I had so much fun today!  I visited Centennial Academy of Fine Arts Education this afternoon for a book-signing.  It was so great to see and talk with the 4th graders again!  I brought (what I thought was) 100 bookmarks and about 25 posters.  I ended up running out of both!  The response from the kids was much more than I was expecting.  I feel bad I ran out; I will definitely have to pass along more bookmarks to the 4th grade English teachers and order more posters!

As soon as I walked into the school a few of the kids started waving and shouting, “It’s Mr. S.E. Ellis!  He’s here!”  For thirty minutes I got to feel like a rock star.  I was amazed; the kids were so happy and excited to see me again.  In the classroom I first signed all the books that kids had brought with them, and then I signed the books that kids had bought from me (good thing I brought as many as I did!).  Finished with that, I started handing out posters & bookmarks, both of which the kids wanted me to sign too!  Some of the kids even had me sign their day-planners or just loose pieces of paper, which I honestly have to say I found adorable.

Once I had completed signing everything for the kids, I took questions.  I had some of the usual questions like had I worked with another author for the book, and how did I make the cover.  I also had a question that I really enjoyed:  which do I enjoy more:  drawing or writing?  If they had seen my “notebooks” in high school and college I’m pretty sure they would have immediately thought the answer was drawing…

Speaking with children about writing (and drawing) is so much more fun than playing businessman all day long.  I really need to contact more elementary schools and see if they’d like me to come visit their 4-6th grade classes to talk about writing.