Sunday, July 21, 2013

I'm Trying, Plus A Lot of Book Stuff So Please Read

I've been slacking hard here for a while now and I swear I'm going to get better at it again soon. Things have been crazy with the move and the baby and the job hunt and the excuse-making.
I am still training, though not as often or intensely as makes me happy. I feel slow and out of shape and the journey back to fitness won't be fun, but it will be good for me.
As I write this I'm in Southern California after a week in Las Vegas for the SDE National Teacher's Conference, where I presented a talk called Discovering Seuss: Using the Good Doctor in Your Classroom. So add that to the excuses- I wrote a presentation I had to give in front of a bunch of teachers at a national conference. It went great, thank you for asking, and I hope I got some networking done while I was there.
I did get a mini-workout in while in Vegas. I meant to get two or three but I spent the second night tossing cookies all night. No, I don't drink so it wasn't that. I think it was something I ate and it ruined me. Wasn't feeling up to a run for a bit after that. I did get to the hotel gym and got my run on for a tiny little bit. The dreadmill is worse every time I step on. So boring. I could have run outside, if you think running down The Strip sounds like a great idea before you take into account the 110* temps. So I got a short run in, then I felt weak so I rode the stationary bike for a while, then I did some pull-ups on the crappy gym supported pull-up machine. It was enough to get a sweat going, but not much else. At least it was something. Still love my Altra 3-Sums. Totally comfortable. Looking forward to more road runs.
I have been writing though. I've got a book 98% finished and itching to be sent to my indie publisher. It's not about working out, then I would have been talking it up here. It's about teaching and it's called He's The Weird Teacher and other things students whisper about me. It has a blog, because that's what I do, so if you go there the info is laid out as well as some excerpts. That's the biggest reason I've been slacking here. Any writing time I get goes to the book and the presentation. Now that the presentation is over and the book is just about put to bed I can spread my energy differently again.
I'm very excited about He's the Weird Teacher and I think it's really good. I'm not the best judge of my own work, so I also have it on good authority from people who have no vested interest in blowing smoke at me that it's good as well. I'll be, like I said, going through an indie publisher which means zero advertising. Which means I'll be talking it up huge all over the interwebs and I'll be asking for your help. The price point for the digital download is going to be crazy cheap, making it a no-risk buy for most people. I'm going to need friends to start the ripple and tell people who will tell people who will tell people. I'm going to be asking for lots of amazon.com reviews, because that moves books up lists. I'm going to be asking for tweets and retweets and Facebook posts and Google+ shares and pins and whatever else you can think of that will get He's the Weird Teacher out there into the world. It's still a few weeks away, but it's coming.
I never ask for money on this site, I just leave the donation button up there and don't mention it, but if you have a few bucks to drop in the bucket to help with the publishing costs it would mean a lot. I know we're all tight, and I don't like asking, but with the situation we are in right now it would be helpful. This isn't a kickstarter and I don't have special stretch goals and prizes, but I promise to do something awesome for anyone who can kick in a couple of bucks. I haven't put a donations link on the book website because it...doesn't feel like it belongs there. I want people going to that page to read about the book and follow links to buy it. I don't want people going there and seeing a donate button next to the page where I'm asking them to spend money on a product. But for the next little bit anything going into the Donate button up there will be split between triathlon stuff (which I still need, my tri suit is way old) and book stuff. I hate this paragraph, but it never hurts to ask for a little help with something and I deeply believe in. He's The Weird Teacher is good (I promise) and want to give it the best possible chance to succeed.
So I'm still swim/bike/running, just not as often as I should and it's making me soft around the middle. I'm getting back on that horse. I'm doing a lot of writing. And I'm hoping for lots of love when the book finally hits.
Thanks a lot!

OH! One more thing-
GO SEE PACIFIC RIM IT'S AMAZING OH MY GOD REALLY YOU NEED TO SEE IT IT SHOULD MAKE ALL THE MONIES TRUST ME JUST GO GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING GIANT MONSTERS BUT GOOD NOT MICHAEL BAY NONSENSE PACIFIC RIM GO GO GO.

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