and which ones were located at our local town library. Isn't it funny how our minds work? 

Anyway, this series was so enjoyable, I ended up buying the series as separate books. Somewhere along the way, I either lost them, they got ruined, or I sold them in a garage sale, but I don't have my original copies. I did find an omnibus of all five books, though, through a mail-order-book-club back in the late nineties. I'm so happy I got that when I did. Now I can share a book I loved as a young student with other young students. 

What About Poor Outh'n Durr?

Outh'n's tale is still in progress as far as line editing. But at least I'm at that stage. It's the last one before I'll get to the point of publishing. I don't know that it'll be ready by the end of this month, but I do know, I'm giving it my best to get some editing done each day. I'm hoping to be able to work on some of that at the library today since I'll be there for several hours before I get to read to the young'ns. It's far too great an opportunity to work on my writing in a highly focused setting to pass up. 

Here's the bottom half of an aesthetic board I created for Outh'n and Eiva which goes more with the next novel in the Children of Y'Dahnndrya series, Surge. I think maybe it'll give you an idea of how Outh'n grows in the short story. And I hope the short story gives readers some insight into why he acts the way he does in Surge.

Yep. When I think of Outh'n's character, David Tennant's portrayal of Barty Crouch was a great match for Outh'n as a warrior. (I hope I'm spelling that correctly as I never read the HP books. I did enjoy the movies, though, and in every hat quiz I take, I'm a Hufflepuff. This is excellent since I'm a huge badger fan.)

I hope you enjoy the aesthetic. When it gets closer to publishing time for Surge, I'll share more aesthetic boards with you, as well as the other half of this one. I believe I've shared it before since I was very happy with the way this one turned out. But new readers will have to wait to see the whole thing or dredge through the archives to find the relevant post. I wouldn't recommend that last option since I'm not entirely certain I shared it...

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you have a safe, wonderful weekend. See you next time!