12/23/08

Chinook School Reading Night with dad.

Dean the Bean was read by BU1 Matthew Nickles to some of the people who attended this event. I was not able to attend this particular event, however the school was ever so kind as to send me a few pictures from it. Thank You!

 Buckman School Write Night

  Buckman Elementary School , an arts magnet school in south east Portland Oregon. A writer's night held on Thursday October 25th 2007 at 6:30 pm. We will be speaking with kids on the importance of writing, and the kids will have a chance to work with each of the writer's to learn different styles and types of writing.

To View a slide show of this night, click HERE Enjoy!

Barnes and Noble At Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood Washington

 This was fun! It was the day after Thanksgiving, and they didn't know I was coming. There wasn't a lot of "hooplah" or anything, just my family and I wandering in and asking if I could sign the books that they had there in the store. The lady was very helpful and I think a little nervous. She got the permission and the "special stickers" that say Autographed Copy on them. I don't know, maybe I am just too new to this, but seeing the stickers on the books was just a little surreal.

We ended up selling 6 of the 8 books. It was great fun!

Celestial Awakenings 11-25-07

Like the signing at Buckman, this was a small workshop with the kids! I vastly prefer these types of signings. They don't take very long, maybe an hour or so. But working with the kids is fantastic!

I read the book:

Then we (Angela, the Store Owner and I) talked about different things in the book, that might refer to each kid. Like what about them is something they don't really like:

Then it was asked of the kids, what would you DO without that part? (One of the kids didn't like the "smell factor", I had to smile at that.)

To explain the types of problems a person would have, in the case of the "smell factor", we explained a little about glands and how they work and how icky it might be if a body held those smells inside! All of this was done in a way as to teach the kids how lucky they were to HAVE those parts. EVEN in the "smell case".

The kids then went on to do a small workshop of drawing Dean the Bean in their own way emphasizing the part they wanted to change. Some people chose to draw a completely different character. It was so much fun to watch the creativity in the room.

Then we took a break to think about a rhyming sentence to go with our pictures.

The kids had a chance to talk with me, and get up and walk around a little. I had a chance to grab my coffee and recharge a bit. A few of the kids wanted to know if I had kids, and if so, why were they not there. It was fun to get to know them!

Other kids went to show their parents what they had worked on so far. Pretty soon, we were right back to work.

 A few of the kids had not worked with that type of writing before, so they got a chance to learn just that. We had a great time coming up with different rhyming sentences. I helped the smaller ones, with the actual writing:

Then, all done with our stuff, we posed for some pictures!

Once all that was done, I signed some books for some of the customers and some for the store.

If you would like to have me to your store for a signing or a work shop, please use the forms page to set something up.