Astronomy Day Fun!

Wow! Can't believe it's been a month since my author reading at Fernbank Science Center on Astronomy Day!

Wanted to do something fresh and different...

So I put on a mini-play!

Brought in THREE AWESOME KIDS to cosplay Lana McNair, Ganymede the Water Carrier, and Maria the Brave.

Those are the three main characters in my book, Lana & the Water Carrier. The book is the first in a series featuring Lana McNair, a 13yo girl with a magic telescope that can transport her to the stories of the constellations.

Gave each kid props and a few lines to memorize...

Here's Lana testing out her magic telescope while a couple of audience members await the first reading.

...and they improvised their roles!

But I FORGOT that when it came to the swordfight scene (YES! THERE WAS A SWORDFIGHT SCENE!), they didn't have anyone to fight!

I picked up a sword and fought them myself! And soon enough a volunteer from the audience joined me in the action!

Yep! It was hilarious and TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

We also had a lot of musical chairs action happening as the audience often had to move around to make room for certain scenes. Like this cool scene where Lana meditates as Maria the Brave looks on:

The COOLEST SURPRISE, however, was: several children from the audience VOLUNTEERED to join the swordfight!

I was there to do THREE readings. Ended up doing TEN!

More than a dozen children in the audience had the opportunity to actively participate in the reading. They all squealed with delight. And they all bought copies of the book!

All in all, it was a perfect first author event.

Met lots of cool kids and their parents. Sold lots of copies of the book. And can you believe that it was purely a coincidence that they put this event in a room filled with NASA-related items? I felt right at home! One of Lana's readers and I even got photobombed by the astronaut poster in the background! LOL!

Thanks so much to Fernbank for inviting me! Can't wait to do it again! And when I do author readings at schools, I will be sure to involve as many kids from the audience as possible!

That's when the magic happens!