Have you read a Deborah LeBlanc novel yet? If you haven’t, you should. Deb is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, and one hell of a writer. She’s got three novels out from Leisure Books now, and a new one coming this summer. A House Divided is her most recent, and is a fun, fast read about a developer who divides an old house and the two groups of people who rent the halves for their businesses. The problem is that the house is haunted by the family that used to live in it. The upcoming book is called Morbid Curiosity and I’m really looking forward to it.

Deb, like most of the horror community, is in Toronto right now for the World Horror Convention. I’m here in Okieland, though, trying to remember how many cubits of wood I need to build an ark. It’s rained so much the worms are drowning. In the lulls between torrents the front yard smells like a stagnant lake. A lot of the state is under a flood watch. Northwest OKC had tornadoes last night. Spring is definitely here.

The first week of school after spring break is now history. It was also the first week of the final block. Interesting. I’m not sure all the kids have realized break is over. My kids in the Science Fiction class sure make me feel old … although I tell them they’re just disconnected. Most of them have never seen an episode of Star Trek. Seriously. Some haven’t seen Star Wars. I doubt we watch Luke, Leia, Chewy et al this block, but they’ll sure know what makes science fiction science fiction before we’re done. The Non-fiction class is shaping up; I found a textbook we can use, plus created a packet of my own journalism and essay writing to use for discussion of research, targeting an audience, etc. Foundations of English I is moving along, too. I’m down to just 13 kids enrolled there. We’re going to start reading The Pigman next week. I haven’t read it yet, so I’ll be taking a break from In Cold Blood to do that this weekend.

I also need to finish tweaking my lecture for NEOSU’s Living Literature workshop that is now just one week away. That’s going to be fun. I’m looking forward to several of the other lectures and films.