Happy first book birthday to The Clock and the Boulder! My middle-grade time-travel novel was published one year ago today on April 22, 2025. I know of readers in the US, Canada, and Sweden. I can see copies have been purchased in Brazil and the UK. And one Amazon reviewer described reading it on an airplane AND was even kind enough to post a photo of the book “sitting” by the window with the airplane wing outside. It warms my heart to think of all those people (maybe you among them!) following Kerstin on her time travel adventure to 1755 rural southern Sweden and meeting people, places, and animal friends along with her.

Today is also the tenth anniversary of the date that Kerstin time-traveled from the 21st century in the book. For the book’s plot, I needed a specific year so that the characters could have a time reference. I chose 2016 for a variety of reasons related to the story, including having a later-April full moon.

The two dates being April 22 is not a coincidence. When I was working toward publishing The Clock and the Boulder, I found that a helpful way to motivate myself was to set a publication date that was meaningful to me and chose April 22. That little bit of motivation worked.

Happy Double Anniversary to The Clock and the Boulder!