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I've spent most of my career in a middle school, either teaching English or working with teachers to help incorporate technology into their classrooms. My go to genre, whether encouraging students to read, reading to my own kids, or simply relaxing with a good book, is young adult fiction. My wife does not understand this.
I grew up taking weekly flights in my father's single engine airplane. From pushing back the hanger doors and rolling the plane out onto the gravel tarmac to watching the plane's shadow skip along fields and tree tops as we flew high above, I loved every part of flying. I still remember the smell of the airplane and the hanger, the sound of the engine starting up, and how it felt to "lose your stomach" when my father pushed in the yoke and made the plane suddenly drop. With five siblings, it was a rare treat to get to sit up front and rest my hands and feet on the controls and feel the plane respond to my movements. I've always been interested in the 60's.. The music, the free-spirited culture, the many paths of history that converged in the decade, and the idea that one person could raise up their voice and change the world. I've protested bus fare hikes and lack of crosswalks, and my Woodstock playlist was often on repeat while I was writing Miss. E. My choice for a first book was a natural fit. Its setting is immersed in the events of the sixties, the story gives the main character a chance to sit in the pilot's seat, and writing Miss E. gave me a chance to tell a story to my favorite audience - young adults.
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