I am honored to have been asked to participate in the WIP Blog Hop by three of my favorite people:
Roger Laurence: http://threehoodies.blogspot.com/2014/06/wip-bloghop.html

Joleene Naylor: http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/wip-blog-hop/

Kay Kauffman: http://suddenlytheyalldied.com/2014/06/07/wip-blog-hop/

The rules are fairly simple. Answer 7 questions, pick 5 new writers, and mention the one who picked you.

Question 1: What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or historic?

Einarr is my hero in this series, although his Earthly name does change for book to book. In this latest soon-to-be-released novel his name is Laurence Di Draco. He is fictional.

Question 2: When and where is the story set?

This story takes place during the 13th century. As my main character is prone to do, the location changes. He starts out in France, then off to Germany, then to the UK and Alba, and then back to France.

Question 3: What should we know about him/her?

Einarr is an eternal being and can choose to take on mortal form whenever he wishes. He is arrogant, stubborn, and decisive yet he has a kind heart. In battle you can be sure he will win. In this latest book, he is a knight.

Question 4: What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

In this latest story he has been recruited to save the dragons from extinction due to a past life where he lived among them. This is the main conflict. Add to it falling in love (which he didn't expect to do) and an enemy who is jealous of his abilities.

Question 5: What is the personal goal of the character?

His goal never changes. It's always to succeed by fair play, and he never allows himself to be defeated. It's just not an option.

Question 6: Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

The title is Laurence of Dragon Fame. Since I'm in the process of rewrites and edits, there is little of the story that I've blogged about yet.

Question 7: When can we expect the book to be published?

My best guess is summer 2014

I want to thank Roger, Joleene, and Kay for nominating me. As for picking 5 others, well, I'll leave that up to you, the readers. Anyone wishing to participate in this blog hop, please do so. Just refer to my blog post here.

May the muses guide us all into success

I read a post by a dear friend of mine recently on how cursive writing is no longer a requirement in school curriculums.

I just didn't want to believe this so I researched on my own. Sure enough, our government is pushing for no more cursive training. It's because, they say, learning the keyboard is more important to today's youth.

I say, why can't they learn both? I had to.Yes, learning to write in cursive is a struggle but I believe well worth the effort. Taking away cursive makes me wonder when schools will go back to teaching the basics: reading, writing, and arithmetic instead of this overload of gov't useless requirements.

Oh, let's not get me started.

Here is my friend's post per her permission. Elizabeth Maginnis is an editor and author with a childrens book soon to be published. This is from her blog at http://www.desertgirlmedia.com


Kids will lose more than Handwriting Skills when Cursive goes away Posted on June 6, 2014 by Elizabeth I am not surprised that Common Core standards consider handwriting proficiency an unnecessary component of elementary school education beyond the first grade. Keyboarding instruction takes precedence over handwriting now, but ours is a computer-driven society, is it not? I certainly don’t object to keyboarding — it’s a necessary skill for both school and job — but I do lament the inevitable elimination of cursive instruction. If nothing else, the art of writing letters represents a civilized, genteel way of communicating. Why not hold onto something of the gracious to offset the impersonality of our jarring, computer-driven world?

An article in the June 4, 2014 edition of the New York Times raises the question of what children lose when technology-driven communications tools replace pen and paper. It turns out that there’s more at stake than the art of letter writing: their brain development actually suffers. My takeaway from this article is that learning and consistently using cursive exercises the human brain in ways that keyboarding does not. Strong evidence exists to back this up.

Our kids will lose this opportunity when our schools inevitably eliminate cursive instruction from early education lesson plans. Only time will tell how students learn to analyze the world around them without this valuable tool. I also don’t want our kids to disconnect from the softer side of human communication. Sure, technology points the way to the future, but can’t we keep some room for a little bit of our past to balance that future out?

This entry was posted in My Blog and tagged Common Core, cursive instruction, DesertGirl Media, elementary school education, Elizabeth Maginnis, handwriting, handwriting instruction, keyboarding instruction. Bookmark the permalink.

Please leave a comment and let me know how you feel about this latest change in our childrens' school curriculum.
LHR