Today's character is...
Whiskers!
And, hello! What's not to love about a talking cat?
Are you in my head?
S. J. Henderson Books |
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Welcome to another installment of "Names Changed To Protect the Innocent", the portion of our show when we learn more about the inspiration behind my characters. If you've read my Children's/Middle Grade book, DANIEL THE DRAW-ER, you already know that one of the most magical elements of the story is the colorful cast of people, animals, and, yes, even aliens from the planet Beezo. You can find Part 1 here. Today's character is... Whiskers!Whiskers is a crowd favorite amongst the kids I've met at book signings. His popularity doesn't surprise me all that much because he's a funny curmudgeon of a feline. And, hello! What's not to love about a talking cat? This white cat isn't a fan of sushi or flying, and he tells it like it is. Here's a fun fact you probably don't know, kiddies: Whiskers has a Jersey accent. Does that surprise you? It should, because I never told you before. Unless you're inside my head, and you can hear him talk, too, you should be surprised. Are you in my head? When I came up with the idea for Whiskers, I simply thought of the kind of thing a nine-year-old boy would draw. Homemade Pokemon, fire-breathing dragons, and obviously rocket cats. When you consider the world through the fresh brain of a nine-year-old boy, the idea of Whiskers becomes kinda obvious. And, obviously, now you're going to ask me if Whiskers is based on a specific talking rocket cat. No, actually there is no real-life talking rocket cat... but our family used to be owned by a certain white cat named Wally. He's now demanding ear skritches from the angels, but when he was with us here on earth, he lived life on his terms. You like that box? Well, it's Wally's litter box now. You want to pet Wally? He'll show you where and exactly how to do it--with his teeth. If he could have talked, he would have sounded like a cast member from The Sopranos. I'm sure, had he not gone through all of his given lives, he would have worked out the whole flying and talking thing, no problem.
That's it for this week. Check back soon for part 3 in Names Changed To Protect the Innocent. NowDo you have an animal in your life who would make a good story character? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below.
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Each week, I've committed to networking my readers with other authors who are also building their readership. As far as I'm concerned, that's a win-win. They get to tell a new set of people about their stories, and maybe you find your next favorite book (after mine, butofcourse! Wink, wink). At least one day per week, I'll take a break from promoting my wonderful author cronies to share a little bit about me, what I'm working on, and all kinds of other good bookish stuff. I thought I'd kick this weekly segment off by addressing a FWQ--a frequently-wondered question. I think the term "FAQ" is so overdone, don't you? So, FWQ it is. "Where did you come up with the idea for that character?" Well, dear reader, that's a wonderful question, and not one I always have a brilliant answer for. When I was writing my Children's/Middle Grade book, DANIEL THE DRAW-ER, so many of the ideas for the silliest of creatures came from the cobwebby recesses of my brain, with no real idea how they got there in the first place. A few of the characters--the best characters, really--were based on people and animals I know and love. It makes me so happy to know that you know and love them, too, and you appreciate all of their unique quirks. Instead of pouring out every one of my secrets at once, I will break them up into separate blog posts, to be doled out like bread crumbs in coming weeks. And, in the spirit of building up momentum, I'd like to start things off slow and low-key. Our first victim... ahem, I mean, subject will be Tommy, the guy you all love to loathe. TommyTommy is the loser boyfriend of Daniel's older sister, Lila. Tommy's claim to fame is his shabby, poorly-designed facial hair, gross aroma, and his enthusiasm for arm punching poor Daniel. This guy's also not real great with important info, such as names. In short, he's a little bit of the worst. It was brought to my attention recently that one of my brothers-in-law read Tommy's description in my book and thought he might be the inspiration for such a lovely, wholesome character. If he identifies with Tommy, then shame on him. Just kidding. Maybe. Tommy is based on a combination of bad boyfriends my sisters went through. Most of those guys were short-lived, cute but empty-headed, with not enough interest in a bratty little sister to take the time to say hello, or even learn my name (not even a "Fritz"!). His signature arm punch was actually drawn from a particularly traumatic experience I had. No, none of those guys punched me, although I'm sure a few of them wanted to. One guy who looked at least four years too old for my sister, with the gross mustache not helping his cause, came over to our house to hang out. I remember him pinning me under a bean bag chair (yeah, we were a bean bag family), and tickling me until I peed my pants. Adults always warn about that kind of stuff happening--"Stop! Or she'll pee her pants!"--but you don't think it'll ever happen to you until it happens. And then you're eternally mortified, and you have to get back at all of the skeezy sister's boyfriends in the world by immortalizing their misdeeds in print. Forever. Then you make it all worse by telling the world that somebody tickled you past the point of no return... Okay, I'm going to stop now. The Tommies from my past usually weren't rockstar wannabes, but most of them considered themselves to be cooler than they actually were. I think we all think that about ourselves, some of us are just better than Tommy (and my sisters' exes) at keeping it on the down-low.
