Category writing

I paused my entries to consider my focus with this particular blog and have decided that since this blog is a branch of my “author” website, I’m going to stay focused on my writing journey and promoting my upcoming book publications with this blog. My job on teaching, childcare, and family will host entries on those themes and you can always catch up with me there. https://www.tsladventures.net/blog

I returned to the writing scene with huge ambition after not having picked up a “pen” in eleven years. I have been writing since I was thirteen. I wrote my first book in a five-subject notebook, which I still have today. I was schooled in English in the ninth grade by a well-respected teacher and author, Daniel Hayes, and this inspired me further. Through college and my decade-plus teaching career I wrote multiple manuscripts, queried agents, saw the good, bad, and ugly with snake oil agents, and editors, won a short story competition, published multiple local articles in magazines, and tried my hand at vanity publishing with my middle grade novel Racing the Rope when print-on-demand technology was just emerging. I have read a lot, and researched a lot.

Then came my childcare business, TSL Adventures, and as I developed this passion, I let my writing go. I was also raising kids so it was a busy time. I feel like I have accomplished many more goals with this business than I ever planned. This coupled with life changes, inspired me to get back in the writing game.

I have spent these last two years developing two manuscripts, both with series potential at a time when self-publication and the business development of writing centered around this modality has amazing potential. I’m excited now to be assembling a team of people to work with to get my writing fully realized and appropriately marketed. What’s more, It has been amazing to see how the eleven-year pause has changed my perceptions on who I am as a writer and what kinds of projects I want to invest in.

As my journey continues I look forward to reflecting on the past, present, and future dreams in the industry. I hope even as the best of this is still emerging that I can inspire as I aspire. I know there are a lot of gifted people out there, hoping to make their dreams come true. We’re all in this together so stay true and follow through!

I can’t help it. I have to plug the book I wrote 16 years ago. I hadn’t read it since 2008 so to pick it up and read it again was an awesome journey back in time and when I cracked open the book I wasn’t sure what I would be in for. Me, sixteen years ago. Was I prepared for that? No, but it was a lot of fun.

I’m writing adult fiction now, but when I wrote Racing the Rope, I was a fifth grade teacher and writing several manuscripts for middle grade children. It was who I was back then, and what I enjoyed writing. Also, I was inspired by watching my kids at recess jumping rope. I was also inspired by the diverse and worldly fifth graders I had that first year at the private Catholic school I was teaching in at the time.

In 2006, POD (print on demand) technology was emergent and I took advantage of it. I had my book edited, published, and I sold it to the very kids who inspired it. I also sold 75 copies to a local school district who had me in during their Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser. So, it was a lot of fun. When I wrote it, I didn’t realize Disney was going to be releasing a movie called Jump In with similar themes, but I took that as that as a good sign.

Anyway, I wrote Racing the Rope with my fifth graders in mind and each was a character in the book. Granted, many of the characters were not portrayed in a flattering light. They were sassy, obnoxious, rude, self-centered, gender-biased, and arrogant. So, when I told my fifth graders to try to figure out which character was them in the book, they sought to discover the truth of how I viewed them that year. When they realized who they were, they lovingly yelled at me and we argued quite a bit. Of course, I exaggerated on their most obvious traits for comedic effect, but they observed my point well. My children and I bonded strongly that year, but they were a challenging group. Eleven years old back then, they are now heading toward their thirtieth year! Holy cow.

Racing the Rope tells the story of a boy, Geran (short for Geranium) who crosses gender boundaries when he joins a female-dominated jump rope competition, much to the chagrin of his “all boy” classmates. Though when they find a good cause to gender unite over jump roping, they bond as a whole class to show their love for a teacher’s sick child.

I am more than happy to say that after revisiting the story, I am enthralled to be revitalizing it and adding it to my future roster of proposed publications. It makes me happy because I had written close to fifteen manuscripts during those years, all of which I lost when the floppy disks containing my projects disappeared. Racing the Rope survived, and so it remains as one of the gems of that time period. At least for me anyway.

Feel free to buy it and check it out. Forgive the awful cover art and have fun with the story! Suitable for children ages ten and up. Written for the age 10-12 market.

https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/260561-Racing-The-Rope

I am comfortable enough with overseas travel now that I can honestly say, I don’t think I’ll ever book another trip through a travel company again. Not that I actually booked with a travel company this time around. I just bought a Groupon and unfortunately those packages are sold by random travel agencies. They didn’t sell me a tour group, mind you. Tour groups are annoying. All this agency did was book my hotels and flights basically, and then said screw you figure out the rest on your own. Which is fine, but the trip I purchased in Greece was an 8-day excursion to three different locations, two of them islands.

