I’ve kept in touch over the journey for this book, giving Karen updates for where the book is at in the process and I was delighted to have the opportunity to send her an Advance Reader Copy to help thank her for the help she freely gave me. Her response to the book completely overwhelmed me.

So, I arrived home earlier today to find your book on my front porch and I have just come up for air, realizing that I haven’t even eaten since I picked it up. (It’s 11:00) I don’t even know where to begin. Should I start with the dedication that brought me to tears? The first time I saw my name as the teacher and I gasped? (I really had forgotten that you had said you would use my name!) The fact that the beginning of the book is so very reminiscent of the real thing? The illustration toward the end when I saw myself? All of those things were beyond my expectations, but what I really want to say is that the book held me captive from beginning to end. You captured the middle school mind perfectly, showing their insecurities as well as the amazing strength that is just below the surface. Bravo! It is a wonderful book and I can see it being used during a study of government as a class read. The illustrator is also superb. I could go on and on. (I also am really amazed at how you captured me as a teacher … how did you do that?) So thank you, thank you, thank you! I loved every part of this book and I am so very proud, as I said earlier, to have had any part in it.

As I write this, I’m the one with tears in my eyes. To think that two total strangers on opposite sides of the United States can connect through happenstance and a story is born, is still an incredible concept to me. And there is no greater praise than for a writer to hear their work has been consumed by a reader, that the reader was captured from start to finish. Because the story was inspired by the classroom experience, it meant so much to me to hear that the story was reminiscent of the real experience. To hear I have captured the middle school mind makes me grin … because this is coming from someone who deals with those minds as her profession.

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At this point, I’m still working on plotting out my next Middle Grade book as my literary manager, Italia Gandolfo, is eagerly awaiting the summary, so I really need to figure out where the book is going. My last research topic was about the Loch Ness Monster, but this time instead of researching underwater, I’ve gone underground — and into the murky area of the sewer system.

Undercity: The Infrastructural Explorations of Steve Duncan Photo: © Steve Duncan

As a child, I had a fascination with the sewer system. The idea that the gutter water flowed down into a network of tunnels and (so I believed at the time) ran all the way to the ocean ignited my imagination. Especially as I was certain creatures lived down there, and I don’t mean rats. The sewer world was dark and mysterious and full of urban legends. Like the hounds of hell that chased one kid brave enough to make it all the way down the ladder to the bottom. Or the sewer worker whose light on his helmet went out and the only thing ever found of him was his boot. The kids in my neighborhood would gather round the grate and shine flashlights into the depths trying to see what lurked beyond in the darkness. Occasionally, a cherished ball would slip down into the depths and we’d work together to pull the paving stone up to expose the ladder. And someone would climb down. I don’t think we ever retrieved anything because a sound would be heard and the trip up the ladder would happen in record time, and we’d get the paving stone back in place as quickly as possible.

I’m still fascinated by sewers and the network they represent under our feet. But at the moment I needed facts and figures to provide the structural realm. Such as the city of Los Angeles has a sewer system consisting of more than 6,500 miles of underground pipes ranging from as small as 6-inch in diameter to as large as 14-ft in diameter. I could drive from Los Angeles to Maine and back again in 6,500 miles. My mind boggles at the amount of pipes and all the twists and turns they must take … maybe on several levels in order for there to be that many miles of pipe for a city.

While I will need to learn more about the sewers, right now this is enough to set my imagination on fire, so I’ll let the information settle in and see what my characters decide they are going to do with it.

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