Wow! The last two weeks have been a complete whirlwind! On top of having two to three basketball games each week, going to play practice, and trying to put together a telescope for a national competition, I’ve been busy bustling in and out of programs held by the National Speakers Association of Michigan. Two Saturdays ago I went to a speech given by Dan Poynter (www.parapublishing.com) on publishing your book, and I picked up some interesting tips and really good ideas to promote my novel! Hopefully you’ll see the cool new stuff I add soon.

Dan Poynter gives ‘Thumbs Up’ to THE LAST SUMMER.

Anyways, then last week I went to a program featuring both Shawne Duperon (www.ShawneTV.com) and Teresa de Grosbois (http://www.wildfirews.com/about-teresa-de-grosbois/) about getting your book to be a best-seller and also how to be in the media, such as on the news and talk shows (there’s so much more to it than I ever thought! There’s this really great concept called the “Cycle of Reciprocity”, but that’s another story). Both of these women were wonderful and a joy to meet; I learned so much from them over the course of the day.

Shawne Duperon and Teresa deGrosbois with Jacquelyn Eubanks.

Finally, just this past Friday I went to my old elementary school to give a 45-minute program to the 8^th graders on how to write a novel.  The original idea for the program stemmed from a Girl Scout Journey project. I really tried to keep it from being boring and adding interactive parts to it, and at the end I had the students create a “storyboard” to present to the class. I had so much fun putting on the program, and I loved all of the stories the kids came up with! You’d never believe 13-year-olds could come up with such deep, insightful plotlines and realistic, touching characters. I hope to go back and put on the same program for the 7^th and 6^th graders soon.

Author, Jacquelyn Eubanks shares Creative Writing Tips with 8th Grade Students