I Will Share With You, But You Must Promise Not to Laugh...

Dena Harris... substitute teacher???

Okay. Pick yourself up off the floor and dry the tears of laughter and I'll explain what I'm talking about.

As you know from my last entry, I was a wee bit nervous about teaching a classroom full of kids ages 8-11. It was for a Summer Writing Camp program and I was a guest speaker. The session was yesterday from 10-11 am.

When I got home, Blair asked me how it went. I was stumped for an answer. "Pretty good, I think," was the best I could do. They didn't fall asleep or pelt me with erasers and that's good for that age group, right?  Overall, I think I did an okay to slightly-higher-than-okay job. I talked about myself as an author, showed them my book, told them the most popular story in the book was about how my cat got too fat to clean herself and is called "The Great Cat Butt-Wiping Adventure," and they loved that.  I asked for any questions about being a writer and they wanted to know if I made a lot of money.   (I tried to keep a straight face).

Then I spent time helping them write the first page of their books. I talked about what should go in the first 100 words and read examples from real books and we picked out what it was about the first pages of those books that made us want to keep reading. Then I had them write their own first 100 words, get into small groups to share, and then we read some aloud.

Here's what I learned--I don't think I had enough interactive activity planned. Too much talking, not enough games to make the learning more fun.  But what I also learned--and this shocked me--was that I really like teaching kids.

They were fun. They were funny. They had big eyes and big smiles and were eager for me to read what they had written and give them praise.  I could quickly pick out who liked to be the center of attention, who was shy but serious, who was outgoing and determined, etc.  And I liked it. These kids were so great, so eager to learn, and very well-behaved. Noisy, but well-behaved.

I was telling Blair all this and he said--again, to my complete surprise--"Why don't you look at substitute teaching? You can set your own schedule and say no, but maybe you'd enjoy it." Normally I'd laugh it off, but the idea stuck. 

I have no idea what it takes to be a substitute teacher. Is a teaching license required? I e-mailed the NC Board of Education to ask for details. And I don't know that I'll go through with it.  But it's something new and fun to think about. Life is all about discovering who you are.

What a riot if it turns out I"m a teacher.

Goddess Market Meltdown

Today was the Goddess Market in Greensboro, and fellow author and friend Pam King Cable and I took our books, our author pens and our party decorations to Wayneck Medical Center. It had stormed during the night but the sun was out in blazing force as we manned our booth from 1-5.

With "Goddess Market" being the theme, the vendors were all asked to come in their best Goddess Attire. Since I have a humor book on cats (Lessons In Stalking) and Pam has a book of literary fiction on Southern Women (Southern Fried Women), we came ready with a Southern Woman/Cat theme. On our table were signs. On Pam's side the sign read, All Southern Women Are Goddesses. The sign on  my side of the table read, Call Yourself A Goddess, Cats Still Know They Rule.

As you can see, we had fun with masks. I switched to cat ears early on over the mask because it was sweltering hot. Pam resorted to pouring bottled water down her neck and we both lost a few pounds to sweat. All of which would have been worth it if we'd sold any books.

Don't get me wrong, we sold a few. But not enough to cover the vendor cost plus the cost of our supplies not to mention our time. Festivals are always a crap shoot. Sometimes you can sell a bunch of books, other times it's like a wake.

We had lots of people stop by. Lots of laughing and exclaiming at the cuteness of our covers, the cleverness of our books, and most would tell us a story about their cats before placing our books back down on the table and saying, "Well, you girls have a good day."

I told Pam one thing I've noticed about my cat humor book is that people who come to my table and say they own cats rarely buy the book for themselves. My best sales are to non-cat owning people who have cat lovers for friends. They know their friends are cat freaks, just like me, and will love anything with a cat on it.  THAT's my market.

Now I just have to figure out how to reach them.

Ever The Self-Promoter...

It’s embarrassing to admit but I’m taking several copies of my book with me on our trip. There is no logical reason for this as packing space is already tight and it may come down to making the call between the books or a fourth pair of black shoes (the only ones that go with that skirt), which is frightening. But more frightening is that I’m taking the books because…who knows? Maybe something will pan out.

I beg shops to sell the book in America but have this notion that I will show up on the shores of England, whip out the book and hear bells toll in ancient castles as shopkeepers across the UK weep, “We’ve been waiting for a jolly-good cat book like this one. Thank the Queen you’ve arrived!” (I doubt people living in the UK say, “Thank the Queen,” but I’ve no idea yet what they do say, so thanking the Queen it is).

What am I going to do if I find a shop that actually wants it? Spend the shipping costs to ship 2 copies of one book to England? Ha! And yet…that’s exactly what I’d do. Because then I’d be an international author. Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it? Yes, this needs to happen. I’ll shove a cat book down some poor country storekeeper’s throat if I have to…

God Save The Queen.

Book Signing A Success

Yesterday I was blessed. The weather was a beautiful and perfect 72 degrees. The book signing at Guilford Medical Supply went off without a hitch. I was the first to arrive and set up.  Then Vonna Condax arrived with her two dogs - a Border Collie and a Deerhound. I had never seen a Scottish Deerhound before and it is a beautiful dog. And big. Very, very big. Vonna's weighed 84 lbs but looked bigger because it's such a rangy dog. It unfolded itself from his crate in the back of Vonna's car and it seemed to just keep growing and growing as it stood up.  But oh-so-gentle.  It's a very sweet tempered breed.

So Vonna got her books set up, then Happy Hills Animal Foundation arrived.  They arrived with four volunteers, 2 dogs and 2 cats. The volunteers were wonderful. Very devoted animal lovers working to make life better for abandoned pets. They obviously had great love and affection for all the animals in the shelter and they sat at my book signing for 5 hours without being paid, simply on the hopes that someone would see one of their animals and want to adopt.

We think we may have found a home for Maggie, a  Chihuahua mix. A man showed great interest in her and said he would bring his wife to Happy Hills tomorrow to look at her. Everyone cross their fingers and say their prayers that Maggie finds a home.

Two cat brothers were there, Chad and Tiaro. Believe it or not, they're actually cuter than their kitten pictures on the Happy Hills site. They've grown a bit and are beautiful all black cats. Tiaro especially is full of mischief and has a full, bushy tail I spent the afternoon playing with.

Several people dropped by from my Triad Networking group just to say hello and buy a book, which I found very thoughtful and touching. And my good friends Pam & Michael Cable stopped by. Pam's new book, Southern Fried Women is out and I'll be blogging more about that soon. It's exceptional.

All in all, I got to spend a day with animals, making new friends, and enjoying beautiful weather. Life is very, very good.