Skyway Books – Short Stories – Poems – Books

Welcome back to the weekly Skywaybooks.com blog. For the last couple of weeks I had been talking about travelling. At the end of last week’s instalment, I promised to tell about how Las Vegas was unkind to me. I will have to put that off for just one more week. I did some more travelling last week, last Thursday December 4^th to be exact. I travelled back in time when I visited a local private school to educate some young minds about publishing, writing and to promote my two books.

Glenburnie School of Oakville graciously opened their doors to yours truly for the afternoon. I arrived a half hour ahead of the scheduled program start to set up and get organized for the upcoming events. Tickets were given out and I was soon minutes away from facing 335 enthusiastic, energetic, and intelligent young minds. I went into the event confident, which was very bold of me considering this was the most people I had ever spoken in front of before.

Thanks to the advice of my niece Nicole, an elementary supply teacher, I made some flash cards with big pictures for the Kindergarten through grade three students. It made for a very visual presentation that they thoroughly enjoyed. At one point I knew I would be really reaching I asked if anyone knew how books were written before computers and they actually knew what a typewriter was. I was delighted of course and feeling the vibe again. I was feeling a new sense of youth until one student informed me that her grandmother owns a typewriter. Feeling the old vibe now, the one that reminded me I used a typewriter to write my term papers in college.

The second session with the older kids was next. Kids. Some of them were bigger than me. What are they feeding these kids nowadays? So now the gym was full and I was being introduced by Joan Berberian, the school librarian. After a rather gracious and flattering introduction I was on. No turning back now. All eyes were on me. It was now or never. Well you get the point.

I asked if they wanted to have some fun. A small cheer. I asked how everyone was doing. A little bigger cheer. Now for the slam dunk. I asked who wanted to win some prizes. Now they were getting excited. Their participation was more than I could have asked for or imagined. I was extremely impressed by their knowledge and enthusiasm. Then I started asking questions and handing out signed business card magnets and bookmarks. All of a sudden every hand was in the air ready to contribute an answer. Maybe not the right answer, but I gotta give them credit for trying. All in all it was a great afternoon. I even did some draws and gave away some tee shirts and signed books. After it was all over, I was really touched when some of the kids lined up for some autographs.

Thank you Glenburnie for inviting me into your world, if even for just a couple of hours.

Until next time, have a great day and happy reading to everyone!

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