I was very pleased to be informed this week that the Spencerport School Board approved use of Charlie No Face in the high school curriculum next year. After the tragic suicide of a student in the district a few weeks ago, I hope that Charlie No Face, with its message of compassion that encourages people to look at each other with their hearts, will be helpful. I believe the book will be used as a companion to To Kill A Mockingbird. Two other districts are also considering the book.
As I said before, Charlie No Face was used in a church wide reading in the fall (Penfield Presbyterian Church). In January I will start approaching other congregations, as well. If any of you have contacts with schools, churches, synagogues, mosques please let me know (dseaburn@gmail.com).
I also just found out that Charlie No Face is available in eBook form through Google. I’m not sure my publisher even knows this.
A funny thing happened on the way to submitting my latest novel - - - Chimney Bluffs - - - to my publisher. As with Charlie, I had Sarah Cypher, a terrific freelance editor in San Antonio (threepennyeditor.com), do a complete review and critique. While I waited, I started writing another novel. Once I got her critique, though, I put the new story aside and started digging into the significant changes that she recommended. It has been very hard work, but I think I have completed a re - write. I now need to read the whole manuscript to see what final changes are needed. My goal is to submit Chimney Bluffs to Savant Books before the end of the year.
Just to give you an idea of what was involved. The manuscript is now 20,000 words and eight chapters shorter. There is a lot of new material, while almost all of what remained has been changed. The thrust of the story, though, is the same. I think it is much tighter and tauter now.

Have a great holiday season!
Dave