Deadline Feline

The cat gets pickier when deadlines get close.

Scarred

I gulp the coffee down to kill my headache. The caffeine-addicted part anyway.

I’ll need something stronger for the part of the headache that comes from the knife wound in my left arm. But I know Laci won’t give that to me. This diner doesn’t have a liquor license, and they’d shut it down anyway for serving a minor. I’m lucky she let me in here looking like this. But she’s always been a friend. Even when I didn’t think I had any.

I take another sip and wait for her to get back from the all-night convenience store. I hope they have Monster Glue. That should hold me until I can get some stitches.

Otherwise it’s going to be a long wait until morning.

The hospital’s out of the question.

And it’s not like I can go home.

Jarrett and friends will be watching the place by now. And he’ll have someone hanging around the hospital.

When they actually take their heads out of their butts, they’ll figure out where I am. So soon’s Laci gets back, and I take care of my arm, I’ve gotta get outta here. I can’t put her life in danger like I already did with Colten.

Running on Insomnia

At 43, with 3 years of book visits and 20 years in front of a classroom, you’d think I’d be over it.

But I’m not.

Every time I have a speaking/ book-signing gig, I don’t sleep. It’s always just about 3:00 am when I realize I’m staring at the ceiling. Well, toward the ceiling anyway—without my contacts, I have to take it on faith that there’s a ceiling there. How about if I say this? Yeah, that’ll be perfect. I’ve gotta remember that tomorrow. No wait, I’ll try this joke. I’ve gotta get up right now and write this down. No, I need sleep. I’ll close my eyes and rest. A couple thoughts later, I look at the clock and it’s 4:00.

Wednesday, I’m going to Dover, DE for a middle-school library literacy night with maybe 50 people. And Friday I’m flying to Nebraska for the Norfolk Public Library Literature Festival with closer to 200 people. In high school, the thought of talking in front of 200 people would turn me into a babbling insomniac.

Now, I’m just a pensive insomniac. Sadly, though I’m no longer petrified, I still don’t get to sleep.

I know already that I’ll be awake until Saturday night after the festival. Ironically, I have to get up 3:00 am Sunday to catch my flight home.

Right now, I’ll go run a 5k to exhaust and clear my brain. Then I’ll work on my presentation for the next few hours and then hit the beach with the fam. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll take a nap somewhere along the way.

A teenager's breakfast

Because I think everything is novel research, I submit this...
This morning, this is what my 12-year-old chose for breakfast.

Kid questions

Favorite questions from my preschool children.

1. Kid: What's in that fire truck?
Me: Water
Kid:...Then what's in a water truck?


2. Kid: When birds die, do they get four wings?

Can you believe

...everything looked like this around here about three weeks ago? And now we're all out in t-shirts.

I just received a copy of the latest reprint of Fakie in the mail today from Lobster Press. It has cool reviewer quotes plastered on both covers and on a page inside. It made my day.

One Last Scar is due out in about three weeks. HIP Books sent me a preview of the interior art, but the cover is still being tweaked. So you'll have to wait a bit for that one. I'll give away some free copies around release day. Details to follow.

Off to grade, write, organize a comic literacy con and pick up the kids. "Too many irons in the fire," as a friend of mine used to say.

Blizzard-Imposed Writing Retreat

You would think that with school cancelled and two blizzards less than a week apart I’d have had plenty of time to finish this novel already. But that would assume that I live in a secluded mountain retreat where there’s no one else around to talk to me during writing. Instead, I have four other people in the family and four pets.

So here’s how my time really goes.

1. Shovel path for dog to go outside
2. Play in the snow
3. Play board games
4. Play in the snow
5. Mario!
6. Mope because Feb 6 Young Author Conference is cancelled b/c of blizzard
7. Finish reading two books I started at the same time
8. Rearch for sequel. (I’ve gotta plan ahead, so I can see how to end this one)
9. Watch 24
10. Dig out car and forage for food
11. Write like 5 pages
12. Play in the snow
13. Spend too much time on facebook
14. More games
15. Make Play Doh versions of the kids
15. Take cat to vet (her foot was suddenly swollen 3 times normal size) on the one day the roads are passable
16. Take opportunity on road to fight crowds at store for supplies for storm #2
17. Throw “cook” in there about every other line. I have three growing kids
18. Do taxes

Now with 5 days remaining, I see I need to shovel up some solitude so I can finish this one.