What a response! {CELEBRATE This Week: 218}

I'm glad you are here to celebrate! 

Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. 

Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.

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I have this belief about blogging -- really about life -- that we shouldn't make things more complicated than they need to be. I sit here torn about celebrating #EnticingWriters for another week. It feels a little haughty.

I cycle through the week and make a list of celebrations -- there are many. I sit here torn about celebrating something other than #EnticingWriters because it feels a little inauthentic.

Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers was released last week and the responses from the field have soothed my tattered writer's heart. You are so kind.

This is the hardest thing I've ever written. I wanted to write truth, but not just things that are true for me. I wanted Universal Truth. Until this week, I wondered if I hit the mark. Is it just a book full of stories or is it a book that will be a catalyst for change? 

I've been sending links of the sweet things to my parents. Andy has been following along in social media. I keep coming across these beautiful images of my words or quotes from the book and my usual response is: "I can't believe I wrote that."

Clare and Tammy's book review made me teary.

When you read something written from the heart, it takes your breath away.   The stories the writer shares draw you in and lines from the text replay in your head long after you finished reading.  We often get this feeling when we read a memoir, a story, or a poem, but a professional book?  Yes, when we read Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers it took our breath away. 

Michelle's sweet opening to her interview made pushing through the draft worth it.

There are many professional development books available to learn about mastering our craft of teaching.  However, there are only a few that make a true impact -- and this is one book that weaves raw truth, research, practical ideas, and story all in one {cute} little package. 

I feel so humbled and grateful that my stories are making things different in your corner of the world. I appreciated Leigh Anne opening her corner of the world to us by sharing a story from her classroom.

This I celebrate: the hard of life is turned into something beautiful simply by sharing our stories.

Stenhouse is giving away lots of copies of Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers. Just follow along on the blog tour and leave comments on the posts for your chance at a free copy.

Blog Tour Stops from Last Week

• Clare & Tammy http://assessmentinperspective.com/?page_id=45​
• Michelle Nero http://literacyzone.blogspot.com​
• Leigh Anne Eck http://adayinthelifeof19b.blogspot.com​

I'm hoping you'll join in for this FB Live event!

11/18 (Sat) STENHOUSE FB LIVE at 1:30pm (CST) with Shawna Coppola and Stenhouse FB Page​

Upcoming Blog Tour Stops

11/20 (M) Mary Helen Gensch https://booksavors.wordpress.com​

11/22 (W) Jen Vincent http://www.teachmentortexts.com/​

11/27 (M) Julie Johnson http://www.raisingreadersandwriters.com

(November Newsletter -Write About https://www.writeabout.com​)

I hope you'll take time to celebrate this week! Share your links below.

#EnticingWriters BLOG TOUR {CELEBRATE This Week: 217}

I'm glad you are here to celebrate! 

Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. 

Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.

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Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers is going on tour! Check out all of the blog stops...not to mention I'm writing a feature for the Write About November newsletter. 

Here are a few of the reasons this blog tour spurred a little family happy dance in our kitchen.

• Stenhouse has generously donated TWO BOOKS to be given away at each stop. Follow along for your chance for a free book!
• Along with the free book comes a free registration to my new course: Enticing Writers Book Club. It starts in January.
• Mid-tour there is a FACEBOOK LIVE event at 1:30 pm (CST) straight from the Stenhouse booth at NCTE. Shawna Coppola will be with me as we talk about Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers.
• Check out a full preview of the book on the Stenhouse website. (If you decide to purchase the book, forward your receipt to enticing writers[at]gmail[dot]com for a free registration to my new course, Enticing Writers Book Club.

Here are the links to each stop.

11/13 (M) Clare & Tammy http://assessmentinperspective.com/?page_id=45​

11/15 (W) Michelle Nero http://literacyzone.blogspot.com​

11/17 (F) Leigh Anne Eck http://adayinthelifeof19b.blogspot.com​

11/18 (Sat) STENHOUSE FB LIVE at 1:30pm (CST) with Shawna Coppola and Stenhouse FB Page​

11/20 (M) Mary Helen Gensch https://booksavors.wordpress.com​

11/22 (W) Jen Vincent http://www.teachmentortexts.com/​

11/27 (M) Julie Johnson http://www.raisingreadersandwriters.com

(November Newsletter -Write About https://www.writeabout.com​)

I'd love if you would help me spread the word! 

