That said, I have been meaning to write up a list of grants that North Carolina teachers, media specialists, and PTSA folks can apply for to get visiting authors, illustrators, and storytellers to come to their schools. I worked for 15 years in public schools in NC and elsewhere and I had a number of folks visit – all of which I paid using grant money. I literally cringe when people tell me they can’t afford to have an author visit their school. It simply isn’t true.  A couple of years ago I was working at a Title 1 school and I wrote grants for visitors that was roughly 2x my total library budget for the year.

Really, there’s no excuse.

Here are several grants that NC educators can apply for which should cover author visits. My particular visits are on the less-expensive side, so for sure you can afford me! But if you are looking to get someone uber-famous come you may have to combine grant-giving possiblities.

• Target Arts Grants. If you don’t have a Target in your town, contact them to make sure you’re in their giving area. I wrote a successful grant application to Target from a school about 50 miles from an actual store, so I’m confident they use pretty broad guidelines to determine geographical area. This is a very easy grant application to fill out and it’s for $2000. You have to do it in the spring, however, so put it on your calendar.
• Walmart Store Grants. At our local Walmart all you have to do to apply for this grant is to talk to the manager. Easy. The actual $ guidelines aren’t on the website but I know that a couple of years ago it was around $500.
• Donorschoose is an excellent source for grants for teachers/schools. If a teacher has already written and received several grants through Donorschoose he/she can write a grant proposal for something outside of the Donorschoose stores.
• Kiwanis clubs have literacy and reading for children as part of their mission. It’s possible that the local Kiwanis Club would sponsor an author visit.
• Bright Ideas Grants. You can’t be a teacher in North Carolina and not know about the Bright Ideas grants, sponsored through the local electric cooperatives. Every Bright Ideas Grant I applied for, I got. Not saying it’s an automatic thing, but they really want to give the money to worthwhile projects. Plus, they have a nice reception if you get the grant!
• NCETA Classroom Project Grants. I don’t know very much about this grant or if it could reasonably include author visits, but it seems as though an author visit would qualify as long as it was embedded in a larger project. Which actually is how it should be – authors are valuable visitors precisely b/c of what they bring to the curriculum, not just as pure entertainment. I welcome any feedback on this grant from those of you who’ve been there, done that
• Arts in Education Grants You need to apply for these grants in the spring, but they are specifically for author, illustrator, and other visiting artists, so I say: go for it!
• Artist Residency Grants This grant, alas, could not be used for a visit from me, since I am not on their artist roster – but wow! look at the amazing artists and writers who are!
• Barnes and Noble local Sponsorship program I’ve never applied for this, but it looks very promising. They seem to want to work with people who could do in-store events and school events. Makes sense, if you’re B+N!
• Local grant possibilities. There are many. Check with your local Arts Council for grant possibilities and look to civic groups and clubs. Your school’s PTSA is an obvious source for funds, as is your school’s Cultural Arts committee.

And finally, if you need more ideas of how to pay for author visits, please see this post: 13 ways to pay for school visits.

Ciao!

Sigh.

In any case, once summer “vacation”  is over I shall probably be able to re-devote myself to this blog,  my little business, book reviews, and to the constant tasks of marketing  school visits and my books. Not to mention everything else that’s been lingering on my to-do list for months.

The book’s gotten fantastic reviews. Adoptive Families magazine called it “a delight,” and Motherhood Later said it was “ a wonderful twist to the adoption tale.” Plus, it has tons of free downloads, including a complete educators guide as well as a printable kit so kids can start their own club for forever friends!

I love this little book and I know that once adoptive families (and all families!) get their hands on it they’ll love it, too!

If you want to be eligible for one of 3 copies of this well-reviewed, well-written, and beautifully illustrated book about a group of kids who put the friendly in friendship, please comment below this blog entry and answer this question by May 30:

What makes a good friend?

“Farmer Hoggett knew little ideas that tickled and nagged and refused to go away, should never be ignored; for in them lie the seeds of destiny.”
Babe.

I used to write a blog called “Idea Girl.” I moved a lot of the posts over here when I started this blog, and although the name “Idea Girl” is a little bit childish (for I am certainly no “girl” – at least, not any more), it is really apt. I am a person who is FULL of ideas. Ideas that don’t get acted on very often, for I am no fool, but many ideas nonetheless.

I used to think everyone experienced this, but now I know differently. I like to think of myself as creative, but others might just think I’m flaky. Or over-opinionated. It’s possibly a symptom of a pathology, or at least a character trait that puts me in one of the lesser-known Meyers Briggs personality categories.

Anyway, Farmer Hoggett and me – we have something in common.

