The turning of the old year into the new is always accompanied by a time of reflection. The past year, 2017, was a terrific year for me. In June, I completed my twentieth year of teaching with a great class, then got another great class come August. In July, I celebrated my 60th birthday by… Continue reading Happy New Year 2018
Year: 2017
Teaching in November
This is a picture I took after school yesterday of the hallway outside my classroom. A little more than an hour before this, the walls teemed with pharaoh portraits, 3D pyramids covered in Egyptian symbols, cartouches with the kids' names in hieroglyphics, an art prep project of watercolored bug jars, Mesopotamia posters, Model Novel paragraphs,… Continue reading Teaching in November
What would YOU like to read?
As you know, my latest novel, ALOHA SPIRIT, is finished and being queried to agents. Time to begin researching novel #6! For both UNDER THE ALMOND TREES and ALOHA SPIRIT, I used women in my family as inspiration. There are several other interesting stories in my family tree, and I want to see which one interests… Continue reading What would YOU like to read?
Almond Cake
I love to cook. When I wrote Under the Almond Trees, it was important to me that the family had a special almond recipe. I used almond cake throughout the novel even though I had never even tasted it! This summer I vowed to remedy this lack and bake an almond cake. I found several… Continue reading Almond Cake
Questioning
Today I did one of my favorite author things--I spoke to 240 kids at the Career Tech Summer Academy. I spoke for half an hour to students ranging from 4th to 6th graders, telling them about me, my books, and being an author. Then I answered questions. Any teacher knows that when you open up… Continue reading Questioning