Cute Dogs and A Break

My blog posts have been less frequent this summer, because I've been immersed in working on a new middle grade novel. I still don't have a title but I've finished the first draft! One of the characters in my novel was inspired by this little cutie:

I'm dog-sitting her for a while, along with her big friend:

And of course, I still have my own dog:

Some days it sounds like a dog kennel around here! Perhaps I'll be inspired to write some more dog stories. 

Besides looking after the dogs, I've also been participating in Teachers Write with Kate Messner, Jo Knowles, Gae Polisner and Jen Vincent. It's been very motivating, and has encouraged me to set some goals for August:

1) revise one of my as-yet-unqueried middle grade novels, which is about a girl who heads off into the wilderness for a competition to become the co-host of an adventure television show

2) write a new picture book, to keep up with my goal of 12 picture books in 12 months (In January, I joined Julie Hedlund's 12 x 12 picture book challenge group.)

Between my writing goals, the dogs and setting up my newly renovated classroom, I'm going to be a little busy. So I'm going to take a blog break for August. 

Happy reading and writing! I look forward to returning to a more regular posting schedule in September.