I hope you enjoyed taking a deeper look into the story behind one of my characters. Make sure you check back next week for another installment of "Names Changed To Protect the Innocent". If you're on Pinterest, please join me over there and let me know what you think of when you read my stories. I always love to see how readers visualize my characters! You're usually far more creative than I am! Until then, keep dreaming... Mondays are ruff. I mean, really ruff. Oh... I mean, rough. I wish someone would just throw me a bone and it could be Friday all over again. Oops, I did it again. Sorry. I've been reading Cynthia Port's book, KIBBLE TALK, and now I can't stop thinking like a dog. KIBBLE TALK is a silly, snarky little book that kids and adults will enjoy. Keep reading for a little bit more about the book and Cynthia Port, KIBBLE TALK's awesome author! Once Tawny decides to do something, there’s no holding her back. So when her best friend Jenny dares her to eat dog kibble, down it goes. Little does she know how that dusty, tasteless lump will change her life. Suddenly she can hear what dogs have to say and talk back to them too! This might not be such a big deal, except that her own dog, an enormous Great Dane named Dinky, has a LOT to say. He lets her know right away that his fondest dream is to be a teeny tiny lap dog. Tawny promises to help him, and her life nearly goes to the dogs. A story about friendship and family, Book 1 in the Kibble Talk series will have everyone howling with laugher. Perfect for readers 7 to 12 or as a read aloud. ExcerptDiving under my bed covers, I told myself over and over, “This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. This is NOT happening.” “Oh, but it is,” Dinky said with a lazy sigh. I felt him slump into a giant pile at the side of my bed. “Can I have my scratch now?” I couldn’t believe I could hear another dog talking—and it was my own dog! I was also surprised at the type of voice Dinky had. Gunner had sounded like he should, which is an odd thing to say in the first place since we are talking about how a dog sounds talking. But Gunner looks sort of gross and gravelly and sounded that way. By that logic, Dinky’s voice should have been very deep and maybe elegant or something, like the prime minister of a fancy European country. It wasn’t though. Dinky’s voice was high pitched like a little kid, almost a squeak. His voice was, well, dinky. “I can’t help my voice,” he squeaked at me. “Now get up and give me my scratch! Your mom and dad are on couch potato duty. That makes it your turn to entertain.” I screwed up my courage and peeked one eye out from under my blanket. There was Dinky, staring at me with his usual huge, walnut-brown doggy eyes. I was about to dive to the bottom of my bed and never resurface when I thought of a way to test whether all of this was really happening. “How do I know I’m not just imagining I can hear you talking?” I asked him nervously. “You haven’t said anything I couldn’t have made up myself.” “Fair enough. Let’s see then,” he said, and gave his triangle ears an impressive waggle. “Oh, I know!" he said after a moment. "Your dad did NOT just find Fishy Fish dead one day in his bowl. He was changing the water and accidentally used hot instead of cold.” I threw back the covers as I gasped in surprise. “What? He did? And he didn’t tell me about it? Are you sure?” “I may be a talking dog, but I’m no liar. I saw the little orange guy go belly up, cooked like instant oatmeal. Then I had to listen to your dad’s guilty thoughts for weeks. He still thinks about it whenever your mom serves fish sticks.” I shook my head in wonder. This was news I definitely couldn't have made up on my own, meaning that this talking dog thing might be legit. “So . . . so you dogs are just thinking and listening all the time? Gunner said . . .” I started to ask. “Gunner?" Dinky said, interrupting me. "Ugh. I’m sure he was a cute puppy, but that dog has let himself go.” “He says he’d like a bath now and then, but they won’t give him one,” I snapped. Dinky gave me that head-tilted, ear-raised, eyebrow-scrunched dog look. “If you’re gonna start taking Gunner’s side in things, in anything, I’m not sharing any of my dog food with you,” he said, and started to get up. “Sharing any of your . . . hold on . . . was it really the dog food that did this to me? Is that why I can hear you?” Dinky lay back down. “They say