From the French Riviera to Portsmouth Middle School

All-Day Audible with Authors lets students chat with writers by video feed or in the flesh

By Jim McGaw
Posted 3/6/19

PORTSMOUTH — Why was jazz trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis video-chatting from a Colorado hotel room with students at Portsmouth Middle School last week?

For the same reason sci-fi and …

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From the French Riviera to Portsmouth Middle School

All-Day Audible with Authors lets students chat with writers by video feed or in the flesh

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — Why was jazz trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis video-chatting from a Colorado hotel room with students at Portsmouth Middle School last week?

For the same reason sci-fi and horror writer Gary Ghislain was dialing in from his home on the French Riviera: to talk about the wonders of literature.

Last Friday the school held its second annual “All-Day Audible with Authors,” in which about a dozen authors met with groups of students either in the flesh or via Google Hangout, a live chat platform similar to Skype or FaceTime.

“The kids love it,” said Sarah DelSanto, a technology integration specialist at he school and one of the organizers. “They get inspired to maybe become writers in the future.”

The event was funded through a grant by Walmart in Newport and received help from parent volunteers, administrators and support staff, Ms. DelSanto said. Anywhere from 25 to 50 students met with each author in different parts of the building, “so all the students’ voices get to be heard at least once,” she said.

Tanin Powers, another organizer who’s a literacy coach at the school, said the event featured a wide range of diversity among its authors, including songwriters, a college wrestling coach and a poet laureate. One of her favorites was April Henry, a New York Times bestselling author.

“She’s a riot because she starts her speech by saying, ‘I kill and steal for a living,’” Ms. Powers said. “In all of her books, someone dies and someone is stealing things. The kids are completely engaged. She had a little more shock and awe factor, which was fun.”

Do it yourself

One of the authors who appeared live was Loren Walker, author of “Nadi,” “Insynn” and other titles. She writes for young children as well as young adults and older readers. One of her messages to students was for them to follow their passions.

“I work primarily in fantasy and science fiction,” Ms. Walker said in a brief interview before she met students. “This is the age where you’re primarily being told it may not be cool, or it’s not real writing. I feel it’s really important to tell kids, especially when they’re so impressionable, that if you love this, then love it and embrace it. Find your crew, find your peeps, find your fellow nerds.”

Her other message was to believe in yourself and never give up.

“I’m completely self-published; I did all this myself,” she said, motioning to her books spread out on a table below. “I received 100 rejections. But I thought, I really like what I’m doing and I’m going to learn to do it by myself.”

“Self-published” doesn’t necessarily mean “unnoticed.” Ms. Walker’s debut fiction novel, “Eko,” won the Library Journal Indie E-book Award for science fiction, as well as other honors, and its sequels were also released to high acclaim. 

“I’ve gotten great reviews, so just because people tell you ‘no,’ doesn’t mean you can’t go forward and do it yourself — another important lesson,” she said.

Live from the Riviera

Gary Ghislain, author of “How I Stole Johnny Depp's Alien Girlfriend,” “The Goolz Next Door” series and other young adult sci-fi and horror stories, spoke via Google Hangout from his home in the French Riviera (7:30 p.m. for him, 1:30 p.m. for students).

Mr. Ghislain, who said being a writer “is the most fantastic thing you can do with your life,” is always on the move in France, looking for inspiration for his next story. “Paris is an incredible city — lots of artists and photographers,” he said.

Asked how long it takes to finish a book, he said about a year — three months to write the story and another nine months refining it with an editor.

Sure, Mr. Ghislain said, he’d love to see one of his books turned into a movie, as long as the end result was faithful to his story. He said Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of “The Shining” by Stephen King — one of his major inspirations — took too many liberties with the original story.

Mr. Ghislain, who did two separate sessions with students, couldn’t answer every student’s question due to limited time. However, he promised to answer followup questions in writing.

How the process works

Molly Booth, who also appeared at last year’s “Audible” event, met with students in the library. An author of queer fiction, she’s also a major Shakespeare nerd. She wrote “Saving Hamlet” and “Nothing Happened,” a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's “Much Ado About Nothing,” and also runs the Massachusetts nonprofit Brave New Shakespeare, which provides Shakespeare-related arts activities for young people. 

Ms. Booth spoke about the process of getting a book published — coming up with an idea and selling it, getting an agent, working with editors.

Ironically, she said, the most difficult part for her is the query, or “pitch,” because you need to be so concise,

“I can write books, but pitching is harder for me. It’s only 300 words and I write a lot, a lot, a lot.”

Portsmouth Middle School

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.