Introducing my newest book project

I haven't abandoned Finlay's travels, nor the quest for getting the groundhog story illustrated. But while these projects have slowed, a new book has suggested itself to me: a children's song book. So far I have 12 songs for it. All are my own melodies. Texts are by me, by my father, by AA Milne, and some of them are lyrics to traditional songs that I have reset to new tunes. One is evena quote from a fairy tale.

What inspired all of these songs was a need for music in the mood of the fifth. There is a dearth of good quality songs to sing with young children if you are committed to trying to bring them songs in this mood. These songs are an effort to address this need. Mood of the fifth is in pentatonic mode; but instead of simply using the tones of the pentatonic scale, the tone A (above middle C) becomes the center, and the melody swings up and down a fifth from there The neighboring tones, E and G below the A, and  B and D above the A are used to develop and enhance the flow of the melody.

I've been singing some of these songs with children for five years already. Others are as new as one week old, but have already been tried and warmly welcomed by the children I sing with. Most are not yet written out, and this is the point at which I take up this project now. It may be that there will still be more songs before this book is ready to go to the printer. I hope it will become a resource for teachers, but even more, I hope it will make its way into the hands of children. Therefore it will need illustrations. I am also thinking on how to get quality recordings made so that parents who can't read music can learn to sing the songs with the children. It's amazing how quickly a small, simple project can grow.

What's happening with the groundhog story?

     For those of you wondering, this is the status:

     A couple weeks ago I got the edits from my friend, a librarian and former colleague. Her input was extremely helpful, not just with mechanics and structure, but also with understanding some of the confusion reported to me by my young critics. I also talked to my mother, a veteran gardener with experience regarding groundhog diet. This conversation led to other adjustments and improvements to the story. The script is now in pretty good shape and my focus has shifted to finding an illustrator. I know there are several people waiting for this story to be published, so I hope the process of getting it illustrated will not take too long. Meanwhile Finlay's journey across country continues, and a new story idea is in development - the adventures of Dolphin Boy. And the writing continues...