Thank YOU, too!

...I wrote about this before, but I got two reminders of why I write for kids today. First, I got my royalty check. Thanks Darby Creek. When you do this for a living, those checks are LITERALLY a godsend. Hooray. I sold more than 5,000 more copies of TALES OF THE CRYPTIDS between July 2008 and December 2008, and the book is three years old. Man, if publishers would just let me keep making these kinds of books -- we'd make a lot of money together AND the kids, those reluctant readers (mostly boys) would keep BUYING and READING. That's a win/win, isn't it? This Alien book is all but written. Doesn't anyone WANT IT? Hope I find the editor that does soon.

In the meantime, the second reason -- the second great envelope I got in the mail today. I got GREAT thank you notes from kids from Holmes Elementary -- 4th and 4th graders in Ms. Harper's class. They get it, ya know? And I love them to pieces. Check out the thank you notes they sent me, and these are only two of them...one from Billy and one from Carrie.

Yeah, I do it to make a living, even if it is pretty modest. But REALLY I do it for these kids. In that respect, I'm richer than I ever thought I would be. And the kids are worth it. Absolutely.