I will be at the Carlsbad Library (Cole Branch) on Tuesday, November 15, at 3:30 to celebrate Children's Picture Book Month. I'll have some of my dragon friends with me (You can expect Baby Dragon and Tri for certain, and I heard somewhere that Baby Dragon just might bring his dragon puppet, too--Babier Dragon!)  

But don't expect me to be reading any books about dragons. I mean, dragons can breathe fire and stuff like that. They can be dangerous!!

Actual picture of my brain this week.

Which is why I am  going to drop this quote here for you, in case you need it. 

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It's been a crazy few weeks, so I'll recap a bit.

My new book baby has been in the world for about a month now. I absolutely love reading it to kids. Such fun!

On September 28 Barnes and Noble held a book event for me. It was awesome. Lots of kids and families came to celebrate dragons and books. I gave away some of these little guys:

And signed lots of copies of TBINAD.

Oh, some kids at my school asked me what it was like to write a book "without dragons"  so I decided to show them my process. I made a little film.....

Yes. I know. Too ridiculous. My pack of hounds were the total stars! Henry played the part of the green dragon. He did NOT love wearing the costume. (Watch him extract himself. Quite classy.) Jimmy played the part of the red dragon. Jimmy LOVED the costume. He didn't want to take it off. Daisy s not featured (except for her tail) because she was NOT HAVING IT. She did not want the costume on for even a second. (And Daisy is a Belgian Malinois so if she doesn't want to do something, you cannot make her. Period.)

Anyway, Dragon Fest continues!  More soon!!

hrh

PS.  I will be celebrating dragons again at the Cole Library in Carlsbad on Tuesday, November 15 at 3:30 pm in honor of Children's Picture Book Month. Hope to see you there!

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You didn't think I was done, did you?

Nope. There are always more dragons!  (Even when there aren't any in a specific book, if you get my meaning.)>

No dragons in this, you know.

Today, we are going to look at a couple of my favorite middle grade dragons:

A new favorite!!

I adore this book, THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON by Kelly Barnhill. There is a Perfectly Tiny Dragon named Fyrian who stole my heart. Highly recommend--just an incredibly readable book.! It does not lend itself well to being put down for a moment, though. It really likes it best when you just keep reading it for HOURS and HOURS. The language is lush and gorgeous. (Yes, it made me feel like a hack when I read it, but I couldn't even be angry at it because DRAGON!)

I heart you, Grace Lin

Dragon in WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON is one of my favorite middle grade characters of all time. (He is up there with Ivan, in case you were wondering!) He's kind and brave...just the kind of dragon I'd like to meet someday.

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Oh, it's not over yet! DragonFest Part 3!!!!

Today is a very special day because THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT DRAGONS is finally out in the world.

Here is a picture of some dragons that are not in the book:

yeah, I know, they are upside down and backwards. I meant to do that.

Nope. Not in the book at all. And if they were in the book, they would be going the right way--and they most certainly wouldn't be upside down!

Happy Birthday!!

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Okay, folks, so we are about a week away from THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT DRAGONS entering the world. Yay!!!  (Here is what it looks like in case you forgot):

Pretty little thing!

 I thought I'd spend a little time celebrating literary dragons with a little thing I like to call DRAGONFEST 2016. Basically I'll be highlighting some of my favorite dragons in books. Sounds like fun, yes?

 Let's start out with a new kid on the block, (and a very terrible dragon, I might add,) the feisty dragon in DRAGON WAS TERRIBLE  by Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by Greg Pizzoli.  This is such an incredibly fun read aloud. Actually, I dare you to read it aloud to some kids and not totally crack up yourself. Go ahead. Try it now.  I'll wait.

It's the toilet paper part that gets me every time!

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Fred

More soon!

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Coming September, 2016

I cannot wait for you to read this book! (Illustrations by Fred Koehler)

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 I've had some super cool experiences this Spring:

I spoke at the Commerce Loves Reading Day in Commerce CA. What an amazing library!!

I gave one of the keyontes (Aaron Hartzler gave the other) at the YSIG Institute for librarians in Ontario. Thanks for asking me, Courtney!

And I got to see the first hardcover copy of my new book, THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT DRAGONS!

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Reading:  I've been reading a lot lately since my self-imposed rule that I must read for one half hour first thing every day when I come home from work. I finished reading both Pax by Sara Pennypacker and Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson.   

