NEWTON'S PAWS OF MOTION

Hello,

It’s my favorite season—fall!—but I had a pret­ty great sum­mer this year, too. More details below, but first…

Cover Reveal: Newton’s Paws of Motion

I’m thrilled to reveal the cov­er for my next book, NEWTON’S PAWS OF MOTION, com­ing from Source­books Explore on May 2, 2027 (pre-order now)! Isn’t it adorable? All cred­it for this bril­liance goes to the illus­tra­tor, Karen Obuhanych, and the cov­er design­er, Sarah Boecher!

Of course, New­ton the cat isn’t always adorable… he’s often mak­ing a mess. To be fair, he is test­ing the laws of physics. And like any good sci­en­tist, he must test those laws. Repeatedly.

In Newton’s Paws of Motion, Karen Obuhanych and I trans­form the every­day chaos of liv­ing with a cat into a fun­ny, acces­si­ble intro­duc­tion to Newton’s Laws. New­ton nar­rates every exper­i­ment with total sci­en­tif­ic con­fi­dence, while the illus­tra­tions reveal the increas­ing­ly disastrous–and hilarious–consequences. Also includ­ed is an author’s note about Thor, my real-life cat whose dai­ly knock­ing, swat­ting, and jump­ing inspired the story!

Per­fect for ages 4 and up, ele­men­tary school STEM lessons, teach­ers doing force-and-motion units, class­room and fam­i­ly read-alouds, cat-obsessed kids, and any­one who likes their physics with a side of feline chaos. ISN’T SCIENCE FUN?

Other News…

Spring was busy with loads of school vis­its and pre­sen­ta­tions. It’s great to see these com­ing back final­ly, as it’s so nice to be able to con­nect with stu­dents and teachers.

I did take a brief break from speak­ing in April, how­ev­er, and took a buck­et list trip around the South­west. A friend and I drove from Las Vegas to vis­it the Grand Canyon, Ante­lope Canyon, Mon­u­ment Val­ley, Val­ley of the Gods, Canyon­lands, Capi­tol Reef, Bryce, Zion, and myr­i­ad oth­er spec­tac­u­lar sights in between, includ­ing dinosaur tracks and pet­ro­glyphs. It was absolute­ly incredible.

I also got to take a few love­ly small­er trips, went to a friend’s wed­ding, and host­ed my niece and her friend.

Sep­tem­ber was anoth­er big trav­el month, as I ven­tured to Europe for a lit­er­ary tour of the UK fol­lowed by a week in Den­mark vis­it­ing my old­est kid­do. Wow, wow, wow—so inspiring!

And, of course, I’m always enjoy­ing lots of live the­ater, vol­un­teer­ing with Cit­i­zens’ Cli­mate Lob­by and my city’s parks depart­ment, try­ing to exer­cise and eat a healthy diet, work­ing on declut­ter­ing and orga­niz­ing my home, and reading!

You may have noticed that I didn’t men­tion any writ­ing projects. After decid­ing that the mid­dle-grade non­fic­tion I was deep in the weeds research­ing might not be viable in the cur­rent mar­ket, and after anoth­er project that I was super excit­ed about went nowhere, I inten­tion­al­ly set writ­ing aside for a bit. I decid­ed to focus on oth­er areas of my life instead, while pon­der­ing what direc­tion my writ­ing should take in the future. I’m now jump­ing back in with two new projects I’ve been think­ing about for a long time. Wish me luck!

Celebrating Dolly Parton

One of the high­lights of my career has been hav­ing my book, You Are a Hon­ey Bee!, select­ed by Dol­ly Parton’s Imag­i­na­tion Library (twice!), so I was thrilled when the Imag­i­na­tion Library of Wash­ing­ton asked me to par­tic­i­pate in an event hon­or­ing her com­mit­ment to pro­mot­ing ear­ly lit­er­a­cy. The City of Seat­tle was there with a procla­ma­tion declar­ing 9/25 to be Dol­ly Par­ton Day, and four Wash­ing­ton State authors read our books to a crowd of fam­i­lies with tod­dlers at the Queen Anne Library in Seat­tle. It was so much fun and a won­der­ful way to hon­or her lega­cy and impact.

What’s Next?

• I’m on the fac­ul­ty at the 2026 PNWA Fall Con­fer­ence in Lyn­nwood, WA, on Octo­ber 17.
• I’m look­ing for­ward to some fall school visits!
• I have two writ­ing retreats com­ing up this fall: one in North Bend, WA, and one in Port Townsend, WA. Both will be filled with beau­ti­ful nature and much friend­ly camaraderie.
• I’m hop­ing to get both the new projects ready to send to my agent by January!