Two major projects all but done, and now on to a third (after writing this blog post while watching Magnum P.I.), while a fourth stays on the horizon for the moment.

This morning I finished revising and editing the sample chapters for my newest proposal package. Overall, I feel pretty good about the work I’ve done. The book is clearly YA, a little older than my most recent children’s novel, which was itself a little older than Green Dragon Codex.  (I have a feeling that middle grade is a stretch for me, or at least for my much-cherished stylistic and content extremes.)  The one thing that does worry me a bit about the sample chapters is the length of the first chapter: 6,000 words.  (The next two chapters come in a touch lower combined.)  That’s a long chapter for a YA book, and an especially long first chapter.  My worries are alleviated somewhat by confidence that it’s a really good 6,000 word first chapter that happens in stages, and so should work out just fine—I think.  And to be honest, there’s just no way I see to cut it into sections or to cut it down more than I have.  I’d rather have it be longer than strategy dictates than kill the living story.  So, barring major issues raised by an alpha reader or two, the chapters are ready to stand out.

I’m even more relieved at finishing the second project: the first of my two presentations for the literacy conference in Idaho.  I’ll probably polish things a bit more, but the PowerPoint is done.  Now, any of you who know me—and some of you do—know that I don’t like PowerPoint.  No, that isn’t exactly correct.  I loath PowerPoint.  I often say I’ve never witnessed a PowerPoint presentation that didn’t malfunction in some way, ruining any sense of professionalism the program may have enabled.  Why am I doing this then?  Kicks, I guess.  It isn’t often that I address general educators (rather than teachers of writing specifically), which has left me feeling somewhat the prophet, responsible for crying narrative salvation in the educational wilderness (it’s startling how unimportant storytelling has become in many classrooms).  Because of this, I’ve done more research and work than was perhaps necessary for the occasion.  I doubt most attendees will expect the child’s author to run them over with educational theory complete with citation—but that’s what they’ll get, at least for much of the presentation.  Hey, I’m arguing for the killing off of the canon (or at least for its significant demotion).  I thought I’d better have a lot of smart people on my side to make that case. 

As of today, I feel I have that.  And I’m glad to be moving on to something else.

That something really isn’t much of a project, either.  I’m just refreshing myself on the workshop I’ll be presenting Saturday at The League of Utah Writers’ Roundup.  (2-4:00 pm I believe, for anyone who’s attending.)  I’ve done this workshop more often than any other, so it shouldn’t take more than an hour or so tonight to brighten up all the material.

As for next on the docket, that’ll be the second presentation I’m giving for the literacy conference in Idaho.  A lotta research; a lotta PP slides; a lotta hassle; a lotta theory behind a controversial claim (that writing fiction is a uniquely effective way to teach meta-cognition).  Uberfun. 

Hope to see some of you at Roundup.