I AM DRUMS Read Alouds For E-Learning!

Dear teachers, parents, and students,

With the support of my publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and my agent, Eddie Schneider, I am thrilled to share read alouds of my debut middle grade novel, I AM DRUMS.

TEACHERS -- it is 100% okay to share this video with your students for e-learning purposes via Google Classroom and/or any other online learning platform during the COVID-19 crisis. 

I am hoping to post one chapter per day, so feel free to view/listen at your own pace. A playlist of all chapters posted thus far is embedded below. Closed captions seem to be working as well, so students with hearing impairments can turn them on if needed.

Please excuse the backwards front cover -- it's a side effect of selfie camera mode! :)

Stay chill and rock out,
Mike

I AM DRUMS Paperback Animated Trailer

Behold! I made an animated trailer for the I AM DRUMS paperback available November 19, 2019 anywhere books are sold.

Check it out below!



Preorder your copy...

Indiebound | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

New I AM DRUMS Bookmarks!

Mark your page with the power of rock using these new I AM DRUMS bookmarks!

Teachers, email me@mikegrossoauthor.com for a free classroom set!

I AM DRUMS has arrived!

Leave it to me to get so swept up in release day madness that I forget to post the book's release on my website until nighttime!

Today went very well! I went to work like a regular human being and distracted myself with students so I wouldn't obsessively check the internet.

Twitter lit up with #IAmDrums love. I expected two or three people to give it a shout out on social media, so it was wonderful to check my phone at lunch and see hundreds of notifications from friends, family, and the kidlit community. I feel loved!

And YOU can now find I AM DRUMS in your local bookstore, library, or online merchant. It is a physical thing that is real and not going anywhere.

AND TOMORROW, THE CELEBRATION CONTINUES WITH 30 DAYS OF WEIRD INSTRUMENTS!

Prepare for some pretty odd stuff.

On the Eve of Publication

I'm going to try to sleep soon. It's not going to work because I've been waiting for tomorrow for a long time. Thank you for listening to my publishing rants and raves thus far and supporting me even though you don't have to.

There's more to come, especially this upcoming week, and I truly appreciate the social media space I've been given. I wrote the best book I was capable of writing, and if I'm lucky enough to publish another I promise to try even harder.

How to Help a Debut Author

You know what's crazy? I AM DRUMS is out in less than 90 days.

You know what's crazier? A lot of people are asking how they can help. Friends and acquaintances want to give the book an extra boost in any way they can! Color me flattered and excited!

I couldn't be more thankful. The debut author adventure is exciting, but it's also terrifying. My publisher took a chance on me, and I want to show them it wasn't a mistake.

Unfortunately, nobody (not even publicists, and they admit as much) knows why some books are successful while others aren't. There are, however, a few proven tactics an author's support system can do to support a new book, and I am eternally thankful for any level of help.

1) Purchase/ask about the book at your local bookstore.

If there's an indie bookstore in your neighborhood, walk inside, find an employee, and ask about the book. Can they preorder it? If it's already out, where is it shelved? Indie bookstores can preorder and/or special order the same as Amazon, and they're more likely than the Mighty Bezos to mention it to another customer.* A bookseller's ability to hand-sell titles is a magical thing to behold.

2) Request it at your local library.

You have no idea how much this helps, and it's 100% free to do! Just walk into your library's children's section and request the book. Some libraries have this option right on their website. If one person in every state walked into a library tomorrow and requested I AM DRUMS, it would do amazing things for the book's buzz and exposure.

Librarians are superheroes of children's literature. They are centaurs with glasses fighting a war of words with progressive lenses. They're human beings wielding twenty-six weapons of literary fury with a supporting array of punctuation. And they're super loving, cool people if you bring your books back on time without dogearing the pages.

3) Attend the author's launch party and events

Author events don't generate the same kind of foot traffic as rock shows, so it's doubly amazing when you support an author by attending their launch party, panel, or event.

Did I mention the I AM DRUMS launch party is at 2pm on Saturday, September 10, 2016 at Magic Tree Bookstore in Oak Park, IL?

4) Write a review on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, etc.

Nobody really knows how Amazon's algorithms work, but evidence points to the quantity of reviews playing a huge role in a book's visibility on the site. Even if you didn't purchase a book from a particular website, you can still post a review.**

And it helps. Really. It doesn't have to be long. Leave the word-count-worrying to me.

