Today I was supposed to write 3,500 words. I’m at the end of a very emotional middle grade that has consumed my life for the past months. I’m so grateful to work with my wonderful VCFA mentor, whose encouragement and guidance has meant the world for me to keep going. Today, I only wrote 500 words, but I have a good reason. The scene I had planned on writing was very emotional (did I already say that?), and as I usually do when I have to dig deeply into my heart, I went online to procrastinate. Just then, I received an email from the We Need Diverse Books team, announcing that I had been selected as one of the five recipients of the inaugural Walter Dean Meyers Grant. I couldn’t go back to the emotional scene after that 🙂

This was my reaction:

Here’s the official We Need Diverse Books announcement, and the Publishers’ Weekly press release.

After the adrenaline, I’ll go back to the keyboard and the word count, so this book can come alive!

Thank you to all my mentors, teachers, friends, and family because without their support, I would have never been able to keep going when the writing gets tough!