Jeff Kinney Live!

I had a fun day Saturday with about 300 ten-year-olds and their parents at an author event held by Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The kids were absolutely thrilled to be seeing one of their favorite authors in person.

Twenty dollars got two people in the door and a signed copy of his 19th book in the series -- Hot Mess. Quite a deal!

For about ten minutes he talked about his writing process, which is as backwards as I can imagine. He comes up with an idea, then creates the cover first. He writes about 300 jokes next, which in this case involved restaurant and food jokes, and then he starts putting the illustrations and story together.

After that ten minutes, it was off to the races for the next forty-five as the author visit became a kid-centered game show calling up kids and parents in the audience to face off in friendly competitions. The show ended with beach balls painted like meatballs flying through the audience concert-style.

The event was unlike any author event I have ever been to! It really has me thinking about marketing, seeing as how this guy is obviously very successful (After his United States tour, he's off to Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and China!)  So, remember, if you are a writer, try to go to as many of these events as you can, so you can see how other authors structure these events. Always keep a mental file of those ideas!

Many Thanks

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to chat Saturday at the Sweet Home Dollars for Scholars arts and crafts fair. It's always so much fun to talk with people about books and writing.

A special thank you to Darlene, Lisa, Beverly, Kaitlyn, Doris, Linda, Nancy, Abe, and Ivyana (who jumped up and down when I signed her book!) and others who bought books as gifts. It was wonderful to meet you all.

Remember, if you picked up a bookmark and buy one of my books on Amazon, I will always sign it at my next event.

Speaking of which, I will be selling and signing next at the Buffalo Historical Museum November 29 and 30 and then at the Heim Middle and Elementary School show December 7 and 8.

See you then!
 

Seeing Sandra Cisneros

This week, I got to see one of my favorite authors in person -- Sandra Cisneros. While I taught, her book The House on Mango Street was one of the novels I tried to include every year. 

I guess what I didn't realize about her, was that she was a poet first, although based on the way she writes prose, I should have guessed. So, she had a lot to say about poetry. Here are some of my favorite poetry quotes from that night: 

"Poets are born feeling things too deeply."

"It's easier to write poetry in Spanish because everything rhymes!"

"If what you have to say cannot be published in your lifetime, you'll write your best poetry."

"I don't think at all when I write -- I feel."

"This is a time for poetry. You don't need paints or a brush...all you need is a napkin and a pencil. It's very economical. If we wrote more poetry we wouldn't need any guns."

She read many of her poems that evening, and it made me realize how much I've been missing. I'm off to the bookstore to find some of that poetry right now!