5) Tell a friend

Remember how I said publicists don't know why some books sell and others don't? There's one exception to that. Most people try a new book because someone they trust suggested it. This is especially true in middle grade literature, where authors rarely get a chance to sell directly to their target audience -- middle grade kids. We have to sell to people who sell books to kids -- school librarians, children's booksellers, and sometimes, if we're lucky, parents.

If this goes well, Person A tells Person B about an amazing book they stayed up all night reading. Person B tells Person C and D, and they tell Person E, F, G, and H, and so on...

So if you've read an advance reader copy of I AM DRUMS, tell someone how much you (hopefully) enjoyed it! If you know someone who will find the synopsis intriguing, tell them!

6) Read the book somewhere people will see you.

This one might sound weird, but it helps! If you commute by train or bus, or are waiting for an appointment somewhere, imagine how cool (or bizarre) you will look with this cover...

... hovering in front of your face. I'll bet you feel cooler just thinking about it. No? Whatever.
 
These are just a few ways you can help I AM DRUMS (or any book you love) to be as successful as possible. I have no delusions of grandeur. I don't expect to get on any bestseller lists or get a movie deal. I just want to keep doing this writing thing as long as you'll let me.

I'm thankful for anything you can do.



* To be clear, I'm not trying to bash Amazon or their customers. A sale on Amazon is great. Just know that local bookstores are extremely important to a debut author's success, and stopping by one and requesting I AM DRUMS is a great way to get it on their radar.

** It should be noted that many sites (with one exception being Goodreads) won't let you post a review before the book releases. For example, Amazon won't let anyone post reviews of I AM DRUMS until 9/6/2016. The one exception is Alison DeCamp's review, which went live due to a weird glitch with the cancelled Egmont USA edition. It's a sweet review, so hooray for Alison! For the record, her book, MY NEAR DEATH ADVENTURES, is the funniest book of 2015.***

*** I was telling people this long before she gave a glowing review of my book.

"Songs for Sam(antha)" is finished! Here's how to get a FREE copy...

"Songs for Sam(antha): the I AM DRUMS Soundtrack" is finished and ready to rock.

It has soaked in the sun and stored up energy like the J.J. Abrams Death Star 3.0.

And now it's ready for your ears.

Did I mention it's free until the book releases if you've preordered I AM DRUMS? Well, it is. And you can. You should. You must!

Email preorderprize@mikegrossoauthor.com with proof of your I AM DRUMS book purchase. What will suffice as proof?

1) A receipt for your purchase or picture of you at a book store preordering the book.

2) A screenshot showing your online purchase.

3) A picture of you and the book store clerk drumming on a stack of David Foster Wallace novels.

4) Record yourself sending ESP signals telling the story of where you bought the book so we can test if that sort of thing even works.

5) 3 and 4 are just a joke. Or are they?

Want to hear a few tracks? Hear three full streamable songs below:

And then there was a tracklist...

So... did you hear that my debut novel, I AM DRUMS, has a soundtrack? And did you also hear that it was written, recorded, and performed entirely by me, the author?

Because I AM DRUMS does have a soundtrack, and it's pretty much done. I'm really proud of it. It's some of my best work. I like to describe it as "11 songs of energy and emotion fueled by Sam Morris's story."

And now (I think) I have a final track list that corresponds to the narrative. The titles are specific enough to make sense after reading the book, but vague enough that nothing will be spoiled.

So here goes. Please note that song titles with links lead to a Bandcamp page where you can listen to the song and/or name your price to download it.

1. Encyclopedia Toms
2. Your Message Has Been Deleted
3. The Worst Percussionist in Band
4. A Chance to Really Play
5. The Student Who Does Not Surpass Her Teacher
6. Lawnmowing Under the Orb of Death
7. Dr. Pullman's Phone Call
8. Housebound Until Further Notice
9. One Deep Breath
10. Thunderous Applause
11. I'm the One Playing

I AM DRUMS preorder links!

Hey you! Yes, you -- the one wasting time on the internet when you're supposed to be working on homework or finishing that report for your boss!

Look to the right of this post. Do you see it? Yes, the preorder links for I AM DRUMS! The CORRECT preorder links to the CORRECT edition from Clarion Books!

Yes, that's right! You can preorder your copy now from any of those outlets, and more are on the way. See the official video announcement below! Keep your eye on this page for more in the coming weeks.

