A room with an Eeare

Eeare. What kind of a name is that? "It doesn't sit... quite right," someone told me. "It looks a little odd."

I could see her point, and if you say the name out loud ("ear"), it doesn't actually seem like a name. But it stuck, and it's out there. I'm used to the name now.

A friend is going to donate a copy of my book to my old high school library -- her niece now attends the school -- and I hope they stock it!

Of course, I couldn't help but think of my old school when I wrote the book, but only two rooms in the book are based on real places. When I wrote about the science laboratories, I totally imagined Lab 4, where I used to have my geology lessons. And in one later scene, Eeare talks to her art teacher, Mr Moore, in a portable classroom -- a modular room on brick stilts; sometimes called a demountable. Although Mr Moore himself isn't based on my old art teacher, the classroom they have the conversation in totally the same one I had my art lessons in (at least in my mind). I'm sure they look a lot more modern now, but the one I had was kind of shabby and 1980s-style!

You can read the first two chapters for free right here.