SCHOOL VISITS

I’m happy to do school visits (in person or by Skype) for teens of any age! I’ve broken the presentations down into two separate topics (that are each about an hour long).  And yes, if you have more than an hour, it’s possible to do more than one topic per visit.
 
To arrange a visit, or for more information, please contact me here.
 
Presentation Topics:
 
1) WHEN SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LIT COLLIDE!
 Elusion and Etherworld are fiction books that were based on real life science. A week after Elusion was published, Facebook announced it was buying Oculus for 2 billion dollars, and just weeks before its sequel Etherworld was to be published, MicroSoft announced its new product: Microsoft Hololens. Both Oculus and MicroSoft Hololens are eerily similar to the device we created in Elusion.

So how did life end up imitating art? Or was art imitating life all along?

In this presentation, I will discuss the science used in Elusion and the role real life (and science!) can play in fiction (to see a list of discussion questions go here.)
 
2) HOW TO LIVE THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM OR WHAT IT’S LIKE TO HAVE A CAREER IN THE ARTS.
In this presentation I will talk about my previous career as an actress and what it was like to act professionally and make movies. I will discuss what led to my ultimate decision to pursue writing instead of acting, answering questions like:
 
What made me decide to be a writer rather than an actress? What inspired me to write a book? How long did it take me to write my first book? How did I manage to get an agent? How long did it take me to get published? What is my typical day like? What’s the best part of my job? What’s the worst part? What advice do I have for aspiring writers?
 
I will also walk students through my novel writing process, from the moment I come up with an idea until my book is published.