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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Delfeayo Marsalis wasn’t originally supposed to be a part of last week’s All-Day Audible with Authors event at Portsmouth Middle School. The organizers had a blog-writer from Los Angeles scheduled, but she had to bail when something came up.
“But she said, ‘Don’t worry; I have a replacement for you,’ and that’s how we found him,” said Tanin Powers, a literacy coach at the school.
Mr. Marsalis was on tour with his band but agreed to stop at a hotel in Durango, Colo., for a Google Hangout video chat with students gathered in the school library. A trombonist and songwriter by trade — he’s part of the New Orleans jazz family that also produced his brothers, Wynton and Branford — he also happens to be an author of a children’s picture book, “No Cell Phone Day.”
Unlike some of the other guests who appeared by live video, Mr. Marsalis didn’t sit stiffly at a desk, staring into a laptop camera. More befitting a jazz musician, he kept things loose by walking around the room with his phone — his face filling a large screen in the library — as he engaged students in an off-the-cuff conversation about music, writing, even his favorite type of cheese (pepper jack).
He also introduced students to his younger brother, Mboya Kenyatta, who was traveling with him. Mboya is autistic — “His learning is not the same as everyone else’s learning,” Mr. Marsalis said before turning his phone around to his kid brother after a few students asked to say “hi” to him.
Mr. Marsalis’ lone children’s book (he’s working on another) is about 6-year-old Jazmine’s birthday gift to her father: a day of quality time together around New Orleans without the interruption of cell phones.
When asked why he wrote a children’s book, Mr. Marsalis said he’s worked with younger people his whole life. He also recalled some encouraging words from a college professor regarding his writing.
“The teacher said to me, ‘You always want to start writing about what you know,’” he said.
And so he did. “No Cell Phone Day” is based on his own experiences with his real-life daughter, and how technology can impose on family connections.
“Children actually know what’s important, and family time is important,” he said. “I told her we were going to pick a Saturday that we weren’t going to have a phone. She was so excited. Sometimes it’s good to have a getaway from the madness that is technology and to recharge your batteries.”
Another student asked him about the biggest hardship he’s faced in his career.
“You all know I’m a jazz musician, right? That’s enough,” he replied with a laugh before asking his audience: “How much jazz did you young people listen to this week?”
Only one hand went up — from a boy who said he briefly came across some Duke Ellington.
“You see, I knew that. Jazz has always had a tenuous relationship with the public,” Mr. Marsalis said.
When asked who has inspired him the most, Mr. Marsalis didn’t mention Miles Davis, John Coltrane or Ella Fitzgerald.
“Of course, it was my mother,” he said, referring to Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis, who died in 2017 at the age of 80. Even though his father, Ellis Marsalis, Jr., and his brothers were given primary credit for the family’s talent as musicians, his mother kept it all together.
“She made sure we were on time, that we did our homework, and she cooked for us,” he said, noting all of his siblings liked their eggs done differently. “She gave us a sense of individuality. More importantly, she gave me a system I could use to figure out a problem.”
One student asked Mr. Marsalis to name his favorite song. He said it was “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong, a trumpeter and vocalist who was always “at the center” of all music.
The song could also serve as an inspiration for young writers.
“I say to you,” Mr. Marsalis told his audience. “See the beauty that’s all around you, and write about that.”
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.”
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