Virtual Author Visit

At 8am last Thursday we were more than ready for our Skype call with Mr. Chris Grabenstein author of the book Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. We carefully planned our questions and he answered each and everyone of them with a personal story and great enthusiasm (despite it being 11pm in NYC). We learned a few writing tricks like when you write a mystery, you “write backwards”.  He said that he knew how the children were going to escape from the library before he even wrote the book.  He also talked about and showed us some of the things that he has in the works.  In his office we saw sketches of characters, a map he made of Mr. Lemoncello’s library, many many books, and even his beloved dog, Fred.  He is planning to write a sequel to Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library but it probably will not be out until Spring of 2016.  Typically, he said it takes about 6 months to write a book and then another 2 – 3 years until it’s on the shelves at your local library or bookstore.  And….my favorite quote from the day, “The secret to writing is rewriting”. – Chris Grabenstein.

Check out more of his books on his website.  He also books for adults and teens.