A Long-Overdue Update

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted anything. The Author Night at Montage went very well, with about 40 people in attendance and a dozen books sold. Next I did the Author Fair in Piqua, Ohio, in conjunction with their annual Taste of the Arts. It was held in the library, which is a beautifully-restored old building. There were probably 20 local writers there, and it was fun meeting new people and seeing some I hadn't seen for awhile. On Memorial Day weekend, I sold books at the Friends of the Library annual booksale in Greenville.
June was a very busy month, but most of it wasn't concerned with writing. When I left the Library booksale on May 29, I drove to Kay's, near Akron, to scrapbook with her and Becky. Drove back for the Photo Club Banquet in Dayton on June 3, planning to drive right back up to Kay's the next day. Unfortunately, my van overheated as I was driving through downtown Dayton. Pulled into a garage and it was too late for them to look at it that day. My big concern was getting to the Banquet with the newsletters which had all the prizewinners for the year listed. I called the President, and he sent one of the other members to pick me up and take me to the Banquet. Of course, I had no way home afterwards. Lynn has always told me I can spend the night with her and Terry any time I need to, so I took her up on it. I slept on their livingroom floor on a very comfortable blow-up bed. She went to work the next morning, and Terry took me to the garage, where they gave me an estimate of $1100. (and charged $93 for the estimate!) Since I have AAA Plus, I called a tow truck, so that got both me and the van back to Greenville. We took it to Gary Coblentz, my mechanic. Meanwhile, all my scrapbooking stuff was in Kay's livingroom! It was going to take a few days to fix the van, so I rented a car and went back up there. It was an HHR and I'd like to have kept it so I'd have a van and a car! It was big enough to be comfortable for me. Drove it through horrible thunderstorms and tornado watches on the way, but I made it. Stayed there another five days.
On the way home, I stopped at Good Samaritan Hospital and sat in the waiting room while my friend, Jan, had surgery on her elbow. She'd had surgery in May and her elbow got infected and they had to remove the rod. My first meeting with Dr. Klosterman was when he came to the waiting room to tell me she had done well. I've seen him many times since - more on that later.
I got the van back and Gary did everything the Dayton garage had in their estimate, plus new rear brakes, for $662!
Jan ended up spending six or seven weeks in the nursing home for rehab, and I visited her most days, picked up her mail from the post office, wrote her checks, got things for her from the house, etc. Got to know the people in the rehab center at the Brethren's Home, which proved to be good.
In April I had started going to an orthopedic doctor, who ran tests, tried cortisone shots, etc. In July she referred me to none other than Dr. Klosterman to set up knee surgery. The next week, I fell and cut my other leg just below the knee. My nephew, Tim, took me to the emergency room and I ended up with stitches. Then my family doctor wouldn't sign the release for me to have surgery until it was healed, to make sure there was no infection. That put the surgery off till September 16.
I spent much of the weekend of July 23-25 at the fairgrounds in Greenville, selling my book at the Annie Oakley Festival. The next weekend, I went with nine others from my photo club to the Southwest Michigan Council of Camera Clubs Workshop. It was a wonderful four-day event on the campus of Hope College with all kinds of sessions and workshops to attend. I loved it, but it really took a toll on my leg. I hope to go next year, when it's all healed.
I've joined the faculty of Suzanne Lieurance's Children's Writers' Coaching Club. One of my duties is to do a teleclass once a month for an hour. It's like a conference call and people can listen while I'm doing it or listen to the recording later. That's been interesting.
Also in July, I finally signed a contract for another book for Chicago Review Press for their For Kids series, the same series as Heading West: Life with the Pioneers. This one will be on American Environmentalists. My editor and I had been trying to get this approved for well over a year. The recent oil spill seemed to stimulate interest in it with the powers-that-be.
I was pretty careful in August and early September because my knee was so sore. I also believed that the leg had given out on me, causing me to fall and cut the other leg. I did drive to Painted Post, NY the first week of September for a mini-reunion with classmates back there. We had quite a few people come for the luncheon. It's been so much fun to get back in touch with these people since the reunion two years ago. I moved right before my senior year, but had gone there from kindergarten through junior year.
My sister, Kay, decided to come for the surgery and stay till I was home and doing well. I already had plans to spend at least a couple of weeks in rehab at the Brethren Retirement Community here in Greenville. Our scrapbooking buddy, Becky, decided she would come from PA and she and Kay would clean and organize my house for me! Becky is a real organizer and the house really needed both cleaning and organizing after all the knee problems I'd been having.
I had a complete knee replacement at Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton on Thursday, Sept. 16. I was only in the hospital two days! Then I only spent two weeks in rehab, before I came home. Becky had to leave the day before I came home, but she and Kay did a SUPER job with the house! It was such a relief to come home to a clean, organized house! Kay stayed for another week till she was sure I could drive, go to the grocery, etc.
I'm still going to the BRC for physical therapy two days a week. I'm off the walker and they said I don't need a cane. I'm walking quite well (except when I get up after sitting for a long time.) The only problem I'm having now is that the foot, ankle and leg are swelling a lot. They've run all kinds of tests and ruled out blood clots and other problems, so I guess I just have to live with it. I have lie on my back with my leg propped several inches above my heart for several hours a day, so that is playing havoc with trying to get the book done by Dec. 1. I had no idea how tired I would be after the surgery and how little I could get done at the nursing home or here. I'm hoping to get an extension.
Suzanne Lieurance is Showcasing my book, Heading West: Life with the Pioneers on her Children's Writers' Coaching Club website this month. In conjunction with that, she interviewed me on her daily Book Bites for Kids radio show this afternoon. That was interesting.

