Every year the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (my home institution) hosts Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading. I signed up to volunteer for the event - and could serve as a host/escort for one of the featured authors. I looked through the list and recognized one of the authors - Paul Durham - as the author of the Luck Uglies -- one of the Sunshine State Readers. I also invited my daughter to tag along, so that she, too, would have the chance to meet an author. And not just any author - but an author of one of the Sunshine State Readers!
Paul Durham gave such a wonderful, interactive presentation. The kids loved it. He answered all kinds of questions about the book itself -- the Luck Uglies (book one in a trilogy) -- and also about how he came to be an author, where he gets his inspiration, etc.
Here is a link to Paul Durham's Wrap Up Post about the St. Pete Times Festival of Reading on his website. (In the pics you can see Paul Durham and my daughter on the beautiful University of South Florida St. Petersburg (USFSP) Campus):
http://pauldurhambooks.com/telling-lies-to-children/2016/11/15/-16-tampa-bay-times-festival-of-reading-wrap-up
And here is a link to Paul Durham's tweet with my daughter on the golf cart ride to the event:
https://twitter.com/pauldurhambooks/status/797585461501956096
And here are a few of my tweets from the event at USFSP
https://twitter.com/Dr_JSM/status/797867809208418305
https://twitter.com/Dr_JSM/status/797852557213310977
So - as we were enjoying the day with Paul Durham - and I learned that not only does he visit schools all across the US - but also that he also visits school groups via Skype - I wanted to find a way to schedule a visit with my daughter's school here in Macedonia: QSI Skopje.
So very pleased that the Skype presentation could be arranged for this week! Here are some pictures of our group meeting in the computer lab at QSI Skopje -- and Paul Durham speaking from his home in New Hampshire.
In his remarks were a treasure trove of wonderful advice for aspiring writers (and there were a few in our group). Thank you so much for your time - and for sharing your insights with us!!
The Last Gargoyle comes out in January - and we can't wait to read it!
http://pauldurhambooks.com/books/
In the meantime - we recommend the Luck Uglies! Here is a link to the official book trailer
http://pauldurhambooks.com/booktrailer
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| Special Thanks to QSI teacher Mr Nellermoe for making all the arrangements! |
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| the students prepared questions |
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