YA  -  a personal note to my new friends at Alex M. Martino Jr. High
If you aren't a student at Martino Jr. High, um, don't take this personally, but you have to leave this page...  this is ultra super secret stuff for my new friends at Martino.

There's all kinds of fun stuff on the rest of my site, so please browse some of the other tabs, okay?  Don't be offended.  Check out my books!   

So go on... scoot. ... hit this button to go back to the menus.

Thanks.

(are you gone yet?)

No?

C'mon,  please give us some privacy, okay?

Thanks.

(silence)

U-hem.  No peeking.

They gone?

All right, I'm with my new buddies now.

First of all, thanks to Caitlyn (sp? Let me know, okay?) for bringing the idea to Ms. Runion.  And thanks for Ms. Runion for seeing the possibilities and inviting me to come to your school and INVITING THE PRESS!  (woo-hoo!  Free publicity!)

Thanks also to Ms. Runion's cohort, er, colleague Mrs. Allison and to Principal Bitter, for letting me  invade your school, break some rules ... heh, heh ... and hang out all day with such lively, smart, interesting and vital critters, er, young grownups.  After almost six awesome hours, my voice was starting to go... so I had more appreciation for teachers who do this all day every day.

I also am very flattered that you would make my YA vampire humor manuscript a school project, and read it in class and discuss characterization, plot, style... etc.


And, most of all, thanks for laughing at my jokes instead of at my 'floral and ridiculous' shirt!!  Or were you actually laughing at the shirt?   I had so much fun, and felt so welcome.  Especially at lunch, when I was invited to sit at so many of the tables and share what the school laughingly calls 'food.'

Anyway, I set up this page to as a place to keep Martino  up to date on how I'm doing on the book.  You gave me some excellent ideas, many of which I am incorporating into my work.  Chief among these is that I'm extending some of the chapters and scenes ... like many of you wanted me to do with the scene with the Dodgeball game.

The one thing I didn't really get that I had hoped for was an improved title over the working title..so if someone comes up with an idea, shoot me an email right here

This is going to be a bit of a diary, to keep you mostly up to date on how I'm doing.  Hopefully, I can update it once a week or so.   I have a very busy couple weeks ahead, with the Baltimore Book Fair,  the Midwest Literary Festival and the Joliet Regional Author Fair.  All that, plus we're going through new computer training at my daytime job, which will eat into my free time. 

That said, you guys invigorated me, and I'm feeling motivated to get going ...

... so thanks!!!  And I'll see you around and asquare and ... uh... other geormetrical shapes.

Norm. 


Okay, here's an update for you (Oct. 30,07).  Kind of exciting news ... while at the same time, not so good for anyone waiting for the book to come out.

I'm going to be sidetracked for a couple weeks writing a story for an anthology.  This will mess up some pretty good momentum, but the good thing is I get to my beloved characters from my two published books.  So if you like Guy, Knob, Thurman, Wendy and the Warrior, stand by for new news within the next month!

I also updated the attached links to reflect some changes to the manuscript including a NEW TITLE.  I'm not done editing, but it's starting to shape up..

Finally, soon I will be adding an icon that will give you the percentage the book is completed.  I should have done it today, but, well, you know.








email me
Click here for the newspaper articles from my visit at Martino


Sunday Star                           New Lenox Patriot




Exciting news!!   June 08  check out below!
Okay, here goes: % completed - as of February 21, 2008  (drumroll....)         92.7%

Wait, update: I'm done!  woo-hoo!

Just sent it to a publisher - cross your fingers!  6/08

Okay, Are you ready for this?  I found a publisher ... Fang Face will be published sometime in mid 2009!!  6/26/08
(more details coming soon)