The Boy started kindergarten yesterday.

Okay, he started Kindergarten, the Sequel, yesterday, and even then it was only for a half hour so the kids could see their classroom and meet their teachers. The Boy has the older teacher who took him (and several other kids who were having behavior problems) under her wing, so he’s very happy he has her. She said she was happy he was in her class, too, and marveled at how tall he’s gotten. He can reach the top shelf of the freezer to help me put away groceries now.

Anyway, unlike last year, the kids had half an hour of one on one time with their teachers. The parents waited in the hallway. All four classrooms of kindergarteners have bulletin boards in the hallway and all of them have some theme (the Boy’s is teddy bears) with all the kids’ names. I had the best time looking at all the names.

It seems in four classrooms of kindergarten this year, we have SIX Madisons, two Noahs, two Trinitys, and (this one blows me away) two Jolies (like the mother of Brad Pitt’s kids – Angelina). Then there are the interesting ones – Sydnee, Londyn, EmilieAnne, Steffek, Ashtyn, and Makenna.

As a writer, I love names and it was fascinating to me all the interesting names entering kindergarten this year. Not as many Emilys and I would have thought and NO Jessicas I could see. One Juliette (like mine spells her name) and the two Noahs we knew about (one is mine).

Book update:

Beloved is still going through Sword & Illusion. He’s already talked to me about some ideas for fleshing out characters and possibly adding some scenes and depth to the plot. I’m not completely happy about this, but I know in the long run it’ll be a better book for it.

New book: I’m working on a vampire mystery, kinda. It’s not a total whodunit kind of thing as I’m still debating on when to let the reader in on the killer’s identity, but I think it’ll be early as the story is really about my heroine and her struggles to find her inner strength. Wow, that sounded deep! I hope I can live up to it.