by: Joelle Charbonneau

First off, let me say “I’m sorry” to everyone that reads and writes this blog.  Two weeks ago, I totally forgot to take my turn blogging because I forgot what day I was on.  Technically, I knew the date, but for a great number of reasons, this month has been a total jumble and I haven’t been able to keep much straight.

Why?  Well, part of the reason is that it is summer.  The kid is out of school, which changes the routine around here a great deal.  Suddenly, I’ve lost my 2 1/2 hours every morning to get work done.  2 1/2 hours never seems like a lot when you have them, but WOW they really add up when they disappear.  And since my students are all on summer break, I have found that the schedule we were on has also been totally thrown up in the air.  Saturday students now come on Tuesday and other students change their lesson times every week because of their ever changing summer schedule…and mine.

My schedule has been up in the air for those reasons and because of one other thing.

THE TESTING hit shelves.  Hurrah!  Not only that, it even hit some regional lists.  Thus far we’ve been #3 on the Sony e-book list, #5 and #6 on the New England Children’s Interest List and #8 on the Heartland list.  So, I’ve been doing some signing events around the midwest as well as celebrating the release and the strange and wonderful fact that Paramount optioned The Testing for film.

Yeah – I suppose that’s enough to make anyone loose track of life.  And still, despite the release of The Testing and the revisions I’ve been pushing to get done – I am thinking that summer is the main culprit behind my problems remembering what day I am on.  The new, ever changing schedule, the unusual weather (in Chicago we are just seeing some warm days) and the kid being out of school have thrown me off my game.

So, is it just me?  Am I the only one that seems to have trouble keeping life straight now that summer is in full swing or are there others out there?  Please let me know if it is just me.  If so…well, I’ll just adjust to the fact that I’m losing my mind:)