Middle Grade Ninja: Where the Heck is the Ninja?
I am here, Esteemed Reader. I know it may not seem like it as we had no posts last week and aside from this note, there will be no posts this week… or next week. So here’s the deal: I don’t talk about my day job on this blog because I doubt you’d find it that interesting. By day, the ninja is in finance. I know, you’re sitting forward in your seat, praying I’m about to post on interest rates and stock picks and amortization tables (oooohhh, yeah, that’s the good stuff). Sorry to disappoint, Esteemed Reader. Aside from my occasional rants on Ayn Rand, whose philosophy has led to disastrous effects I’ve seen firsthand, I have no intention of posting about my day job on this blog or really much about my life at all. This is a blog about writing and reading fiction, not me.
Why am I talking about my day job right now when I should be talking about books? Well, I switched roles and companies back here in November. It’s a great move for me as I’m much happier at my day job and am making more money which I can use to practice my love of personal finance! Wow! Why do you care? Well, you don’t, except it means I don’t have the time to blog proper just now. My new position requires me to study a bunch of law and take a series of federal exams, and reading that stuff is sucking up the time I usually reserve for studying middle grade fiction.
I’m almost through the roughest part and then I shall return to you, Esteemed Reader, but it’s going to be another two weeks. Am I sitting on an interview with Newberry Honored and National Book Award Finalist author Kathi Appelt? I sure am. Do I have an interview with agent Marietta Zacker that I have read and you can’t read yet even though it would be really helpful to you? Yep. Isn’t this all terribly unfair? Absolutely.
But there’s no writing staff here, Esteemed Reader, it’s just me. And I’ve been putting in fourteen-hour days and longer. I’m behind on email and a lot of other stuff. There’s just not enough Ninja to go around. I’m almost through the testing and then I’ll get back to posting regularly. In the meantime, I can’t show these amazing authors and agents the courtesy and professional attention they deserve, so I’m going to wait until I can.
Regular posting will resume February 8th with a discussion of Kathi Appelt’s amazing novel, The Underneath. I’ll be there and I hope you will too. In the meantime, there are plenty of author interviews, literary agent interviews, and book reviews in the archives and you might check them out just in case you missed one. Thanks so much for your patience with me while I’m making this transition.