It’s no surprise that I often blog about the exciting, disgusting or quirky topics that I get to research and write about from month to month. I am almost wrapped up with a project I’ve been working on about South Dakota. I chose South Dakota from a number of places because I wanted to learn more about a place I didn’t know that much about. I was in South Dakota briefly as a 12-year-old, back in 1984. I visited Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Park. Now, if only I could find the stellar pictures of a much younger me in striped knee socks and a bad 1980s hairdo. That would be fantastic and embarrassing! Anyway, I had no idea that South Dakota produced a lot of the nation’s sunflower seeds and would never have tried baking sunflower seed cookies if I hadn’t been working on this book. I also would not have known to add viewing the night sky in Badlands NP to my long bucket list. Look at the views in this picture by Wally Pacholka:

The rest of November and some of December will have me working on a middle school book about trolls and troll mythology and also a book for young readers about the differences between coniferous and deciduous trees. Both topics have more complexity than you might think at first glance. I’ll keep you posted on whatever I find out…Happy researching!