They were both very different from what I expected. (I don't really know what I expected, but I did love both so very much!)  I think it was that they both surprised me.  I love it when a story does that!

Writing:  I've been writing some animal stories.  I am not sure why I am drawn to this right now, but I am. One story contains a rabbit who is really a girl who lives on a sinking island. Another is about a scrawny one-eyed cat who walks the secret road between the living and the dead. There's graveyards in it, and 1915 London.

And I am still struggling with a picture book about a hippo astronaut.

Eating:  These are so delicious!!:


They are my new favorite snack.

So, that's what is going on around here. Some reading. Some writing. Some eating.

xo--

hrh

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Okay, I know it's February.

Yeah, and I know it's the END of February.

So it seems a little late to be writing about resolutions. And I wasn't going to. Really I wasn't. But then I thought about how much I really like my resolution for this year (notice, resolutioN, no "s") and thought that maybe other people might like it a little bit, too.

So here goes.

For 2016, I resolved to be less wasteful.

That's it.

But it covers a bunch of stuff!!

 I am trying to be less wasteful of food. And money. And especially time.

Time.

That's a biggie. And guess how I am doing it?  By taking on something else, of course!

No, that's not possible. You can't take something else on and then end up saving time!  Impossible!!

But it is possible.

What I have done is promised myself to read everyday--and not right before bedtime. The fact is that I am already so tired by the time that I pull up the covers that I last maybe 2 minutes reading. That's it!!!  Then the book hits me in the face and I am like, "what?"

So now, everyday when I come home from work, BEFORE I open the laptop, I make myself a cuppa tea and I read a book for 1/2 hour.

I cannot tell you how much more wonderful my life is. It was such an easy, simple change. But filling my life with stories is every evening is so much better than letting them hit me in the head at 11 pm.

How does this prevent waste, you might be asking yourself.  Well, I consider it a better use of my time. Thus, better use of time is always less wasteful, true?

So join me!  Put on the kettle and pull up a chair. Pull out a book and let the magic begin.

hrh

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I just realized the other day that my first book, PUTTING THE WORLD TO SLEEP, came out in November of 1995. Wow. 20 years ago.

Feeling a little old here.

But with age comes wisdom, right? So I decided to reflect on what I have learned about being a writer and being an author (because they are not always one in the same).

1. Writing life ebbs and flows. There are times when I am on fire with new ideas--I can't write them down fast enough. And then there are times when I slog through a piece of writing, questioning where it is going, wondering if it is even worth it because it is so sloggy.

And then there are times when it is hard to even write at all. :(. I hate when that happens, but the truth is that is does indeed happen. I have learned to trust the process. I have made my peace with the cyclic nature of my muse. Hopefully, when she decides to appear, she will find me sitting at the desk, ready.

2. Author life ebbs and flows, but not in the same way.
This is even harder to accept. But just like your mom always said, you can't be the best at everything all the time. (Okay, maybe your mom didn't say that to you, but it is a pretty good lesson.) There are times as an author when I am a hot commodity. There are times when I cannot visit all of the schools that ask because I am too busy visiting other places. There are times when my twitter pings with congratulations, private messages, and all sorts of authorly banter. There are times when I am in talks with my agent and various editors constantly about author stuff. There are days when the mail brings something wonderful and cool almost every day.

And then there are times when it is quiet. So very quiet. So quiet it is hard not to feel like chopped liver. However, it is difficult for me to create when there is too much bustling about, thus the quiet times, when not a lot is going on for me as an author, are the very best times for me as a writer. Those are the times when I feel like I have nothing to lose--because there is nothing really "happening". And when I can let myself write with that sort of freedom, I am always more pleased with what I produce.

3. There are books that I tried to get published but did not--and I am glad they did not get published.
I don't quite know what else to say about this except that some books stand the test of time, and some do not. There are a couple of manuscripts I have written that, well, upon reading later about the best thing I can say is "meh". I don't want to publish books that make me go "meh." This forces me to make my peace with the fact that not everything I write, not everything I spend a lot of time on, is "good." (However, each piece makes me grow somehow, so there is that.)

4. There are books that I have written that I adore and did not get published.
Who knows? Maybe they will someday. I still love them every time I read them and can't seem to let them go.  Ahead of their time, maybe.  But again, the reality hits that not everybody sees things the same way I do, which brings me to----

5. Not everyone sees things the same way I do.
There are books out there that everyone loves and I just kind of like. And there are books out there that everyone loves and I really do not care for at all. And there are books out there that no one else seems to notice that have changed my life tremendously.

