Recently, my sales for The Talented​ have been reather lack-luster, so I have made the decision to try out a new cover for awhile.

Unfortunately, before launching my new cover I did not have the time or money to hire a professional cover designer, although this is something that I plan to do in the future if I find that a new cover helps sales. Therefore, I had to work with only my limited graphic design skills, which did not produce the best cover imaginably. However, I am hopefully that it is good enough to garner some feedback. So let me know in the poll or comments below whether you prefer the old cover (left) or new cover (right) for ​The Talented.

As another school year comes to an end, so does the era of me being a teacher.

Granted, it was a short era spanning only three years, but it was an era nonetheless.

I learned a lot during this short time. My skills as a reader and writer grew, which is of course valuable, but the things that I really learned during that time are much less academic.

1. I learned to ignore loud noises unless they clearly indicate a threat to me or my students.
2. I learned that I would rather have kids sleeping in class than talking in class.
3. I learned that although many students won't bother to learn how to pronounce "McGinnity," mispronounce their name one time and you end up on their sh*t list.
4. I learned that one of the best things about being a teacher is that you get to wear jeans on Fridays.
5. I learned that cell phones were invented by the devil to make teachers' jobs 10 times harder.
6. ​I learned cool new phrases like "that's doing too much."
7. I learned that teenagers can be a lot of fun.
8. I learned that starting your class off with a riddle every day makes things much more interesting.
9. I learned that jolly ranchers are a great motivational tool.
10. I learned about myself.

I'm back, and I'll be sending out a real(ish) blog post on Monday, but until then I wanted to share this, because it's great, and it reminds me that even though The Colbert Report is over, Stephen Colbert is still out there making fun of politics for his millions of fans.

​If you're a conservative and/or a huge Sarah Palin fan, this probably isn't for you. Or maybe it is. Who knows?

Sometimes, when things get stressful, I freeze.

I'm not talking the fight-or-flight response, I'm talking just an overall freeze on all productivity.

Since I used momentum in a previous post, let's call this a state of inertia.

I'm sure that there is a very good psychological reason why I freeze when life gets stressful. Why I respond to having too much to do by doing nothing. Or by focusing my energy on something absolutely non-essential like reorganizing my pantry.

I got my edited manuscript back last week, and haven't done more than glanced at it.

I have a critique partner helping me with The Bodyguard, but haven't sent out anything in several days.

I have story ideas bursting in my head, but have done nothing to capture them on paper.

I've hardly touched my computer this past week. 

And I know why. It's approaching the end of August, and I haven't secured a full time job for this year. Or even a part time one. Not a steady Monday-Friday sort of job. I'll be able to pay all of my bills working as a short term substitute, and it's kind of nice to have that sort of flexibility, but it is stressful wondering when I might get pulled in for the next interview, or how many days of work I might get in September (since not that many teachers miss work the first month of the school year).

And I'm stressed about getting The Talented out in October. And all of that stress is spilling over into my other writing pursuits.

And I know that all of this will change once September rolls around. If I get a job, it will change immediately as I throw myself into preparing for my job, pulling together lesson plans, and decorating my classroom. If I don't get a job, this state of inertia will end when I accept that fact and transition into substitute mode.

It will change when I start working on The Talented again.

It will change when I can summon enough of my energy into changing that inertia into momentum, rather than using it to re-read books.

But for right now, I'm frozen, and I don't know if I have the energy to unthaw.