Debbie Dadey, Children's Author - Debbie Talks to Kids

Tuesday November 17, 2009

It's almost time for a holiday! My kids get a whole week off of school-do you? Looking for a book to read for Thanksgiving? Check out Ninjas Don't Bake Pumpkin Pies or Wizards Do Roast Turkeys or Swamp Monsters Don't Chase Wild Turkeys. All this food talk is making me hungry! Speaking of eating, I'd eat pasta with you anytime Camille. Thanks and good luck with your move. Maybe I can visit your new school!
Jacob, someone did push me out of the plane! Benjamin, you might like to check out my book report page, as well as the about me section. They have everything you need, except that my favorite food is strawberries. Bryce and Camilla, I get inspiration from everywhere. I got inspiration from a TV show for the story I'm working on right now. Hannah, I've sold about 147 stories to be made into books. Tessa, thanks for your fun idea. Brianna, I hope you are enjoying Martians Don't Take Temperatures. Carly, Dragons Don't Throw Snowballs is the most recent Bailey School Kids book. Snow Snow Monsters Do drink Hot Chocolate Monsters Do Drink Hot Chocolate is the most recent Bailey City Junior book. A big Thanksgiving greeting to Hadley, Sophie, Katherine, Eric, Miles, Madison, and Samantha! Miles and Eric, I've already been to the Harleysville bookstore, but I hope to go back next summer (I did leave a few autographed books). I'm great Madison, how are you? Jenny, I have won a few awards: IRA's Children's Choice Award for Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots and The Worst Name in Third Grade, Elba Award for Wizards Don't Need Computers, KY Bluegrass Award List and Bank Street College Best Book for Cherokee Sister, IRA YA Children's Choice Award for Whistler's Hollow, and CAL Award for the Great Green Gator Graduation. I'd love for someone to nominate one of my Keyholder books for their state awards:). I live near Philadelphia, PA. Have you checked out my book report page? ttyl (talk to you later), Debbie Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday November 12, 2009

     Happy Birthday to my mom Rebecca Gibson! Hope you guys will join me on Friday the 13th at the Harleysville Bookstore in Harleysville, PA. for a booksigning at 4:30. I'll be signing my new series, The Keyholders (as well as my other books). Ethan, Sarah, Josiah, Eli, Ian, Shai, and Samantha I'm so glad you like This Side of Magic. Ryan, David, William, and James, the new Keyholders (#3 and #4) are my newest books. Jamie and Matthew they just came out last week. Do you think Friday the 13th is haunted? If so, you'd better be careful this Friday! Hannah, Marcia and I write the Keyholders books together. Donovan, I bet Marcia would love your school. Daniel and David, I do like to play tennis.
     Grace, I'm glad you like Aliens Don't Wear Braces. Natalie, it would be cool to write more Bailey School Kids books. Brayden, of course I love your last name. Thanks to Garrett, Julia, Nick, Noah, Lydia, Nathaniel, Aaron, Connor, Mary, Trevor, Orron, Bobby, Ryan, Riley, Jada, Emily, and Grace for all their cool and funny ideas. Jaden, you see that title ideas can come from anywhere-even the Internet! Tamer, I didn't get ideas from RL Stine, but Marcia has met him.  Josiah, we've written over 100 books together. Tye, my first book was rejected twice before it was purchased. Simon , it was published in 1990 and Nathan, I was around 27 years old then. Jackson, Whistler's Hollow is the book you were thinking of. I'm glad you like Bigfoot Doesn't Square Dance. Chase, hi to you and your little brother! Kayla, lots of kids get nosebleeds just like Liza. Lucy, I've always wanted to write a fairy book.  Hello to Nike, Mallory, Brad, Andrew, Matthew, John, Zachary, Brian B., Sebastian, Kaleb, Andrew, Julana, Destiny, Abi, Jack, Meghan, Madison, Rachel, Lexi, Ryan, Cara, Madison, Will, Bryce, Tanner, Evan, Maddie, Sara, Melanie and cousin, Anna, Mystery, Elena, Syd, Michael, and Kemaj! Alexcia, Audrey, Dakota, Gavin, Chad, Emily, Cael, Narkebam and Jefferson, I'm glad you enjoyed my skidiving video. I landed in Colorado. It might be fun to write a book about it. I was scared and it was awesome!   Abi, I choose names that I think are a bit like my characters. I also try to choose ones that aren't too common. Faith, I've written three books with my children. (Brandon - no other kids) Two with Nathan and one with Becky (we're still hoping to get that one published.) Slime Wars is one of my favorite books, Piper and Tessa-I think that's my favorite brainstorming too. Kiaia, Anything can happen in a story-even a slime war!  Elyse, I think that's why I'm hooked on writing. Janis, I like to do both-read and write my stories. Anne and Lincoln, it's just fun to write about magical and scary things. Try it-you might like it! Hadley and Michael, I hope you'll check out my writing page. Scroll down for tips for writing. Daisy, I like writing about new creatures, but I do have a soft spot for swamp monsters, like in the Swamp Monster in Third Grade and Swamp Monsters Don't Chase Wild Turkeys.  Madison and Jake , I've written about 147 total (I like all the Keyholders characters).
     Grant, I have never been to Maine, Oregon, or Washington. I would love to go there! I have only written one non-fiction book about writing. Cameron and Adam, you sound like awesome readers. I'm so glad you both like Trolls Don't Ride Roller Coasters. Jeremy, we definitely celebrated when we sold our first book-wouldn't you? Sara, it takes different amounts of time to write a story form 1 week to eight years for me! Jack, I've written about 150 books. Jeff and Wyatt, I get ideas from everywhere-even from schools that I visit. Avery, Kayli, and Connor, your school rocks! Megan, I guess I should cheer for the Eagles since I live close to Philadelphia. Unfortunately they aren't doing very well right now.   Joanna/Yianna, I was about 27 when my first book came out.   Ethan and Skylar, I'm so glad you like Sea Monsters Don't Ride Motorcycles. Ireland, Anna, Alysa, and Liam I have three dogs: Bailey, Skip, and Shadow. Check them out at the bottom of my about me page. Congratulations to Ben for winnning the bookmark contest-no slime was used in the making of Slime Wars! Stay cool-anyone looking forward to Thanksgiving vacation?  I am, Debbie

