So, on Saturday I will be at the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Expo at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. I'll be at author's table 3 signing copies of Ghost Medicine beginning at 2:30. I'm looking forward to it.Next week, I'll be attending SCBWI's (that's the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Writer's Day 2008 at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California. I'm attending an SCBWI dinner there on Friday evening, then on Saturday, October 25, I will be one of the Spotlight Speakers at the event.
This is really going to be a great weekend, capped off with a signing and reading at the Barnes and Noble in Thousand Oaks on Monday, October 27, at 7:00 pm. What makes it special is that I have so many family members and friends in that part of California, who've been waiting for this event to get their own copies of Ghost Medicine.
Also, I graduated from high school very near to Thousand Oaks, and my alma mater has some copies of Ghost Medicine in their library. The librarian is going to be in attendance, but I really hope we'll get some of the kids out, as well. Considering it's a Monday night, and there are no high school football games on Mondays, there will probably be a nice turnout.
I'm just guessing that the current librarian was probably in diapers back when I went to High School, and that most of my teachers have likely retired. But, and especially in light of what I've been writing about in my blogs for a while now, I will say that I had a superb, and very boy-friendly education when I was in high school. We didn't do the group thing then... we didn't force boys to be reflective and get in touch with their emotions, we just worked hard. I remember reading Faulkner and P.G. Wodehouse (now, there are two great writers for boys who were recommended to me by my English teacher as subjects for papers), and it was in high school when I realized how much I loved to read, and knew that one day I would become an author, too.
I don't have any spectacular or life-changing memories of high school. Being a high-achiever, I tended to get the teachers that terrified most of my friends, but they were the kind of teachers I liked the most... and from whom I learned the most, as well. I don't think I was a particularly good student, though. I got into an awful lot of trouble in high school, including multiple trips to the principal's office, being suspended, just getting by recklessly as a smart-alecky kid.
And I was very young in high school, too, because I was skipped ahead as a grade-schooler. So I lied about my age so the girls would talk to me, even if I'm sure they must have wondered why I wasn't driving when every other boy in school had a driver's license. And I lied about my age to get jobs, too... but in those days, it was simple enough to get away with things like that. It's funny, but growing up I always swore I would never let my own kid skip grades in school because of how much I hated being so young... but, I allowed my own son to do it when he was in grade school, too.
I know... what a loser I am. But my son, now in high school himself, is vastly more well-adjusted than I was in my teens.
Anyway, there's a little nostalgic trip for me. I sure hope to see some of the kids and staff from my old school next week at the B & N.
BoNoBloMo
