Finding a Class Reading my Novel

 I work as both a writer and as a substitute teacher. The two are mostly unconnected although talking to kids helps me to think of ideas for my writing and to make my characters really talk like the kids do. Recently, walking through the hall before school. I found myself suddenly surrounded by a group of girls, "Mrs Goode! We are reading your book. I love the way you go back and forth in time,"
and on and on while I stand amazed.

That is WHY!!

  I found out it is Mrs. Hooper and her class reading it. A few informed me which 1 kid doesn't like it. I actually laughed - 1 kid doesn't? That is such a Win! Thank you Sandi !  I am lucky because this wonderful teacher first read my book with her book club, a group of a dozen adults, and chose to share it with her class.  And then I am also lucky because a class set of 38 books was purchased last year by the school district's instructional media center.

 Of course, that kind of luck starts with some book promotion on my part and it is hard for me to add promoting and sales to an already busy life as a mom, teacher, writer. It is also not the best match with the shy, observer type personality that a writer tends to be, but years of teaching have taught me too, and I can speak up when I have to.

So one of the best bits of advice that I read on Twitter was the suggestion that every free copy of your book that you put out into the world is an ambassador, working away while you are not looking, to promote your writing.

In this case, I gave a copy of my book to a 5th grade teacher, she read it and suggested it to her book club, which bought 10 copies.  Then they had me come talk to them.  I also gave a book to another substitute teacher, she gave it to her husband, who gave it to the director of curriculum, who gave it to the IMC Librarian with the instructions to go to Amazon and order a class set.

It doesn't always work so well. A lot of give away books, I never hear about again, but some result in wonderful reviews on Goodreads or in blog posts.

 So, three day later I was back at the school where they had started my novel.  This time the reaction was bigger even than before. The kids surrounded me at the bus line, asking me to autograph their arms or notebooks or scraps of paper and begging to know specific details from the book,

"Why did you start the story in St. Louis?"

"Have you ever ridden to the top of the Gateway Arch?"

"Is that Old Grandma really based on yours?"

 And now I have kids, telling me that they want to be writers, and asking me how.

I have kids asking for a sequel

and when I tell them that the next book has been begun

and that it is about Volcanoes and Pompeii and My. St. Helens and connecting two boys through 1901 years, they sound as excited as I do.

 I find that I did get to visit many of the Oregon Trail sites as I researched and wrote, but I probably won't get near Pompeii or Vesuvius, and yet I have learned to travel without ever leaving my desk, and to take classrooms full of kids with me on the journey and I thank my lucky starts every day for this gift.

Rock-a-Doodle-Do!

I have a stash of essential supplies that go along with me whenever I get the chance to spend the day at the beach or the river. Of course, I have sun screen an a swim suit, a water bottle and Big's Dill Pickle Sunflower seeds. I take a towel and a pair of river sandals, and my favorite book of the moment, burt I never go without my camera and a bundle of sharpies.You know that early people were big on leaving their stories behind, on the walls of stone canyons and in caves. These pictographs capture our imagination, and link us in a very human way to our ancestors. Now, considered historical treasures, in some ways they served the same purpose as graffiti does today. They were a creative expression, a way to record the fact that someone had been here, a way to communicate a thought or idea to someone who would come later.

Once I was walking in the forest by Oregon Caves, and i found a circle of painted stones. each bore a blue sky, one or two yellow suns and the white silhouette of an animal. It made me stop in delight and I smile still at the memory.

The strange thing though, was years later, on the coast of Gold Beach, I found more of the same in another circle. By then, I realized that I wanted to make people smile and wonder too. So when I am watching my family swim, or when my book does not hold my interest, I grab the sharpies and doodle whatever comes to my mind. I never sign my name and sometimes after I have scattered the drawings, I see someone else discover them, and listen to the comments and say not a word.
In some cases I find one that has been left behind, and the picture will be almost faded away, like a ghost of a former self. And once or twice, I have been caught in the act by children, who, with their parents permission, eagerly share my markers and create their own rock art.

Now that I look at stones all the time, I realize some of them already have their own pictures, and it is those I most enjoy discovering. See the couple up above? She's waving at you.