What now?

The school held the closing assembly on March 5. Here's me reminding the kids of the power of pennies, with 24 bags of pennies beside me (that's $1,200!!!).

I have spent the past two and half months with the penny project at our school. I am referred to schoolwide now as "the Penny Lady" or, lately, as "Miss Penny." Besides hosting pizza parties for the classes who raised the most money, we're all done with the project. The kids raised $1,227.26, which includes $7 from a Colorado Springs couple who read about it in The Denver Post, and just over $60 from Mint employees who just wanted to help out with our cause. Amazing! I visited the 4th graders today to read a chapter of my penny manuscript. We talked about character development, showing and not telling the story and if they would want to read more. (Yes to that last one! Are you listening Mr./Mrs./Ms. Publisher?!)

What now? Two other school districts in the area have expressed an interest in having me do the story portion of the penny project at their schools after their spring breaks. I'm looking at some revisions to the manuscript to perhaps appeal to more editors...such as moving chapter 10 to chapter 1 and pushing the back story back a few chapters. Hmm. And I am preparing for a trip to Dallas to attend the Christian Book Expo and mingle with authors and editors. Of course, my 1973 penny will travel with me.