Book Events

I’ve been invited to participate in a couple of cool upcoming events:

5th Annual Author Extravaganza
Saturday, June 18, 2011
11 a.m. to 1p.m.
Town Crier Bookstore
716 Commercial
Emporia, Kansas 66801
620.343.9649

This is an amazing giant booksigning, this year featuring 37 Kansas authors, including Adam Catlin, Bev Buller, Brian Craig Miller, Carol Russell, Dennis Young, Diane McAdams Gladow, Donovan Harrison, Doris Johnson and Ray Imhoff, Douglas Armstrong, Dr. William L. Smith, Jerilynn Jones Henrikson, Katherine Pritchett, Kelley Hurst, Lenise Eddings, Linda A. Born, Lisa Waterman Gray, Max Terman, M.E. Williams, Meri Rose Shenk, Michael Halleran, Patty Bultman, Phil Brown, Reaona Hemmingway, Robert Collins, Robert Hannigan, Sally Jadlow, S.C. Dixon, Todd Hunter, Bradly Brackenbury, Marilyn Hope Lake and Denton Warn, Ken Ohm, Donald Pady, Greg Hoots, Michelle Spencer, Lisa Harkrader.

Author/Illustrator Panel
Kansas Reading Association Conference
Friday, October 21, 2011
Emporia State University
Emporia, Kansas

Other writers attending the conference include Beverly Buller, Paul Schneider, Andrea Warren, Roy Bird, Roderick Townley, and Brian Lies.

I’ll post more when I find out details about the author/illustrator panel.

Beanboy Cover Art

<—Here is the cover art for The Adventures of Beanboy. Artist Dan Santat has done an amazing job. I couldn’t ask for a better cover. It has just the right style and tone to both complement the story and entice readers to pick up the book. It will really help Beanboy stand out on a bookstore or library shelf.

I was thrilled when my publisher chose Dan to do the cover. He has written and/or illustrated tons of picture books, chapter books, and graphic novels, including The Adventures of Nanny Piggins, Oh No!: Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World, Guild of Geniuses, and the soon-to-be-released Sidekicks. He also created the Disney Channel television program “The Replacements.” To find out more about Dan and see some of his work, click here to visit his website (http://www.dantat.com).

I’m not sure when Beanboy will be out, but I’ll post the date here as soon as I find out.

Tortoise and Hare

I get exhausted by the frenzy of writing advice swirling about the internet on how to write more, faster, and get it out there by building a platform (whatever the heck that is), creating a brand (ditto), and sell-sell-selling. The little voice in my head keeps jumping up and down and squeaking, “But what about the writing? Doesn’t anybody care about what they’re trying to sell?”

How refreshing, then, to read “In Praise of the Tortoise, With All Due Respect to the Hare,” on Gar Anthony Haywood’s blog, Wisdom Mistaken for Lunacy, this morning. Gar, a Shamus and Anthony Award-winning crime novelist, explains the seven things he believes good writers do to get even better.

Now my little voice is jumping up and down, squeaking, “Yes! Yes! That’s what I needed to hear.”

Dr. Naismith’s Original Rules

Hooray! Dr. James Naismith’s original 13 rules of basketball (or basket ball, as he named it), typed by his secretary and tacked up in the gym at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he invented the game, are coming back to the University of Kansas where they belong:

Booths Purchase Basketball Rules

The Naismith International Basketball Foundation, led by Dr. Naismith’s grandson, Ian Naismith, will use proceeds from the sale to help underprivileged kids around the world.

This Kansas history website lists the original 13 rules.

Guest Blogger

Today I have a guest blog post on creating plots that spring from character on Lynne Marie Pisano’s fabuloso writing blog, My Word Playground. Thanks for inviting me, Lynne!

Interview With. . . Moi

My friend Warren Bull has interviewed me about writing middle grade and young adult fiction. The interview is now up at the Writers Who Kill blog.

Thanks, Warren!

Those Briarwood Kids!

I visited Briarwood Elementary in Prairie Village, Kansas, earlier this week and talked to the fourth and fifth graders. They were such great kids—polite, attentive, and smart. They asked great questions and had the answers to any question I managed to throw at them. It was a fun visit.

Thank you, Mrs. Berenson, for inviting me.

Dinner With Authors

I owe a big thank you to Barb Bahm, my local School Librarian Goddess, for inviting me to the Dinner With Authors at the Kansas library, educator, and reading conference in Junction City last night. I had such a great time catching up with Stormy Lee Kennedy, owner of Claflin Books in Manhattan, Kansas, one of my favorite booksellers and all-around people, as well as fellow Kansas writers Bev Buller (I don’t see enough of Bev), Jane Kurtz, and Roderick Townley. I finally got to meet Lois Ruby. Plus I got a free meal—some kind of chicken thing, veggies, and cake.

Not a bad way to spend a Thursday night.

Book Events

Tonight, October 7, 2010, I’ll attend the Dinner With Authors with other Kansas writers and illustrators, including Jane Kurtz, Lois Ruby, Stephen Gilpin, Roderick Townley, Bev Buller, and Cheryl Harness at Partners in Excellence (the annual conference of the Kansas Association of School Librarians, the Kansas State Department of Education, and the Kansas Reading Association) in Junction City and will have a chance to chat with librarians, teachers, and other book people from all over the state. This is always a fun event.

Next Wednesday, October 13, 2010, I’ll visit Briarwood Elementary in Prairie Village, Kansas. A big thank you to Sheila Berenson, language arts teacher at Briarwood, for inviting me and arranging all the details of the visit.

Blog Tour

On Saturday, October 9, 2011, I’ll kick off a six-day blog tour. (Sort of like a three-hour tour, but I won't end up on a deserted island with Gilligan. I don’t think.) I’ll post six different blog entries on six different blogs on six different days. Here are the blogs and bloggers who have generously invited me to be their guest:

Saturday, October 9—Terri Forehand’s blog, Writing to the Heart of the Matter

Sunday, October 10—Kristi Bernard’s blog, The Neophyte Writer

Monday, October 11—Irene Roth's Writing Blog

Tuesday, October 12—Donna McDine’s blog, The Golden Pathway

Wednesday, October 13—blog of Suzanne Lieurance, Children’s Author


Thursday, October 14—Kathy Stemke’s blog, Educationtipster

For more information about blog tours by writers in this month’s Author Spotlight, as well as a chance to win a prize, go to The Writing For Children Center.