Towards the end of last school year, I revisited an idea for a collaborative student novel when I received a serendipitous email from Opera Philadelphia. They offered schools free tickets for the 2015 season. All we needed was transportation and some context.

I wondered if this year’s students could reimagine an opera as a middle grade novel.

After exploring the costs of paying for professional editing services, I chose CreateSpace because of the menu of options regarding editing and design services. Additionally, by going through CreateSpace I knew we could publish our classroom novel on Amazon.

In August I had an even one-hundred students in my class. I calculated out the cost of editing and designing a 25,000 word novel–just over $2,100. I sought funding from our student council.

In my formal proposal, I established that each student in my class would write a 250-word section of the novel as…

Hi! I miss you guys. I miss this space. I miss shaping my disjointed thoughts into some sort of order, but . . . well. With a 6-week-old, I am more exhausted than I ever thought possible. My mom once told me that, reflecting back on my own newborn days, she couldn’t believe she could be so tired and still physically standing.

But Mr. Ollie is napping after his 6 a.m. feeding. I had the option of returning to the couch to try and catch a little more shut-eye, too, or popping on here to check in . . . and I chose you, friends. Anyone who has spent time caring for a newborn understands my grand gesture, right?

Oliver has been home for three weeks today. By the weekend, he will have been with us longer than he was in the hospital, which feels like a major milestone…