Guess What! Kids Still Love to Read . . . and Write!
Had a great time yesterday (October 5, 2017) at Mountain View Elementary School (Phoenix, AZ) for Young Authors’ Day. What fun to talk with 4th graders about being an author! Based on some photographic collages that I provided, they tried their hands at making up their own stories, stood in front of the whole class to read their work aloud—and wow! There definitely are some budding writers among the group!
Wonderful to see that in today’s world of TV, computers, cell phones and video games, young kids still show enthusiasm for reading books and writing stories. Kudos to their teachers and family members for helping to instill that interest. We talked for a while about historical fiction, and a number of the children came up to me afterward and said they wanted to read my historical novel, The Beauty Doctor. I was very flattered. I do feel that my book has a positive message about the deeper meaning of “beauty” and the intrinsic value of every human being. But considering that it may be a bit advanced in its vocabulary and subject matter, I thanked them and advised that they wait a few years to read it! 
Hey authors—if your local school does not already have a Young Authors’ Day, you might want to suggest it. Quite a few authors participated in this one, and it seems to have been enjoyed by all.
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Buy my historical mystery/suspense novel, The Beauty Doctor! 
In the spring of 1907, Abigail Platford finds herself unexpectedly adrift in New York City. Penniless and full of self-doubt, she has abandoned her dream of someday attending medical school and becoming a doctor like her late father. Instead, she takes a minor position in the office of Dr. Franklin Rome, hoping at least to maintain contact with the world of medicine that fascinates her. She soon learns that the handsome and sophisticated Dr. Rome is one of a rare new breed of so-called beauty doctors who chisel noses, pin back ears, trim eyelids and inject wrinkles with paraffin. At first skeptical, she begins to open her mind, and then her heart, to Dr. Rome. But when his partnership with an eccentric collector of human oddities raises troubling questions, Abigail becomes ensnared in a web of treachery that challenges her most cherished beliefs about a doctor’s sacred duty and threatens to destroy all she loves.