it’s happened before, but I figured it was just dog legend. Some of us have some imaginations, I tell you! Something about a Dr. who could talk to the animals . . .” “Dr. Doolittle?” “You’ve heard of him too? Maybe it is true then . . .” Dinky mused, almost to himself. He started whipping his long bony tail against my hardwood floor, deep in thought. “We don’t know what causes it, but we know that when someone makes an honest effort to see what it’s like to be somebody else, they can understand them better. Sometimes it can go a bit further than that. When you ate Gunner’s food, what were you thinking about?” “What it would be like to be a dog and have to eat that boring stuff all the time.” “Just as I suspected,” Dinky said, closing his eyes and nodding his huge head in a knowing sort of way. “What do you suspect?” I asked, moving to sit at the edge of my bed. “When you ate the kibble and let yourself have a real glimpse of what it means to be Gunner, unpleasant as that had to have been, your brain must have opened up a new door, so to speak, so you could hear us the way we can hear you.” “And can you hear all humans? What we say? What we’re thinking?” “We do eat your food, you know—table scraps anyway, and we’re pretty much always thinking about what it would be like to be you. So, as long as we keep getting human food, we can still hear you.” “Ah ha! That’s why dogs beg so much!” I said, slapping my knee in self-congratulation. Dinky snorted. “Not so fast, Dogologist! I believe you tasted the kibble? That is why we beg so much. Hearing human thoughts gets very boring, very quickly, but not as boring as eating dusty tasteless kibble for breakfast, brunch, lunch, second lunch, post-lunch snack, pre-dinner snack, dinner, second dinner, second and a half dinner, post-dinner snack and bedtime snack.” “You left out dessert.” “Oh no, never eat dessert. Wouldn’t want to get fat. Now, I am ready for my scratch and then I have to go sniff the cat’s behind or she’ll think I forgot her. She’s impossible when she thinks I’ve forgotten her.” We have a cat too, named Fisher. My dad, I now knew, had murdered the thing she used to enjoy fishing for, but Fisher was still her name. She’s a pretty thing, soft and white and fluffy, but not particularly friendly. In the winter when the house is chilly, I sometimes feel her slinky little body leaned up against me at night. But by morning she’s always gone, off to find a bit of sunlight warming up a cat-sized area of carpet for her. She rarely bothers to look at us, and never asks to be petted or picked up. “Come on, scratcher-girl, enough talking,” Dinky said. 'No, don't go," I said. "I want to keep talking to you." “We can talk some more tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day after that.” Now, if I’d had any clue about the amount of trouble I was in for, I might have stopped talking to Dinky that very instant. But right then, I could have talked to him all night. That is, if my head hadn’t suddenly become as heavy as a bowling ball stuck to the end of a wet noodle. Something about running away from your best friend’s sleepover because you found out you can hear dogs talk, and vice versa, and then discovering once and for all that your parents are just plain old parents, with the exception that your dad is both a fish assassin and a liar, makes a girl super tired, apparently. I gave Dinky a good scratching, and then he clickety-clicked right out of my room. He didn’t even say goodnight. About the AuthorI live in Indiana with my husband, two daughters, and a head full of stories. When I was a kid, I told all my joys and sorrows to the dogs, cats, birds, fish, guinea pigs, lizards, hermit crabs, etc. that shared my home, and I secretly hoped they understood. The dog in Kibble Talk, the first book in my Kibble Talk series, was inspired by my dog Kodiak, a cuddly 150 pound Alaskan Malamute who truly believed that her head was a lap dog. Book two in the series, Dog Gone Dinky, was inspired by my parents dog. He was sweet, but whenever I petted him my hand came away with so much grease it felt like my freckles would slip right off. Dog grease. Oog. Connect with CynthiaAfter a busy week of telling you about just a few of my many writer friends, it's my turn to be the guest! My friend Krysten Lindsay Hager, author of the Middle Grade book TRUE COLORS, has graciously (and awesomely) opened her blog to me and DANIEL.
