What really made my day, though, was seeing English teacher Shane Twamley again.  Not only is he an incredible teacher and host, but he helped inspire The Death Catchers!  It was when I was visiting his classroom several years ago and saw all the literary devices he had circling the walls of his room (complete with their own clever symbols) that I decided to use them as a way to tell the story itself.   Here we are in front of the literary device wall — Shane is holding up the lips that represent alliteration and I’m holding up a symbol representing third person point of view.

So here’s to an amazing end to an amazing fall. Thanks Shane and Vicky!

More importantly, though, my mind was blown during the fantastic lunch I had with Pioneer’s book club.  I can’t believe I had never learned how to appropriately eat a cupcake . . . by twisting off the bottom and making it a frosting sandwich.  See:

Though I assumed there was no way cupcakes could be more delicious, I was wrong.  Cupcakes/dessert/my life will never be the same.  Thanks for the tip and the terrific day, Pioneer! -JAK

P.S. Yes, the last two blog post titles have been bad tributes to Willa Cather novels (a couple of my favorites growing up).  It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which ones.

Before I arrived in San Antonio, I had seen, edited and read my book before, but never really tasted it.  However, thanks to the wonderful book club at Harris Middle School, I got the opportunity.  One of the mothers of the book club there made cookies with my book covers on them.  Amazing.  You can see above that I couldn’t wait to take a picture before I took a bite out of The Death Catchers.  The intrepid librarian, Rae Downen, runs a parent/student book club that put on a breakfast for me, and it was a wonderful morning.

That afternoon I headed to Clear Spring Elementary, where the lovely Michele DuBois hosted me as I spoke to a room full of enthusiastic fourth and fifth graders, which was fun.  I don’t get to visit elementary schools very often, so I appreciated their unflagging energy.

The next day I was at Driscoll Middle School in the affable presence of librarian Ellen Hagan.  I was also treated to a delicious lunch with some of the great Driscoll students.

I spent my final day in San Antonio with Teresa Diaz at Eisenhower Middle School.  I knew to expect a fabulous day from Teresa and Eisenhower (or Ike if you prefer) because I had visited there on my last tour.  And I was not disappointed.  The kids who chatted with me during their lunch in the library were as hilarious as they were lively.  Which was very lively indeed.

-JAK

Needless to say, I had a great week, which included friends, family and the wonderful people at Third Place Books (especially Rene).  I spoke there on Tuesday.  I never tire of investigating who I wind up on the shelf next to . . . see:

I also went to four schools in the area.  I started out at Redmond Junior High, hosted by the delightful Kendra Friday (who was in the Halloween spirit in an awesome spider costume).  The students had on some great costumes, including a student dressed as a mustard bottle who volunteered to be teleported.  His request?  To go to a backyard barbeque, which was clever enough to make me guffaw in the middle of my talk. Also, they have a pretty spectacular mascot costume, seen below:

On Tuesday, I arrived at Third Place Books early to chat with Bill Kenower from Author Magazine.  The interview is now up online and can be found here: http://www.authormagazine.org/interviews/interview_page_kogler.htm.  Bill is a writer himself, and also an expert interviewer (I forgot it was an interview and thought were just chatting by the end).

After signing and speaking at Third Place Books (seriously one of the best bookstores around – though it’s also so much more than that), I spent Wednesday in the Mukilteo area.  After teaching me how to say “Mukilteo,” musician/media specialist Midge Livingtston showed me around Harbour Point Middle School and entertained my friend Mary (who was nice enough to travel with me during the week) and me for the entire morning.  I had never before met an orchestra teacher turned librarian, but Midge made me wish there were more of them out there.

I spent the afternoon with the winsome Susan Rahkonen at Voyager Middle School and was confused until I found out it was crazy hair day there.  The students were awesome (and asked some pretty darn insightful questions).

My last day was at Evergreen Middle School with Shauna Yusko.  In addition to being a great librarian, Shauna has also runs a charity organization in her free time.  Yup. I agree. Pretty amazing.  Next up, a report from my visit to San Antonio! JAK

The next day I was in Plant City, Florida (which I think wins the award for the best-named town I’ve been to so far) at Tomlin Middle School.  Interesting fact:  Did you know that Plant City is known as the “winter strawberry capital?”  Well it is.  I now will never forget this due to the generosity of Darlene Meginnis, who loaded me up with all sorts of tasty strawberry goodies.  Anyway, Tomlin was fabulous and so was Darlene.

I spoke to very enthusiastic crowds in the impressive gymnasium at Walker Middle School and was in the best of company with reading coach Susan Jaksec and librarian Sara Labarbera.  They even put my name up on the school sign (which always makes me feel much more official and important than I am ).

Then, it was on to my final stop – Martinez Middle School in Lutz.  I went to Martinez last time I was touring and it was one of my favorite stops so it was an absolute pleasure to go back and visit with the wonderful Jeanette Whitman and the staff at Martinez.   I already can’t wait to return.  Next up . . . Seattle.

