Float All the Way Home
I’m fixing to float all the way home.
I’ve been real excited lately because my Young Adult Fiction Novel, A Yellow Watermelon, has been recently added as a listing by Renaissance Learning as an Accelerated Reader, which is a program that makes success in reading easy for kids.
Students select books that match their reading levels, read them at their own pace, and then take a quiz developed by Accelerated Reader. These quizzes monitor and provide for teachers and students immediate feedback regarding reading performance and vocabulary growth.
On top of that, last week I signed a contract with New South Books to publish my second novel, a sequel to A Yellow Watermelon, with a working title of The Secret Of The Satilfa. It should be out just before Christmas this year.
You know what they say, things come in three’s, and it must be true, because I just got a letter from The Georgia Writers Association (GWA) informing me I had just been nominated for the 45th annual Georgia Author Of The Year Award (GAYA) in the Young Adult Fiction category.
The GAYA is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the nation, and the oldest in the Southeastern United States. I’ll find out if I made the grade on June 13 at the GWA’s annual awards banquet at Kennesaw State University.
But none of the above is what’s making me float home. I had picked myself up a head of cabbage, some fresh corn and a bag of Vidalia Onions at Ingles and was departing the store when two young boys, both of whom looked to be nine or 10, passed me as I was exiting the store.
They were wearing Piedmont Academy shirts and one of them stopped in his tracks. His eyes lit up, he smiled real big and began waving at me. I didn’t know what was going on so I smiled back and said “Hello, boys,” as I passed them.
Just before the sliding glass doors closed I heard the one with the bright eyes tell his friend, “That was the author of A Yellow Watermelon!”
Money can’t buy that, and that’s why I’m fixing to be floating on toward home.