Writing and publishing in the new year

In 2010, I self-published Lost in Lexicon. In 2011, Scarletta Press published a second edition of Lost in Lexicon and Harvard Education Press published a book I pulled together and co-edited, New Frontiers in Formative Assessment. So that means I should publish 3 books in 2012, right?

Yes. Coming by autumn 2012 will be my science-based mystery for upper elementary kids, The Desperate Case of the Diamond Chip. Around the same time, I'll publish a kids' biography of my father called Do Something Wonderful. Meantime, in September, Scarletta Press will come out with The Ice Castle, which is a Lexicon sequel.

The Ice Castle is written, edited, copy-edited, etcetera. All that remains are illustrations and proofing, Advance Reader Copies, reviews, endorsements, and all that other time-consuming stuff. The Diamond Chip is written and edited, with illustrations underway. Go Off and Do Something Wonderful is about two-thirds written, though we'll be presenting a selection of chapters in English and Mandarin at the Taiwan International Book Fair. Science experiments to do at home will accompany the latter two books. Peter Wong, one of the Tumblehome Learning founding partners, has already designed the first set of experiments and will be working on the second soon.

What else? Well, I have a YA coming-of-age novel called The Beechwood Flute that needs a final draft before it can find a good home. I could spend a couple of months on that somewhere. And this year I also have to write the third Lexicon book. I can tell you the title - The Floating Islands - but not much more.

On the Lexicon front, 2012 will also see the completion of the Lost in Lexicon musical, which is going to be really exciting. I hope I'll be able to play one or two songs from the musical-under-construction at the the US Science and Engineering Festival Book Fair in DC at the end of April.

So you can see that this is going to be a very busy year of writing, publishing, and promotion for me. Not only that, but Tumblehome Learning is really taking off. Besides my own two books, we'll be publishing four to five others in 2012. We're working to establish a Taiwan office, and we're reaching out to potential partners in Korea, France, and Germany. This week we'll have our first face-to-face board meeting since our founding last July.

And for all you out there who love science and writing for young people, Tumblehome Learning will begin accepting manuscripts in mid-January. Take a look at our guidelines and give us a thought.