6. Writing does not seem to get easier.
Each book makes me feel like I am starting over again--because I am. Perhaps that is what I love about writing so much--the fresh start with each blank page. The hope that come from the seed of a story as it plants itself in your heart and you don't even know quite what it is yet, but you can feel it start to unfold and take root in your soul. However, just like in real life, a person doesn't really get to go back to high school with the knowledge of a 40 year old and the body of a 17 year old. Every time I face the blank page, it is new. And new is not the same thing as easy.

I'll probably reflect more on this eventually...it's quite something to have survived this industry for 20 years and still be standing.

xo--

hrh

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When I was little, one of the thrills of Christmas was decorating the tree. What I loved absolutely best of all was unwrapping each of the decorations, cradling them in my hands, and recalling (or inventing) a story about them. There were the tiny-china-angel-bell and the tiny-china-snowman-with-the-top-hat bell who were best friends. Of course, there were the trinity of fairy angels with their gossamer skirts and netted wings who resided in heaven, which could only be reached by climbing to the very top of the Christmas tree.

And then there was Sleepy Elf.

My sister and I loved Sleepy Elf. LOVED HIM. My little brother probably would have too, if we ever let him hold him. But we were too busy fighting over Sleepy Elf ourselves to ever let him out of our own hands.

 So yes, he became a little bit worse for wear over the years

And his head began to flop over to the side in a not-very-alive sort of way.

When I moved out, I'd always look forward to finding where my mom had chosen to place Sleepy Elf. Personally, I always liked him under the tree, but he found his way into baskets and onto mantles from time to time. When I brought my children to Nana's for the holidays, the first thing they did was search for Sleepy Elf.

And then I moved with my little family to California. The only time we saw Sleepy Elf now was occasionally in the background of Christmas pictures from home.

This year at Thanksgiving, my family traveled back to New Mexico to visit my folks. My mom had decided to pass on many of her Christmas things to her children and grandchildren, so she set up a room displaying all of the ornaments that were looking for new homes. Tiny-china-angel-bell and tiny-china-snowman both found a new home with my daughter Cali.

Sleepy Elf lay there on the table, My daughters nearly squealed (and they are mostly grown up) "Mom! You have to get Sleepy Elf ."

But I had already decided that my gift to my sister would be to let her have him. Maybe I would devise some sort of game and let her win him. Or maybe I'd just claim to be the bigger person (which I was being--haha) and let her have him. We had both loved him so much as children, but I would be willing to be satisfied with my memories.

She was touched. She cradled Sleepy Elf in her hands the way she cradles so many new lives when she brings them into the world as a midwife. Yes, Sleepy Elf was going to a good place.

Imagine my surprise when I opened my Christmas package from my sister and there, wrapped in a Christmas napkin, was Sleepy Elf. No note--because there was nothing to say. I had given him to her, and she now gave him back to me.

That's how it is with love.

You give.

You receive.

hrh

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On twitter, I have been obsessed with the hashtag ncte15, which refers to the National Council of Teachers of English annual conference.

Truth #1--I have never attended this conference.  I long to, but November is a difficult time of the year to be gone from my classroom, especially this year. Our staff is taking an International Baccalaureate class and already having to miss 8 teaching days this year. That is kind of a lot. It is hard to justify missing even more days.

But anyway, I follow along on "the" twitter (ask my kids call it), looking for those gems about teaching reading and writing to young children, hoping someone out there will say something I truly believe in so I can give a virtual fistbump of solidarity through my computer screen. Hoping someone will say the things that sometimes I am afraid to say.

Because sometimes I am afraid to say things that I really think. Like this:

Truth #2--Even though I write a lot, even though I have published books, I am not an expert on the teaching of writing. I have no magic gadgetries, no perfect 5 step lesson plan, no cute template that makes children produce amazing, thoughtful responses on a writing prompt every time they attempt it. The more I am in the classroom every day with my students, the more simple everything becomes. If you want children to write, you must allow them to do it. You must encourage it. You absolutely MUST give them time. Time to succeed. Time to fail. Time to reflect. Time to actually LEARN.

Truth #3--And you must try not to do things in your teaching that have the exact opposite effect you are going for. When you make a child feel like less of a writer, guess what?  She becomes less of a writer.

It is so affirming to read snippets of presentations on the twitter that mirror these thoughts. My teaching heart is bursting.


