Category: chapter book

Puzzles

I recently finished the draft of the second book in my chapter book series. I set it aside for a bit and am now doing a second pass, filling in some parts, noting parts that need more research, and fixing some errors. I try not to get bogged down in editing on the many passes I make at a story, but it happens anyway, so yes, I am also editing as I go along.

Once I am happy(ish) with it, the book will go to a real editor. I don’t do this for short stories, but for anything longer, I hire an editor before I submit to publishers. It always makes for a better book! Editors are the best – they’re like your favorite teacher and fresh cookies somehow rolled into one person!

This book is intended to be one in a 5-book series for early readers, other children, and for reading to children (okay, anyone 4 and up). All of the working titles use alliteration to identify a letter for a word scramble. The last title is also an answer to a puzzle in the books, and it’s a bit of a surprise in the greater story arc, so I will just give you the letters for now:

  • T
  • E
  • U
  • Q
  • S

What do you think the word is?

Just for fun, here’s a picture of my dog, Rocket. Sometimes I read my stories to her.

Rocket the Wonder Dog, my first reader
Rocket the Wonder Dog, my first reader

DoBot the Robot

Late last year, I had the honor of reading from my chapter book to my youngest son’s second grade class. The kids responded with laughter, enthusiasm, and cries for more. It’s a great memory. The book is called “Amazing Adventures with DoBot the Robot, Book 1: T Rex Trouble”, and it’s the first book in a 5 book series. I am seeking representation for Book 1 which has been to my editor and back, and through rounds and rounds of revisions (I promise your teacher is asking for the minimum when they have you do two drafts). My current work-in-progress is the second book in this series, though like many people I get sidetracked by other things…my job, short stories that won’t behave, and the laundry.

The DoBot the RoBot series was inspired by my sons who encouraged me to write down stories I made up for them. I also wanted to read fun books featuring kids who looked like mine – stories featuring loving siblings biological & adoptive, stories in which how they came to be a family mattered but that weren’t about that -and I couldn’t find any. So I wrote one. Then I got ideas for more. And let me tell you, these stories have all the good stuff – puzzles and science, mysteries and magic. In the first book, we ride a mystical train with brothers Luke, Keoni, and Gordon. We encounter William Walter – a kind, grandfatherly man – and DoBot – a 7-armed rusty robot. We learn a bit about chemistry, the building blocks of the universe, and paleontology. We solve a problem with a runaway T Rex and have a lot of fun along the way.

I promise to keep working on Book 2. Its working title is “Amazing Adventures with DoBot the Robot, Book 2: Equation Explorers”. It is all about adventures with math! There’s a rescue, problems to be solved and a snake named Python Agoram Theorum.

I hope I get to meet you in this world soon!