BookBoy, YALit 101 And Other Happenings (Nov./Dec. News)

It’s almost Thanksgiving! This is not good, because I’m actually still surprised that it’s 2018… It’ll take me at least until March next year, again, to get the year right on anything I fill out.

That said, I’ve had a pretty good 2018 so far. Lots of school and Skype visits and conference talks, and I got to talk to lots of kids, which is my favorite part of the job. I’ve also been writing a lot: a new MG mystery, a few short stories, and now I’m outlining a new, ambitious YA that’s close to my heart. More about that in 2019 (gasp! See how hard this is going to be?) 

Mystery TV

We like our TV here at the Bradley house, mostly from Netflix and Prime anymore, but there are still a few network shows we watch. Surprisingly good mystery this fall: The Rookie, with Nathan Fillion in it. I was expecting a show like Castle, but this one is more complex than that, with a few darker moments. I like it, and so does my better half, which doesn’t happen often.

            Along with the rest of America (and the world, it seems), we also watched The House on Haunted Hill—very cool and spooky, but with an ending that didn’t quite fit. Still, highly recommended.

Mystery Books

I’ve been reading up a storm—no surprise to you fellow writers, I’m sure. During my school visits, I often tell kids that I read about ten times more than I write, which is no exaggeration. 

Of note this fall (titles for adults this time): Fugitive Red by Jason Starr (juicy, like watching a very bad train wreck, but you can’t look away), and Elevation by Stephen King. I’ve been enamored by the novella lately, and Mr. King masters this length beautifully (despite his usual inclination to write those giant tombs).

Where You Can Find Me

The year is almost over, but I still have a few more events on the calendar:

Nov 25^th: BookBoy, Bookbar’s father-son book club. I'll be talking about Double Vision, of course. If you are a father or a son, come over to Denver’s Bookbar. Or if you’re not, come anyway: this store and the little pocket neighborhood around it is a must-visit. They have wine, and books. It’s brilliant marketing to people like me, plus the staff are really great at recommending books.

Dec. 10^th-24^th: YALit 101. If you’re like me and would rather stay away from the shops this December, join me for a YALit 101: Writing For Teens workshop over at Savvy Authors. It’s all online, which is pretty awesome if you ask me. You bring the hot beverage and wear your best comfortable clothing, I’ll tell you need to know about writing YA. It’ll be the perfect thing to do in December.

I hope you’re having a great last few weeks of 2018, and I hope to catch up with you again in 2019. Until then… Do you have any book or TV recommendations to share?

Back to school: Tips and resources for a succesful author visit

It's back to school time! I'm always inspired by this fresh start, and by the promise of new notebooks to fill up with stories. I buy at least a dozen of these at the beginning of the year. 

This time of year is also when I get a wave of Skype (that's virtual) school visits, and in-person author visits. School visits are my favorite: I love talking to educators and readers. There's just nothing better than talking about our favorite books and writing new stories. Hurrah for school visits! 

I'm excited to be part of Tattered Cover Bookstore's Educator Night on September 5th and 6th. If you're an educator in the Denver metro area, consider signing up and joining the fun.  

I love doing school visits so much, I even do a presentation on how to plan author visits at book festivals and educator conventions. I thought I'd share some of my tips and ideas, in case you are an educator looking for a place to start: 

Quick tips for a successful author visit: 

1. Decide how big you want the event to be. Consider starting smaller, with a Skype visit, or a short assembly visit arranged by the local bookstore (if available)

2. Build your team. It’s more fun if you get the community involved—plus, that way you’re not doing all the work yourself. Create a committee, enlist fellow teachers, parents, even kids.

3. Think local for less expensive visits—and kids love it when an author lives right where they do! I can attest to that :-) Try bookstores or referrals from other schools for author names. Local book fairs and festivals are a great way to meet authors.

4. Collaborate with other schools for bigger, pricier visits. Plan far ahead to allow time for fundraising and scheduling.

