Writing a curriculum unit, like writing a book, is hard work, but fun work! Word games, like crosswords, always fascinated me, as well as reading about origins of interesting words, phrases and idioms. This background gives me ideas for the vocabulary section of each chapter. Exploring idioms and opening up the world of cowboy slang to non-ranching kids is a challenge I really enjoy.

Having learned about the Common Core Standards and DOK levels, I'm coming at the chapter questions from a different angle than when I started the CU for The Orange Slipknot (before I revised it for the Standards). Instead of majoring in recall/retelling questions, I have almost none of those; the questions tend more in the direction of what you would discuss with a writer's group--just on a fourth grade level! Teachers want their students to learn how to think about literature. I am trying to help them understand how an author crafts a book--to talk about theme, plot development, character development, foreshadowing, etc.

Why a blog?

This blog will be the story of how my middle-grade novel, "The Orange Slipknot," is published, and what I as an author am working on.

I am home for the summer, since I work in a school. My main summer writing project is to finish the Curriculum Unit for the book. But the last few days, I have been spending several hours a day creating my author website and letting people know about it. I have already created two other websites (Jack Young Clinics and Jan's Bible Notes), so this part was not new to me. But I have had to spend alot of time learning my way around my new web hosting service, LunarPages. I even had to call Customer Support a couple of times.

It was VERY exciting when I finally clicked on my website and saw it appear on the Internet, for everyone to see! Every few hours I think of some little thing to add or change, so I fiddle with it and tweak it often. This past year, I have visited many children's author websites to get ideas about what I want on my site.

I can't wait to add more pages, but I must also spend time working on the lit unit. I have been working on a possible sequel to "The Orange Slipknot" this past year, and hope I can fit that back in later this summer. Some authors write all day, every day--I don't. I have a job and many other activities--piano students, housework, yardwork, special summer projects, grandchildren, and horses. I am just as busy now as I was during the school year!

I hope you enjoy reading about the progression of events as a children's book is published, and how one author goes about her writing.