No, I AM DRUMS is not coming out this Tuesday

The release date for I AM DRUMS that is listed seemingly everywhere, and everyone is asking about, was for the Egmont USA edition, which is no longer a thing.

The Clarion Books version is coming out in September 2016. That's much further away, but I promise the final book will be worth the wait. The team at Clarion has been amazing and we are working together to make something really special.

I'm thrilled people are ready and excited to read the book, and I'm sorry it won't be ready for you sooner.

To all who have pledged their support, thank you for sticking with me through this odd journey.

My Late Thoughts on Whiplash

I've needed to watch this movie for a long time. But a three-year-old at home makes it hard to visit the local theater, so sometimes you have to bring the movies to you.

When WHIPLASH finally appeared On Demand, Anna and I watched it the first night I successfully got my son to fall asleep on time. It started a huge conversation between the two of us, and one inside my head as well. And I can't blog about this movie without revealing massive SPOILERS, so consider yourself warned...

I'm going to break this into sections, because this could easily become a poorly-organized thesis.

ARE REAL MUSIC PROFESSORS LIKE FLETCHER?

Most people ask this the second the credits roll. The short answer, the way I've always understood it, is both yes and no. Music schools are tough and unforgiving, and if you want to make music your career you'd better be ready to fight for it until you're ready to drop dead. But Fletcher is definitely a dramatized interpretation of a well-known trope.

For a longer answer, I point you to this article: Ask a Juilliard Professor: How Real is Whiplash? It separates the truth from the cinematic exaggeration much better than I could, and is accurate to the best of my limited knowledge.

DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO PRACTICE LIKE THAT?

You have to practice a lot, certainly. I've met people with music degrees who spoke of fourteen hour days between classes, rehearsals, and practice rooms.

But I must also in good conscience point out that a drummer should never hold his sticks or practice the way Miles Teller does. He's a wonderful actor and it makes for an incredibly tense movie scene, but his grip is horrible on a technical level. Power/physical exertion does not equal skill, no matter how much percussive blood is spilled.

Locking yourself in a practice room for insane amounts of hours, however, is definitely real. Music students get kicked out of class/rehearsal for showing up without rehearsing.

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

Let's talk about the movie's ending, because that final, amazing scene does something terrible and beautiful all at once -- it implies that Fletcher's teaching methods work. A musical "great" has been created by the abuse and ugliness of a sociopathic music teacher. The viewer is left to judge if the abuse was worth it in the end.

Anna and I had a really good discussion about the possibility of Miles Teller's character throwing his sticks at Fletchers' feet and walking off the stage after his final solo. There's something morally satisfying about that, but it's not the right ending. The idea that both teacher and student still need each other is powerful, horrifying, and even a little sick. It was a harder ending to land, but land it they did.

Does Fletcher create great musicians, and is it worth it? I love that they pose these questions, even if my answer is decisively "no." I'll admit that wide-eyed kids often don't understand that becoming a musical great or a star sports player requires insane amounts of work and dedication. You may have to say goodbye to your friends and social life. You can't party all night long -- your competition is spending all hours in a practice room while you're stumbling home drunk from the bar.

But it's not worth it, and I need to be long-winded to tell you why, so...

CODDLING VS BRUTE DISCIPLINE

I've always hated that parents so often fall into two categories...

1) "You can be whatever you want to be!" and

2) "You can be anything that earns you a ton of money."

Why can't we rewrite the first one to include "but you'd better be ready to work your heart out for it"?

We talk so much about coddling VS brute discipline in the teaching world, and how every kid getting a blue ribbon implants the idea that the world doesn't require hard work. We seldom consider that each student and interaction requires a separate, balanced strategy based on the desired outcome, the current emotional state of the child, and what cards you hold in your hand at any given moment.

That is why, as much as I oddly respect Fletcher's character for going for the throat without compromise, I inevitably find him to be a piece of shit as a teacher. Sometimes a teacher needs to be a little nasty, but if that's your only gear than you're taking the easy way out in the same way as a father who hits his son for misbehaving. It will stop the misbehavior in the moment, but you're destroying the human inside in the process.

Keep in mind that I teach elementary school, and have a fundamentally different job with different requirements and outcomes than a college professor of any subject. A college professor can't hold up a student who insists on drowning, and shouldn't really have to. If you make the decision to go to college, you need to act like you deserve to be there. You are the sole person in charge of your education.