5. Apply for grants or organize fundraisers. PTO, book fairs, book sales are great fundraisers to get money. For travel expenses for the author, see if someone can donate miles/points for flights and hotel stays.

RESOURCES

Authors who Skype for free (a list compiled by author Kate Messner) 

Skype in the Classroom (through Microsoft, not necessarily book authors but any educational resource

Grants for school visits (these are just a few I found):

SCBWI Amber Brown Grant:

Target

Wells Fargo

Wal-Mart 

(You can contact any business for a grant, really, but these have existing forms)

Scholastic has a long list of grant possibilities

Want me to come to your school for a visit..? Find out more here, or email me at author-at-ftbradley-dot-com. 

Any educators or authors have tips or resources to share?

Mad March, Edits, And The Most Amazing School Visit Ever

March is certainly for madness—where is this month going?? Maybe it’s the nice weather that’s making time fly, or my giant to-do list…

In any case, on the writing side, I’m almost done with edits on my crime novel for adults. This project has been a long time in the making, but I‘m finally seeing the end. I’m not quite ready to spill the beans too much (I prefer to keep works-in-progress close to the chest, for fear of jinxing stuff), but I’ll say that the working title is 39, and the novel is set in the Deep South. To be continued…

School Visits

I don’t normally talk about school or Skype visits, because it feels too much like I’m tooting my own horn… But man, did I have the MOST AMAZING SCHOOL VISIT EVER!

I was invited to Campus Middle School in the Denver area, where they host an annual event called One Book One Campus. The librarian Derek Phelan and his staff choose a book that they wrap a week’s worth of events around, including games, activities, and book-themed decorations throughout the school. The kids don’t know what book is chosen until the start of the event—this year, I was honored to be the invited author.

A thousand copies of Double Vision were handed out to the kids; I did presentations, and was pretty much treated like royalty. The whole school looked like Paris, which is where Double Vision is set. Super cool. The Villager (local paper) and the Cherry Creek school district both wrote lots of nice things about the event.

School visits are a good reminder that you can really make a difference as an author. What fun, and what an honor…

Mystery Books and TV

I’ve been reading Heartbreak Hotel by Jonathan Kellerman, which I’d say is one of his best. The premise of the story goes back to the 1950s, to crime bosses and Hollywood. My only (tiny) gripe is that I wish Kellerman had shared a bit more at the end of the book about whether any of it was based in real life history; it was fascinating stuff, and his writing always makes the reading pleasurable.

On the nightstand right now is The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. This title came flew across my radar several times, recommended by various review sites, so I thought I’d give it a go.

So far, it’s a contemporary Agatha Christie with a side of Bridget Jones, on a cruise ship. I’m having fun reading this one. Easy to read, other than the sudden introduction of lots of characters (very Christie).

Mystery TV has me watching Major Crimes on TNT. Mary McDonnell is great, and the cast of characters is always nice to revisit—kind of like hanging out with friends. At Bouchercon (mystery fan conference) in Cleveland, the writers/producers hosted a panel for fans, and I was impressed by how hard they work to get the crime/cop/law stuff right.

For Writers

Come to Pikes Peak Writers Conference! I’ll be on faculty, along with a lot more famous people. It’ll be fun. Plus, Colorado Springs is a great place to visit; with some luck, you’ll catch the spring blooms and a bit of sunshine.

In the book department, I’m reading Be the Gateway by Dan Blank from We Grow Media, which came out earlier this month. I took a class led by Dan a few years ago, and have loved his personal, human approach to reaching readers, and enhancing productivity along with career satisfaction. Buy this book, follow his blog. Dan Blank sends out a newsletter every Friday that always has me inspired.  

What are you reading, watching, writing?

February brings school visits, good karma, and new mystery TV and books

Welcome to February, the shorty of the months. Here in Colorado, we're getting a few warm days every now and then, which always cheers me up. I hope in your neck of the woods, you get a bit of spring thrown your way, too.

