After some brainstorming, I came up with an idea that could work, but it would still require a major sacrifice: I’d ask our leadership team to hold off on getting their paychecks, and I’d hold off on getting mine as well.

Wood and Maggie, who are introduced in SWEET DREAMS and who get back together, will have their stories told in retrospect and in the future. I actually found the non stress tests that I was asked to have routinely comforting because I knew baby girl was doing okay. I voraciously read this book til I fell asleep with it on my chest the first night, then didn’t do anything the next day until I knew what was going to happen…damn the phones, damn the laundry, damn the dogs (well, of course not, I was just on a roll). And so, on a day that many educators around the country and world reentered buildings with apprehension, anxiety, and questions, I entered with Purpose.The nurse came in and said that visiting hours were over and that we could come back in the morning. Over the course of the week I engaged in conversations about privilege and race with my husband, parents, and even a student that I taught 18 years ago. My three kids were being parented by their fathers, I was in an abusive relationship and I had addiction problems.

Then after meeting a stronger villain, the protagonist trains or farms some more, and turns that villain into exp or an ally. All of this as a precursor to learning about credit, the banking system and eventually micro finance and Kiva. When he thought he had finally escaped his fate and started living a mundane life, his destiny came chasing him, and the friends he came to love got dragged into it. The world is so richly described, I felt that I could clearly imagine myself in this vast desert with Çeda and company.They get a system/cultivation-technique slapped on them, and they start farming on random throwaway characters. Orhan, the politician and King’s advisor, is also leading a pretty great life, fucking his bf and eating lavish food while plotting an assassination on the side. While my commitment to Purpose learning and teaching kids about the globe and micro-finance have been present in my practice at CSB, I have not in 4 years found an entry point of which to “Do Kiva” (And I mean- BLOW IT UP - with an entire micro-lending business model experience). Lots of descriptive sex scenes, it is treated as just another part of life instead of merely fan-service. This is list is really well thought out – I totally agree with the list – especially with waiting to read the Unfinished Heroes and the Three series.

Life and work is far from boring, but as I sit here on my last true Friday of summer (I teach summer school next week and then that leads right into school meetings the following) I am already thinking about what I can get up to this year. In the middle of my pregnancy PBC posted daily moments on Instagram to practice different techniques. I am grateful every day for self-publishing or we never would have got to read her incredible novels. Most serious fiction deals (to some extent) with darker themes, and many works of distinction have employed supernatural, surreal or existentialist elements. I am hopeful and confident that I would continue to approach concepts through inquiry based learning and real world problems.I found out I was pregnant a day before my husband’s birthday and was so excited to share the news with him!