Reintroduction

Yes, the cat clinging to the window screen is a mea culpa for falling behind on the blog. It's been so long I feel the need to reintroduce myself.

Welcome to the Garden of Good Intentions.  

I live with a husband, a son, a daughter, a beagle brained German shepherd mutt, three cats, one lonely fish in a large tank, seven turtles and two preying mantis oothecas soon to hatch.

I used to work in the cataloging department of a university library, covet dishes and sell fun kitchen gadgets at a Mom and Pop William's and Sonoma type store and teach Composition and Humanities courses at the University of Central Florida.

Now, when I'm not herding cats and parenting two kids 8 and 10, I write for elementary aged kids.  

At the moment, I have three main works in progress.  

Titus and Annie is a chapter book about two precocious only children, 3rd grade and Kindergarden. They are a lot of fun and if you scroll through some of the older blog entries you can see pictures of the characters drawn by my talented sister Catherine Gurri.

I'm almost done with the latest revisions so look forward to muttered and veiled comments about being in the throes of the query process.

The Stolen Swarm is another chapter book featuring Leo and Arnold, 3rd and 4th grade detectives who run around solving mysteries in their vinyl village.

This project stalled out for a while until I heard some great advice at SCBWI Carolinas. If you're not sure about the point of view in a project, try switching it. I put the first two chapters into first person and the text started to sing. Awkward moments melted and the pace quickened. Can't wait to roll up my sleeves and finish the first draft.

My latest WIP is a picture book, The Papalote Magico, I am ghost writing for Rosalia Torres Weiner, a wonderful muralist and co founder of Project Art Aid. She has more irons in the fire than I do. The book is to be a companion to her Papalote Project workshops that bring art therapy and understanding to children who have suffered a loss due to deportation.  Learn more at http://www.papaloteproject.org/.

I finished the first draft of Papalote Magico yesterday. Tomorrow I meet with Rosalia to story board the illustrations and liposuction 1000 or so words out of the text.

Rosalia and I met at Mama's Coffee House. Eli said I needed to meet Rosalia because we should write a book together. Boy was she right. Always listen to Mama.

Queen City Soup voting tokens. 

Through Rosalia, I joined Project Art Aid, a non profit organization dedicated to community service through the arts. According to the PAA website, I am their Director of Communications and one of the organizers for PAA's microgrant program, Queen City Soup. However, I prefer "Word Nerd" or "Props Department."

This is me, at the moment. Who knows what 2013 will bring.

One of my New Years Resolutions is to formalize my blog a bit more. For now this means I'm going to sign off each time with a list of the books on my night stand. Feel free to chime in with what your reading.

From the Nightstand:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King

There's A Boy In The Girls Bathroom by Louis Sachar

Salamandastron by Brian Jacques

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Marty Maguire Digs Worms! by Kate Messner