I love meeting my readers and can customize a visit to meet your needs.

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Some examples of sessions are:

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The Story Behind the Story: how a small idea becomes a book

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This 45 minute session traces the journey of how a small idea becomes a book. I discuss my first attempts to write a novel at ten years old and how, after that, I was hooked on telling stories. We move on to an exercise focused on taking an idea and formulating it into a question to get to the heart of the story (What if my sister is a werewolf? What if our town is invaded by robots?). I illustrate how I used this technique in Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls, taking a simple life event and creating a story around it.

This session includes a question and answer period and is appropriate for 4th-8th graders.

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Why We Need Villains

 

This 45 minute session discusses why a good 'bad guy' is crucial to the success of a story. We delve into some of literature's favorite villains and explore what they contribute to a story and why they stick in our memories. This session is pretty darn fun.

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Creative Writing Session

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This 45 minute hands on writing seminar explores some of the basic elements of story: character, plot and setting. We discuss how each element contributes to our understanding of what is written. I use my latest novel, Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls, to illustrate how these pieces come together in the final product.

Developing writers are then guided in creating short narratives using a variety of writing prompts. Students are encouraged to share their work but it’s not required.

We touch on several Common Core standards, such as expanding, combining and reducing sentences for improved meaning, understanding figurative language and the importance of word relationships in presenting ideas.

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This session is appropriate for 4th-8th graders and works best with small groups.

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Virtual Classroom Visits

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Sometimes a virtual visit works best! These visits are all Q&A and last about 30 minutes. FREE!

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Discounted bulk book purchases available from Simon & Schuster.

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For information on discounted bulk book purchases directly from Simon & Schuster, click here.

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For appearance details and scheduling, please contact Roberta Stout at author.appearances@simonandschuster.com. Full day visits (3 presentations) begin at $1000.