Reflections from the Road: Oak Mountain Middle School and the Southern Festival of Books

Last week was a double whammy. On Thursday, October 8th, I spoke at Oak Mountain Middle School.  The school has approximately 450 sixth grade students, and we broke them up in to groups of around 90 kids at a time, which meant I did five sessions in one day! Frostborn was on hand as part of the Fall 2015 Scholastic Book Fair. And Nightborn was provided through Homewood, Alabama's wonderful independent, Little Professor Book Center.


The kids were great, and very enthusiastic. I got to see the wonderful promotional display poster that Scholastic has made for their edition of Frostborn, and I was honored by the great fan art a couple of the students produced as well. Thank you Whitney Howton librarian and to Crape Myrtle's Cafe for the Grilled Fresh Fish Sandwich.

Then on Saturday, October 10th, I traveled to Nashville, Tennessee for the second time this month to attend the 27th Annual Southern Festival of Books. The festival is held in the Legislative Plaza of Downtown Nashville. I drove up that morning, lunched quickly at the excellent Crepe A Diem Food Truck, gave my presentation at noon, then did a book signing where I was delighted to meet, among others, two very enthusiastic fans that told me September was far too long to wait for book three. Afterwards, I snuck away from the festival for a bit to walk to Germantown and the Nashville Oktoberfest Street Festival,  where I heard some interesting music and had one of the best hot chocolates of my life at  Tempered Cafe and Chocolates.  Then it was back to the festival to attend a private authors reception and call it a night. Thanks to the festival organizers, and to Parnassus Books for facilitating sales of Frostborn and Nightborn.

And now, some more pictures from my visit to OMMS!

Southern Festival of Books

This coming Saturday, October 10th, I'm excited to be participating in the Southern Festival of Books in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. I'll be giving a solo presentation on the Thrones & Bones series from 12:00-1:00 pm in Room 30 of the Legislative Plaza. I've heard great things about this festival and cannot wait to discover it for myself. So if you are in or near Nashville, come say hi and check it out. I'll be signing Frostborn and Nightborn afterwards, courtesy of Parnassus Books.

Reflections from the Road: Madison Middle School and Wright Middle School

Yesterday, I was in and about Nashville, visiting two schools on the Nightborn tour.

I drove down the night before, where I tried the friend chicken and fried catfish at rustic cabin-themed eatery, Cock of the Walk, where your server flips a pancake-sized loaf of cornbread high into the air before placing it before you, and where I ate far too many picked onions.

Then the next morning it was off to Madison Middle School, located in Madison, Tennessee, where I spoke to around seventy-five students in the 5th grade. The kids were great, very engaged with the material, and had fantastic questions. They also clapped at some of the artwork I showed (by the brilliant and talented guys Justin Gerard and Andrew Bosley). They even clapped for the photo of the Thrones & Bones cake we had at the initial launch party. I've never seen a cake get a round of applause before and I think more cakes should get that. It was a great visit and let me give a sincere thank you to librarian Angela Frederick and her students for making me feel very welcome.


Afterwards, I drove to the other side of Nashville, where I visited with around two hundred 6th grade students at Wright Middle School in Nashville. We spoke in the gymnasium. I am happiest when I have a wireless microphone in my hand and can run up and down the stands asking kids questions directly like a day time talk show host so I was in my element. Two boys in particular were ancient history and mythology experts and answered the bulk of my questions. But all the students were great, and we had a great time. Thank you very much to Media Specialist Denise Tabscott and her students for a great visit (and for the jar of peach jalapeños sauce! My son and I are both eager to try that out!)

I'd also like to give a shout out to Parnassus Books of Nashville, who helped set up both of these Frostborn and Nightborn visits and was on hand for my talks. Afterwards, I drove to Parnassus to sign a stack of books, where the wonderful employees had me in and out fast enough to beat the five o'clock traffic. (This was much appreciated as I had a three-hour drive home.)

Than you to Parnassus, Madison and Wright for a great day in Tennessee! I'll be back in nine days time for the Southern Festival of Books, where I'll be giving a talk at noon on Saturday, October 10th! Catch me there!

Meanwhile, here is a shot of Denise Tabscott and I making our Viking Faces!