Anne polished up Aurelia, argued with the hero about the ending — she lost the argument — and watched with awe as the people from Penguin turned her manuscript into a gorgeous book. She then wrapped up Academy 7, and — oh, yes — tackled Hamlet with her second class of sixth graders. This was followed by annual class productions of The Tempest, Macbeth, and The Taming of the Shrew.
Meanwhile, Anne survived a tempest of her own as she and her characters battled their way out of the Asyan Forest in her third novel, Exile. They escaped at last and made it to the final page of their manuscript almost eight whole hours before her first deadline for her second contract with Penguin. Yikes! This allowed Anne and all her characters to celebrate Academy 7 winning the Oregon Spirit Award for the best YA novel of the year by an Oregon author.
It also plunged Anne into her fourth novel, Salvation, which went astoundingly smoothly, right up until the main character refused to go home. Anne and her other main character helped him get there, though, and Salvation zipped off to Anne’s second editor from Penguin — the outstanding and talented Kristin Gilson. Sadly, during this time, two of Anne’s best friends (the authors of the previous bio page) passed away.
Happily, I (the current lion king of her heart) braved the savannah of her parents’ backyard and volunteered to rescue her. She accepted my offer and brought me home to her cute yellow house where I introduced her to the joys of pulling stickers out of extra-long kitty fur. Anne then traded her full-time teaching position for freelance teaching — school author visits, artist-in-residencies, writing conferences, and filling in for other fabulous educators when they need her. (She is also rather gifted at tossing me a ball of yarn). Anne now has literally thousands of wonderful students — many of whom have their own stories in their heads.
She also, of course, has the best readers in the world. Anne is currently wrapping up Redemption, the third and final novel to Aurelia and Robert’s trilogy, and she is ecstatic to have their original editor, Angelle, providing insight into their epic conclusion. Anne hopes you all love it because she still has a plethora of stories in her head insisting upon escape.