Let's hear it for video-conferencing!
This morning, at about 8:15 Eugene Oregon time, I was meeting with a reading class in Vermont, not far from Montpelier. We had a great class together, even though they were 3074 miles away.
It was interesting and fun for all of us. So much that a handful of students didn't want to leave after the session ended.
They had read my middle-grade first novel "Cheechako." They'd had a chance to think about it and to discuss it, and came to the session ready to ask real questions. It was a hoot, really.
Video conferencing lets me visit nearly any classroom, anywhere.
I couldn't help thinking how excited I would have been, as a 7th grader in Nenana, Alaska—way back in the late 1950s—to have gotten a visit from a real author. To have been able to ask any question. I had already told my father I wanted to be a writer. He told me, essentially, to get serious. A second opinion would have been helpful.
Now Internet makes these amazing things happen, easily, quickly ... and free! Programs like Skype, Apple Messenger, or Google Hangouts are available to bring writers like me—or any professional— into schools anywhere. It's the best time to connect to kids who are already starting to figure out what they'd like to do, what they can do, and questions they'd ask of a person already doing it ... if they could.
I'm available!
If you know a teacher, librarian or reading specialist who would enjoy a virtual visit from a writer, please pass along my contact info. It doesn't matter if they've read any of my books. I've made at least part of my living as a writer, since I left teaching jr. high, way back in the early '80s, and enjoy talking about the process.
What I like best? Saying to them, "yeah ... why not ... give it a try!"
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