So anyway, a big shout out to all of the NCTE folks who are both living the dream and keeping it real. Perhaps someday, I'll manage to attend a conference and hear Donalyn Miller and Lucy Calkins in person. But for now, know that if you are sharing your special moments via twitter, via #ncte15, your reach is very far. You are having an impact on my teaching.

By sharing your thoughts and reflections, you are making a difference in the life of this teacher.

xo-

hrh

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This school year is no harder than any other school year. Really. My class is delightful--on Friday we had a writing session together that just blew me away. So many little pencils furiously scratching the page. I was inspired and humbled by their writing pursuits. And their talent.

No, the climate in the classroom is not the reason for the tremendous fatigue I feel. Nor is there anything I can point to easily. I think it's simply the usual.

Balance.

Or lack thereof.

I feel like a mouse on a see-saw, running up to the writing end of my life, then back to the teaching end. Back and forth. Up and down. High and low. (Except that this see-saw has more than two ends. There's home/family life in there somewhere, too.)

I recently gave a talk to interested folks about writing for children and the question invariably came up: "How do you do it all? How do you write and teach?  Where do you find the time?" I joked that I steal time, because that's what you have to do. Steal it. (Nobody is going to give it to you willingly.) Then I talked for a bit about how I manage to balance it all.

I kind of exaggerated about the balancing, because the truth of it is that I'm not doing it as well as I'd like.

*cues mouse to begin running back and forth again*

And now, somehow, I find myself on the cusp of Thanksgiving. THANKSGIVING.

How did that happen? Where did the time go?  (This is my constant whine.) Have I been so busy being the mouse running around like crazy that I missed the entire Fall ???

I don't know.  Really I don't even know.

 My gut says that I need to just embrace the mouse--that the mouse's struggle for balance is really just part of the human condition. Is my purpose really simply to balance the see-saw?  Or is it to make my peace with the ups-and-down-of-it-all?

The reflection continues.

hrh

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I really don't know how it became October.

It was August---and now October. September was a lovely blur.

I always forget how all-consuming the beginning of the year is. I should know by now. I have taught for many years. And yet, the tidal wave of September always, every single time, crashes down upon me until I find myself eventually in October, treading water, finally able to breathe again (thank goodness).

The thing about teaching is that you really have to know your students, and making that kind of a connection takes time. So you have to give it time.

And then there is the fact that I am in a new classroom this year, so I have to re-learn everything spatially. The room is a different shape and it is messing with my ability to decide where I want to put everything. (Or to remember what I decided...)
But I am getting the hang of that, too.

The year has begun and all of the players are in their place. I'll blink and it will be parent-teacher conference week, then Thanksgiving.  Time is moving quickly.

And still, I am striving to write during all of this. Worse yet, I am revising.

I am a goal setter by nature, so here are the Autumn 2015 goals:

1. Finish WIP (It involves a rabbit, destiny, a sinking island...and lots of weird stuff.) I am so close to the end, yet so far. Maybe this weekend I will be successful.

2. Revise space-animal picture book. It needs more of an ending...but I really like it. Actually, you can put just about anything in an astronaut uniform and I'll think it is adorable.

3. Revise Chapterbook featuring robots. I am really struggling with the kind of story this will be. A chapter book/novel from 5,000 to 20,000 words. Yes, that's quite a gap. It's either Princess in Black length, or Sarah Plain and Tall length. BIG discrepancy.  And I need to figure this out, because I love this book so much.

4. Revise middle grade sci-fi novel (AGAIN). I am currently awaiting some notes of a project that I love. I am looking forward to this revision, however, I am fearful as well. I really want to hit the mark with this book. It is not autobiographical or anything, but it carries within its pages the insides of my heart.

AND, I'd like to do something completely unexpected in writing....eager for a new idea to thwack me upside the head.

So that's where I'm at.

hrh

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I know, I know. It took long enough.

But you see, having a launch party in the summer just doesn't make sense for me--I need to celebrate with my "people".  (And most of my people are still in elementary/middle school, so it just makes sense to do it when school is back in session.)

Here are the details:

Wednesday, September 23rd, 6:00 p.m.
Barnes and Noble, 
Oceanside, CA

I'll have some of my puppet friends, of course, including Opie, the seal. (He has generously agreed to play the part of a selkie for the evening, so anyone who wants a "Selfie with a Selkie"* have only to ask him.)

