Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Thirty-Minute Author Appearance--What I Did And What I Saw

Today was my third morning visiting a student writers' group, and my first time actually conferencing with students. I've only published two short stories over the years, but I have done a lot of self-study of the form. Thank goodness. I'd hate to have had to talk with those fifth graders without having some knowledge of what we were all doing there.

While I was waiting for the young writers to get their juice and muffins and settle down to work, I took a look at the fiction baskets in the classroom. I saw a number of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Judy Moody books. I also saw several volumes of a series I'd never heard of--Dear Dumb Diary by Jim Benton, who has remarkably little to say about himself at his website. Turns out I have heard of him, though, because he has another series called Franny K. Stein, one volume of which I read years ago.

These writers' group visits of mine are interesting because they take so little time. I'm only there half an hour. We're talking 7:45 to 8:45 AM, so I do have to get cleaned up for the day earlier than I'm used to. What with making sure I have something decent to wear and putting on makeup so I don't  frighten any young ones, I probably spend more time getting ready to go then I spend there.

But, still, I'm home by 8:30 after doing a little writer talking with writers, though very short ones.

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