Author Day

Great group of kids! I read Tonight You Are My Baby and we spoke about what the kids would draw if they were the illustrator. The groups of kids also wrote rhyming stanzas for my next book. Very creative!! Thanks for the fun day!

"Soar to a Cure"

The "Write" Reason - At Least Kids is a foundation that my husband, Peter, and I started to assist/support kids with brain tumors. When our daughter, Quinn, was four years old she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In a moment, our bubbly little girl was one of the 3,000 kids who was diagnosed each year with a brain tumor. Blessedly, it was benign and in thanksgiving for the wonderful health of both our children, we started At Least Kids (http://www.atleastkids.org/). Part of the proceeds from Tonight You Are My Baby will be donated to the foundation. The mission of At Least Kids is two-fold: donations are made to the neurology division at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for innovative research into gene therapy and a tumor bank initiative to determine the cause of pediatric brain tumors. At Least Kids also provides financial support, through referral of CHOP's social workers, to families in the neuro-oncology clinic who are on this difficult journey with their children. These children are incredibly brave and our hope is that someday all kids will have the same wonderful diagnosis as our daughter. All kids "At Least" deserve a carefree childhood - a chance just to be a kid. I'm honored that Tonight You Are My Baby can help kids in some small way. A "shout out" to my editor, and HarperCollins, for promoting At Least Kids on the book jacket.

Such fun!

On Thursday, I was invited to make an author visit to a first grade class at Holy Family School. The kids were fun - great questions and very good listening skills. I read the Tonight You Are My Baby manuscript and explained how an illustrator has to create the pictures from the words. The kids told me what they would draw - very creative! I also read another manuscript, about animals in nature, and had the kids work in groups to create new stanzas. I was impressed with the kids' imaginations. I predict some talented authors/illustrators in bloom! Thanks to Ms. K for inviting me!

Creative Writing Class Valley Forge Christian College

Great class to speak to last night. Generally, my audience is the preschool-second grade kids, so this was a change. The creative writing class was a great mix of male/female, college age/older student. They asked a lot of good questions on the writing process, how the book gets published and method. I enjoyed speaking with them and thanks to the professor who invited me. Thanks also to Marianne, a member of my local critque group, who took a photo for the blog. I'll be posting it soon.