An expo, a reading, a photo shoot, and a book fest - in the next 8 days!

I'm buckled up and ready to go.
Tomorrow, Saturday October 15th, I'll be at the York Book Expo sharing a table with Michael Rausch. He's the cover designer for Risking Exposure and the illustrator of Mikey and the Swamp Monster. We'll have copies of the books ready to inscribe, plus activities for the kids and props from my historical research. I hope to connect with lots of new readers!

Tuesday October 18th, I'll be joined by Jeff Leeser, a photographer from Advance for Physical Therapists. They're running an article of mine as their cover story (!) in late November, and Jeff is going to shoot me in my writing area, and possibly a park. Then we're heading over to a Lancaster cafe/bookshop, The Rabbit and Dragonfly. Jeff arranged for me to do a reading there and share some about my writing and research processes. The friendly folks at The Rabbit and Dragonfly were all about it - just as warm and supportive as can be.


Next Friday and Saturday the 21st and 22nd, Michael Rausch and I will again share a table, this time at Celebrate the Book in Carlisle. We'll again have books to inscribe and activities to share, so stop by if you're in the neighborhood.

Good fun! I'll post some pics from the events here or on my website.

The toy smuggler

Rami Adham was saddened by the news of civil war in his homeland of Syria. He was understandably worried about the well-being of those not fortunate enough to now live as he did, in the safety of Helsinki, Finland.

So 44-year old Adham decided to act. Five years ago, he developed a plan to carry food and supplies across the border himself. His daughter Yasmeen, then 3 years old, wanted to help. She added some of her dolls to his bundle. His other children joined in the generosity, donating some of their toys and stuffed animals. 

So off Adham went, slipping across borders and walking for miles carrying plastic bags full of food and cash, plus a grocery bag of his children's Barbies and a suitcase of stuffed toys. Traveling 3,000 miles at his own expense and at the risk of his own safety, he arrived at a refugee camp in Syria.

The donated food and money didn't impress the kids. Oh, but the toys...

Adham told NBC News, "Their eyes were big, everybody was smiling. Kids there have lost their childhood, and not for a year: This is the sixth year now and it seems like everybody forgot them."

Adham has now made two dozen trips to Syria. With the help of the Finnish Syrian Association, donated toys from across Europe are now shared in over 400 orphanages in Syria. 

Helping neighbors through the hurricane

Dave Barnhart's one-story home in Tequesta, Florida had no shutters. He and his wife and two children intended to ride out Hurricane Matthew at home.

According to the Palm Beach Post, his neighbors had something else in mind. Mike McDermott offered some wood. So did Chris Basara and Chris Gunn. The three brought the wood and power tools needed to board up the dozen windows on the Barnharts' cinder block house.

The team ran out of plywood. As expected just before the storm hit, store shelves were empty. Another neighbor heard about the problem and offered the wooden platform for her adult children's model train set. That became the colorful shutter shown here. 

With just one window left, the team again ran out of plywood. Barnhart found an old fence door and used that to cover the last window.

Barnhart and his family were safe through the storm. To thank these incredible neighbors, they held a post-hurricane party on Friday night.

He gave away his winnings - to his opponent

Most mixed martial arts fighters don't make a lot of money at their sport. They usually work part-time jobs to pay the bills while they train and compete and hope to make it big.

Bantamweight John Castaneda was asked by Combate Americas officials to take an August 11th fight against Angel Cruz. Cruz's original opponent had cancelled on short notice, which would leave Cruz without a chance to compete at the highly regarded Los Angeles event. 

Castaneda didn't need the competition. He already had a shot at the Combate bantamweight title, and a fight with Cruz would put that at risk. Knowing he was in shape, Castaneda decided to take the fight anyway. 

After the weigh-in, Cruz thanked Castaneda for taking the fight because it gave him a chance to feed his family. Castaneda also met Cruz's two young daughters. He told Yahoo News, "That really hit home to me. This is real. This is life. He’s doing this because he has to in order to support his family."

Castaneda won the fight in a TKO, earning him a $2000 bonus. Immediately, he told Campbell McLaren, the head of Combate America, to give Cruz the bonus money. 

“It really choked me up,” McLaren said. “I’d never encountered anything like that. MMA is a very charitable sport and you see fighters starting GoFund Me pages to help each other a lot. But this was a little different situation and it was so impressive. This came in the heat of the battle after a very tough fight.”

Final hours for the giveaway!

There are still a few hours left on the Goodreads giveaway of my new picture book Mikey and the Swamp Monster. Five print copies are up for grabs, and yes, books will be personalized for your favorite little monster if you'd like.

Can't win unless you enter, so give it a try!