Click HERE to go to Krysten's blog. And make sure you come back here in a couple of weeks, when Krysten will visit us and share some of her memories of the most wonderful time of the year--the beginning of school. Now, unless you have some books to buy or some love to share here, why are you still here? Go stop by Krysten's blog. ;-) Tell her I sent ya! Today we're talking to Monique Bucheger, a fellow Middle Grade author. Monique has written four books in her Ginnie West series, with more to come. Her main character, Ginnie, is a horse lover, so it's no big surprise that I'm interested to learn more! Let's get started! Meet MoniqueWelcome, Monique! Let's get to know you a little bit better. How long have you been a writer? I started writing as a teen, but got refocused about 7 years ago. Who are your favorite authors? I like a lot of authors and read many genres. In historical fiction I like Pauline Toohey (Call of the Yew Tree), David Farland (In the Company of Angels), Michelle Isenhoff, (The Candle Star). Jennifer Holms (Our Only May Amelia). In contemporary realistic fiction (which I write) I love Beverly Cleary (The Ramona series) and Judy Blume (Are You there, God? It’s me, Margaret, & such as well as her Fudge series). I love fantasy as well and loved David Farland’s Nightingale and Terry Brooks’ Magic Kingdom: For Sale, Sold. I tend to concentrate lately on middle grade novels. Mikey Brooks (The Dream Keeper series) and Ali Cross’s (The Swift and Jump Boys) are great. What are your hobbies? I love to scrapbook and write. If you could live anywhere in the universe, where would you live? I am considering moving to Utah—they have some amazing writing conferences there and it is a family friendly state—important because I have 12 kids. Besides writer, what’s your dream job? Hmmm, something that would free up more time for writing. How did you come up with the idea for “Being West is Best”? Being West is Best is the 4th book of my Ginnie West series. It is the culmination of a few plotlines I have weaved through the first 3 books with a HUGE twist. The twist is the basis of Being West is Best. What was the most difficult part of publishing “Being West is Best”? Writing some very touching, difficult scenes. I deal with tough subjects like child abuse, spouse abuse, child abandonment, and personal accountability. In a middle grade series, you have to write these things in an age appropriate manner and for me personally—I want to send a message that abuse in any form is wrong, but I also want to send a message that redemption is possible. It gets a little tricky when you try to separate an ugly act from a person who regrets behaving badly. Some acts are inexcusable—but if someone realizes they are wrong and wants to make amends for their bad behavior, how do you balance the desire to try to fix past wrongs without making the bad act palatable or demeaning the person who was wronged by it? What’s your best piece of advice to share with other writers? Write what you are passionate about in a story you would want to read. Others will want to read it too. Story characters sometimes resemble their creators. Do any of the characters in “Being West is Best” resemble you? Both Ginnie and Tillie have personality traits of mine—and traits I wish I had more of. Ginnie is a fun-loving girl who likes to try new things. Tillie is a little timid, but has a huge heart. I would love to embrace new adventures as easily as Ginnie does. In “Being West is Best”, the two main characters of the story, best friends Ginnie and Tillie, become matchmakers so their parents will fall in love with each other. What’s the biggest scheme you and your friends ever tried to pull off? Hmmm. I called my best friend as a teen and asked her this and we both drew a blank as to our own scheming. Then she pointed out that between school, extra-curricular activities, trying to write the next great American novel, that we didn’t actually have time to plot out our own schemes, preferring to plot out Ginnie’s (even 30 years ago when I created her) and whatever other character’s schemes we had at the time. I was more like Tillie on the outside and Ginnie on the inside in those days. You mentioned that “Being West is Best” is part of a series. Are you working on more Ginnie West books currently? I am working on Book 5—unnamed at the moment. It will be very different than the 4 previous books as it will take place at a new school—one that promotes equestrian sports. Readers of my previous books will be surprised at this turn of events because Ginnie’s mom died when she was 3 years old after being thrown from her horse and Ginnie’s dad has always forbidden her to trick ride or otherwise compete on her horse. It will also have an interesting twist tied to a national event. I am also working on a second series. It is a family drama about a 19 year old boy who is orphaned who takes on raising his 4 younger siblings. I hope to have the first book out sometime this year. I'd love it if you would tell us a little bit about your other books. Book #1 is “The Secret Sisters Club”— and has been described as Parent Trap Meets American Girl. The girls scheme to get Ginnie’s dad to date Tillie’s mom. Which is fine—until Ginnie stumbles across her dead mom’s journals and wants to know more