I just finished my work as the feature author at the Richmond Children’s Arts Festival. It was an exhilarating week that began with a 5:45am wake up call on Monday morning so that we could get to the site in time to do a spot on the local talk show, Breakfast Television.
I’m not sure how long the link will stay active, but you can check out the spot here.
That was followed by a day of performances. It was a thrill to have so much of the festival centered around my Kendra Kandlestar books and fantasy writing. Artwork from the books decorated the library the entire week!
There was a fantasy map station and a hat-building station too!
The rest of my time at the festival was spent leading kids in creativity workshops. I delivered some of my best-known workshops, such as “Monster Designing 101”, “Crafting Kingdoms: The Art of Building Strong Fantasy Worlds”, “How to Be a Hero”, and “So, You Think You’re a Villain?”
Here’s some of the snapshots I managed to take of the kids’ work. To start with, here are some of the group characters we brainstormed in “Monster Designing 101”:
And here are some photos of some of the individual pieces:
You can see the brainstorming simply bursting off the pages, with some students even starting a story!
Here’s one last one, which depicts a little caricature of Kendra reading. What great hair—I think she could give Medusa a run for her money!
I’d like to extend a big shout-out to all the organizers, performers, and volunteers who made the week a fantastic success! I have a lot of fun doing what I do, but it takes a whole lot of energy, and nothing helps like all of that behind-the-scenes work.
And now, I’m off to Asia to teach a Monsters & Mythology camp. The fun never seems to end, as you can see by some of the things I have to pack in my suitcase:
Between the Cracks of Here and There 