Shirley Miranda

I spent my summer teaching in a summer STEM summer program for high school students – so this teacher doesn’t get any summer break!

This summer season is almost to an end. Wait. What? The school year is about to start again marking the unofficial end to summer and start of fall. My daughter started school last year and it’s taken me a while to get into a groove to find time to do the mom things related to having your kid in school (planning/packing snacks and lunches, pick up schedules, school events and activities, etc.) and the teacher side of me. My work role changed a bit and I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to bring computer science to the youngest learners (TK-K) in my school district to high school seniors. I’ve learned a lot in developing experiences for students to learn how to code for the wide age range of students. And yes, kids who can’t read CAN CODE.

That being said, when I’ve sat down to write book 5, it’s been with literal pen and paper. I’m enjoying the tactile nature of it. This, of course, means that I still have to transfer it to the computer. The upside, as I see it, is that I can catch mistakes as I type them in. I’m not typing in a frantic flurry trying to get words out, then backspacing, then putting a bunch of returns to jot down about stuff or things that happen later. But if you saw my notebook, there’s stuff that scratched out, rewritten, scratched out and written again… sometimes with arrows.

The story for Summering is just about down. If I had to put a number to it, it’s probably at the 90% mark. Next, I’ll have to type it all in and edit. I’ll do my best to get the edits done quickly so the book is out sooner. I know you have been anxiously waiting to know what happens. I’m kicking around the idea of randomly selecting a few of you who might be interested in helping me edit – which means you’d get an advance peek at the next book. It’s a thought.

Hi Everyone!

I know it’s been awhile (okay, a LONG while) since I’ve posted any updates to my latest book.  Rest assured, I haven’t forgotten about it, Liz, Patrick or you.  It’s all still very much alive an well.  Summering is coming along and I wish I could give you a date for when you’ll be able to find out what happens next in the series, I just can’t.  But it’s getting there!

I truly appreciate your interest in Summering and your patience.  Life has been busier and crazier than my typical level.  I knew motherhood kept you busy, but combining that with my “previous self” can be a challenge at times.  Please know that you are never far from my thoughts and I know you are anxiously awaiting to find out what happens next with Liz, Patrick and the crew.  But mostly Liz, since Springing left off with… Wait.  I’ll stop there in order to not spoil it for those who haven’t finished book 4 yet. =)

If you have seen me on Facebook or photos I’ve posted, you’ll notice a penguin and giraffe in many of my pictures.  I’ll give you one guess as to their names.  That’s right!  Liz and Patrick.  It all started innocent enough.  Less than a year after I started writing Falling, my husband and I were at Sea World and came across one of the gift shops there.  It was a Build-A-Bear type place and they had a penguin and giraffe.  I bought a basketball outfit for Patrick, but they didn’t have any clothes I liked for Liz.  So, you can guess how those first pictures looked.  One dressed, the other was not.

What’s funny is, for me, I can see them “age” in a sense.  Obviously, they don’t grow up or put on weight, but the do look different – more worn, fur less fluffy.  The very early pictures look different to me than the more current ones.  It’s like any stuffed animal or doll you’ve had, you’d be able to identify yours in a pile of identical ones because of its “personality”.  I notice how different they are all the time from the ones hanging in the store – and not just because the ones in the store aren’t stuffed yet.

They’ve traveled all over the place with me.  When I first got them, I thought, “It’s be kind of cool to take pictures of them in places that Liz and Patrick have been in the book.” Places like Disneyland.  And let’s face it, Disneyland is a place for you to be silly or goofy.  People buy crazy hats and giant Mickey hands or shoes and wear them – publicly.  Carrying around stuffed animals isn’t all that odd.  People looked at me and my husband as I had him pose my stuffed penguin and giraffe before I took the picture.  But they always thought it was cool or cute.  Once, when I brought them to Disneyland (yes, you can infer from that that I have brought them there many times), they were dressed in Celtics uniforms.  I had several people ask where I got it.

But that’s Disneyland.  What about else where?  Like the nation’s capital?  When you are on a business trip with university professors that you don’t know and don’t know you?  You bring them tethered together (underneath their clothes so it doesn’t show in the picture) and hold them up with one hand and take the picture with the other.  Keep in mind, this is a very difficult thing to do.  Not only am I trying to balance two stuffed animals in one hand, but I’m short and therefore have short arms.  So it’s tough to get some sort of background in the shot and not just their cute faces.  But I did.

And you know what I took to heart?  That I didn’t really care what others thought.  In general, I don’t.  But far too often we are afraid to do something that might seem silly.  What do I care if I seem silly to some passerby?  They don’t know me.  They don’t know my resume. They don’t know that I do have lots of people that respect in me various fields.  I’ve worked hard to build a name of myself.  A good reputation.  This doesn’t hurt anyone.  In fact, most people (who either say something directly to me or I overhear) do think it’s cool or cute.  And if they think negatively, I don’t care. It’s not for them anyway.

Here are a few pictures from their summer adventures…

First visit to Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center.

Visited a Lihue beach in Kauai, HI.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here.  I try to post at least once a month and today’s the last day of July!  The reason why this day just doesn’t roll past me is because it’s my birthday!  As birthdays sometimes do, it’s making me reflect a bit over the last couple months.

My summer has been very busy – to say the least.  Once school let out (and the teachers were released – we have to stay past the last day for students), my husband and I went on vacation.  A real vacation.  We haven’t done that in almost eight years!  Don’t worry, despite being on vacation from “real life” I did continue to write.

The day after we got back, I was training teachers for the summer program I teach in.  Maybe you can guess the program?  Then it was prep for that program since the students would be moving in later in the week.  Since then, it’s been the summer program.  Fun.  Exciting.  Busy!  But, yes, I still wrote.  During these past several weeks, I’ve been working on getting to a scene that’s pretty significant and I’m just about there.  So I’m thrilled about that!

On Saturday, the summer program wraps up and I’ll have much more time to focus on writing.  I know many of you have been aching to get your hands on Summering.  I don’t have a specific ETA on it, but I’m really hoping to get it done before the year is over.  If I can do that, then it could be out as early as January 2014.  Don’t hold me to it.  But I’m trying!

Meanwhile, go to my website and sign-up for my newsletter to get the latest updates.  Who knows?  You might get little treats like a bit or piece of the next book or a teaser!

Spread the word about Liz and Patrick and get your friends to take the fall with you.  Falling is available on Smashwords.com for free purchase with the coupon code: YK23X (expires July 5, 2013).  Add the book to your cart and  purchase Falling.

Please note: “Download” simply downloads the first 20% of the book, not the entire book.  You must purchase the book and use the coupon code to get the entire novel for free!

Spring break is just around the corner!  Why not get your friends to meet Liz and Patrick and have them add FALLING to their fun-reading list?  Spread the word that they can now get FALLING in many e-reader formats!  Download a FREE copy of FALLING from Smashwords.com by using the coupon code JN93B.  Offer expires March 31, 2013.