I just love working alongside another author, especially when that author is half my height! I also love that title. ‘Author.’ I’ve worked so hard for so many years to meet that mark. But I also spent my years sprinkling that word around, congratulating all the young authors I worked with in my classroom from kindergarten all the way up to sixth grade. They sat in the ‘Author’s Chair,’ called themselves ‘authors,’ did book signings with bound copies of their carefully crafted books. We even had popcorn…which I burnt one time at Sandy Hook School, sending every fire engine in Newtown to my school! My principal was not amused! But, that event, made for a good story! And because it was only smoke and not fire, we were able to laugh about it in the end.

This little person sitting next to me in the picture was the very first person to receive a copy of my new book, IVY LEIGH EVER AFTER! She was so taken by the fact that I was actually the author of this book that she got out her markers and called for paper! She was an author too, with a title and an idea and boy did her brain get cooking. Within about 15 minutes or so, she had pages and illustrations, and lordy—did her story shine.

I just wish I could write like that! It’s taken me years of seeing myself as a Writer, but not an Author, even though I regularly shared my work. And there were completed manuscripts. But. I’d never made it over the finish line! Finally, with a little…no, a LOT of encouragement and a team of incredible professionals, I can now call myself an Author.

The sweetness of opening that box and seeing that cover, my name, the book jacket flap with my picture…just beyond belief. It’s taken me years, long hours, and a constant struggle against the Critic, that told me so many times, ‘no way!’ The moral of the story, don’t doubt who you are! In the words of my four-year-old grandson, ‘just do it!’ And so, I finally did!

#IVY LEIGH EVER AFTER #Middle Grade Fiction #Young Authors #Writers Workshop #Classroom Visits