Share your celebrations below.

Darkness to Light {CELEBRATE This Week: 216}

I'm glad you are here to celebrate! 

Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. 

Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.

*******

I want to remember this moment. 

They are each holding a copy of my brand new book, Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers. It's almost a little too much. 

These guys, the ones I share breathing space with, are the whole reason the book exists.

They didn't make it easy to write.

The kids each flipped through the book looking for the stories with their names.

I wrote a circular ending to Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers. I didn't want to write a circular ending, but life has a way of turning things inside out.

I learned through blogging to write endings. I learned through blogging that sometimes, whether we're ready or not, the ending has to come. The same is true when writing books.

It's true for life, too.

Sometimes it's time for an ending and we don't want it. I know about that kind of ending. I've sat at too many funerals when the ending arrived and I didn't want it. 

The same was true for Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers. It wasn't the ending I wanted, but it was the ending I had to offer when it was time for it to end.

This moment, the one where my kids from hard places held my book in their hands and read their stories of hope and courage, this moment feels right. 

"I like the way you wrote the acknowledgements," Andy said. "They gave me a little lump in my throat."

"It's not easy turning darkness to light," I said. 

"No," Andy agreed. "Your book, though, I think it has the potential to do just that -- to turn darkness to light."

I hope it does. I hope this book lands in hands across the globe. I hope it helps you turn darkness to light in your corner of the world. This world needs more light. And teachers are just the ones to shine it.

Through November 30, if buy the book and forward your receipt to enticingwriters{at}gmail{dot}com, you will receive a free registration to my new course, Enticing Writers Book Club.

Book Bonuses {CELEBRATE This Week: 215}

I'm glad you are here to celebrate! 

Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. 

Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.

*******

Last Tuesday, Stenhouse Publishers hosted me for a FB Live event. Each time I do something online to connect with teachers, I love it more. 

Seriously, it is SO. MUCH. FUN.

In case you missed it, I included an archived copy above. 

I was inspired to create a new course to go along with Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers. It's the ENTICING WRITERS BOOK CLUB. The book club will officially begin in January, and content will release each week for 6 weeks.

We're going to have all kinds of fun. Each week of Book Club, I will release a video along with discussion topics. One of the things I love about book clubs are the side conversations. That's what this book club is about. Not only will we dig into content, but I'd like to share the behind the scenes details of my writing process, the inside jokes and the way my thinking has evolved since writing Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers.

There's a comment feed within the course, er, Book Club (!), and a private FB Group so we can keep the conversation going.

HERE'S THE TOTALLY AWESOME DEAL...

If you buy Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers by November 30 and send the receipt to:

enticingwriters{at}gmail{dot}com

(make it look like a conventional email address)

...then I will send you a coupon for a FREE registration to the Enticing Writers Book Club!

And another totally awesome deal...

If you buy Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers through Stenhouse (click here) and use the code ENTICING, you will receive the eBook for FREE! (This deal ends October 31.)

If you want a preview copy with shareable images, just fill out the form below. (Don't worry...you won't get double emails from me if you are already on my email list. My Email Service Provider is really awesome.)

Also, the full book is available for preview on the Stenhouse site.

My celebration is sending this book into the world. It's going to be a BIG BONUS celebration if everything works like I intend for it to work. Share your celebration links below.

Book Stack {CELEBRATE This Week: 210}

I'm glad you are here to celebrate! 

Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. 

Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.

*******

This week I'm celebrating a rich book stack.

I can't believe I have COLBY SHARP'S new book in my hands. I opened it late last night while I was waiting for my daughter to get out of band practice. I'm torn between wanting to give it away to every single person I know. I keep reading one more bit and then a little more. This is going to be a sweet resources for teachers of writers in all grades.

Brene Brown's new book was released. I can't wait to read it. I know I should try and savor it, but instead I'm sure I'll gulp it in one big bite.

