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"I like your series because I like reading about war and ancient cultures. It is fun and makes me smarter." Nick from Virginia |
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Archive for the ‘Author’s Purpose’ Category
FREE comix! (Two of my favorite words in the English language)
Written on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 [permanent link]Here’s a new feature on the Chester Comix website to start your school year with a bright burst of fun: a FREE episode about NORTH AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY!
And when I say “episode,” I mean the whole shebang. All five pages, start to finish, the way it was meant to be read when I drew it for the Daily Press almost a decade ago. I’ve included sample pages on this site for seven years so you can get a good feel for the way I build social studies material into my adventure stories (maps, timelines, key words in bold). But I’ve never provided a whole episode.
The North American geography story seems a good choice for the freebie — many teachers cover that material at the start of their school year, and it’s a topic really too broad to fit any of my printed books. I slice off the part of the map that I need to for different stories, but ALL of North American geography applies to many of my books “Exploring the Americas,” “First Americans,” “Revolutionary Rumblings,” “Moving and Grooving,” — heck, almost all of them! How could I pin the North American geograpy lesson to any one of them?
Now I don’t have to. The episode will live here, 365/24/7. And when you have your students check it out, I hope they will find many other interesting things to read and think about . . . 😉
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Slow as Manassas
Written on Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 [permanent link]
I’ve lived in Virginia for 18 years without making it up to the site of the first major battle of the Civil War — and then there was a last-minute mission to get my boys to the Green Day concert just down Lee Highway from the Manassas Battlefield . . .
(Don’t worry, I got my Cool Dad badge LAST summer when I actually went into the Green Day concert in downtown DC with my boys. But this time the concert was at an outdoor theater, and it hit 101 degrees today, and, well . . . )
Manassas was the site of the first major battle of the Civil War. And the feel of today’s battlefield park is just right. Thank goodness these rolling hills are not covered with condos. Though the Manassas Battlefield is only a mile or so north of Interstate 66, you can stand here and feel the struggle of men and guns up and down these hills (and why holding the high ground was so important). There WAS a modern road cutting through the park, but seeing the modern rush hour traffic jammed on its two lanes did not feel overwhelming — it just reminded me of the traffic jam that came at the end of the First Battle of Manassas, as Union soldiers and spectators rushed over each other down that very same roadway to get back to the safety of DC!!
I love visiting Civil War battlefields in the late afternoon. Battles usually ended at sunsdown anyway, so it’s a good time to feel the peacefulness and consider the bravery and the terrible pain that happened on this ground — and the ideas that brought people here in conflict.
I feel restored and inspired from having walked through the quiet grass of Manassas. Now back to Paneras to wait for the concert to end!
Tags: battlefield, Bentley Boyd, Chester Comix, Chester the Crab, Civil War, educational comics, First Battle of Manassas, history, Virginia
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Reprints
Written on Monday, April 19th, 2010 [permanent link]I just got reprints of three Chester Comix titles off the truck from my Virginia printer. It feels great to be selling enough that I need to get thousands more copies of
Of course there are little tweaks in each of these new editions (Slavery’s Storm is on its third run) — but they’re so small that only I would notice them. Unlike the edits I made to “Jamestown Journey” for its reprint a few months ago, these changes are simpler — a spot of color cleaned up, a word or two trimmed, a verb made more active. I can always make my writing better!!!
It’s fun for me to go back to storytelling I did 8 or 9 years ago to make it better. I’ve learned a lot more about storytelling than I knew then. And I’ve learned more historical details, too. I’m 43, and I’m still learning — I want the books to reflect that, not turn into museum pieces themselves.
If you want to see how I’m constantly working and reworking my storytelling, jump on my Creative Trail through this website. Start here with some rough drafts, then follow Chester’s claws — you’ll see that my books are never completely “done.” 😉
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