04 Nov A NOD TO NOVEMBER

October proved more writing-filled than I ever thought it would.

I completed JUMPING OFF THE LIBRARY SHELVES and sent it in to my incredible editor, Rebecca M.Davis at WORDSONG.

After months of working on my first adult novel, with the encouragement of my agent, Elizabeth Harding at Curtis Brown, Ltd., I finished the manuscript and sent that off, too.  I am now finishing a draft of my second adult work.

The good news I referred to in last month’s post has come to fruition…a new anthology to be published with Eerdmann’s, MANGER.  With MARY’S SONG, a picture book based on the Virgin Mary, illustrated by the incredible Stephen Alcorn, scheduled to be released next year, I am delighted to work on MANGER a totally different type of anthology.

Other projects are being discussed, honed, etc., with several houses.  It’s been a good year!

I am also honored to receive two recoginitions this past month:  l.  The New Jersey Education Association’s Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership will be presented November ll, at a luncheon in Atlantic City, NJ.  Due to previous committments I can’t attend the conference.  New Jersey, is where I grew up, went to all Newark elementary, junior, high schools, and graduated from Kean University,formerly Newark State Teachers College. 2)   Edison State College, in Fort Myers, Florida, placed a plaque at the entrance to the Curriculum Library at their new School of Education building citing my contributions over the years to establish a Reading Center for students.

It is always exciting when a book goes into another printing.  HAND IN HAND: AN AMERICAN HISTORY THROUGH POETRY, is a collection I compiled in 1994 for Simon & Schuster.  HAND IN HAND just had its NINTH printing.  The book, containing l44 pages, illustrated in full-color by Peter Fiore, would not be possible to produce in today’s market

November l2, I will share poems from HEAR MY PRAYER at the local Trinity Lutheran Church luncheon to promote Literacy Buddies, a project to put books into the hands and homes of pre-K children who might not have access to books otherwise.

One week into November and the Christmas season begins slowly but with force.  What an exciting time of year…moments to treasure.  Although the calendar-moments for December are filing in faster than I can keep up with.