It’s been a year since I posted here. In many ways, it’s been a year since I felt like an author.I feel disconnected from this writing world, this writing part of myself, and I’m so sorry to those who have written me e-mails or asked me questions and been met with silence. I promise I’ll do better. It’s just been a hard year.

A good year, too.

My son turned seven. His world revolves around Legos and racing and, recently, Captain Underpants. This year, because of him, I learned more than I have ever known about black holes and the life and death of stars. We drew supernovas and black dwarfs with sidewalk chalk in the back yard, and jumped from one to the next in a game of cosmic hopscotch. My daughter is almost two. Her world revolves around the awesome power of language. She has been babbling with great ferocity since she was ten weeks old, and now that she finally has enough words to make herself clear, she has taken her rightful place as queen and commander. “Sit DOWN, Mama. Play.” “No, no, no, don’t eat. That’s MINES. Don’t eat it in the face.”

Over the summer, I revised the third book in the Tyme series. I don’t have anything else to say about that yet, but I hope that I will know more soon.

I am still teaching full time. It is hard. I love teaching middle school, and I wish very much that that were my job. Too often, however, my job is to prove that I can do my job, a process that grows more tedious with each passing year. There is a lot of hoop jumping. And like any good circus, of course, the hoops are aflame.

But yes. I will do better. And I really do hope to have something more to say about the Tyme series in short order. I will say that it has not gotten any less weird to see my students reading something I have written. I never assign my books to my students, of course, but sometimes they check them out from the library and read them during independent reading time, and I sit there feeling like I really ought to leave the room and give them privacy, because authors shouldn’t be allowed to sneak up behind their readers whenever they laugh, to see what page they’re on.

But I do. Wouldn’t you?

See you soon. Much sooner than last time. Pinky swear.

This blog is four years old! The actual blogiversary (sure, it’s a word) was three days ago, but I haven’t been blogging often enough lately to remember. My daughter’s birth radically changed the game. I was always busy, but I could find pockets of time when I needed them. No more. Everything that is not absolutely essential has been sent to the back burner so that I can give enough attention to my family, my writing, and my students.

What’s crazy to me is that when I started this blog, my little boy was not yet two. Today, he started Kindergarten. It flew by, just like they all said it would.

And here we are. A new school year, a new book release in October. The third book in the series is under construction. The leaves are falling; the days are getting colder. My boy will turn six soon, my girl will turn one.

Happy September, all.

I have some really lovely things to share, but none of them are shareable yet, which is why I’ve been quiet lately.

In the meantime, it is summer. The teaching year is done, and soon a new one will begin. I’m playing with my kids and drafting my next manuscript.

More soon!