You can’t tell from my blog, but I have been very busy. Honest! Even though honesty may not always be the best policy (see the photo)…

Ceiling art at Casino Luxembourg

In November of last year, my short story “Our Monstrous Family” was published in The 3288 Review, and the following month it was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Winners will be announced in December 2016. Stay tuned!

This past March I applied for the Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford, and I was accepted! The second step in the application process involved applying to join a college—i.e. a smaller, interdisciplinary community to support students’ social and tutorial needs. I am pleased to report that Kellogg College accepted my application. Among their honorary fellows? Umberto Eco. No pressure. The first part of the on-campus residency program starts at the end of September.

In April I completed the first draft of my latest middle grade novel, tentatively titled All Spies Have Super Secret Spymobiles, just in time for the SCBWI Belgium Spring Writer’s Retreat in Barvaux-sur-Ourthe, Belgium. Professional editor and children’s author Catherine Coe attended the retreat and offered an invaluable critique of my first two chapters, which set me to revising with a renewed sense of purpose.

This month I submitted another middle grade novel for consideration in a major literary competition. Since anonymity is required for all submissions, I can’t provide any details at the moment. Prizes will be awarded in December, at which time I’ll be able to share more about the novel and an upcoming publication deal.

Knowing that I spend most of my child-free time during the school day writing at cafés, City Savvy Luxembourg asked me to write them an article about the best cafés with free wifi in Luxembourg. That article just went live this month. Check it out! If you live in Luxembourg, you might be surprised to find that there are a lot more cafés with wifi now than there were just five years ago. My writing career would be a lot lonelier without them.

Now we have arrived at the present, where I’m still keeping busy. This weekend I’ll be participating in SCBWI Belgium’s annual Scrawl Crawl in Redu, Belgium. Hopefully, I can get some feedback on a new piece of flash fiction I wrote for a writer’s prompt competition in July.

Thank you for all your support! I look forward to sharing more good news in the second half of 2016.