Text of SOUTH is done!

I swear.

The Younglings of Dunnottar are having fun as they begin their tour of the local communities.

They're meeting new friends and learning a lot - and they've only just started!

The text of SOUTH is finished, formatted, and edited.

Now all I have to do is decide about illustrations and get the cover done.

I've got a bunch of idea photos picked out and may just do a painting or drawing of the things they learn about in this part of their journey.

That would be twining and plaiting and netting and seafood.

The seafood they got to gather are kelp, fish, cockles, mussels, winkles. limpets, and lobster and I've got the idea photos of all of those, plus nets and a boat or two.

Fitting all that into one design might be a challenge but I do want the cover to show that it's the sea we'll be exploring a little in this book.

For the first time I've made a 'chapter book' with the chapter headings and the whole nine yards. I am not going to put a page in listing them, though. They're easy enough to find.

This will be the format I use for the rest of this little tour series so I'm glad I like it.

I might add chapter sketches but am sort of leaning toward NOT doing that.

These aren't picture books; they're for readers who are a bit older, more fourth or fifth grade level.

Writing for 'age groups' is a strange thing. Kids are as variable as the rest of us. One who is a 'reader' will be able to read books that are far beyond the level of his 'age group' or grade in school - or one who isn't a 'reader' might have trouble with books that are well below his 'grade level'. How's a person supposed to choose the words, sentence structure, length and all that when there's such a variance?

I guess I'll just write the books as they come and see how it all goes.

And my own education continues as I go along with the younglings. I learned a lot about the sea and its 'crops' ... next on the agenda is baskets because that's the specialty of SOUTHWEST which is the next stop of the Younglings of Dunnottar. That ought to be an adventure. The one basket I tried to make didn't turn out at all well.

But I'm not required to make baskets; all I have to do is observe and write things down. Thank God.

And thank God there won't be any more masts for Rua to climb for quite a while now; not until they get to Stonehaven will they be back to the sea. 

WHEW!