#middle-grade reader

Orbiting Jupiter, a review

Photo by Mihail Macri on Unsplash

This page-turner bridges middle-grade and young adult. In his short novel published in 2017, Newberry Honor-winning author professor at Calvin Collge in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Gary D. Schmidt, has created two compelling young protagonists—fourteen-year-old Joseph Brook and twelve-year-old Jack Hurd. I say Orbiting Jupiterbridges these two audiences, not…

Week 1 of NaNoWriMo

This is the first week of November and National Novel Writing Month.  I’m not starting off cold.  I’ve been working on the ideas for the second Max Williams adventure for months.  Here are some of the things I did to get ready.

I talked with readers of My Neighbor, the Spyto find out what the liked and didn’t like about the book and about what they wanted to see happen to Max and the gang.  One…

The Book is Almost Ready!

I’m so excited that the final proof for My Neighbor, the Spy is almost ready.  After all the planning, writing, rewriting, editing, and proofreading, it’s I’m so thrilled to be almost ready to share the book with everyone.

My awesome kid and grown-up readers have made lots of contributions in this last stage.  Aden Black, a young writer, gave me some especially helpful suggestions for making the…