I have received some great emails from my readers in the past month and hope to hear from more of you.

Tell me what book of mine you liked (or didn”t like) and tell me why.

I live in New Orleans and talk to kids here all the time, but what about you kids in California, Vermont, Florida, and Ohio.

What do you have to say?

Hi folks,

I am buzzing with new book ideas but would like to hear yours. What are you dying to read? Librarians and teachers, what books do you need in your classrooms?

I am heading off to Hawaii soon and want to take your thoughts with me. Send me your ideas through a blog comment or through my CONTACT form.

I will be happy to talk to students in your school or library. Contact me through my website.

You can find me and other authors by clicking on this website:

Author by State

I am just in the editorial stages of my newest middle-grade book about Marshall, the shipwrecked Newfoundland dog. I have written about this subject in my picture book about Marshall, but this new one is for older children. Added to the longer text is back matter full of details about lifesaving on Nantucket in the 19th century and about the crew of the W. F. Marshall that wrecked in 1877.

I am adding eDocs to my website. Now you can download a pdf version of my simple, non-denominational guide to meditation. I explain many different meditation visualization techniques that are appropriate for anyone ten and up.

Also on my website, you will soon find a collection of my brief interviews with six Nobel Peace Prize winners: Jody Williams, the 14th Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi, Desmond Tutu, Oscar Arias, and Betty Williams. Each laureate answered my questions about peace—personal peace and world peace.

I am now developing writing prompts that you can use at home or at school. These will be geared for children.

Look for these and other eDocs on my purchase page.

And I always appeciate hearing from you.

Authors make a living by both writing and speaking. Thus, we do need to charge for author visits.

Many schools write grants to hire an author, or they ask parent committees to raise the funds. Schools/organizations in the same area can get together to share costs of an author visit.

I charge different fees, which are dependent upon the specific request. Schools must also pay for my transportation, food, and lodging for an overnight trip. My minimum charge is $300 for a local (New Orleans) one-class-period visit. I ask $600 for a half-day session, $1100 for a full day. The school/organization must pay all travel, lodging, and food costs for out of town visits. Beyond that, I need to know exactly what each school wants me to do.

I present talks on the life of a children’s book writer, or on the subjects of  my books—the Dalai Lama, the Buddha, Walt Disney, Sir Edmund Hillary, Aung San Suu Kyi, Deng Xiaoping, Mao Zedong, Abraham Lincoln, Frank Carpenter, the W. F. Marshall shipwreck—and on writing. Recently I conducted classroom activities on writing fiction or nonfiction from historical research. I also demonstrated a breeches-buoy rescue, a nineteenth-century method of rescuing people from a shipwreck. I enjoying teaching fiction writing too.

Contact me through my website if you need more information.

I took the summer off from writing but I am back at my desk. Just revised my meditation guide and am thinking of selling it through my website. Send me a message if you are interested in reading more meditation exercises.

I”d also like to hear from readers with children’’s book ideas. My ghost story has been a big hit, so I plan to write more of them. Kids in New Orleans are charmed by ghost stories. What else do you want to read?

Let me know.

Whitney