The Rock Star Life.

Oh yeah.

It's a glamour-fest, I tell ya!

What... you already read the previous entries from this week and sense I'm being less than truthful in that statement?? Dang. The perils of being the Friday Girl. Ah well. Okay - I admit it ain't all roses and blue M&Ms as far as the eye can see, this writing gig.

And yet... the day I'm going to tell you about is certainly writerly, awfully cool and ever-so-slightly rock star-ish. Sure - it was untypical, but I thought you guys might like to catch a glimpse of what it was like for me to hit the high school circuit at a couple of recent Writer's Festivals - the Frye Festival in New Bruswick and the Ottawa Writer's Festival.

For almost two weeks, my days consisted of two or three school events a day, reading for auditoriums full of teens, answering questions and *giggle* signing autographs. It was marvelous.

Aside from the early mornings (to which I am morally opposed just on principle!!), and the threat of losing my voice (a horrifying prospect - how would I do all that talking I always do?!) it was a terrific experience. Typically, for each presentation, I would do a 10-ish minute reading followed by a bit of chat about me, the book, what it's like to be an author and an actor, and a little insight into the publishing industry. Insofar as this was my first real "touring" experience, I was a little worried going in that that I might not have enough material to fill hour-long sessions. I mean - just a reading and a Q&A? And what if the kids get bored? What if they fidget? What if they don't ask any questions at all? *wail/gnash/flail*

I needn't have worried. Even in the presentations where there might have been a little bit of reluctance to start the ball rolling, inevitably the kids always wound up having more questions than we had time to get to them.

The audiences were uniformly filled with an abundance of kids who were smart and funny and fabulous. And the teachers - man, teachers rock. Seriously rock.

Inevitably, after each session was over, a bunch of the kids would stay behind and continue to ask questions. And ask me to sign a wide variety of items. I signed my first cast, my first shoe (a couple of those actually...), several hands and binders and - yes - even books! ;-D

I love teens. The whole experience made me so glad that I write stories for them. It was both exhausting and exhilirating. And I had a blast.

A pretty good few "days in the life". See?

Serious Author with Awesome Kidz and Teacher!

Silly Rock Star Author with Awesome Kidz and Teacher (and rabbit ears!)

~ Thanks to the marvelous Miz Arsenault at JMA for the pics!! ~