Monday November 9, 2009

    Hey guys, stop by Wendys and ask if they have the kids's meal with Zombies Don't Play Soccer CD. I just found out about it. I hope you'll enjoy listening to it. Zombies CD Hope you liked it Alyssa.
    Jayden, I have lots of favorites, including Zombies Don't Play Soccer. I never got the chance to play soccer as a kid, so I've really enjoying watching my kids play. Alex, I'm so glad you enjoyed Bruno's story. Do you like dogs? I have three, so I like them a lot. Alexis, I have two new books out this month. Inside the Magic and The Wrong Side of Magic. Haley, I had a really nice neighbor named Penny. Brooke, I think it's fun to write stories that have fantasy and magic in them. Harshita and Jayden, I get ideas from everywhere-even from kids who write me letters! Check out my writing page for podcasts (just listening) on ways to get ideas. Julie, I'm glad you like Aliens Don't Wear Braces. Bailey, it would be fun to have a character named Bailey (you know I like that name!) Chloe, I do like my characters. To write about a character, I think you have to like them or you'd give up when the writing gets difficult. Yes, you can write to Marcia in care of Scholastic 557 Broadway NY, Ny 10012. And yes, I'd love to visit your school. I will write to your teacher to see if we can work it out. Jasmine, I hope you'll check out your library or bookstore for my books.
     CJ and Nick, I hope you'll check Whistler's Hollow out of your library to find out what was in the attic. Huntter and Jonah, it's hard to pick a favorite book. Whistler's Hollow is special to me because it's about something that happened to my grandmother, Lily Bailey. Nick, I'm glad you liked Werewolves Don't Go To Summer Camp. I like to play tennis, so in the book I'm writing now one of my characters plays tennis. Domanic, I've sold about 47 million copies. Cailin, the one I've sold the most of is Vampires Don't Wear Vampires don't WEar Polka Dots Polka Dots. Brad, I'm glad I went skydiving, but I don't think I'll do it again! Greg, I'm not sure how many stories I've written that have never been published, but there have been a lot! Alex, it was great visiting your school. Becca, I didn't get to write a lot in elementary school, but I did (and still do) love to read.  Bethany, I'm not sure what I'll call my next book-it will be a surprise! Devin, I get ideas from everywhere. The idea for Bigfoot Doesn't Square Dance came from a newspaper article about bigfoot. The idea for Abominable Snowman Doesn't Roast Marshmallows came from my youngest son-he loves to roast marshmallows! I get a lot of inspiration from Marcia Jones, a great writer. Alexcia, I write because it's fun! A big hello to Kyle, Keith, Logan, Joshua, Rita, Jonah, Zachary, Dylan, Chelsea, Lucas, Raven, and Abby. Ben, it's cool that you're drawing maps. I had fun making the ones in the Keyholder books. Rica, good luck with your writing. Hadley, I like your idea. Perhaps you could name your story after the name of your street? Pennie, I hope you liked Skeletons Don't Play Tubas. I have never played a tuba, but I do like to play the piano.
       Have you tried wordle.com? It's fun.   Thanks to the great Dallastown librarian for telling me about it. ttyl, Debbie

