Yesterday morning I sent out queries for a new story — my first early reader — and at lunch I started working on a new manuscript. I thought it would be a picture book, and it still might, though at this point it’s too soon to tell.

This new story was inspired by one of Dianna Aston‘s — partially by the content of her story, but mostly by its impact. I can do light and breezy and funny, but recently it seems like I’ve shied away from stories in which the stakes are high for the protagonists. I’m setting my sights higher with this new one. We’ll see how I do.