We Have a Cover

I kind of was going to tease this out, maybe release a little bit at a time or something, but I can't. I way way waaaay too excited about the whole thing to do that.
My friend Dorothy came over to the house today to shoot the picture for me to use for the cover of the book. That's all I had planned. Take some pictures, then hang out. Instead, she came over with all her gear and her computer,  we hashed out the basic idea for the cover, shot for fifteen minutes or so, and then got to editing and she, using the templates provided to me by y42k.com (by the way, go check out their book on the Boston Marathon called The 27th Mile) totally built the whole cover with me in Photoshop. It was very cool and I can't thank her enough and I'm totally thrilled with what we ended up with. It took some fiddling, but my initial idea was pretty strong and she has an eye for graphic design, so it came out great. I think it'll be eye-catching on shelves and in the amazon shop and hopefully it's going to make people click on it/pick it up.
The below image is the front cover. We actually built the entire cover and there's a back to it too with a blurb about the book that I'll probably use in most of the promotional material, but I'm not putting that up.
And with all that said...
Drum roll, please

I love it. I love it love it love it. I think it's great. I can't thank Dorothy enough. What I can do is send you all to her websites. If you have photography needs and are in the Tacoma area, hit her up.
Here is her website and here is her Facebook page. Please reach out. If you like the book design let her know that too; she should know how kick ass it is from people who aren't me. She shot Super Awesome Wife and my wedding too, so if you dig around on her site a little, or just wait on the main page, there's all kinds of pictures of us.
He's the Weird Teacher will soon be headed off to the publisher, and from there it should be a matter of short weeks before you all can hold it in your hands or download it to your reading devices. I hope you're half as excited about reading it as I am about releasing it into the wild.
Thanks.

The Forward

Quick Update:

I'm about 21 chapters into my third read-through of the book and remain proud and happy with it. I still think it says everything I want to say. In fact, there have been times in the last month when I've either though of something I didn't say and wanted to add that I later realized I had put in, or when I thought of something new and had to stop myself from adding a new chapter. I'll save those ideas for next time.
Today I got the forward, which was written by a former student and her mom. It's...wonderful. It is so cool, you guys. I can't wait until everyone reads the book, but now I can't wait until everyone reads the forward. I love it. I was so lucky to have this child in my classroom.
Anyway, the time approaches. We are done with the move, my Dr Seuss presentation is finished and now I'm practicing and fine-tuning. That happens on the 18th. Soon I'll be able to focus on the finishing touches and getting the book out to the publisher. I still haven't taken the cover picture, and I think the props might have gotten packed, which will mean it will be the very last thing to happen. Need our stuff to get here first. That's ok.
Thank you for reading.

-DR