In my last post, I talked about the author events I had last week. I mentioned that on Wednesday, I went to John Tyson Elementary School in Springdale, Arkansas. The purpose of the trip was for me to meet and give copies of my book There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel (Book 1 in The Forest Throne series) to my two beta readers, Henry and Izzy, and their E.A.S.T. facilitator, Mrs. Jennifer Boogaart. I wanted to write about that more in my last post, but I was waiting on photos. I didn’t take any myself, so I had to wait until they were posted on the school’s site. Those finally were posted, so I’ll say a little more about that event.
In Nov. 2021, Mrs. Boogaart reached out to a Facebook group I’m a member of, Arkansas Authors. This is a group for the purpose of putting writers and educators together. Mrs. Boogaart said she had two students in her E.A.S.T. class who were writing a book about JTE’s school recycling program. She was hoping to find an author who would discuss the writing and publishing process with them. I volunteered, and last year we had two or three Zoom meetings (the pandemic still keeping us apart). One of these meetings I suggested, since I was about to publish a short story and I thought they could watch the process as I shared my screen with them.
In one of the Zoom meetings, we discussed if they would want to be beta readers for TNSTATT. I explained what this was, and they both answered yes. I sent it to them in January of this year. I did all this mostly e-mailing their teacher, who I asked to get permission of their parents first. They were the first people other than members of my family who read the book. As a result, I mentioned Henry, Izzy, and Mrs. Boogaart in the acknowledgment section of the book—again, with their parent’s approval.
So Wednesday I arrived at 9:00 a.m. The school district communication department was there, as was Izzy’s mom. Mrs. Boogaart took me down to the E.A.S.T. classroom. Henry and Izzy came in soon thereafter, and we sat and talked. I gave them signed copies and showed them where their names were in it. I talked with them about how the idea for the book came to me, and how my oldest grandson helped with the ideas and the plot. I also asked them more about their book, including where they stand in the writing process.
The communications people got some of this on video. They then asked each of us for a statement about how the work on this book felt to us. Meanwhile, others were also taking photos, including the teacher, the mom, and the assistant principal. The whole thing has been posted on the JTE E.A.S.T. Facebook page. It’s at the top of the page now; later you might have to scroll down.
This is not the typical author event. I didn’t sell any books. I didn’t bring any to sell. But it was a joy to work with the kids, and to be able to meet them and give them the book. My life was enriched, and I hope they and their teacher’s lives were as well.
Oh, wait, I figured out how to get the link to the E.A.S.T. post itself. Here it is.