Saturday November 7, 2009

     fall leaves The trees outside my window are awesome looking-red, orange, and yellow. My stomach is a bit upset from too much Halloween candy, so I'd better slow down!
     Maya, Howie is just friends with Liza and Melody, except for course when magic comes into play like in Cupid Doesn't Flip Cupid Doesn't Flip Hamburgers Hamburgers. Emillia, I'm so glad you like my books. Do you have a favorite? Gabriella, it is difficult to get published these days. There is a book you can check out of the library called The Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market Guide. In the back there are places were kids can get their stories published. Maya, I live in Pennsylvania now. Alex, you have to remember that Bruno is NOT a normal dog! He can do lots of things that a normal animal could not do. Isn't Inside the Magic that the great thing about stories? Anything can happen in a story. I'm having great fun writing a story about a kid named Edmund. Something happens to him that he'd never dreamed about.
     Hurrah! This week I have two new books coming out:  Inside the Magic and The Wrong Side of Magic. I hope you'll check them out.   You can hear some of it in the Swamp Page on a podcast if you scroll down. Denver, I'm so glad you like my Keyholders books.
     Brittany, I'm glad to hear that you aren't boy crazy! After all, boys are people too right? Megan, Nathan is my awesome oldest son.  He had trouble learning to read at first, but now he's so smart he's getting his PhD! It's like in my story with Edmund, you never know what will happen next. Collin, when we wrote the first Bailey School Kids book Mrs. Jeepers did turn into a monster, but our editor asked us to make it not so scary! Daniel, how cool to be a hero. Thanks! A big hello to Jasmine, Dylan, Jasmine H., Bailey, Jadyn, and Brenda. Your school is awesome.  Lily, I'm so glad you like Mermaids Don't Run Track. I like the ending especially.
      g2g to a soccer game, Debbie

Thursday October 29, 2009

Happy Halloween! Hope you're having a great week and have a great time trick or treating! Stay safe. I just got back from Wyoming and had fun at several schools there. It was really pretty with the snow-covered mountains.
Aliziaja, I'm so glad you like my books. Do you have a favorite? If you want something a bit creepy, you might like to try one of my Ghostville books like Happy Haunting! When I was writing the Ghostville books with Marcia I had to keep checking under my bed to make sure there were no ghosts! Do you believe in ghosts? The custom of Halloween actually began with a harvest festival that was also a festival of the dead. Supposedly spirits walked the earth then! It was wise to be kind to all strangers who came to your door that night, because you never knew who that stranger might be.
Megan (obsessed reader!), it's hard to say which book was the most fun to write because they've all been so much fun. It was great writing Slime Wars and Slime Time with my son Nathan. Gabriela, it varies when people stop loosing their teeth. Usually around 3rd or 4th grade I think. Vivian, my favorite subject in school was history (social studies). Alex, I think Bruno can fly, do you? Monay, I think the problem in Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots is that they have a vampire for a teacher and they're worried that she's going to turn them into vampires. Christina, I get ideas from everywhere, including people who write me letters. You might like to scroll down on my writing page for some writing ideas. There's also a podcast you can listen to about getting ideas. ttyl, Debbie

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