life as a writer while working at a day job

 Yes. I was a full time children's librarian and did research and wrote during my generous vacation time. plus raised three children, got one into college and grad school, another into community college, and the third managed one year of college. Oh, and also cared for my mother-in-law who lived with us. And multiple cats and always at least one dog in the house.

 Oh yes, and doing school visits as an author, plus one week of giving 3 programs a day about my books for the Summer Reading Program of the Chicago public library. 

Plus attending grad school during my last years of working as a children's librarian and spending the evenings at grad school 2-week residency (in Vermont) on the computer keeping in touch with my own library branch's summer reading program. 

(my family couldn't figure out why I was tired all the time.)

Laura Purdie Salas and creative nonfiction and fascinating facts and

Laura Purdie Salas wrote an interesting take about how writing nonfiction is often a creative process on the Celebrate Science blog today.

I agree with Laura the robots don't write our books.  That would be boring.

I remember one day when I was giving a talk at a school about writing nonfiction when one upset student jumped up and shouted, "How can you write stuff like that.  Nonfiction is boring!"

That stopped me cold. My immediate response was, "Well. If it's boring, I can't write about it.  I ONLY WRITE ABOUT THE INTERESTING STUFF."
Think about it.  The Interesting stuff.
It got so that I included this bit in every talk I gave from then on.
I look for the FASCINATING FACTS.

Where we differ from creative fiction writers is that nobody is desperately waiting for the next book by that famous author... (whoever)   People are looking for a certain subject,  If they're lucky, they find one by a good author who is passionate about the subject, which makes the reader excited about the subject.

Librarians, on the other hand, when they discover a writer who can present nonfiction in interesting ways will always look for other books by that same author, no matter the subject, and will purchase them for their library system instead of books by less talented writers.  (and publishers get a reputation among librarians when they consistently publish either dull or fascinating books.)

Have to give a speech?

Well,
help is on the way.
Paul Edwards had written these hints about giving a talk/ speech/ lecture.
He calls it How to give an Academic Talk, but the rules are the same for anytime you have to stand up and talk to a large group.

Oh, and I want to add -- relax and have fun.  If you do, the audience will enjoy it more, and so will you.

What kind of Author talk do you like to hear?

When I visit schools or give talks to adults/ teens/ or children in other venues, I do NOT simply stand there and read from my book.

I  Talk.

I tell the story behind the story -- my adventures with writing and research.

This article by author Matthew Dicks suggests that there are four types of author appearances.
Which type do YOU like?

Why invite an author to your school or group?

With the much tighter school budgets these days, parents and teachers sometimes wonder if their slim programming money would be better spent on an entertainer who might have a 'message' to convey to their students (Don't do drugs, etc.) or on bringing an author to the school. Which one will help the students more? (Which one can they justify best to the administration?)

Why spend the money on a published author, when there are self-published authors who will do the job for free. (provided, of course, that you allow them to sell their self-published book to the kids. How could you lose? You get a free speaker. What a deal?)

Members of CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers) have created a list of Frequently Asked Questions that address that very conundrum.

Use it the next time a school asks, "why they should invite YOU/ what's in it for the students?"
Also be sure to use the information you gather on Alexis O'Neill's blog, school visits Experts.com which offers you even more ideas about doing school visits.
-w

School visits to remember

Since it's almost time for the kids to go back to school, I was reminded of some of the school visits I've made over the years. (In fact, I've mentioned a couple on my blog.)

I love visiting schools.
Every spring I visit the local schools wearing my librarian hat and representing the public library to tell the students (and teachers) about this year's Summer Reading Program. I also bring along a selection of neat books that I think the kids would enjoy reading for fun. I fully believe that summer reading should be FUN!

Do I ever talk about my own books at these school visits? Hardly ever. Wellllll, if I have a new book out I might show it to one of the classes if I think they'd enjoy it. But these are library visits, not me-me-me-the-author.

And then there are school visits that I make with my author hat on.
I love doing these, too. (I've come to the conclusion that I'm a ham. I'm basically shy, but when I do have something to talk about, I'm a ham.)
It so much fun to arrive at a school and find it is all decked out with student's interpretations of my books. One school a few years ago had adopted the slogan -- Fly High with Books -- and had plastered the school with it. They had no idea that that's what I put into every copy of TO FLY, THE STORY OF THE WRIGHT BROTHERS when I sign them. Wow! Great minds with but a single thought. I was blown away.

And then there are the disasters.
Most memorable was year I took 3 to 4 hours driving through a blinding white-out snowstorm to travel to a school near Washington, DC -- a trip that should have taken an hour and a half at the most. When I realized that traffic on I-95 was stopped dead because no one could see, I began calling the school -- and nobody answered. For an hour, as traffic crept along, nobody answered. When they finally realized someone was trying to call them, I got the distinct impression that they didn't believe me. After all, the snowstorm had left their area, only leaving a dusting of snow.

From then on, whenever a school near DC asks me to come, I make sure I get the school secretary's phone number and I state over and over again that I really, really will try to get there on time, but you know how the traffic on the DC beltway often is a traffic jam....

Anywho, all this is leading up to Marc Tyler Nobleman recent blog entries where he has posted about his 10 most memorable school visit moments. Only a few are disasters. The rest are typical of some of the wonderful interactions we all get with students and teachers when we are the 'author' visiting their school.
-wendieO

Been there, done that

I had a good laugh at a recent SLUSHPILE cartoon. (a series of cartoons about the life of a children's book writer.)

This one showes the author of bunny books at a school visit where a child tells the author that he loves all of the author's books. What's his favorite? Where the Pigeon wants to drive the bus. (ooops, wrong author)

Been there/ done that.

Wa-a-ay back in 2003, when TO FLY won all those literary awards, I was invited to make author visits to schools and libraries like crazy. But I never knew how to respond to the joyful teachers and students who said they loved my book, as they pointed to a poster on the wall advertising that other guy's Wright brothers' book -- you know, the one that won the $10,000 James Madison award.
(Literary awards only give you silver plates or paper certificates.)

Lisa Yee did a wonderful post on her blog some time ago about the time she showed up for a booksigning, only to discover all the books on her booksigning table were books by a Lisa SEE!

Here is a link to Lisa Yee's wonderful blog. I'm sorry that I couldn't find the exact post about her author mix-up (I've spent too much time trying to find it--and I simply can't), but enjoy viewing her blog anyway.
-wendieOld

Busy week -- and it's only Tuesday

Life during May has been, and is, busy - busy.
Besides the ongoing project of tagging all the library books with RFID tags, it's also the season for children's librarians to go out and visit the local schools, telling all the students about the Summer Reading Programs at the public libraries.

After talking to 8 groups, I came back to the library branch today and sat down at my office computer to type up a list of the books I talked about -- to be stored in the library and a copy sent to the school. BUT, I discovered that my computer had decided that it no longer wanted to talk to the network.
Yikes!
Dead computer.
Thanks to the kindness of a co-worker, I was able to type the list on her computer. (My computer was still not fixed by the time I went home. I'm hoping it will either cure itself overnight, or the IT people will come before I get to work and figure out what's wrong with it.)

I wanted to get those books out on display before school let out -- because I always tell the kids that the first ones to get to the library will be able to check them out. The rest will have to put a reserve on the title and we'll get copies from another branch for them. I always grab interesting new items (a Playaway/ a book in a round format) -- nonfiction as well as fiction to take to the schools.

With any luck, those books will all be checked out soon and I'll have to gather others to show to the next school. -wendie old