Hi everyone.  Back from my anything but relaxing three day hiatus from posting.  It’s nearing finals week at SLCC, which means constant chaos at the writing center.  Without the odd moments between sessions to post, I didn’t find time to even consider my blog yesterday.  So I’m posting early and trying to ignore the fact that I’ve still got to run for a half hour before work. 

So I must be brief: J. Scott Savage, known as Jeff in certain of his other lives, is a total rock star—at least for ten year olds.  Wednesday he kindly invited me to observe a school visit he did at Cherry Creek Elementary in Springville, UT, and I’ll tell you, those poor teachers would have preferred all their kids be injected with pure sugar rather than the state Scott left them.  It was nuts.  I’ve seen several very good school visits, but Scott Savage is without doubt the best I’ve witnessed.  Anyone who has gone to Brandon Mull’s release parties (roughly 5 million kids packed into a darkened auditorium waving glowsticks and screaming), picture that only with 400 students.  If he gets that reaction at every visit he does, soon Scott Savage will be a real person to reckon with, seeing as he’ll be at the head of an army of 4-6th graders who do anything and everything he tells them—except be quiet.  They tried, they really did, but it was too much for them.

Thanks as well to Jennifer, who is the force behind the Savage School Machine.  I learned a ton about how to do school visits effectively and hope I’m ready to start scheduling them next month.  Also met YA author Janette Rallison, who is a very nice lady.  (A school that will remain nameless treated her not so nicely when they cancelled her visit because her book had three kisses in it.  Apparently this qualified as “content problems.”  No, it makes perfect sense; vampires hungering for seventeen-year-old girls who are actually succubi and having undead children together is so much more appropriate.)  Together Scott and Janette, along with Jessica Day George, did a signing/reading in the evening, which confirmed my decision never to do a reading for kids.  They were all good readers with good stories, but it’s just asking too much of 8-11-year-old kids to sit through those things (unless you’re a truly great reader of your own work, like Neil Gaiman or David Sedaris, which I most certainly am not.) 

So, the short and long: learned how to do school visits, was reminded how silly censorship can really be, ate some good Mexican food, vowed never to do a reading for kids, and am now anticipating J. Scott Savage taking over at least one of the smaller states with his army of giant-chocolate-pudding-incensed children.  Oh, and here’s my two cents on Jessica’s and Janette’s conversation on the relative discomfort of bearing children or eggs: I’m heartily glad I’ll never do either (that I can foresee), for I’m far too big a wuss to be a mother. 

Next time: Just got info on my schedule at CONduit, which I’ll share with all of you baited-breath waiters.