School's Out For Summer

Let's celebrate with a double book giveaway!

May 20, 2025

Life has a funny way of working out sometimes. Funny, as in it’s cyclical, bringing the old back around and making it new once again. If you haven’t noticed, this is also true of publishing. If you wait long enough, trends come back around and the genres you thought were long dead become highly sought after again.

For example, over the past year, I’ve come full circle back to my first book, THE TRAVELER, a dystopian romance. This book seemed to capture the heart of many a beta reader circa 2015, but as I quickly learned when I queried it, dystopian was going out of style by then. Fast forward to 2024, my agent, who’d read it as an intern back then, reached out, wanting to work with me on this book because she’d never forgotten about it and knew that now might be the best time to revive it.

Books aside, life also showed its cyclical nature when my work circumstances recently took a big turn, bringing me back into public education—something I thought I was done with for good. I left teaching 15 years ago to stay home with my young kids, but being home also gave me time to focus on my passion: writing. Thus, I became a freelance writer (and eventually, editor) and also began writing books. I’ve loved the flexibility of my writing and editing work, but over the past year, I’ve seen a considerable decline in writing and editing opportunities. I had no choice but to seek other income options.

When I saw a math tutoring position posted for the school district I last worked for, I decided to jump on it. While English and writing may be my passion, I did teach math (as well as science and a few other subjects) many moons ago. As a student, math never came easy to me, but I found that, as a teacher, I was especially well-suited to breaking it down into small, easier-to-understand chunks for my students.

So long story short, I’ve been on a break from writing for the last couple of months (including here on Substack) as I’ve been busy tutoring 7th and 8th graders in all things fractions and decimals. However, as of last Thursday, school is officially out for summer (for me, at least!), and I’m currently making the transition back to doing more writing again (including lots of edits on THE TRAVELER again this summer).

It’s no secret that summer has always been my favorite season. Perhaps it’s because, as a former teacher, I’ve never truly gotten out of “school mode”, but it’s also because I love swimming and hiking and just being outdoors in summertime. Needless to say, I pumped for everything sunshine and warm weather! I think my horses are too. :-)

Double Book Giveaway

So . . . to celebrate the end of the school year and my favorite season, I’m doing a double book giveaway! The first book I’m giving away is my friend and fellow educator, Shana Youngdahl’s newest YA: A CATALOG OF BURNT OBJECTS.

A few years back, I won a copy of Shana’s debut YA novel, AS MANY NOWS AS I CAN GET in a giveaway like this one and fell head over heels for it. Shana’s storytelling is beautiful, heartfelt, and poetic. So of course I was thrilled to hear about the recent release of her newest YA novel, A CATALOG OF BURNT OBJECTS. This book definitely did not disappoint, and it’s so, so timely given the increase in wildfires and other natural disasters in recent years.

Here’s the blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Caprice wants to piece her family back together now that her older brother has returned home, even as she resents that he ever broke them apart. Just as she starts to get a new footing—falling in love for the first time, uncertainly mending her traumatized relationship with her brother, completing the app that will win her a college scholarship and a job in tech—wildfires strike Sierra, her small California town, forcing her to reckon with a future that is impossible to predict.

A love story of many kinds, and a reflection of the terrifying, heartbreaking Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise, California, where the author grew up, this is a tale that looks at what is lost and discovers what remains, and how a family can be nearly destroyed again and again, and still survive.

And . . . to celebrate the 4 year anniversary of NOT OUR SUMMER’s release (I can’t believe it’s been out for four whole years now!), I’d love to throw in a signed hard copy of this YA contemporary as well.

The blurb:

Five trips, two cousins, one family feud, and a summer that will change their lives forever.

It's bad enough that estranged cousins Becka and KJ see each other at their grandfather's funeral, but when he leaves them a bucket list of places to visit together over the summer, so they can earn their inheritance, it seems like things are about to get much worse.

However, with each trip the cousins complete -- like riding mules into the Grand Canyon or encountering a bear and a hot tour guide at Yellowstone -- they steadily learn about and begin to trust one another. That is until the truth behind Grandpa's bucket list, and their family feud, is revealed, testing Becka and KJ far beyond their limits. Will they ultimately find a way to accept each other or will their grandpa's wish to mend his divided family end up buried alongside him inside his grasshopper green casket?

Want to win both of these books? Just make sure you’re following both Shana and me, and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway here. (Open to U.S. entrants only please.)