I just (re)learned how different reading on a screen and reading on paper are for me. I wrote this scene about two years ago, and have probably re-read it over twenty times. Last night in the tub, reading my new copy of my manuscript (thanks, Lulu!), I realized there was a big problem. Althea is 13, and has a younger brother(Rudy) and two moms. All my characters feel pretty real to me. All but one are completely made up. The one is 'Mom'. She's a better version of me. Here's the scene. I wonder if you can guess what the problem is. Mom walked in then and listened for a bit. “It’s fun listen ..read more

My publisher, Natural Math, uses crowdfunding to support each book they publish. I'm excited about this book. Check it out, and contribute (which is really the same as making an advance order). I think you'll enjoy it. Farzanah and the 17 Camels celebrates the excitement and the rewards of solving a challenging and intriguing math problem. Set against the backdrop of the ancient Silk Road, with bustling markets, stunning carpets, fun characters, and camels, the story draws readers into the magic of Farzanah's surroundings.  As Farzanah searches for an unusual approach, a way of s ..read more

  The Playful Math Carnival is a collection of blog posts and articles from around the internet, putting lots of goodies in one place for your enjoyment. The theme for this issue is fractions and division. Why are division and fractions so much harder than what came before? And how can we explore them in playful, delightful, engaging ways? This carnival includes lots of perspectives, and approaches the topic from many levels, elementary to college.     A puzzle for 174:  What are all the factors of 174? Learning how to find factors goes hand in hand with division and frac ..read more

  We picked a time. We're meeting for nine weeks, each Saturday from March 2 to April 27, for an hour, at 3pm PT / 6pm ET. We still have a few spots open. We'll be playing with Triangles, Circles, and Pi, along with the fictional Althea and her friends. Participants will get an introduction to geometry, proof, and trigonometry.   I'm writing a new book series, Althea's Math Mysteries. In four young adult novels, Althea and her friends explore some of the mysteries of mathematics. The first two books are nearing publication, and the second book needs folks to test it out. In Alth ..read more

  We picked a time. We're meeting for nine weeks, each Saturday from March 2 to April 27, for an hour, at 3pm PT / 6pm ET. We still have a few spots open. We'll be playing with Triangles, Circles, and Pi, along with the fictional Althea and her friends. Participants will get an introduction to geometry, proof, and trigonometry. I'm writing a new book series, Althea's Math Mysteries. In four young adult novels, Althea and her friends explore some of the mysteries of mathematics. The first two books are nearing publication, and the second book needs folks to test it out. In Althea and th ..read more

  Join an online math circle for students ages 12 to 15 in March and April, exploring geometry, proof, and the basics of trigonometry.   As most of you know, I'm writing a new book series. In four young adult novels, Althea and her friends will be exploring some of the mysteries of mathematics. The first two books are nearing publication at Natural Math. In Althea and the Mysteries of Triangles, Circles, and Pi, Althea and friends, with the help of Althea’s mom, explore geometry and proof in order to then learn the basics of trigonometry. My publisher and I would like to find some ea ..read more

Anyone here reading knows that I'm working on my series of young adult novels with math at the center - Althea's Math Mysteries.   But did you know that this drive to tell math stories is growing among budding storytellers across the lands?  Sue in California (me!) is writing Althea's Math Mysteries. Four of them! Shayla (aka SK Bennett) in New Mexico is writing the next book after Marco the Great and the History of Numberville. And Sarah Allen in Washington has written some wonderful fairy tales about physics and math. I'm reading Newton's Laws: A Fairy Tale right now.  (Curren ..read more

I'm not much good at drawing, but most of the illustrations in Althea and the Mysteries of Triangles, Circles, and Pi are math work. I can do those. So I've put my own illustrations into the manuscript as placeholders. There will be a professional illustrator, later. This past week, I was looking for where more illustrations are needed. I decided Althea would draw a map of California while thinking about their summer trips. So I drew it. Their home is in Berkeley, they go to camp in Quincy, and they're planning a trip to San Diego to visit Legoland (because her younger brother Rudy would love ..read more

  This blog may not be as active as it used to be, but it's a good way for me to remember some things. My first post about my Althea stories was in September of 2019, so I've been working on the first two books in this series for four years now. I'm hoping we'll be able to publish them in about a year.  I have a very hopeful timeline that puts publication in October. But we all know that things never go as well as we hope. (And I'm wishing we could do it just a bit faster than that, so they'd come out in time for Math Storytelling Day, September 25, Maria's and my birthday.) I have ..read more

This blog carnival has been around for 14 years. Almost every month for 14 years, someone has added a post to this collection. That's quite a long life for an internet phenomenon. (Congratulations, Denise, for keeping this going!) If you'd like to see any of the previous posts in this series, check them out here. For many years, blogs were a big part of my time online. But not so much lately. When our number (166 now) was in the 20s, 30s, or 40s, I'd make sure to have that many links. Nope, I don't have time to find 166 great links (and you'd get tired just looking through them). But they're o ..read more