Finally Over My Pneumonia and Working on Pioneer Book

Wow, it's been a long time. I was actually sick the whole month of December. This is the first time I can ever remember not sending Christmas cards, writing my annual Christmas letter and decorating my Christmas tree. I bought a tree, but it set in the family room for weeks without getting decorated. I finally put it in the yard for the birds to enjoy. At first I had a cold, then I was treated for bronchitis, but the Zithromax that usually takes care of it didn't do a thing. I finally went to the ER the Sunday before Christmas. They did X-rays and a blood test and decided it was pneumonia. When the doctor came back into my little cubicle, I was trying to figure out how to take a picture of myself with my cell phone! We scrapbookers will do anything to document our daily life so we can scrap it! She offered to take the picture. I said, "I didn't even get one of those little bracelets this time for my scrapbook." She said, "Just a minute." Soon she was back with one! She gave me four prescriptions, and they worked so well that I was feeling fairly well on Christmas, two days later.

I'm finding, though, that it takes awhile to get your strength back after pneumonia. For about three weeks, I was getting up and three hours later, lying down for a two-hour nap. This happened a couple of times a day. Guess I needed the sleep.

I signed the contract for the Pioneer book with Chicago Review Press and got the first half of my advance. By the time it came, I owed it all for Christmas and unexpected bills.

I wanted to get Adam an SLR digital camera like mine for Christmas, so looked for used ones. Found a reconditioned one on B&H, where I order most of my camera stuff. It was only $389 with an 18-55 lens. I bought it with part of my advance money and decided to keep it and give Adam mine. (I figured this one was more gently used than mine!) This one has a silver body, so we can tell them apart easily. I'll still share my 100-300 lens with him.

A group of us from the Photo Club met for breakfast on Jan. 13, then went to the Air Force Museum in Dayton to shoot. I'd never shot there, and Adam had never even been there. Actually, the last time I was there was when Adam's dad, Tim, was about 11 or 12 and I took him! It's changed a lot. We need to go back because we missed the rockets which are way back in the back. We did go to one of the I-Max shows, which was about Mars. Pretty cool!
It was Adam's first time using a tripod. His dad found the one I got him years ago. The exposures we took were anywhere from 20-50 seconds, so a tripod was absolutely essential. A few are posted above.

I've been subbing and working on the book. I need to have two chapters done before February 15, because I want to go to Florida for two weeks. I plan to finish the first chapter by the first of February. It's taking a lot of research, because it will cover the different westward movements, the most frequently-used trails, the different types of transportation used and the actual experience of the trip west.

There will also be activities in each chapter for kids to do. Lots of sidebars will profile different pioneers and also include excerpts from some diaries, journals and letters written either on the trail or afterwards. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the full text of many of these diaries, journals and letters is available online. It's great to be able to get primary material without moving from my computer!

Monday afternoon, Suzanne Lieurance had me on her Book Bites for Kids radio show. She interviews a different children's author every afternoon. We had a good time talking for half an hour and I hope some of the listeners learned something about writing nonfiction for kids.

Last night I attended a gathering for writers from the Cincinnati area. I'm stretching it a little, being about 80 miles north of there, but heck, I was invited and it was a chance to schmooze with other children's writers. I went with Tonya Larson, another member of my children's writers' critique group. We enjoyed meeting and talking to all the other authors. I talked to Mary Kay Carson, who also does books for Chicago Review Press. Her husband gave me some ideas and tips for taking photos for the book. He took a large number of the ones in her Underground Railroad for Kids book. I hadn't thought of the Pioneer Village at Cesar's Creek or Cades Cove in the Smokies. I expect to be in the Smokies with the Photo Club in April, so that's a good idea. And I already have many photos from that area. Plus we have a log house right in our own Darke County Park district behind the nature center.

I got home about midnight last night and it was about 2:00 by the time I was in bed and asleep. Of course, they called me at 6:15 to sub! I was able to go back to sleep till 7:30, but then I got up and taught fourth grade all day. Had a good day and took a nap after school!

Now I'm going to bed (well after midnight) in case I get called again in the morning!

Pat