April has been a busy month to say the least. WFH, disinfecting the groceries, household projects, yard work, and, most importantly, Camp NaNoWriMo. Back in November I tried my hand at NaNoWriMo with no success whatsoever. The regular school year, the kind where you go to a classroom and touch actual paper, was in full swing. November is never the right month for a teacher to write a novel. Can we have special teacher NaNoWriMo in, say, July? Anywho, despite my lofty goals and the support of my writing partner, I don’t think I got beyond 2000 words that month.

Fast forward to April. How the world has turned.

Despite all that grocery sanitizing, I have a bit more time to play with this April. I can’t imagine why. But the opportunity is here, and I am working hard at the sequel to The Sweet Scent of Death. The working title is the oh so creative Jill Cooksey 2. You may recall that Sweet Scent isn’t even published yet, and you may be wondering if I am putting the cart before the horse. Well, if all goes to plan (cue laughter), I will release both Sweet Scent and Jill Cooksey 2 at the same time this fall. Keep your fingers crossed. Jill and I accept prayers, good wishes, cash, and PayPal.

But back to Camp NaNoWriMo. We are two and half days away from May, and I am still pretty far from my goal of 40,000 words in the month of April; however, I can say that this has been my most productive month for creative writing during the school year ever. I am on track to have written on 22 out of 30 days this month. I’m always encouraging my students to look for the silver linings in this Covid-19 nightmare, and writing somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 words in one month certainly qualifies.