The problem is, the visitation of three locations in Greece is not practical for an 8-day visit. Especially when two locations are islands that require hours long ferry rides…ferry rides that cancel when the wind blows hard. At this point, who knows if I’ll even get back to Athens in the morning like I’m supposed to. So there were numerous problems with the ferry transfers and I spent almost a full day’s worth of travel in the economy section of a ferry boat. Which is actually better than the economy section of a plane, but still not fun.

So, why did this agency sell a tour of Greece to three separate locations given the annoyance that most travelers would have with so much travel in a week’s time? You got me there. I thought these ferry transfers were twenty minute rides, like the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. Lord, I never dreamed they would have put me on ferries that were five hours a rip. And then one ferry didn’t go because it was windy. What in the world? Stop it. Don’t sell a tour of several Greek islands for customers who only have a week. What are you doing? Go to Athens for a week. Go to Mykonos for a week. Go to Santorini for a week. But for God sake’s don’t go to all three in a week.

Listen people, travel is easy now. You can find a place you want to go…research your hotels and book them online. Book your air flight. You have GPS to get you anywhere on foot or by car. You have the Uber app that works most places in the world to get from point A to point B, you have apps that translate, and foreign people all around the world who speak English better than many Americans. You can do this easier than you can probably bake a cake. So, don’t use a travel agency. If you do use Gate1. But, I recommend you do it yourself. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and headache. Because at the end of the day, these travel companies are just agents sitting behind a desk while you are out in the world dealing with all the problems they cause with their nonsense. Most of their workers probably never been further than the local Walmart.

You can always email to and I’ll take you on my next trip….well, okay, maybe not. But, you get the point.

Anyway, I worked for a sub shop company for 6 years of my life. I was aged 16-22. I got fired twice because I was a punk kid who knew everything and I used to jump in the trash, but they loved me so always rehired me. In spite of my transgressions, I was a hard worker. No matter what I was doing, whether it was playing an instrument, running a race, sweeping up trash, or making a sub…I wanted to do it right and excel. (Oddly, this initiative never translated to desiring a 4.0 student ranking in college. That’s another analysis to look forward to) But making a sub! Now that’s fun.

Anyway, while working for the sub shop I was trained in the delicate art of sub-making. A slice of the bread. A spread of lettuce, four tomatoes, a spread of onions, a pre-determined number of meat slices or tuna balls, a pre-determined number of cheese pieces (one strip for American, four provolone, two swiss…wow I still remember), the dressing, the final cut, and BAM! Wrap and load.

Anyway, for efficiency sake, making subs in record time correctly was important to me and the company. Why? Because if you ever waited in a McDonald’s drive thru line pretty much….anywhere…it’s easy to observe that the extra $10 an hour per employee doesn’t buy efficiency. Just more whining. That’s another blog entry too.

It must have been my early knack for offering efficiency in service that drove me to want to be the fastest sub maker in the company. As it turned out, the sub company hosted a huge event at the Marriott, and I qualified for the sub making races. Yahoo! I forget my qualifying time, but I was making a sub in under ten seconds.

First prize was $1000. Second prize was $500.. Third prize was…a golden coke bottle. What? Well, you can guess by the title where I placed, but there is a story for this.

You see, they provided brand new bread knives for the competition. So, on go, I picked up the shiny serrated knife and sliced not only the top of the bread off, but my finger as well, leaving a gash that I temporarily ignored because I was too busy trying to win the race. And guess what…with blood spatter all over the sub and cutting board, I won the first round! Don’t worry, nobody ate the tainted sub.

Anyway, I knew I had to compete in the semi-finalist round so I bandaged up my finger and shoved my extra-long, puffy digit into the glove, and pressed on. Unfortunately, with the bandage hinderance, I was not able to secure my place in the finals. Yet, I did win third place in the company, which earned me the honors of a golden coke bottle along with a couple of stitches.

I still have that coke bottle today (along with a scar on my finger). The bottle and battle scar serve as a reminder that we must never give up. In spite of the blood, sweat, and tears. We must always press on.

*featured picture is not MY coke bottle. I’m abroad so had to act quickly to bind a substitute picture.