August is the month where we try to squeeze in everything we still wanted to do over the summer: final camping trips, backpacking excursions, a trip to the nearby theme park, and a few more boating days at the lake.

It is also the month where my kids’ sports ramp up, and I find myself washing all the jerseys every day and trying to keep up with the amount of food disappearing from my pantry.

Somewhere in there, I’m also supposed to order uniforms and school supplies, do my regular work for the Camperdown Program, and work on my own writing projects. It’s not so much a delicate tightrope walk as it is a frantic dash on the back-half of a flaming hamster wheel.

Speaking of Camperdown, we are now accepting applications for the 2026/2027 school year! If you are considering the program, now’s the time to apply. If you know someone who should be considering the program, now is the time to send them the link and tell them to apply.

What I’m Working On:

The day after I sent out the Harbinger, I received edits back from my editorial team. The good news was that they loved the first round of developmental edits! This was a big relief because I made a lot of changes (I removed an entire character and changed the antagonist, quite the bold move after a book has already been bought).

The less-fun news is that the publisher is recommending we bump the publication date to Spring of 2027. If you’re groaning in dismay, just know that I groaned in louder dismay. There are a lot of factors that go into a books’s publication date, and the publishing house is always weighing what other books are releasing at the same time. They don’t want to overwhelm a particular season or give a book less marketing attention than it deserves. It was a bummer to hear, but I’m trusting the process! The Second Greatest Thief will get out there eventually!

Attached to the email was the second round of developmental edits. There were a lot less suggestions this time around, although one of them (adding more plot twists) was particularly tricky. I’ll talk about that process in the Writing Tip section. So, I started working on those edits in mid August, and as of last night (Friday), I turned them back in! Just in time, too, because my thesis students are emailing me their final novels to grade and give feedback on, so that’s what I’m turning my attention to next.

Now, my editor and I will nail down a timeline for the remaining drafts, and I’ll have a clearer idea when my final deadlines will be. I’m relieved to be done with edits for now, and I’m looking forward to not thinking about Thief for a little bit. We needed some space from each other.

^{What I’m Reading:}

(with affiliate links)

I was looking for some recent middle grade mysteries/books with twists, and I grabbed The Bletchley Riddle from the library because Ruta Sepetys is a talented writer and I was curious what she’d do in the middle grade scene. At least, I thought it was middle grade because of the writing style (and the main girl being 14), until I realized it was shelved in young adult (and the main boy is 19). Sometimes I think New York publishing says there are strict rules until they decide to break their own strict rules, haha. Regardless, my 14-year-old enjoyed it a lot, and the historical nods (Bletchley Park and the Enigma cipher) were very fun.

After that, I read The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents because I was in the mood for a Terry Pratchett and that one had been mentioned several times. It was slightly darker than some of his other Discworld novels, but still hilarious and whimsical and strange. All Pratchett features.

Lastly, I read True Grit again because I assigned it to my first-year students (I swapped out News of the World for this because I felt like a change, although that is also a fantastic novel). True Grit is one of those unicorn novels that manages to appeal to many different audiences. It’s simply fantastic and you should read it if you haven’t.

On Audiobook, I finished up Unbroken with the family (we listened to it on roadtrips all throughout the summer). It’s a phenomenal story, although definitely hard to listen to in parts. I’m also currently listening to The Odyssey on audiobook, and I was struck by how very Odyssean Lous Zamperini’s journey was. I did find out recently that there’s a young adult version of the story which might be more suitable if you’re handing it off to your young teen instead of listening and discussing as af family.

Writing Tip:

I thought I’d explain how I handle round two developmental edits since it’s fresh in my mind. These edits come in two forms: the first is an edit letter with bullet points (this one was about two pages long) where my editor explains the problem and offers some solutions. The second is the manuscript with her comments on the side.

First, I read the edit letter and make sure I’ve digested all the larger problems. Then, I go through the manuscript and read the notes on the side. I like to fix any small problems right away to reduce the total number of comments. Plus it really makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something. If all it will take is 5-10 minutes, a few rewritten sentences, etc. then I fix them right away. If the comment is indicative of a larger issue, then I leave it. I start a new word doc with the problems arranged in order from biggest (this story needs a few more twists and turns) to medium (can we see more instances of [redacted]’s philosophy at play throughout the story?) to smallest (too many concussed children, let’s remove some of that).

Now, I can start brainstorming how to fix everything! I like having all the notes on 1-2 pages because of a strange bit of magic that I’ve noticed: I can usually fix the smaller or medium issues when I address the larger issue. So, if the story needs more twists and turns (which it did), and my editor has left a note saying "why did [redacted] know they were going to try to break out?” then maybe I can solve that smaller note by inserting a twist. Ultimately, the more problems you’re able to solve with one big fix, the more cohesive your story will feel.

I’ll admit: the trickiest part of this edit was figuring out how to add more twists and turns. I think it’s because I’ve worked on this story for so long that trying to add more layers felt like sprinkling pistachios on top of a strawberry cobbler. Questions would be asked, and rightly so.

The thing about twists is that they almost always involve people. Who could cause a problem for my main character? Who could betray her or surprise/delight her or die (not that I’ve ever killed anyone off in a story) or actually not be dead? So, I went back through my list of existing characters, and I compared them to the different ‘types’ of characters in novels (antagonist/protagonist/mentor/false ally/false enemy/etc). I found a type I hadn’t used yet, and I picked a side character who wasn’t doing as much as he/she could, and I developed that character into that type so that the twist would feel as organic as possible. Now, we’ll see what my editor thinks!

That’s all for August, see you in September!