• My small press’s newest title, The Forever Friends Club, is puttering along. Sales are off to a slowish start but then again, marketing’s been off to a slowish start, too. As with all my other titles, I don’t get too concerned about the book’s first month’s sales. That’s the luxury of being a micropress. I’m in it for the long haul. The book’s gotten some fantastic, well-deserved reviews. Next stop: blog tour!
• I’m really excited about a new writing project: retold ghost tales of the Carolinas! Not sure what my plan is when they’re done – to produce them myself or to find another publisher – but they’re super fun to write.
• We’ve extended the deadline for submissions to Bless Your Heart, the anthology I’m co-editing with Kay Marner about parenting children ‘easy to love, hard to raise’ to June. Kay’s offered some advice on her blog to people interested in submitting.
• On Easter Monday we’re doing a give-away of The Big Fun Guide to Tar Heel Country through our Facebook page. Fan us to enter.
• On May 8 I’m teaching a workshop at Central Carolina Community College on self-publishing. That will be an adventure! How to cram seven years’ worth of what I know into 5 hours?
• I’m enjoying writing a blog and newspaper columns about energy efficiency as a way to educate people about the benefits of energy audits and weatherization.
• I’m rewriting the novel I wrote a couple years ago for a small publisher in California. They accepted it (after 4 rewrites) and had a publication date…which passed, was reset, was passed again…and I’ve come to believe they won’t ever publish it. It’s a decent enough story, however, and worth a 2nd look. That’s a big part of my summer’s plans.
• I need to write teacher’s guides for Mishka and When I Met You before I do a big mailing in the fall. The reception for the Teacher’s Guide for The Forever Friends Club has been really good; I think it’s a great, useful tool for teachers, guidance counselors, and parents who want to use the books in the classroom. Plus, it is a marketing tool! You know how I love marketing tools!

But first, finish the Day Job!

Only problem is, they chopped it into teeny tiny pieces. This month’s book review section is about 1/4 what it usually is.

Bummer!

But here’s the FULL REVIEW, for your reading pleasure:

Every once in awhile, when I take my daughter Natalie to the park, I experience a secret delight.  As I take an accounting of the kids who are there, I realize–there are more kids who are adopted than otherwise!  How cool!  Natalie (Russia) and her best friend Harry (US Foster/Adopt) are there with me.   Kim (Korea) is shooting hoops with a group of boys.  And then, Hannah and Sergei (both Russia), appear out of the trees.  Let’s see, that’s one, two, three… out of….one, two…yes!  I love it!

A similar scenario is at the heart of a new very early chapter book, The Forever Friends Club, which features themes of friendship, problem solving, diversity, and adoption. In this story, Sam has no one to play with–until three families with kids move into his neighborhood.  Madison, the creative one, is adopted from Wisconsin. Nick, who never stops moving, is from Russia. (Natalie, excitedly: “He’s from Russia, like me?  And he rocks, like me?”) And Isabel, who remembers being adopted at age four from Guatemala, is the take charge type. That leaves Sam–he’s the only one who isn’t adopted, and he feels left out.  Find out how, in a clever twist of the “forever families” concept, the kids solve their problem and form “The Forever Friends Club”.

The book is graced with the lyrical writing style that is the hallmark of the best books at this reading level; the bridge between beginning readers and chapter books. Co-author Sue Gainor is the national chairperson of Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption (FRUA).

Wonderful, expertly developed free extras—guidelines for forming a Forever Friends Club, puzzles, stickers and more fun stuff for kids; information and learning tools for parents, teachers, and librarians—is provided on the publisher’s website, drtpress.com.

Read The Forever Friends Club with your child, adopted or otherwise.  Share in the delight!

Kay Marner, freelance writer/frequent contributor to Adoptive Families magazine/ founding member Iowa Chapter, Gift of Adoption Fund

I had completely forgotten it existed!

It’s so funny to re-read it, because the more things change…the more things stay the same. I still have no balance in my life!

I have Google Alerts set up for me, the titles of my books, the titles of books my publishing company has published, and the authors who have published with my company. Come to think of it, it would behoove me to set up a Google Alert for my company, too. That’s only logical.

It’s because I have a Google Alert set up for my books that I recently came across a brand-new book review for Mishka: An Adoption Tale. Mishka came out in 2007 – not that long ago in people years, but ages ago in book years. Most of the reviews for that book came out in late 2007, early 2008. A couple of bloggers reviewed it last year, but that was it the result of a little blog-tour experiment by yours-truly. But this review, sitting smack-dab in the middle of a website devoted to International Adoption, was completely unsolicited and unexpected. The very best kind of review a book could get!

The person who wants me to visit is not a school system employee, simply a friend of a friend, but she’s mentioned that she doesn’t think the school she’s connected to has any discretionary funds for an author visit.

This is what I’ve told her: in 15 years of working in schools, and many, many visits by authors and storytellers, I never used any school funds for an author visit! I always wrote grants to pay for visitors at my school. 

To help her out, I did a quick search for grant possibilities to fund author visits in Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, and Jasper counties, SC. I found many possibilities:

1. Presto Book O – Why I went ahead and self-published.

2. Room for Debate: Do School Libraries Still Need Books?

#1 showcases a guy with a good attitude and a good plan. Self-publishing the way it should be done. And a business model and marketing plan that makes sense for him.

#2 bums me out. Even though most of the experts they queried said yes, books are still needed, I think it’s worth noting that with the exception of one school librarian and the headmaster of that private school that threw out its entire library collection, all the rest are experts on new technology. So I guess that makes it all that more meaningful that they think books are still needed. I did find it very odd that the people in the debate were the aforementioned technology experts and 2 people who work for private high schools. Why didn’t they talk to to the people who work with the rest of the world - i.e. the majority? Why only exclusive private schools where you can assume the kids all have access to technology 24-7? The rest of the world isn’t like that. The digital divide actually exists, folks. But maybe not to the readers of the NYTimes…