I am going to raffle off chances to adopt these lovely little seal plushies:

They are named after the baby seals in the book!!

My dear friend Mr. Schu premiered the trailer for Secrets of Selkie Bay on his blog here.

Yes, it is a busy week here.

I'd love to see you at Barnes and Noble on Wednesday if you can make it:)

xo--

hrh

*Brainchild of the amazing Nikki Loftin who blurbed the book:)

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I have a long standing philosophical debate with Yoda and his famous line, "Do or do not, there is no try."

Most of the time, I think, Yoda, dude, you are so wrong. There IS a try. Try exists.

But then I think sometimes that maybe he is right. Perhaps, if we work hard enough, we can will things into being, or into becoming the way we want them. We either succeed, or we do not.

I found a great quote by Margaret Mead this week, "I learned the value of hard work by working hard."

As teachers, we always work so hard at the beginning of the year to get things off to the right start, to make sure everything is in place for the year to come--and this is even before we meet our students. There is just so much behind the scenes stuff.

 Then we meet the students.

And this is where the magic happens. This is where there is no try. You, as teachers and students, either come together to create an awesome year...or you do not. Except the "do not" is not really acceptable for me. For anyone.

So, here are some of the things that WILL happen this year in room 303:

1. My students will feel valued and cared about by their teacher.

2.Together, we will appreciate literature and literacy.

3. We will ask good questions and seek answers.

4. We will learn to love writing and help each other grow as writers.

5. We will OWN math and make it part of our lives.

6.  We will strive to learn even when we leave the classroom.

7.  We will make the school a better place because of our very presence.

For me, these are non-negotiables. There is no try--these things must happen or my very purpose is in question.

This week, I asked my students what they were curious about. One student replied, "The point of life."

Wow.

Eight years old and he already is asking one of the big ones.

This year I decided to give myself a one word teaching goal--Mindfulness. I must always keep in my mind what I am doing and why I am doing it. If what I am doing is not addressing one of my non-negotiables, then I have to ask myself some pretty tough questions. I am not a puppet of curriculum creators. My job is not to open a box (or a binder) and simply spew out lessons, fling them against the wall and hope some of the stick (like spaghetti). My job it not to scour internet sites searching for the cutest math worksheet.

My job is to be mindful. My job is to know my students. My job is to create a place where they can learn and thrive. My job is to be mindful, to use my knowledge and expertise to create the best possible learning situation. School is not only about meeting standards. It is about enriching the lives of humans, and in doing so, creating a better world.

There is no try.

hrh

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Summer is winding down here.

Usually I don't like August. There is just something about it. (And I'm not a fan of February, either.) But this year, I didn't seem to mind August so much.

August is a time of endings and beginnings. Transitions. And the creature of habit that I am does not like transitions. The creature prefers schedules.

But transitions are important. They are how we move from one thing to the next. Always during transitions I have to make time to reflect or I will lose my mind. I need to see what I'm leaving. I need to envision where I am going. As a teacher, August is the perfect time for this.

So, in my writing life, this past year has been busy.

NO, NO, KITTEN came out in March. Such a fun and silly book, and the first one I ever dedicated to someone other than my family. (This one went to the kids of Jefferson Elementary, my school). Working with the folks at Boyds Mills was awesome. And you should see what is coming from them (and me) in 2016!  It's about dragons, except that there are none in the book. None at all. That's why the book is called THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT DRAGONS. I've seen a little art for it and guys, it is so funny.

I wrote another picture book (or two) but I will have to tell you about those later.  Spring was a very picturebook write-y time for me.

SECRETS OF SELKIE BAY came out in July. I haven't ever had two books come out in a single year before. It makes things a little crazy. It's kind of like having twins or two very young toddlers while you are carrying a third child, (or in this case, book). They both needed lots of my attention. (But I kind of pretended that SECRETS OF SELKIE BAY didn't come out yet, at least to myself. I am planning a launch in September (more info soon) and will be releasing the trailer soon, so.....I know. Weird.)

But during all of this, I was busy writing. I finished a very difficult revision on a sci-fi book I've been working on for a bit. I really love it, but it needed a lot of patching together. As a matter of fact, I saved it in a file I called FRANKENSTEIN because I felt like I was always stitching it back together, trying to jolt it into life. I've got a little more I still want to do to it, but it is coming along.

I revised a chapter book that I love. Chapter books are a hard sell, but that didn't stop me from writing it and loving it, so that's all I can say about that. We shall see about the rest.

