What's Next?

I am developing a program for upper grade elementary and middle schoolers on the value of writing.  The program will include information on how the publishing business works, and why it is so important to do your “homework” since luck is usually made it doesn’t just happen. 

Maybe you’re wondering why I choose to write an anthology of Chinese folktales.  Well, China entered my home early in my life when I was a youngster in the form of a tall, handsome woman who had been my mother’s best friend in nursing school.  Edith lived her life in China as the daughter of missionaries.  She would visit us every other year, tell us stories and bring my sisters and me little gifts from China – I still have some of them. 

During my life, my interest in China has been piqued several times - after Edith mysteriously vanished and no longer came to visit, trying to learn how to use chopsticks in sixth grade when we went to a Chinese restaurant as a field trip, when my grown daughter visited China to learn about indigenous medicine.  So when I was invited to travel to China in April, 2008, after careful deliberation and conversations with my daughter, I decided to go.  How glad I am that I did!  It changed my life.