about her. Book #2 is called Trouble Blows West—Ginnie gets on the wrong side of the biggest bully in 6th grade. When it turns out he needs help, Ginnie is determined to be his ally, because he won’t let her be his friend. Book #3 is Simply West of Heaven: The girls are well on their way to sisterhood until a blast from Ginnie’s mom’s past threatens to upset all of their plans. My 5th published book is a picture book called Popcorn. Readers will get a glimpse of the mom Ginnie barely remembers as Ginnie makes a late night snack and a ginormous mess. It is a funny, sweet story that showcases Ginnie and her twin brother, Toran, at 3 ½. Thank you for your time, and good luck on your tour! Thanks so much for having me. It has been fun. More about "Being West is Best"Twelve-year-old BFFs, Ginnie West and Tillie Taylor, are matchmaking geniuses. Together, they maneuvered Ginnie’s widower-dad into proposing to Tillie’s divorcee-mom. Sweet! Certain they are well on their way to sisterhood, each girl is floored when Tillie’s lousy-excuse-for-a-father puts in an appearance after a six year absence. Too bad “lousy dad repellant” doesn’t come in a can. Even though Tillie’s dad has sobered up and is determined to make amends, Tillie would rather he just disappear again. If he stays, “Operation: Secret Sisters” may need to be renamed “Operation: Not Gonna Happen.” If that’s not bad enough, the biggest bully in seventh grade comes over often and wishes he could call the West’s farmhouse “home.” When the bully’s abusive dad shows up as well, Ginnie thinks it’s time to change her family’s motto from “When you’re here, you’re family” to “There’s no more room at the West’s". Connect With MoniqueFollow the links below to connect with Monique Bucheger, Author of Ginnie West Adventures Series
Blog Barnes and Noble Amazon Here in Michigan, the new school year is just over a month away. In other parts of the country and world, school's already begun or never ended. I can't keep it straight, but all I know is that it's prime time for me to get out the word about DANIEL THE DRAW-ER and the upcoming, currently untitled sequel.
HOW IT WORKS: Before our school year ended last month, I was invited to visit with four classrooms in my local district. Most of the kids had read a good portion, if not all, of DANIEL THE DRAW-ER and were excited to ask questions about how I came up with my ideas, my writing process, and what was next for Daniel and his friends. When time allowed, I read a favorite section of the book out loud (almost always it was the part where Whiskers gets stuck in the tree. Really fun for me to read!). At least one of the classes drew pictures about their favorite DANIEL THE DRAW-ER character or what they would draw if they had a magic pencil. One of the teachers made copies of the students' work for me, and I'll share some of those with you soon. Each of the teachers sent home order forms so the kids could buy a paperback copy of the book, which I signed and personalized while visiting the class. I tried to keep the cost of the books down because I know what it's like to be the parent of multiple school-aged kids, always overwhelmed with requests for fundraisers and field trip money. For those children who were unable to purchase a book at my visit, I also brought signed bookmarks for each child. I also am happy to donate a copy of DANIEL THE DRAW-ER to the school or community library. As an independent author, my most difficult battle is marketing my book. Children who read this level of story don't typically own eReaders and don't usually shop on Amazon or scan through Twitter. They rely on parents, grandparents, teachers, and librarians to introduce them to fun, worthwhile books. That's why your word-of-mouth is so, so, so important. Without it, the kids don't even know I, or Daniel, exist! If you are a teacher or a librarian, or someone who works with a group of kids who might enjoy an author visit, please let me know. You can reply below, or contact me through the contact form on my site. Obviously, at this time I need to limit in-person visits to locations in the SE Michigan area, but I'm also available for Skype or Google+ virtual visits, if your school or library has that capability. If you have other ideas, let me know, too! I'm eager to share this story with as many kids (and adults) as possible! And, as always, thank you for your support! In May I started working on the second Daniel book, DANIEL THE DRAW-ER 2 [working title]. It's turning out to be quite an adventure, because there are a ton of great scenes and stories that want to be told. My goal was to hit 14,000 words (the approximate length of DANIEL THE DRAW-ER), but I'm just shy of 12,000 words tonight and there's so much left to be written. We'll see what happens when it comes time to edit. In the meantime, here's a silly little peek to see what Daniel's been up to this summer: A girl with a short red braid sits down in the grass next to me, and stares at the picture as I work. She's wearing a bright pink Glitter Ponies shirt. Glitter Ponies is a girl cartoon, and it’s nowhere near as cool as Bionic Aardvarks of Underworld Z. I can't believe she can wear that shirt without being embarrassed. Who's ready to read more? Comment below and say hi! I'd love to hear from you!
