The Latest News
A new direction
I am pleased to announce that I’ve accepted a full-time position as the Education Director for the Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary. I am responsible primarily for handling outreach and education.
I’m still writing. I have a few irons in the fire, but there’s nothing I can announce quite yet. The situation with This House of Books still sucks, although there are some bright spots.
The tea shop will continue. My daughter, Gwen’s been managing it for a while, and will continue to do so. I’ll still be teaching some game classes and tea classes there.
Who Pooped in the Park News
The Who Pooped series has hit a huge poop milestone: over half a million copies sold!
Who Pooped in the Park is also coming to eBook readers! The first eBooks in the series are an Apple iBook edition and a Kindle edition of Who Pooped in the Cascades?, available right now!
The first book trailer for the Who Pooped series is out. It’s for the Yellowstone edition, and you can view it below or watch it on YouTube. Hint: if you subscribe to my channel, you’ll see future trailers when they come out!
Awards and appearances
Who Pooped in the Cascades took two honors that I’m very proud of: it is a High Plains Book Awards finalist in their new Children’s book category and a silver medal winner in the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards in the nonfiction/animals category.
My closed captioning TED talk from TEDxBozeman is online and ready to watch. For links and background information, see the post, “Video of my TEDx talk, and a few words about the content.”
Successful book signings
Some of the most popular pages on this website have been my blog posts filled with book signing tips. I have collected them together, extended them with new content, and added tips and stories from dozens of other authors. The result is my new book for writers: Gary’s Guide to Successful Book Signings, with almost 200 pages of help in making the your book events the best they can be. Readers can purchase them from their favorite local bookstore or online (it’s available in paperbook and Kindle format), and bookstores can get it through standard distribution channels or direct from the publisher.
If you’d like some background on this book and some of my book signing experiences with Who Pooped and other books, check out my interview on The Successful Author Podcast with Julie Anne Eason.
[If you’re looking for my writings about tea, see my Tea with Gary blog]
Hi Gary,
I found you by chance googling around and noticed you seem to know a lot about role playing games.
I am a retired military man whose somewhat bored and looking for something to entertain myself with. I’ve always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit and also an appreciation for fantasy type genre. One day I decided to tinker around with the idea of creating a card game for my 8yo daughter and it’s turned into a bit of an obsession to get it perfected and perhaps even published someday. I realized however I don’t have much depth of knowledge in the fantasy world nor in what already exists in the gaming world.
I was hoping you or someone you know would be interested in helping me some with this games development. I would be happy to cut a helper in on any profits made if it ever got that far.
My overall goal is to make a simple yet entertaining fantasy card game for the 8 to 13 year age range that either uses classic fantasy creatures, weapons and spells or go completely off reservation and come up with all new stuff. I seem to be leaning towards going classical so there’s a sense of familiarity but I have copy-write infringement concerns. Can I assume all “classi creatures, weapons and spells (i.e. Orcs, elves, jabberwockies, etc) are all “public” domain? My other question is similar. I don’t want to find out the basis of my game has already been done.
Would you be interested in signing a non disclosure agreement and then letting me share with you what I have so far and see what you think?
Last, while I myself am a bit of an artist, I definitely could use some help in this area. If you know any good fantasy artists that might be interested in joining the effort I’d be much appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
Hi, Jason,
I really don’t have any connections in the game development world. It’s something I’d like to explore sometime, but I never have. Do be careful of trademarks and copyrights (e.g., don’t use hobbits). In every field I’ve worked in, I’ve found professional associations that have been of great help to me. I am or have been a member of associations for authors, booksellers, business owners, closed captioners, engineers, and others. I’m sure there’s one for game developers out there. I’d start by hunting for one. Good luck!
Do you do any classroom Skype calls? My kindergartners would love to talk to you about your Who Pooped In The Park books!
I have done quite a few classroom talks, but I’ve never been asked to do one over Skype. I don’t see why not, though.
I think that you should advertise a little bit. That may be a good way to start. Also, some schools aren’t allowed to go on those types of websites just because it gives kids access to Skype with their friends.
By the way, I’m a big fan of Who Pooped In The Park!
Thank you, Art! At this point, I don’t want to advertise virtual classroom visits because I have too many other balls in the air, but I just might do it when things calm down a little bit.
Thanks so much for hosting my book signing, it was SO MUCH FUN! Your hospitality made my “maiden voyage” (into book signings) a wonderful memory. L Sommerville “Grandkids’ Detective Club: Mystery of the Secret Room”
PS I HAVE SOME PHOTOS but can’t attach them here, could you send me an e-mail address? Thanks.