Katie Bartlett, Author

I spoke about the The Town Bookstore in my last post and thought the upcoming events they have scheduled deserved repeating.  Take a look at the list of upcoming author meet and greets.  If you are a children’s author like me, it’s pretty exciting.  There are two young adult authors and one picture book author.  If the crowds aren’t ten thick (and they usually aren’t), I’m sure you could have a chance to chat with the author.   As for me, I will ask my standard, very original, probing question:  So…how did you get published? 

Shari Maurer 

Saturday, September 25, 2010
2:00PM 

The Town Book Store in Westfield will host a Meet & Greet with Shari Maurer, author of the young adult book, Change of Heart on Saturday, September 25, 2010 from 2-4 PM. Shortly after her sixteenth birthday, popular varsity soccer star Emmi comes down with an ordinary virus. But when she doesn’t bounce back as always, she gets the worst possible news–she’s had myocarditis that’s destroyed her heart, putting her into congestive heart failure. And the prognosis is bleak: without a heart transplant, she’ll die in a matter of months. Will she get a heart in time? Will she even survive the surgery? What if her body rejects the heart? When tragedy strikes close to home, Emmi must rely even more on her inner strength in order to carry on. 

Shari Maurer grew up in New City, New York. Before becoming an author, she worked for six years at the Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) working on international versions of Sesame Street and other children’s programs. She is also the author of the book, The Parent’s Guide to Children’s Congenital Heart Defects. Shari and her family are devoted to raising awareness of the crucial need for new organ donors. 

The Town Book Store in Westfield will host a Meet & Greet with Matt Myklusch, author of the young adult book, Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation on Saturday, October 9, 2010 from 2-4 PM. For fans of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, meet Jack Blank. He doesn’t know who he is or where he comes from. He doesn’t even know his real last name. All of that changes when he travels to the Imagine Nation, a place where all the fantastic and unbelievable things in our world originate including him. Jack soon discovers that he has an amazing ability… one that could make him the savior of the Imagine Nation and the world beyond, or the greatest threat they have ever faced. Publisher’s Weekly says “Myklusch’s debut is an ambitious, no-holds-barred adventure.”

Matt Myklusch works for MTV Networks, where he has produced celebrity interviews, managed MTV Spring Break in Cancun and Acapulco, and helped launch MTVs college network, mtvU. A lifelong love for comic books inspired Matt to spend his nights and weekends writing Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation. He lives in Westfield, New Jersey with his wife and family where he is busy finishing up the second book in the Jack Blank trilogy.

The Town Book Store in Westfield will host a Meet & Greet with Jason Elias, author of the children’s book, And Sometimes Y on Saturday, October 16, 2010 from 2-4 PM. The question of whether Y is a consonant or a vowel has always baffled young minds. In And Sometimes Y, the vowels and consonants battle over the rights to this prestigious letter. In doing so, they forget about the love and friendship that made Alphabet Village the envy of other towns. In the end, the mayor of a neighboring town, Roman Numeral I reminds them of the happiness they once possessed. After being reminded of their former bliss, they sing their famous alphabet song, and Y rejoices by telling us, ““Every Y has two paths. We can always be a consonant, but when vowels need us, the rule can be ‘A, E, I, O, U, AND SOMETIMES Y!!!’”

Jason Elias is an English teacher by trade. And Sometimes Y is his first children’s book. He loves teaching and coaching, but most of all he loves spending time with his family: his sons Colin and Aidan, and his wife Danielle. Jason graduated from Binghamton University ’91, and received graduate degrees from Hofstra University and Queens College.