There is no part of me, however, that believes in a definitive, one-size-fits-all teaching method. I hold my kids accountable for their successes and shortcomings, especially when they try to blame their parents/peers/me/whatever. But I can't (and won't) flush my students down the drain when they under-perform. They're nine and ten year olds -- they're entitled to be mad, sad, confused, and cry sometimes. They're allowed to have missing homework, and sometimes the proper response is "It's okay. I'll give you another day, but you need to take this seriously because life doesn't always give you another day."

I've gotten plenty of transfers from private schools that love to tell you how much better they are. It's easy to have good standardized test scores when you treat D students like garbage and flush them out of the system.

I have no intention of ever doing the same.

WHAT A GOOD TEACHER REALLY IS

Fletcher's goal was to transform one student. That is a pathetic teaching goal, no matter what Charlie Parker's story might say, and the insistence on "tough-to-the-point-of-abusive-love" is not only sociopathic, but kind of lazy. Teachers need to be tough and set their objectives above their students' expectations of themselves, but physical and verbal abuse is lowest common denominator instruction.

To be a good teacher you need to know what given method works in any given situation. A good teacher makes hundreds of decisions EVERY SINGLE DAY. Fletcher makes one -- do I kick this little brat off the kit or do I let him continue to play while persistently screwing with his head. A certain level of this is necessary at a music school -- if a music student shows up unable to play their part, or if a theater student hasn't memorized their lines, they deserve to be berated and/or kicked out of class because their incompetence is holding everyone else back. You're facing the adult world in college, and if you have no intention of being an adult, take your tuition money and buy yourself a pacifier.

And yet I teach I elementary school, and while I work in a fairly affluent suburb, I've worked in the past with kids all over the map. Spoiled rich kids, kids in poor families, divorces, parents at risk of being deported. How exactly are Fletcher's methods going to inspire a kid who hasn't eaten in two days? No matter how complicated the rationale, it doesn't work when your students don't have the option to withdraw from your class.

The world is brutal and disgusting at times, but sometimes a teacher is the only bright light in all of that darkness. I don't care if I create a Charlie Parker. I care if I create a group of kids capable of smiling.

MUSIC AS A SERIOUS CAREER

It depresses me that people think music careers are not a serious option. My brother is paying the bills as we speak with a music degree, touring all over the country with his band and teaching middle school kids to play rock and roll. He works insanely hard at it, like most working musicians, and would probably die inside if forced to sit in front of a computer forty hours a week and type on a keyboard.

And yet we laugh off music as a career, and tell our kids they are screwed if they take this direction. Is it because we're stuck in jobs we hate, convinced it's the only option? Isn't there a genuine danger in dismantling our children's dreams just because we have a few bruises on our own?

IS THERE EVER A TIME WHEN FLETCHER'S METHODS ARE THE RIGHT CHOICE?

I don't know.

Despite all I've written, it's hard to definitively say "no" when I wrote a book that puts Buddy Rich on a pedestal the same way WHIPLASH does. Want to know what Buddy did when his band under-performed? Listen to this (WARNING: NSFW).

Yep. Sam Morris and Pete Taylor from I AM DRUMS look up to an amazing drummer who treated his band terribly.

Some people believe that you have to destroy something before you can build it up into something greater. Military schools do this all the time. Destroy the disobedient child and mold them into an obedient one.

Despite how much I've written, I don't know where the line is, or when exactly Fletcher crosses it. I do hope, however, that there is indeed a line.

NOTE: I may add to this post in the future. My thoughts on this movie are changing all the time.

I've Been Silent, but Not Still

A lot happened this past week. I've been relatively quiet on the blog and on social media, but I've had tons to say. Now that I'm a little less overwhelmed, it's time for an update:

ALA MIDWINTER

Yes! I went to ALA Midwinter and had a great time grabbing ARCs, trudging through snow, and meeting editors, Fearless Fifteeners, and other librarian folk. I got to hang out with some Egmont people, including my former editor, Jordan Hamessley, who I'm thrilled to say landed a new job with Adaptive Studios.

There were a lot of nice people with encouraging words about my current situation -- Sara Grochowski from the Hiding Spot, Ilene Wong (I.W. Gregorio), and Fonda Lee. Ilene and Fonda shared a wonderful panel with Sabaa Tahir, Adam Silvera, and Nicola Yoon.

