This past friday I had the pleasure to spend another day presenting my recent picture book, “Ode to Icky” during a school author visit. Although I love all aspects of the writing life – the brainstorming, the writing, the procrastination, the editing, the rush to meet deadlines, the re-editing, watching the book come to life with illustrations, holding the finished book in your hands – I think my favorite part of writing is doing book signings and author visits at elementary schools and other community centers.
Why do I love these events even though they are tiring and sometimes extremely repetitive? Because of the kids! They are funny, sweet, creative and they treat me like I am famous (which is an awesome feeling, even if I know it isn’t true).
So I thought it would be fun to share some of the funny, weird and random things kids have said during one of my author visits. These aren’t all from one school or event, it is just a hodgepodge of what I have heard the past few months while I was out promoting my new book:
“Have you ever met Harry Potter in person?”
“How rich are you? Do you have a swimming pool and your own butler?”
“I really like your book but I think you are crazy for being a writer.”
“If your cat really stinks like the cat in Ode to Icky, then you should just hold his head under water for thirty minutes. He won’t stink anymore after that.” (I didn’t have the heart to tell this little girl that my cat would be dead if I did as she asked lol)
“Is your husband the illustrator of your book or is he just a plain old husband?”
“Can you autograph my sock?”
“You get into trouble a lot, don’t you?” (How did they know?)
“My cat is really ugly and she is going bald, do you want to borrow her so you can write another funny book about a cat?”
“Have you ever been arrested? If so, you might know my dad.” (I found out his dad was a police officer, which was a relief).
“My sister wants to be a writer, but she don’t got no talent.”