In the writing department, I'm putting a final polish on the crime novel-in-progress for adults before sending it off for edits, plus I'm starting a shiny new middle-grade novel. One of my writer buddies initiated a writing challenge for this month, so I'm joining in for fun. New writing is always good for the spirit.

And February is for school visits, too! Hot dog, the calendar is brimming with Skype visits, in-person visits--those are the best part of my job, honestly. Middle-graders are super cool.

For those of you looking to earn some good karma: author friend S.W. Lothian is building a little library for the oncology ward at the Princess Margeret Children's Hospital in Perth, so kids fighting cancer (and their families) can find a little refuge in a book. Donating is easy, and doesn't even have to cost you in postage (Perth being in Australia and all). Here's the post on S.W. Lothian's blog; contact him to help out!

Mystery Books

I'm reading the Edgar Award nominees for Best Novel this month; so far, they're all really good...

I'm in the middle of Alafair Burke's The Ex, which is having me stay up well past my bedtime. I fear I'll have no thoughts on who will win... What great reading--go check out the nominees here.

Mystery TV

We're Netflix and Amazon binge-watching nutters here in the Bradley house. In the past couple of months, we worked our way through Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, OA, Sneaky Pete (so fun!), Bosch, and now Travelers. I feel like we're living in the golden age of television at the moment, with the best stuff happening on these independent providers. Especially with the current state of politics, I gladly escape to some fictional world, don't you?

Any good TV shows you have to recommend?

Oh, and in recommended music, here's Barns Courtney's Fire. Has a cool, old-school vibe to it.

Kid Problems: When suddenly, everything is so much bigger than you (or: #IWishMyTeacherKnew )

Last Saturday, I went to the Colorado Teen Literature Conference in Denver. It's a one-day event for teachers, librarians and teens, all about books. I love it, even if it starts pretty early. There's breakfast, and this year's keynotes were Wendelin Van Draanen and Andrew Smith. I was inspired, and got to eat a dynamite sandwich for lunch with some cool librarians for company.

I was honored to be invited to talk about how to reach YA and middle-grade reluctant readers. This is a bit of a soapbox topic of mine, so it was a good thing I had a whole hour. I've done this talk at too many library conventions to mention (in AL, MS, GA)--basically, I try to share ideas on how to reach reluctant readers, and ask for teachers and librarians to share theirs. It's fun, inspiring, and I love it when I see heads nodding in agreement as I talk. Makes me feel like we're all in this together.

But I'll admit: this talk has changed over time. I now talk more about how reluctant readers are often kids with undiagnosed reading disabilities (hate that word, but it's the best I've got). I talk about how I have one of those kids in the house, and how easy it is to miss this struggle. How kids become experts at hiding their difficulty reading. And I also talk about how often, much of this reading reluctance is really about the kid's home life. Whether Mom and Dad or guardians read.

And about money. Because after doing so many school visits, and talking to many teachers and librarians and the issues they deal with, so much of it all is an issue of economics. No money=less time=less education=forgotten kid problems. We need to fix economic inequality, that's the bottom line. Teachers and librarians shouldn't be forced to be the Band-Aid to society's ails when kids come to school with gorilla-sized problems in their backpacks.

I could go on about this forever... But I won't.

But I will share this story, since I'm still on my soap box: it's of a third grade teacher who asked her students to share things with her in a note: I wish my teacher knew... These are third-graders being honest, and it'll make you cry, I swear.

After my presentation at the Colorado Teen Lit Conference, a parent stuck around, crying about her struggle to get her son (who has a reading disability) through life. It's a lonely gig, being a parent, kid, teacher, librarian dealing with these enormous problems. Sometimes, it's good to know you're not alone.

Chapeau to the teacher in this online story. Makes me think we should all write a note...

And since this is all a bit sad, I thought I'd surround this post with a bunch of nice drawings I got in the mail after doing a Skype visit not too long ago. Because sometimes, you get a nice note, too. And you make a kid reader friend named Dezarae.

I'm a lucky duck, to be an author of kid books.