Day 1 of Year 2 of Writing Full Time and Other Monday Stuff

If I were still teaching full time, today I would already be at school. I would have slept fitfully and I would be full of the excitement and nerves of the first day. Some kid in homeroom would have already bitched me out over something that I couldn't control. Like why we had to stay in homeroom for 3 hours on the first day. Or that he hated the dress code. Or was awake at 7 AM.

 Instead I am where I normally am these days: at my desk with the laptop getting ready to work.

I will write 1-2k on the WIP. I'll put the finishing touches on the ppt. I'm doing at East Texas Book Fest. I'll organize some tax stuff and walk the dog and get to the gym later and cook dinner and write some more and watch Grimm and my latest Bravo guilty pleasure, Gallery Girls, which is what you get if The Hills meets Mean Girls with art and cocktails. It is so hipster horrible and so deliciously addictive  and there's this street map of NYC they put up every time they change POV's to another girl so you now where everybody is. Plus a slimy gallery owner named Eli and rooms full of people who are so entitled feeing that it makes my jaw drop. I know I was full of myself at 22. I really was. (except when I got stuck coaching JV girl's volleyball.) But this is... well you have to watch for yourself. Or as more than one reviewer has commented: "Chantal is what is you get is Mary Kate Olsen fell into a Tim Burton film."

But to the point, what I won't be doing is trying to juggle 175 students and the endless paper grading and the increasingly crazy demands of the public school system. At least not this year.

So I guess i better get to work so I can keep it that way and have so exciting things to announce to you soon. Do I have exciting things coming up? Possibly I do.

Had a great signing at Deerbrook Barnes and Noble this weekend and so if you came out for that, thank you and I enjoyed meeting you. Or seeing you again, such as my former exchange student from Bulgaria, who stopped by with his mom, fresh from a summer in Europe!

WINNER of the arc of THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY by the delightfully and fiercely talented Nikki Loftin is McCourt Thomas. Why? Because she said her children would 'devour' it and if you read the book you'll know why this is really clever even if she maybe didn't know she was being that clever or maybe she did. Anyway -- McCourt-- I'll get that arc to you!

Oh and if you haven't seen the new SOHO TEEN TRAILER please look at the top of the blog and click over to it! You will love, love, love. I am so thrilled to be working with Soho Press.

Til next time..