Today I visited my boys' school. Two classes and a writing club, to which both of my boys belong. The woman who runs the writing club began the visit by giving me a plant. A pineapple lilac or something. It's purple. And it looks like a pineapple. It's a clever name, really.
"I asked your boys if you were a plant person," she said. "They said no." My boys don't lie. I used to have plants... until the cats chewed every last one of them to bits. There's not a sprig of color in my landscaping, either, because DOGS. And now we have horses in our backyard. So, yeah, maybe someday I'll try to cultivate life again. Today is not that day. Well, except for the really pretty flower thing named after fruit. The writer's group was great, of course. There was so much enthusiasm in that small group. Each of them had written questions on index cards and took turns reading them out loud. I made my boys blush by sharing the bits of "Daniel" based on them, which may be my favorite part of being invited to the school (but don't tell the boys). The teacher spun my answers so that they related to concepts she's been teaching the kids. She left out the part about drinking too much caffeine and popping Cinnamon Fire Jolly Ranchers like they're going out of style. The writing group teacher bought copies for each of the kids who weren't able to buy a copy for themselves, so that was really sweet. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say that out loud, but she did it. I liked it. I'm telling you about it. Then we had cake. Really, really good cake. Chocolate with that whipped cream frosting. I may just sign books for her class, like, every day. Next I spoke with my 10-year-old's class. They read the whole book, but they asked me to read a section out loud for them anyway. We agreed that the part about Whiskers in the tree was the perfect section. I got to talk like a robot and, for a few seconds, a cat spinning on a ceiling fan. My life is weird. One of the kids asked how I came up with the character "Annie", Daniel's best friend. For several years, my son had only one very good friend, a girl who is still in his class. When I told the kids that I had based Annie on a girl they knew, I had to quickly make sure they knew she probably didn't eat worms. I've said my life is weird, haven't I? Just checking. My next stop was my eight-year-old's Second Grade class. They had only made it through eight pages of the book because their teacher hadn't been able to do more than that due to multiple family emergencies the month before. As expected, the kids weren't very excited about me being there. One girl, who spoke in a cute little whisper kept mentioning something about her mom writing a book about ninja ballerinas? At least, I think that's what she said. It was hard to hear over the class next door's Kidz Bop version of "Fireworks". The teacher gave me her microphone thing and let me read a couple chapters of the book. Once I did that, the kids were much more excited about me and "Daniel the Draw-er". I got to use my acting skills to read as Daniel, Annie, Whiskers, Pi-zzabot, Tommy, Lila, Ms. Konkle, and Mr. & Mrs. A. It made me miss drama class. One of the boys from the writing group was there for the reading, too, and he was actually finishing my sentences as I was reading. Like, from memory. Wait. Do I have a fanboy? Because I really want some fanpeople. That's awesome. All in all, 19 books found their new homes, and that makes me happy. I'm pretty sure it would have been more with more notice (or with more reading), but it was a good--and long--visit anyway. And I got cake. Thumbs up, friends. Thumbs up. A local fourth-grade teacher read Daniel the Draw-er to her class recently, and invited me in to talk with her kids. I had no idea what I was doing going into this thing, but my friend Courtney helped me make bookmarks and I ordered extra copies of my book. Just. In. Case. Last night I went to Kohl's to pick out a new shirt to wear. It took me an hour. How come the size I need in the shirt I like is always gone? Like, always. So annoying. And then I wake up and my friend texts me to ask if I want to wear my pajamas into the elementary school for my talk because it's pajama day at the school. So I squeeze myself into my cat pants. The picture isn't so great, but they are basically the best pants ever. What's not to love about space cats? On your legs!! The lady in the office pauses a few seconds before deciding we probably aren't as shady as we appear in my cat pants and Courtney's owl jammies. Muahahahaha! My plan, she works! While the teacher brings the kids back to the classroom, we admire the projects on the classroom walls. "Who is your favorite character in DANIEL THE DRAW-ER? And why?" and " What would you draw if you had a magic pencil?" Courtney's especially happy with these projects because one kid gave Octobear purple tentacles (which is totally crazy, because everyone knows they're green!). I just think it's awesome because the kids had projects. About MY book. I begin by telling the kids that I