Last Thursday, our G4 students were extremely fortunate as they got to meet an amazing author via Skype: Dee Garretson. The students and their teachers had just recently read - and loved! - as a class read-aloud the author's book Wildfire Run. An action-packed adventure as two kids try to escape a fire at Camp David by building the most amazing contraptions, our students were curious to meet the author who created such a gripping story. Mrs Garretson had kindly agreed to share 30min of her time with us (for free!) to talk about her books and answer our students many questions. In preparation for the visit, our students explored her website, which made them even more curious about Mrs Garretson.
A few things students found out through her website...
Wildfire Run was the author's first published book (2010).
She lives with her husband, two children and two cats in Ohio.
She grew up in a small town, with a small library in Iowa.
She has always been an avid reader.
She writes at her computer in the basement of her house.
Her family helps her with ideas for her stories.
When she was a child, she fell into a goldfish pond.
She enjoyed playing outside and working with her dad on his inventions when she was a child.
Wildfire Run was the author's first published book (2010).
She lives with her husband, two children and two cats in Ohio.
She grew up in a small town, with a small library in Iowa.
She has always been an avid reader.
She writes at her computer in the basement of her house.
Her family helps her with ideas for her stories.
When she was a child, she fell into a goldfish pond.
She enjoyed playing outside and working with her dad on his inventions when she was a child.
A few things students wondered about before the Skype...
How many drafts she has for Wildfire Run and how often she needs to rewrite
How she knows when and what to change during rewriting
How long it takes her to write a book
Whether she always works at her computer, also for edits and rewrites
What inspires her to be an author / as a reader and writer
Whether she communicated with authors when she was a child
Her number 1 writing tip for students
Whether she has ever built for real one of the contraptions from her book
How her family helps her with ideas
Whether she likes to travel
Why she named her main character in Wildfire Run Luke
How many books she has written so far
How many drafts she has for Wildfire Run and how often she needs to rewrite
How she knows when and what to change during rewriting
How long it takes her to write a book
Whether she always works at her computer, also for edits and rewrites
What inspires her to be an author / as a reader and writer
Whether she communicated with authors when she was a child
Her number 1 writing tip for students
Whether she has ever built for real one of the contraptions from her book
How her family helps her with ideas
Whether she likes to travel
Why she named her main character in Wildfire Run Luke
How many books she has written so far
A few things students learned from Dee Garretson during the Skype visit...
She has six or seven drafts for Wildfire Run. She worked on three on her own and on the other three or four with the help of her editor.
The feedback from other people is very important in shaping and editing her story because things can make perfect sense in the writer's head but not necessarily in the reader's.
It takes her about six month to write the first draft of a book.
She prefers to first jot down her ideas on paper, in a journal. Then she writes her draft on the computer and does the edits on a hard copy.
So far she has not directly incorporated personal experiences in her books even though there are a lot of similarities. But she is thinking of using the goldfish pond incident in future stories.
Her inspiration to read and write comes from enjoying to read and making up stories in her head. She also enjoys the challenges in writing a story – will others like it too? As a reader, she likes to be inside the world she is reading about. She tries to do the same for her readers when she writes – letting them be inside that world.
It is the characters of a story that interest her the most. She starts writing with characterization.
The idea for Wildfire Run originates from her being intrigued by the idea as well as wondering what life must feel like when you are the child of a President.
With her children, she built the robot from Wildfire Run. She wanted to see whether it could really work.
She has so far written two middle grades novels (Wildfire Run and Wolf Storm) and an adult novel. She has currently three manuscripts with her publisher, one being a sequel to Wildfire Run, the other two being historical fiction.
An author has no say in what the final title and cover art of the book will be like.
She named her main character in Wildfire Run Luke because she is a big science fiction fan - Luke, as in Luke Skywalker from Star Wars.
Here is her number 1 writing tip for students:
“Remember, it takes a lot of practice! Don’t get discouraged. When you start you are not that good at first but the more you write the better you get at it, the easier it becomes.
She has six or seven drafts for Wildfire Run. She worked on three on her own and on the other three or four with the help of her editor.
The feedback from other people is very important in shaping and editing her story because things can make perfect sense in the writer's head but not necessarily in the reader's.
It takes her about six month to write the first draft of a book.
She prefers to first jot down her ideas on paper, in a journal. Then she writes her draft on the computer and does the edits on a hard copy.
So far she has not directly incorporated personal experiences in her books even though there are a lot of similarities. But she is thinking of using the goldfish pond incident in future stories.
Her inspiration to read and write comes from enjoying to read and making up stories in her head. She also enjoys the challenges in writing a story – will others like it too? As a reader, she likes to be inside the world she is reading about. She tries to do the same for her readers when she writes – letting them be inside that world.
It is the characters of a story that interest her the most. She starts writing with characterization.
The idea for Wildfire Run originates from her being intrigued by the idea as well as wondering what life must feel like when you are the child of a President.
With her children, she built the robot from Wildfire Run. She wanted to see whether it could really work.
She has so far written two middle grades novels (Wildfire Run and Wolf Storm) and an adult novel. She has currently three manuscripts with her publisher, one being a sequel to Wildfire Run, the other two being historical fiction.
An author has no say in what the final title and cover art of the book will be like.
She named her main character in Wildfire Run Luke because she is a big science fiction fan - Luke, as in Luke Skywalker from Star Wars.
Here is her number 1 writing tip for students:
“Remember, it takes a lot of practice! Don’t get discouraged. When you start you are not that good at first but the more you write the better you get at it, the easier it becomes.
I could tell that there was an immediate connection between the author and our students and that the interest in her books is even bigger now. While our students were a fantastic audience and respectful interviewers during the Skype, once the session was over, students shared excitedly the many thoughts and impressions they came away with. There was such an incredible buzz in the air, it was beautiful to witness and easy to see how much Mrs Garretson had inspired our young readers and writers. The classroom teachers told me later on, that the conversations continued in the classroom. What a great outcome!
Thank you, Mrs Garretson, for sharing your time with us so generously and for inspiring our young readers and writers with your fantastic books, your great writing tips and ideas and your warm personality!
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