Well? It's been interesting!

I can’t say I was super optimistic about my teaching life at the beginning of this school year. And? 🤷🏻‍♀️. It’s lived up to my middling expectations. There’s probably a lesson there…

To review, I knew I was a short-timer at my middle school across town for a number of reasons, including the fact that it was ALL the way across town. 🚙

I didn’t plan to move mid-year to a school closer to home, but that’s what I did. Mostly, it’s been great, but with one giant caveat. There’s a remedial 8th-grade class with…

I don’t even know how to describe the problems. Suffice it to say, the issues are systemic, beginning with the fact that the class exists in the first place. The kids assigned to the group have been underestimated, underserved, and held to terrifyingly low expectations. And that’s exactly how they behave. 😳😩

I was their teacher for 85 days and got paid 33 dollars an hour to do it. I only had to make one police report. 🫣

And, now I’m twelve school days to ☀️summer.☀️

I almost typed “summer vacation,” but that’s not what I’m doing this year. Instead, I’m starting a new business, trying to keep flowers alive in the front yard, and making progress on my new book. Here are a few things I haven’t done in the meantime:

• I haven’t found a full-time teaching job for the fall. 📝 The thing is, after all the movement in the last seven years since I got my first book deal, I want more stability. I just want to work at the school where I already coach two varsity sports. It’s a school I know I like where I have professional connections. It would be good! Except, they haven’t posted any jobs for which I’m qualified. My plan is to sub (you get paid like $150 dollars a day for that), and then otherwise just sit in the school commons until they find me something to do. And I’ll also be a tutor. Do you think it will work? 👩🏻‍🏫 I’ll keep you posted.

• I haven’t finished my next book. Or really worked on it much in the last two months. I unexpectedly became the co-head track coach at said school, and also I had that 8th-grade class that exhausted all of my emotional reserve. It’s okay. I’ll write again this summer, while I’m not on vacation.

• I haven’t thoroughly celebrated the paperback release of Home or Away! It’s been awhile since I talked about sales numbers here, but the new format has caused (a very modest, but marked) jump in units sold for my third novel. I’m thrilled! If you haven’t read it, now’s a great time.

And that’s a May update! Some salesy things to finish:

My summer tutoring and coaching schedule is online. I’m helping people with college essays, study skills, organization, reading and writing remediation and skill development, and creative writing this summer. I would love to help you and yours!

I have a few openings for manuscript clients if you’re a fiction or memoir writer. I’m also working with a poetry client, but this is a first! The poetry client has perhaps inordinate faith in me. 😎

All of my books continue to be available for purchase in lots of formats all over the place. There’s this one about working in a high school, this second one about parenting middle schoolers, this third one about youth sports, and a murder mystery.

That’s all, I think! :) Happy May.