New Book - Heading West: Life with the Pioneers

Yesterday I got my copies of my new book, Heading West: Life with the Pioneers from Chicago Review Press. It's always so exciting to get a box of books and actually hold the book in your hands, after working on it for a couple of years! I'd seen the galley proofs, so knew the layout, but the photos look SO much better in the actual book! I'd been a little concerned that some were pretty dark in the galleys. My editor said part of it was the paper the galleys were printed on vs the slick paper in the book. I asked them to particularly see if they could lighten the photos of my friend, Marge Pepiot at the spinning wheel, my dad in a dress, and my grandfather with a hoop. They all look good in the book. The book also has 21 activities for children to do that have to do with pioneers.

I'm working on a website, hoping that will get me more school visits. Also making up a brochure to send out to schools. I'm really hoping for quite a few school visits. I love to do them and most children's writers I know make more from their school visits than they do from their books. I think the pioneer book will do well. I'm excited that it's my first book to be sold in bookstores. The others were all school/library books and the expensive library binding made them too expensive for bookstores.

I'm also waiting to hear about my proposal for another book with Chicago Review Press. This one is on environmentalists and will have chapters on a dozen or so different people, such as Thoreau, Audubon, and Rachel Carson.

Back to work on the brochure. I'm designing it in Microsoft Publisher.