I made several connections with marketers and editors who ended up interested in I AM DRUMS, adding to the huge list of people who've shown an interest in publishing it. Things are looking up.

BAD TUESDAY

Despite all the awesomeness, Tuesday ended up being pretty terrible. It was my wife's birthday, and as sweet as it was to call her from school so my entire fourth grade class could serenade her with the Happy Birthday song, I ended up working almost all night (so did she), and we put off celebrating until later in the week. That was totally unfair, and bad husbanding on numerous levels.

Something else happened. For the first time, the news that I AM DRUMS was orphaned actually hit me. I knew it before then, for sure, but Tuesday was the first day I realized that as bright as things look, it is entirely possible for it to fall into a black hole and never make it onto shelves. I hadn't really let myself believe that in the days prior.

SPELLING BEE

I ran a spelling bee at my school. After months of prepping the kids, forty students competed to be the spelling bee champion, and it all went great. I'm currently dealing with the red tape registering our champion for the county bee, but whatever. I had fun, and the end result was worth all the stress of taking it over in the first place.

EDITORS AND MORE EDITORS

As bad as the blues are hitting me lately, it's important to remember that A LOT of editors have come through for me, asking for either second looks at I AM DRUMS if they had seen it previously, or even asking for it out of the blue.

I truly believed that I AM DRUMS was living in a vacuum up until now. I didn't think anyone knew it existed other than my family, agent, and editor. It turns out there are people in the publishing industry already talking about it, even though it wasn't slated for release until fall, and now no longer has a release date at all.

That's kind of crazy, and a nice wake-up call for me and all my silly writing worries.

A SHORT STORY?

I just might have a short story almost ready to go. It was originally an idea for a picture book, but it's looking like I might have a nice little work of flash fiction (or a little beyond flash) worth shopping around to some literary magazines.

That's all. Until next time...

Yesterday's News about Egmont USA

So this sucks.

Egmont, the international media company, has decided to close Egmont USA, its US publishing arm, effectively making its spring 2015 list the last books it will publish. That means I AM DRUMS has lost its publisher, and is now an "orphaned book."

So I'll say it again. This sucks.

It pretty much blindsided everyone. My agent, my editor, and everyone else at the office. The US division was up for sale, but they were making money. There was no fiscal emergency. But this is what happens sometimes in publishing, and there's no point in getting bitter about it, especially when you're some dude who doesn't understand how the business works. The parent company has a strategy, and they are the final say for a reason.

I'm not sad for myself so much as for the wonderful people at Egmont USA. They're the ones who found out yesterday that their job was disappearing in a week and a half. I'm keeping them in my thoughts, especially my editor, Jordan, whose love for I AM DRUMS was unparalleled, and helped make it a better book.

The good news is there's a lot of silver lining. I have a fully edited book, and there's a good chance another editor will pick it up again. I have no idea if said editor will be as special or amazing as Jordan, but my book is far from dead in the water.

The kid lit community has been amazingly supportive. The sheer number of people who've pledge their support for the many authors affected has been empowering and inspiring. I've gotten personal support from several authors orphaned by the Strange Chemistry closing last year, all of whom landed a new home eventually.

Then there's my agent, who's already gotten a handful of editors to take a look at I AM DRUMS, knowing someone believed in it once, and someone should believe in it again. Did I ever mention that literary agents are amazing, life-saving people?

This is crappy news, but it is not life-ending. I'm confident someone will pick up my book again. It will no longer be out by September 2015, so I'm sorry to everyone who's been so anxious to read it come fall.

I'm working on finding it a new home, and I think I will in due time. Stick with me, family and friends. I'll get there.

Here's the official Publishers Weekly announcement.

My Spastic and Poorly Organized Looking Back at 2014 Post

You want to know what's crazy? Me and my year. Or is that "My year and I"? Whatever.

I've had a certifiably insane year. So much so that it's time for a list:

Crazy Things That Have Happened to Me:

1) I sold a book.

2) I got a really cool editor (because I have a really cool agent who knew how to sell it).

3) I took awesome trips to New York, Michigan, and Iowa.

4) I finished LIFE IN BOOLEAN VARIABLES and started two other books of drastically different themes and tones. Maybe they'll have a race to see which finishes first?

