Hello! I hope your holidays were wonderful. January 2009 is finally here, which marks the one-year anniversary of my award-winning YA novel, Paraworld Zero. I must admit that my book's future hasn’t been as bright as I had hoped for. It’s hard to stay optimistic when your book hits a couple of bestseller lists and then your publisher (or rather, ex-publisher) runs out of money and stops fulfilling orders. The poor economy has hurt us all in some way or another. I hope that 2009 is a better year for everyone. The audiobook and E-Book, which are now available, look promising, though. Last month was incredible. The audiobook and E-Book versions of Paraworld Zero placed in four contests!

Back when I was younger I loved Christmas and the other holidays, but lately I’ve become less enthusiastic about them. Money and stress is a huge contributor to this. In the past, December was a time to get out of school/work and relax, but for the past three years, that hasn’t really been the case for me. I’ve been so busy that I’ve hardly been able to enjoy my vacations. I can’t seem to relax any more or put my responsibilities on hold. I think it stems from the months after I got laid off when I was working 20+ hours a day. I still work long hours--the only difference is that I’m not getting paid for it... yet. My wife jokes with me about that, but she still supports what I’m doing. Crazy girl!

Something happened last month that surprised me. Since money was tight, we decided to have a small Christmas. The boys spent one dollar each, and Alicia and I spent twenty dollars for each other and the boys. That’s still probably more than some families spent. Alicia surprised me when she pulled out all these extra toys that she had purchased ten years ago. I remember it was a sacrifice when we had bought those toys, especially since we were both in school and didn’t even have kids yet!

Anyway, when we were finished opening presents, we found a big sack of gifts that someone had left at our doorstep. This sack contained more toys than our boys had gotten for their entire Christmas. Alicia and I wisely took out the appropriate toys that the boys could have now and stored the rest for birthday gifts, since we suspect that the money will be tight for the rest of the year as well. This act of kindness from our mysterious secret Santa(s) made me realize that I, too, needed to look for more ways to brighten other people’s lives. My family did a service project last month, went caroling, and wrote letters, but perhaps next year we can do more. Although I try to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, perhaps that’s something I need to do better at this year.

I’m still plugging away at the next installment of the Parallel Worlds series. I’m kind of a perfectionist (and I’m easily distracted), so it’s taking longer than expected. I was hoping to keep the book below 80,000 words, but I think I’m going to go over. I just keep adding additional chapters. The other “problem” is that I’m fleshing out the secondary characters more in this book than I did in the first one. I’m utterly surprised (yet pleased) with how it's coming along. The ending is going to be a real shocker. I’ve definitely put more romance in this one. Must be the Twilight craze that has affected me. The characters are a little older too, so that helps. I suspect that I’ll be sending it out to publishers/agents by the end of the month.

Oh, by the way, BarnesAndNoble.com and Amazon.com both lowered the price about ten bucks for the 10-CD audiobook of Paraworld Zero, so I followed suit on my website as well. If you haven't gotten a chance to listen to a sample or give it a review, check it out at AudibleKids.com.