Ice Cream With An Author

My daughter won a grand prize at the summer reading program: Ice Cream with an Author. We got to meet Kentucky author Patsi Trollinger, who wrote the book Perfect Timing, which is about Isaac Murphy, a highly successful African-America jockey in the 1800s.

Each of the ten winners got to bring a friend, and they made it really special for the kids, with decorated tables, balloons, and even some cute gift baskets with inspirational items to encourage creative writing.

Here's me and my daughter at our spot at the event:

Patsi shared with us the long process that she went through to get her book published. It took her 11 years, over 8000 pages of research that she read, 31 rejections, and probably over a thousand pages of rewrites. Wow!

She was a really fun and interesting person to get to talk to. And she was wonderful with the kids, asking them for their book recommendations, and answering lots of questions.

Patsi also brought gifts for the kids. Each child received a small handmade origami box that contained little items that were meant to give them inspiration to write stories. Our box had things like a small round band aid, a little circular mirror, a kernel of dried corn, a fake pearl, a couple of beads, a sticker with an outdoor scene on it, and some other neat little doo dads. I loved the idea of having surprising little boxes of inspiration for my kids when they can't think of what to write!


At the end of the event each child had an opportunity to chat with Patsi, and they each received an autographed copy of her book.


It was a really fun event and I felt so blessed that we got to go do a cool mother-daughter thing together.