5) I taught fourth grade for my second year after previously teaching fifth. I'm starting to feel the ground beneath my feet. I'm sure it will disappear again soon.

6) I ate a whole lot of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I'm serious. We're talking epic amounts. My wife is thoroughly grossed out.

7) I got ARCs of I AM DRUMS in the mail. Read about how that went here.

8) People are actually reading the ARCs and that is flat out insane to think about.

9) I worked really hard at being a good father. I failed most of the time, but remain proud of the times I succeeded.

10) I had the privilege of... wait, I kind of forgot what this one was going to be.

Anyway, that's my looking back post for 2014. It's not very organized. There are others out there that are much better, but it's honest and it's wonderful to me.

2015 is going to be insane. I'm thoroughly excited and worried, but I'll save that for another post when I have my wits about me.

Finally.... the I AM DRUMS cover reveal!

It's official. It's set in stone. And I can totally share it with you!

It's the cover for I AM DRUMS, and the wonderful people at Kid Literati are hosting by cover reveal this morning, along with a chance to win a signed ARC!

Check out the cover and enter the giveaway:

http://www.kidliterati.com/2014/12/cover-reveal-i-am-drums-by-mike-grosso.html

A huge thanks to Kid Literati!

LUNCH BOX, my Nanowrimo experiment

Here's a short list of things currently causing me to panic:

1) Report cards.
2) PT Conferences.
3) PT Conference with my child's teacher(s).
4) Something I can't talk about yet.
5) LIFE IN BOOLEAN VARIABLES, an intensely personal book that almost killed me (not literally), is in the hands of beta-readers, and I already see millions of things I wish I'd fixed before sending it out.
6) Something will pop into my head five minutes from now, and I will worry about it even though there is nothing to worry about.
7) I want to hold an ARC of I AM DRUMS in my hands (this will happen in the next few months, so I should chill out about this, too. Fat chance!).
8) I am taking over the spelling bee at school, because I'm just not busy enough (and I'm secretly a spelling nerd who never had a spelling bee at his elementary school).
9) I just thought of something that fits #6 perfectly. AAAAAAAH!

Now, on top of all of that, I've jumped into NANOWRIMO for the first time. Why am I doing this? I have no time. I'll be lucky if I hit 20k by November 30th, much less the goal of 50k. I'm setting myself up to fail, which is exactly what modern educational pedagogy tells me not to do.

But I'm doing it anyway. Because I said so, and I'm an adult. I can eat ice cream three meals a day if I want, and there's nothing you can do about it. I've earned the right to try NANOWRIMO for my first time and fail at it if I feel so inclined.

And I will fail. I'm okay with laying it out there ahead of time, because it's true and there's no sense pretending otherwise. This is not pessimism because it is certain -- I have a 0% chance of winning NANOWRIMO. It's the exact opposite of pessimism, in fact, because I'm giving myself permission to fail, and appreciating the material I will create on my road to failure. Oddly enough, this is a theme that surfaced late in my first draft of LIBV while listening to the well of ideas inside my head.

It's a little book (or maybe a big book. How should I know?) called LUNCH BOX. It's very different from my last two finished novels, even though it's middle grade and very much me at the writing wheel. It's a bit sillier than I AM DRUMS and LIBV, but it also might end up -- dare I say it -- scarier. It has a Calvin and Hobbes meets Wayside School thing going on, and I'm not sure if that's a recipe for success or a recipe for going back to the drawing board on December first. But it has promise, I think.

I'll settle for it being fun. I'm at 5,400 words as of the moment I'm writing this, and at this rate, I will finish 50k sometime between the hare's second and third nap. But at least I'll finish.

I joined NANOWRIMO this year because I win either way. Take that, procrastination! You always were kind of a punk.

It's Really Hard to Push SEND

Talking to other debut authors gives one the sense that your first almighty "edit letter" is something of a written panic attack. It can be, but not in the sense I was expecting.

Granted, I had a pretty good idea what to expect, and this certainly wasn't the first time I'd received revision requests. I've genuinely enjoyed going back into I AM DRUMS and making it a stronger story. The edit letter, however, is a different ballgame. Everything wrong with the story is broken into tiny little pieces, dissected, and rearranged so that you can see it from a fresh angle. That's the editor's job, and I like hearing what they have to say. If you don't like your baby being put under a microscope, there are plenty of writing groups that love back slapping and don't require rhino skin to participate.

