FUN FESTIVAL!
I just got back from the 26th Annual Children’s Lit Fest at Drury University Campus
In Springfield Missouri where I gave presentations to hundreds of kids and signed hundreds (yes hundreds) of books. Met fellow children’s authors and illustrators:
C. S. Adler
Sandy Asher
Marsha Diane Arnold
J.B. Cheaney
Vicki Grove
David Harrison
Alexandria LaFaye
Anna Myers
Barbara Robinson
Brad Sneed
June Rae Wood
Judy Young
It’s always great to meet the readers and kids know me in Missouri from the Mark Twain Award for WENNY HAS WINGS. This year I got to sign and sell the new book THE BEAST OF NOOR.
I’m still in the dark ages with my presentations (dirty little secret — I haven’t learned power point yet) so I was on my own to present 4 workshops in a row (about 400 kids in all) and nearly lost my voice by the end. I found my voice again (it was in my back pocket) by 8pm that evening when a few writers and illustrators did an Author Slam. That’s 4 minutes to present something about your books. I told the strange and magical story about finding the buried glass doorknob while I was writing THE DOUBLE LIFE OF ZOE FLYNN. If you don’t know that weird story and you want to hear it — write me here on the blog and I’ll spill the beans (or doorknobs).
One last thing. I was working on the galleys for DRAGON’S KEEP while flying to fro from Seattle/Denver/Springfield and nearly left the manuscript in the airport shop when I went to buy chapstick. Oi!
Until the next blog, be well.
Janet