A Fun Surprise

Yesterday, there was an unexpected delivery to the convention. Mark Ostreicher and I been working together to write a series of books for middle school students. The series is called 'The Middle School Survival Series' and the first two books are 'My Faith' and 'My Family'. They are short, easy to read books made up of 75 little 'chapters'. The great thing is that students don't need to read the book in any particular order...they can thumb through it and read a chapter that sounds interesting at the time.

Anyway, they weren't supposed to be released until January, but they came in early and a couple of cases actually got dropped off here at the convention. I've been excited about these because I really do think they are pretty good books to put in the hands of students. I spent about an hour reading through them last night because I hadn't looked over the manuscripts sent we finalized them several months ago. I know I helped write these things but they are pretty dang good! I think we really managed to hit the mark in creating something that parents and youth workers can put in the hands of their kids that kids may actually read!

The delivery was, in a neat way, a God-moment for the two of us because earlier that morning we had met for about an hour to finalize the topics and writing assignments for the next two books in the series. To be honest, I think we were both feeling a bit overwhelmed and uncertain as we prepared to head into the next writing season. A few hours later, the first two books arrived and we were reminded that this project really is one we believe in and are excited about!