had, once upon a time, been a student in their elementary school; and when I wrote the playground scene from the book, I'd pictured their playground. None of the play structures from my era remain on their current playground. That's a little sad, but the kids think it's cool that their playground is famous. And, of course, I tell them about the earthquake that cracked the sidewalk behind the school. I forget to tell them about the petrified green been that's been clinging to the cafeteria ceiling for the past forty years, though. Next time... The teacher asks me about my writing process. I'll have to work on my answer for next time, because I don't think mine is currently all that great. She uses my answer to emphasize the importance of revising and having friends look over your work. Then she lets the kids ask questions. How did you come up with Whiskers? Was Annie based on someone? How do you make your characters sound different? How do you think up these characters? When did you publish your book? And, most importantly, will there be another book? Yes, there will be another book. <cheers>. And when I hint about what Daniel's up to next, their hands shoot up with all of their ideas. So many ideas, and several of them fall very close to what I have in mind. That's pretty impressive. Then the kids--nearly 2/3 of the class--buy their books and I sign them. Heck, Courtney even signs a few because the kids know she must be awesome, too (Duh! Owl jammies!). Each of the kids receive a cool autographed bookmark because I wanted them to have something, even if they couldn't get a book. After that, the kids start bringing me random things to sign. I sign crumpled scraps of paper, a notebook cover, a pencil case, and I'm pretty sure a contract of some kind, but I'm not 100% on that last one. A few kids ask me to write notes to their siblings. One wants me to draw Octobear; another, Whiskers. That's a newbie mistake because then ALLLLLLL of the kids want me to draw something, and there just isn't enough time. I would've done it if there had been time. Before the kids run off to lunch, one boy drops a note in front of me. On his note, he thanks me for coming, then there's a sketch of the pencil from my book cover. I flip the paper over (as instructed), and he's given me his phone number so I can call him when book #2 is finished. "Look! I scored some digits!" I shout to Courtney and the teacher. That's so awesome. One of the girls tells me she's going to frame my autograph. "You're her favorite author," the teacher says. Another boy agrees. I'm someone's favorite author? Someone who doesn't know me? Really? Is that possible? I ask the teacher if I can donate a copy of "Daniel the Draw-er" to the school library, and she says sure, and she'll introduce me to the school librarian. On the way to the library (and then the office, because the librarian isn't in the library), we pass a neatly-dressed woman exiting the school through the main doors. I mean, this chick's in a dress, pearls, and heels--the whole nine. She obviously didn't get the pajama memo. The teacher whispers, "that's the head of the township children's library. Want me to introduce you?" Uh, yeah. I wanna meet ALLLLLL the book people. The poor prim and proper librarian looks confused by the lady in the totally awesome cat pants (me) handing her an unknown but equally awesome book. It makes me smile just remembering it. Oh, cat pants. Making friends and influencing people, as always. So, I'm going to go ahead and call that a huge success. In other news, today I decided to celebrate my first author event by offering the Kindle version of "Daniel the Draw-er" for free for one day only. So far, 544 people have downloaded it. While I wish that meant royalties for me (on 544 copies! Sweet), what it really means is more exposure for this fun story... maybe a few reviews. But, really, the sharing is all I'm hoping for. The more people who read Daniel's story, the more chances I have to make someone smile or prove that someone else can do what I've done.
My sixth-grade self wouldn't have believed that one day I'd walk into my old elementary school wearing cat pants with my published book tucked under my arm. Daniel the Draw-er is my first published book, and my first self-published book. It goes without saying that I'm working out my marketing plan as I go, seeing what helps and what doesn't. I hope you don't mind being a part of my wily schemes and wacky experiments. You don't? Good! We'll get along just fine, then. For the next 21 days, you can download a PDF or .mobi (for Kindles or Kindle apps) for free, in exchange for your reviews. The Story Cartel is a great site for helping authors with exposure, and I hope you'll be a part of this adventure! Please share with your family or friends! That's the only way to get my story into the hands of kids all over the world. Thanks, friends! Download "Daniel the Draw-er" at Story Cartel Now! |
S. J.The random things that cross my mind go here... Archives
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