appearances

APPEARANCES

I am available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences for teachers and librarians, as well as writing workshops. Long experience has made me comfortable with any age group.

During my 25 years as an elementary librarian, I dealt with groups of elementary children on a daily basis and still enjoy the freshness they bring to the situation. While traveling abroad, I have also enjoyed the privilege of speaking at international schools.

For school visits, my fee covers two presentations a day. I do not mind two schools sharing me -- I will do one presentation in each place. It does not matter to me how many children are in front of me as long as they can be seated comfortably and can hear me.

A First Grade Welcome in Indonesia

Equipment required for the school programs includes two long tables -- I bring lots of things! Also a VCR is needed for showing at least a portion of the Easter Fires video. If the group is large, a microphone is a necessity.If I am more than an hour's drive away from home, there will be travel expense in addition to my speaking fee. This may include overnight motel arrangements if the program begins at a very early hour.

In school talks I cover the process of writing -- from getting ideas to revision. Along the way I share funny things that have happened as I wrote each book. Because so many of my books are biographies, the students get a lot of history as well. I want everyone to see them as real people, bad hair days and all.

In addition to school visits, I often present sessions at social studies and literature conferences for teachers and librarians. These sessions focus on the research for the books I've written.

In my capacity as head of the Houston chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, I ran conferences for authors and illustrators of children's books. I speak at other gatherings of writers as well.

I can be reached at Marydwade@aol.com .