My first author visit

The thing about having a book out that has always made me most excited (and nervous) was doing author visits at schools.

Excited, because what could be more fun than talking about a bunch of crazy stuff (that is, the plot and characters of Fifth-Grade Knight) with kids? Having been lucky enough to spend lots of time with Griffin and his friends, I really couldn’t see any down side to the prospect.

Except one: what if I bombed? What if I was boring? What if I just didn’t know what I was doing, and everyone—the teachers, the kids, the administrators—got restless?

Well, luckily I live where I live. Which is just four blocks away from Hall Fletcher Elementary, one of Asheville’s fine public schools. It’s gotten even finer in the past few years: a new principal, Gordon Grant, has worked hard to build relationships between the school and the community that have paid off in funding, volunteerism, and other gifts, including a beautiful mural funded by local organizations and brought to life by local artists Ian Wilkinson and Alex Irvine.

As a first-time author, I found Hall Fletcher extremely welcoming. Beverly McBrayer, the school’s media specialist, took me up right away with my suggestion that I do my first author visit at her school, and she provided me with loads of good advice and feedback—and facilitated my sitting in on an author visit by Robert Beatty.

When the day came for me to unveil my presentation on how I came to write my book, I was thrilled with the reception. The kids had bunches of interesting (and observant) questions, and since Beverly had read parts of Knight to some of them, they were up on many of the details of the plot and ready to hear more. Here are some pictures from my visit (others are available on Facebook):

I’m looking forward to doing more school visits very soon. And if you’ve got a school of 4-6th graders who would like to come face-to-face with a first time author, I’d love to hear from you!