The Great Adventure

Well, the good news is that Shelly and I survived Spring Break.

Gavin, our eight-year-old grandson spent the week with us, and we have learned that all life as we know it comes to a screeching halt when the grandson comes to town. Makes me wonder how I ever got anything done when I had kids. I did manage, with his help, to build a birdhouse out of a hollowed-out tree branch and post it high in one of our trees. Now I have promised Gavin that I will take copious photos if and when any birds come to make their nest in our project. We’ll see.

The week also featured a visit to the local Plaza Jr. Theater for a musical performance of “Junie B. Jones, Junior,” the tale of a first-grader and her adventures at school. Since Gavin is a sophisticated third grader, he of course had to roll his eyes when he saw so many “youngsters” at the performance, and I at first thought that maybe we had made a mistake. But when the music started and the performers started dancing on stage, Gavin was entranced. Now he is not only talking to his dad about finding plays in his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, but maybe trying to perform in one himself. Knowing how much show business runs in the family, it wouldn’t surprise me.

After Gavin left, my sister Karen and her husband Lou showed up. They are currently looking for a place to call home, and we spent yesterday looking at houses in nearby Granbury. They liked the area, and we saw some pretty nice homes, but Lou is a stickler when it comes to what he wants. So I suspect they are going to head down the road and keep looking. Last I heard, he was talking about Missoula, Montana….(This just in: they got a call from a realtor in Granbury about some property and they’re going back to check it out. So Missoula will have to wait, I guess).

This morning was my first day back in the classroom, and the students were looking a lot worse for wear. First period (9 a.m. class) had several missing, second period (10 a.m.) had student who looked like they could use about a gallon of coffee. I don’t know if it was the time change, coming back to class or what it was they did during the break, but I suspect they will be back in the saddle in a couple of days.

So where does that leave me as far as what comes next?

As far as school is concerned, this is crunch time, probably the busiest time of the entire school year. Everyone has something going on, every class as something due, and the next seven weeks til graduation will whip by quickly. Believe me, I’ve learned in the past 20 years.

But I also have some writing projects I want to get moving on.

I think I told you last week that Pacific Press has accepted Chosen as one of their trade books, with the possibility of turning it into a series. There’s not a major rush for the sequel, but I do want to start on another book on that series pretty soon.

In addition, I have the sequel to Tesla’s Ghost due in December. And there’s the small matter of actually writing said sequel. So that should begin happening one of these days.

Finally, I’ve started my audio project, which I will be sharing more about in coming days. That’s still definitely a work in progress. Baby steps, baby steps….

More later….