'Allo friends.

Crazy times. It's August already. How am I doing? Fine...thanks for asking. Is the 2nd installment of my underground kids book ready for reading yet? Nay...but give me a couple of weeks and you can see the latest soon enough.

Soon enough.

News in Brief:

- I got a little tired of waiting for the agent lady here in Minneapolis to get back to me. She's had my manuscript since April and on Cinco De Mayo (that's May 5th for my non-Spanish-holiday-recognizing-readers) she told me that she would read it within a couple of weeks. Lies! All lies! So, I e-mailed her and just said 'Hey, how's it going over there? etc...' This was 2 weeks ago. I haven't heard from her yet. I may have ruffled a feather or two there.

- I finished my 2nd draft (red-lining) of my book and have been pounding the pavement trying to get a readable 3rd draft available to the peeps. I'm embarassed to say it's taking me a long time to get it all done and ready...but quality takes time, ya know? In a couple of weeks, it'll be a year since I started Book 2, so I guess I'm not doing TOO shabby.

- I'm itching to get working on Book 3. Crazy. I thought I'd change directions a bit and work on another project, but this one is beating down the door. Book 3 will see our hero in all kinds of crazy adventures that will drive Books 4 & 5. It's a big machine that's all going to start coming together.

- A teacher in Texas is interested in reading my book to her 3rd grade class this year. Another teacher here in Minnesota is going to do the same with her class as well. They promise to have the kids send me e-mails letting me know what they liked and/or thought stunk about my book. Solid!

- I had a HUGE revelation while on my road trip to Colorado. I basically know how the series is going to end around Book 9 or (gulp!) 10. Wow. Do I really have that many ideas in my over-sized noggin? Absolutely, friend.

Here is my dilemna and I need to start making some progress in this department. If I've got my manuscript sitting on 3 agents desks, do I keep sending stuff out to other publishing houses and agents? Or do I sit back, give them some time while I work on other projects to get back to me? I feel like I'm slacking when I'm not sending a package out every week, but I don't know what else to do.

Any advice would be mucho appreicato...

Alas. The clock is ticking. Back to the grind.