One day I will be in the same room as Simon Sinek. I hope you know his TED Talk regarding The Golden Circle. This gem is written by David Mead & Peter Docker and guides you in finding your Why...and helping teams and organizations find their Whys. It's written like a workbook and I'm inspired as a human and a writer.

You may remember that I've been inspired by cacti. Christy Rush-Levine did and she gave me this sweet calendar. I'm using it as a writing notebook of sorts -- collecting all kinds of ideas each day as possibilities to write about. My brain is exploding with ideas and there is no way I will ever remember them all. I like the way I'm encouraged to collect snippets so I can have a place to jump off into blog posts, articles and book chapters.

If you haven't had a chance to get the preview of my new book, feel free to do it now. Just add you email to the box below. Right now Stenhouse is offering a free eBook with the pre-purchase of a hard copy! 

Share your celebrations below...

The Ed Collab {CELEBRATE This Week: 187}

I'm glad you are here to celebrate! 

Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. 

Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.

*******

Today I get to talk about ENTICING HARD-TO-REACH WRITERS as part of the The Ed Collaborative Spring Gathering. All day long, The Ed Collaborative is offering cutting edge sessions free for educators. Check out the agenda here. I am so excited to be a part of the generosity and learning of The Ed Collaborative. 

Thank you, Chris Lehman and The Ed Collab team. You are what is good and right about our profession.

Also, make sure to scroll to the bottom of the agenda page. You will find the adopted charities for the day. As a way to say thank you to The Ed Collab, feel free to donate to one of the day's charities.

I'm looking forward to sharing the way my storylines as a momma, teacher and writer intersect to help kids -- all kids -- write their stories and use their voices to make the world a better place. The information I'm sharing is straight from my heart and straight from the pages of my new book, which is in production now. 

If you want to join me at 1:00 (EST), I'll be sharing how to get past the behaviors of kids who don't want to write and instead meet them in their hearts and help them to know their voices matter.

Share your celebrations below.

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Spring Break Word Count [CELEBRATE This Week: 186]

I'm glad you are here to celebrate! 

Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. 

Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.

*****

This year I've had the special treat to meet with two fifth grade girls who love writing. We meet weekly(ish), talk about working the words, write, and share. They each are working on fiction stories.

They remind me of how simple it is to invest in the lives of others.

I issued a spring break word count challenge. If they can write more words than I do over spring break, then I'll buy them lunch. They bargained to add their words together to beat me. We made plans for writing time and determined the parameters for what words count (notebook writing, story writing, random scenes, articles, and long letters to mail) and what words don't count (text messages, grocery lists, or typing from notebook to Google Docs).

I plan to write 1000 words each day. There will be notebook work, articles, blog posts, and short stories for a new book idea I'm toying with. I also must write acknowledgements and work out the closing thoughts for The Next Book (which is in production). 

Oh! It has a title that is closer to being official -- Enticing Hard-to-Reach Writers.

I'll be writing in the early morning hours, sneaking in mid-afternoon articles, and writing before bed. I think this is a good way to spend Spring Break 2017.

Happy writing!

New Writing Buddy {CELEBRATE This Week: 184}

I'm glad you are here to celebrate! 

Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. 

Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.

*****

I waver between a love and hate relationship with stacking Friday night words. All day I was looking forward to writing tonight, but when the time finally came it was a struggle.

The boys are putting finishing touches on Sam's Pinewood Derby car. The race is tomorrow. Sam is making adjustments, Andy is his assistant and Jordan is the DJ, selecting heavy metal tunes off Andy's playlist.

I might be procrastinating. Finally I pull out my computer and settle on the couch. Sam brings me a Lego creation he built last night. "Here's a new writing partner to keep you company," he said, walking the husky pup across my keyboard and setting her beside me.

"Kids at school are giving me free build Lego challenges." A husky was last night's challenge.  Then Sam said, "I know finishing things can be hard, so this guy will keep you company as you finish your book."

It must be a little magic, because suddenly I have a few paragraphs. Writing always gives more than it takes. We just have to make space.

I hope you make space to celebrate this weekend. Share your link below.