The longer I’m in this writing business, the more I realize there are writing opportunities beyond traditional trade publishing. Last fall, I received a call from JLS, a Korean English language school, with offices in British Columbia, asking if I’d be interested in writing some books for use in their schools. Their curriculum is completely story-based, which is very cool! Since I worked for four years as an ESL tutor, I said I was very interested, and over the next few months, I wrote six stories for them. I received the first two books in the mail this week, and I’m very impressed with the quality – both the lay-out/design and the illustrations. They hire illustrators from all around the world, so it’s funny to have created these books together without ever having any communication with the illustrators themselves. As well, a book I wrote two years ago, a non-fiction ESL comprehension book, QUEBEC STORIES, will now be published in the summer of 2011 by Editions de l’Envolee.