Want to bring me to your school? My presentations are designed for small groups--ideally one to two classes--with plenty of room for questions and student interaction. Repeat a single presentation throughout the day to accommodate large numbers of students, or combine presentations to create a more intensive writing day for fewer students.

To discuss or schedule a visit, or for current rates, contact me.

Possible topics include the following; I can also design custom presentations to meet specific needs:

Where Do Ideas Come From?
Starting with the question “What if... ?” students work together to create a story idea—and to better understand one of the places where stories can begin.

Where Do Characters Come From?
Students work together to create characters with depth, personality, and the potential for compelling stories—and to better understand another of the places stories can begin.

Story-Starters
Students are given a range of serious and humorous opening lines, and work together to create a story. The results are sometimes funny, sometimes intriguing, and always have a unique kid-slant.

Your Life, Adventurer-Style
This whimsical point-of-view exercise encourages students re-vision their ordinary lives in adventurer terms, in the manner of the adventurer protagonist of my novel Secret of the Three Treasures.

Where Do Books Come From?
An up-close walk through the publishing process, from submission through publication, illustrated with real rejection slips, revision letters, publisher’s galleys, and cover flats.

Getting Serious
An introduction to critiquing and revision for groups of 3-8 students who are particularly serious about writing. Students bring in previously written stories and learn how to give each other useful feedback and make concrete suggestions for improvement.

Readings
Creepy, lyrical, whimsical, or somewhere in between.
Readings are selected from among my short stories so that students can hear an entire tale in one session.