This has been a very busy month for me. I’ve done several school visits, book signings and readings, literacy events, etc., and I’m not done yet. I am not complaining. I love getting out there, meeting people, promoting my books. I’ve learned to be super organized when I’m doing these events. It wasn’t always that way. From experience, I have learned to make a checklist of the things I’ll need for particular projects. For example, school visits require certain items and props; booksignings require different things; book festivals take a lot of planning; presentations and conducting writing workshops take preparation, and so on and so on.
I keep folders for the different types of events. I can go back and see what I did for a certain one and that helps me figure out if I need to add or delete some things. I keep updating as I go along. I’ve got a couple of small suitcases that I keep ready at all times with copies of my books, brochures, postcards, business cards, props, tablecloth, posters, etc. I try to be ready at all times. It just takes a little planning ahead of time.
The Dia de los Niños celebration at the Edgewood Fine Arts Academy today was a huge success. I did several readings of my book, Lupita’s Papalote, a bilingual picture story book about kites, while my daughter, an illustrator, created beautiful kites and conducted the children’s activity after the readings. The event was a huge success with a children’s parade, the mayor’s call to action for literacy, a concert, author readings, and numerous fun activities for the children on their day. Exhausting but fun!