It was then on to wonderful Marla Caviness-French’s library at The Manning School.  My jaw hit the floor when I learned that, at The Manning School next semester, each member of one particular class will devote himself or herself to writing a novel.  For me, eighth grade was hard enough without attempting to write a novel, so I was extraordinarily impressed and am very excited to hear how it all turns out.

I ventured down to Colorado Springs, where Dianna Fricke at Challenger Middle School warmly welcomed me.  I spent lunch eating with Challenger’s newly formed Writing Club and soon wished I were a member.  I ended the week at Mountain Ridge Middle School – whose mascot I learned is the grizzly bear, even though there are no grizzlies currently in Colorado.  The awesome Cristen Hardin has a knack for interior design (needless to say, her library was extraordinarily cozy) and was nice enough to point me in the direction of Garden of the Gods (which is where I took the pictures below with the amazing fall colors).  If you’re ever in the Colorado Springs area, run, don’t walk, to the Garden of the Gods.  Actually, maybe just drive because you can do a cool loop in your car, complete with handy signs indicating where you can (and should) stop to take a snapshot.  Here are a couple that I took:

Just wanted to let you know, if you’re in the Seattle area, I’ll be at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park on Tuesday at 7pm and would love to see you there!

Here is the info:

http://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/death-catchers-jennifer-kogler

I started off at Lawson Middle School, in the company of the lovely Vida Behzadi.  It was a very large audience, but you could hear a pin drop in the gym – those were some well-behaved students.  I then headed to Jordan Middle School (which is only a stone’s throw away from where I used to live in Menlo Park).  Annie McQueen was as gracious as ever and Amanda from Kepler’s was nice enough to help out.  I was also dazzled by the sophistication of the questions the students asked during the Q&A.

On Thursday I visited my dear librarian friend Deborah Hernas and spoke to two groups of spirited sixth graders.  If you’re in the area, I recommend going to San Carlos – the downtown area is delightful.  I ended my week at Dorothy Pickler’s library at Kennedy Middle School.  Kennedy was one of my first school visits, back when Vicki Headley was the librarian there.  I not only got a bag of the most delicious trail mix for the plane ride home (thanks Dorothy!) but it felt like I had come full circle, which was a very good feeling.  I have collected a lot of badges like the one pictured below over the course of my tour.  If I had thought about it, I would have started a collage.  Maybe next time.

Is the mascot pictured a jaguar? Cougar? Whatever it is, it looks slightly disgruntled.

Next time . . . a report from Colorado.

I started out the week at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders and I can tell you that visiting there for even a day made me wish I had gone to a school like Ann Richards.  The girls there were phenomenal, as was librarian Shawn Mauser, who turned me on to the magic of Shrinky Dinks (http://www.shrinkydinks.com).  And for that I will be forever grateful.

I was then off to Canyon Vista MS (my first of two “Canyon” schools of the week).  Now, librarian Laura Stiles is a genius  (and such a nice person to boot) for many reasons, one of them being that she has turned spitting out gum (the enemy of all books) into a sort of game with this large glass container.

I’m thinking of having one in my house just for fun.  She took me to an amazing lunch with some fantastic language arts teachers.  The place is called Kerbey Lane Café and I think if you are in Austin, you owe it to yourself and your taste buds to go there.

On Wednesday I met librarian/entrepreneur April Stone and had an excellent day at Four Points Middle School.  The high school football stadium next to Four Points was so nice I thought surely a college team must play there.  Texas football really is as big a deal as they say it is.

On Thursday, I started off at Cedar Valley Middle School, where I was lucky enough to meet Kate DiPronio, the librarian.  The library was about as jam packed as I’ve seen a library before school (which always warms my heart) and after my visit with the kids, Kate took me to lunch at Hoody’s Sub Shop in Round Rock.  Seriously, guys, this place is one of the best sub shops I’ve ever been to.  It’s one of those unassuming places that just knocks you out.  I only hope that if you go there, your lunch companion is even half as engaging as mine was.

In the afternoon, I got to meet some wonderful people at Hopewell Middle School, including librarian Michelle McLaughlin.

On Friday, I was off to Taryn DeHart’s lovely library at Canyon Ridge Middle School.  I had lunch with a group of students and, let me tell you, they had all read The Otherworldlies and they asked the most insightful questions.  It was a great cap to a perfect week.  I also got to go to the legendary Book People, which was impressive.  You’ll hear from me again soon about my time in the Bay Area. -JAK

I am now back in California and will post a full account of my adventures last week in Austin soon, but in the meantime, I wanted to share this photo from Canyon Vista Middle School.  These awesome ladies (in order, Susan, Karen and Laura) thoroughly entertained me as I wolfed down some gingerbread pancakes (delicious!) at Kerbey Lane Cafe in Austin.  It was a great day.