Meeting the Janitors (Author)

Last Saturday I visited my local Barnes &  Noble with my kids. It turns out it was “writers day” or something, and they had at least a dozen local authors doing signings in the store. My daughter overheard on the intercom that Tyler Whitesides, author of Janitors, was in the store. One of her friends has the book and liked it, so Emma wanted to meet him. As soon as we’d picked out what we were there to buy we headed over to the kids section to meet him.

I let Emma take the lead, as this was her idea, and she did okay. She asked him what the book was about, and he explained it to her. He then asked if he’d seen met us before. We just moved to the area about six months ago, so we didn’t think that was possible. Besides, the guy sees a lot of people in the course of numerous book signings. But he was very nice to the kids and gave Emma a signed poster, so I decided it might be cool to buy a copy of his book and get it signed as well. Emma was pretty excited about having met a real author.

We were in church the next day when a voice came from behind us, “I knew I recognized you guys!” There was Tyler Whitesides. His in-laws go to our church, and he remembered my kids from when he had come for church on Christmas Day and seen them sing. Still, he has a very good memory!

Anyway, as many of you know, I’m working toward becoming a published author myself. Being somewhat bolder in my old age, I cornered him after a later break-out lesson and asked him some questions about his experiences as an author. He was very kind and helpful, and I hope I didn’t dominate his time too badly. I guess I’ll know if the next time he visits he tries to hide from me. Really nice guy. I’m glad we bought the book. I also need to make sure if I get published one day that I be as generous.

So far Emma has read his book, and seems to be eager for the sequel coming out this year. Walter is reading it. I’ll probably get to read it to Richard later on after we finish reading The Hobbit. I’ve been reading some children’s literature lately, and I’ve been largely pleased with what I’ve been finding. I look forward to reading this one. Part of me wants to try to break in through childrens literature. After all, that’s where I’ve had the bulk of my story-telling experience over the last decade.