GONE, GONE, GONE; SHE'S BEEN GONE SO LONG. SHE'S BEEN GONE, GONE, GONE SO LONG.

Anyone recognize the lyrics of that awesome old song?  Beware, admitting it may also be an admission of your age.

I have to confess that I got SICK, SICK, SICK of the Common Core Curriculum.  So I decided a year was plenty of study in that department.  I doubt any of you want more...teachers are having it crammed down their throat already and the rest of you are seeing it everywhere now.  I hope our CCC time together was helpful.

So...I have been GONE, GONE, GONE!  And I am sorry, sorry, sorry.  A great deal has happened in my absence, so let me see if I can catch you up.

The following events are not necessarily in order!

1.  I entered an MFA program!  Yee haw!  Hamline University's partial residency MFAC (Master of Fine Arts in Children's Literature) is where I decided to park my pen.  Thanks to everyone I interviewed throughout this process.  I am certain I chose the right program.

2.  I attended my first MFAC INTENSIVE last July.  It was amazing.  I learned more in those twelve days than maybe in the last twelve years!  They don't call it an INTENSIVE for nothing!

3.  I am more than half-way through my first semester in the program.  I am working hard and loving every minute.  I am so grateful for this opportunity.

4.  My advisor/instructor this semester is the brilliant, magnificent JANE RESH THOMAS!!!  I feel enormously blessed to be working with this amazing woman.  I only hope her genius is contagious.

5.  I took my two darling girls to London this summer.

6.  In August, we discovered that my ED (17) had a very serious bone infection for which she is still being treated.  She has a picc line, and she is spending lots of time at home, and I am spending lots of time in Raleigh with her at doctor's appointments, etc.   We hope and pray this first line of treatment will be complete by Thanksgiving.

7.  I began a new novel.

8.  I quit nonfiction (for now, anyway).

9.  My OS played his first season of football with no major injuries.

10.  My YS began playing the guitar, also with no major injuries.

11.  My YD just finished tennis season, and she has already begun to think about colleges.

12.  My OD has been accepted to two colleges and continues to apply despite her health setbacks and being enormously behind at school.

I am sure there are a few more things I could add, but I'm already boring myself which tells me it must be excruciating for you.

So I will leave you on a lighter note.  Yesterday my ten-year-old said to me, "Mom, when will I get a double neck like you and dad have?  It makes you look so strong."

Ummm.....glad it's almost turtleneck season.


Love to you all my faithful followers.  If you haven't already, make sure you check out Jody Casella's AWESOME new novel, THIN SPACE.  I predict BIG THINGS for this novel and the writer.  Check it out!  You'll be glad you did.

xoxox