Vaudeville

So. Okay: Three presentations today. Three presentations yesterday, to groups of varying size of school children, grades 4, 5, 6. Their teachers, too, plus a small assortment of congenial grownups, all having in common their love of BOOKS. Where were we? At the 44th Annual University of Central Missouri Children's Literature Festival, at Warrensburg, MO, where I went to college some 40 years ago -eek. Dozens of authors & illustrators + thousands of children been a part of this glorious festival for all these years. Me? About a dozen years now.

I head out east on old 24 Highway towards Lexington, MO, then south on 13, a road I've traveled, gosh, so many, many times. Dad used to take us all on drives down to Osceola when we were kids. Sixty miles down to Warrensburg, not far from where my great-great-grandparents, Alden & Sarah Harness, lie buried. Where I was a nervous, validation-starved college student. where today I walked across campus, wearing a nametag labeled AUTHOR - how cool is that? - past yellow busses, spilling out heedless, backpacked kids.

Each would get to hear four different authors &/or illustrators:

C. S. Adler, ..........my buddy, William Anderson, who's written so much & so well about my old favorite, Laura Ingalls Wilder,....... Marlene Brill, ...........Elizabeth Bunce, .........Elisa Carbone..........my new friend, beautiful Janet Carey,........... lovely Mary Casanova, ............funny & charming Henry Cole, ............savvy baritone author/scientist/publisher, Sneed B. Collard.........Jan Greenberg. sophisticate..............gentleman poet from Springfield, MO, David Harrison...... smartypants beautybabe, Patricia Hermes .......Ard Hoyt, ......... lovely Jeanette Ingold of Montana.........my dear good Joplin friend & unofficial therapist [author of Joe's Ghost - check it out], Veda Boyd Jones ................. Brian Katcher .......brilliant gentlewoman, Claudia Mills ...... Pearl Harbor Child, Dorinda Nicholson ......... swellegant lady, Lois Ruby...... and oh my gosh, Ruth Sanderson, whose artwork I've long admired - got to meet her: big deal for me/clearly nothing special for her................lovely Marie Smith & her husband, Roland, ........... wonderful artist and book buddy - gosh, he draws so beautifully - Brad Sneed...........Mike Spradlin.............Stephanie Tolan...............Roderick Townl [what a sweet man]........sharp, funny Terry Trueman ............. gracious & creative Vivian Vande Velde ............ June Raye Wood............. wonderful Leslie Wyatt [and her handsome sons].............Judy Young ............me......got to see old friends: that's the best part: the picture here is of Professor Naomi Williamson [& me], longtime director of this terrific festival, the largest such in all the land.

Kids are herded into classrooms, recently vacated by college students on break. Don't know so much about the others. Can't speak for them so much, but I can tell you what I did today.

Played my harmonica. Drew pictures of President Lincoln. Talked hard & fast, trying to be as funny & informative as I can - about what? the making of books. the writing & illustrating process. the knowing of history. Really, it's show business and the kids - the kids - are so great. It's serious fun. How'd I get so lucky?

21st Century

Okay, so yesterday I sort of crossed another narrow, but perilous & fast-moving river, deeper into this here 21st century, when I opened the nifty little box containing my first e-reader. Why did I break down and get one? A Kindle, to be exact? I was nudged into it, wanting to read a novel, written by my Joplin, MO, friend, Veda Boyd Jones. You see, I'm not what anyone, who has the mixed pleasures of knowing me, would call an early-adopter of new technologies, my theory being 'why in the hell would I want to pay money for another appliance that's going to make me feel stupid, inadequate, and reinforce my deeply held beliefs, despite much evidence to the contrary, that the world does not work, is not available to me. Mainly because, among my many good attributes, there is precious little patience or optimism. It took my sister Laura, holding my hand [virtually, over the phone] to talk me through the setting up. It was like I was the tense stewardess, fighting back tears [because she didn't know what the hell sort of number would satisfy the mute, demanding little god of the computer in order to connect this little slab of smart plastic to a wi-fi network, all the time knowing that any child would know just what was wanted and would laugh at me for being so dim], beside the unconscious pilot & Laura was the seasoned flyer in the air traffic control tower. And then, relieved, exultant, butembarrassed for having been so weak and ignorant it worked: Cheryl's Kindle! I managed to download Veda's book, too: Joe's Ghost, it's called and I'm only one chapter [read sometime in today's wee hours] into it, but so far, so GOOD. Thank goodness, too, because isn't it so awkward and horrible if you read something written by a dear friend and it sucks?

Anyway, not so by the way, MY novel, Just For You to Know, is available too, Kindle-wise, as well as on this here blog, one chapter every Monday [I'm going to start adding hyperlinks, referencing the true historical elements] I'm by golly going to cut the price on it because I want it to be read because even if I hadn't written it I would think it deserves a wide audience, too. This coming Monday: Chapter Three.

Meanwhile, back to the 19th century, back to work on the Arrow Rock Coloring Book. Two & one half dwgs to go! A reading of Carl Sandburg's mammoth bio of President Lincoln will keep me company.