I'm really proud of the revisions I've made, so it seems weird that I started panicking the first time I considered hitting the SEND button to send my revisions to my editor. There's an odd fear of disappointment -- the same I felt when my agent asked me to make revisions before officially "signing on." What you send says a lot about your ability to be the writer the recipient is counting on you to be. Maybe that's obsessive thinking, but I know I'm not the only one who's thought this.

I solved my dilemma by setting myself a deadline. Tomorrow afternoon, I hit SEND. No matter what. It's different than the one my editor set, but I'm setting it anyway. It's not the deadline that helps me put myself in the writer's chair so much as the challenge of beating a deadline. I'm going to beat this one tomorrow.

My Book as a Read Aloud? GASP!

If I am to be completely honest, I was a bit terrified to begin I AM DRUMS as a read aloud. My students were excited, to be sure, and I had the permission of my editor, my principal, and the district office. So why exactly was I so apprehensive about sharing a huge accomplishment with my kids? I'm supposed to be setting an example for them -- why not be a role model of where writing can take you?

The truth is I had no idea what they'd think. We're a little over halfway through, and I'm still searching their faces a little too much, trying to figure out what they are enjoying the most. The first thing I noticed after the first read aloud session, where we covered the first two chapters of the book, was the kids were a little speechless. I AM DRUMS was not turning out to be the book they thought I'd written. It was about a girl, first and foremost, and the kids described her that first day as "not really someone who fits in" and as a "girl who acts like a boy because she wears a baseball cap." Interesting.

Thankfully, my biggest fear (that they'd hate the book) was proven silly. I not only had their attention, but possibly the largest participation in discussions than any other read aloud all year. And they had interesting things to say -- about who Sam was, and whether she was doing the right thing, and can it be okay to do the wrong thing if your heart is in the right place at the time. It has been kind of amazing.

Another surprise -- Pete, the music teacher, is a big hit. I always worried I wrote him as too rough and tough, but the kids so far find him oddly hilarious. One student said, in response to the chapter that introduces him into the story, "That sounds like something you'd write." Then quickly added, "I meant that in a good way." :)

One quick confession -- I pulled a few moments of mild questionable language. And yes, I do feel a bit cowardly, especially since I am (for the most part) philosophically on the side of letting kids read what interests them over removing the opportunity to read something potentially mature for their age. On the other hand, I have to respect my role as teacher while those kids are in my hands, and I think, given the context, it was the right decision for this particular age group.

There's still plenty more book to go. The kids have made a lot of predictions, and it will be interesting to see how they react as Sam's story plays out.

I AM DRUMS on Goodreads

Consider me surprised, though not in a bad way, to discover that I AM DRUMS is suddenly on Goodreads.

It looks like the description was pulled directly from the Publisher's Weekly blurb, and there are already some readers who've added it to their TO READ list. Now I'm blushing....

Anyways, please add it to your own reading list if you are on Goodreads and want an extra reminder when it hits shelves in Fall 2015.

In the meantime, I'm adding more to the site, which is now officially mikegrossoauthor.com. It's not where I want it to be just yet, but as Bob said, "Baby steps to the hallway....."

I AM DRUMS on shelves Fall 2015

It's official. I AM DRUMS has been purchased by Egmont, USA, and will be released sometime in Fall of 2015! That feels like a long time from now, but at least I know it will definitely happen.

The news came yesterday. A few phone calls, exchanges of emails, and suddenly the news started spreading amongst my family, friends, and various social media. My Facebook account, in particular, exploded with friends congratulating me and saying how they couldn't wait to read it. It felt nice -- it's one of those moments you dream about during the many years you spend submitting your work and collecting rejection letters and wondering if any of this insanity will ever pay off.

But, as my agent told me over the phone, "the fun has just begun." It's a long way to Fall 2015, and during that time there will be quite a lot to complete. There will be more revision notes. There will be waiting to see what the cover will look like. There will be my trip with my wife to New York in July, which we've wanted to do for almost eight years but never had a good excuse to follow through. Then there will be the moment when I actually get to hold a copy of I AM DRUMS in my hand. Yeah, that will be something, all right.

I've learned a lot of lessons this year. I can't even begin to fathom them all, but I'll be doing a lot of thinking and, of course, a lot of working. The next book isn't going to finish itself.