And because I am a crazy writer, and it was summer, I started a new project. I had been toying with an idea that had a little of this:




and maybe something like this:





And, I dunno, lots of other things. And I told myself I could make anything happen in the story that I wanted to. Anything at all. I could put in everything I've always wanted to in a story (which I have---sort of) and I could also put in things that I absolutely hate (which I have--definitely). And I told myself the only rule was that I had to write 1k words a day.

Which I have.

I have no idea what the final shape of this story will be. It is...strange. It is already 32k, which is not too bad. I would like to finish it before August 31, but it might need a few more words after that.

When I finish, I will set it aside for a bit and tweak the sci-fi a little more.

Hmmm. This is a weird reflection. I thought I'd be focusing more on endings and beginnings, but everything seems to be running together in a much more fluid manner. I finish one thing, only to go back to another. Very circular. Much like the hare coin above.

But I do have a few Fall goals:

Finish sci-fi re-revision.

Revise fun proposal involving picture book(s)

Write 3 picture books

And of course finish (and revise) weirdo novel that does not even have a name (or genre!!) yet. Well, actually it does have a genre, but if I say too much, it will disappear into the mist.

It might seem like a lot, but I am looking forward to it!!

xo,

hrh

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Here are what some bloggers are saying about SECRETS OF SELKIE BAY--That awesome new book I just wrote--

It looks like this when it is relaxing on the beach, in case you were wondering:

This picture was taken for the trailer, which I am getting some feedback on but should be out soon!

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Hi guys!

Sorry again for missing last week!  I was teaching kids In Real Life, so....


Anyway, today's Story School prompt is PICNIC.  I was inspired to choose this by a questionnaire I am currently filling out which asked me what famous people I would invite to a dinner party. Immediately, I changed the setting (writers can do that, you know) to a picnic because I always have a hard time when it comes to serving the food at the same time--I must work on my timing--because something is always too hot or too cold. (Hmm..maybe I should ask Goldilocks to my dinner party. She'd have a problem with the food anyway so it would be no big surprise.)

Anyway, in my mind, I changed the question from dinner party to picnic, because who doesn't love a picnic?

I think I should invite these guys to eat at my picnic, except that they are already stuffed!  Get it?

Then I started thinking about all of the cool kinds of picnics a person could have, and all of the great food....yum.   You could have a traditional picnic with a basket and a checkerboard blanket:

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Last week I taught a writing workshop for kids. It was pretty remarkable and pretty intense. I mean, I even forgot to post Story School on Wednesday. (Thank you Kevin and Alexa for reminding me!)

Anyway, whenever I am teaching writing, I always end up re-learning some very important truths:


Just like the wand chooses the wizard in Harry Potter, sometimes the story chooses us.

Inspiration can be found in the strangest of places.

Expect the unexpected.

Being part of a writing community is better than not being part of a writing community.

Other people have amazing ideas.

Kids are the best.

Go deep.

Writing is for everyone.

Stories bring us together.

Have a great week!

hrh

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Story School is back!  Sorry I am a little late in posting today. Had to make an IKEA run this morning--and there is not such thing as a fast IKEA run.

In case you are new here and are wondering what Story School is--let me tell you.  Every Wednesday this summer, I'll post a story starter of sorts.  It might be an idea or a prompt.  It might be just a single word.  Who knows!  Story School started as a way for me to continue to connect with the students from my school (about writing) over the summer. But really, Story School is for everyone, young or old.  Writing exercises often get my writing juices flowing so I thought it would be good to share some of the stuff that works for me!

This week's prompt is: PLUTO!!

Isn't he adorable?

I am just so excited about New Horizon's flyby. I mean--there it is!!  This is what it looked like before New Horizon when the best pic we had was from the Hubble:

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SELKIE WEEK!!

So it's been a busy week for SECRETS OF SELKIE BAY. A couple of Comic Con sessions:

So, R2, what did you think?

And Spidey!!  You read it, too!

I know this past week has been all about Selkies, BUT No, No, Kitten!  had a cool moment this week, too. Here she is at a birthday party with her new friend, Skyy:

Happy Birthday, Skyy!  So glad I could be a part of your big day!

I'm off to go make some swag for the Secrets of Selkie Bay launch.  More details at it approaches!

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SELKIE WEEK!!

It is Saturday!
Today I will answer the question, "Why Selkies?"
Well....

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