Hampton Ballowe, Carrie Chalfant, and Mrs. Chalfant Photo by John Dixon

A while back while attending the Eldest release party at The Happy Bookseller on Forest Drive, I met Pam, Carrie, Kate, and Hannah Chalfant. Mrs. Chalfant is the instructor of a middle school home school writing class. The students have been reading articles by the cub reporters in The Columbia Star as part of their course requirements.

They recently began working on personal narratives and spent some time becoming familiar with “The Wisdom of the Chi,” an article I wrote about my chihuahua. Mrs. Chalfant recently called Mrs. Tindall at Cardinal Newman and asked if I could visit with her class and talk about how I find and write my stories. To make a long story short, that is how I came to spend part of the Martin Luther King holiday speaking with a couple of budding young writers, Carrie Chalfant and Hampton Ballowe.

I quickly learned these kids were young up and coming writers. They had loads of questions and took some time to look at my press books. Hampton who is about my age is interested in many of the same things I am. As a result we got along well. Hampton and I found that we were both Star Wars fans and fond of video games. We also frequently suffer from writer’s block and have a thing for dragons. Carrie is also very close to my age and seems highly interested in writing. She is a fellow dog lover. In fact, a Canine American, (a new Shih-Tzu puppy) recently took up residence at her home. As many may have guessed, we had a lively, highly interesting conversation.

Both kids had prepared questions, and they were good questions too. The questions were along the lines of how I got started, where my ideas came from, and what is the best part of writing for me. I shared with them how we wrote everyday at Windsor Elementary School and how when I was in fifth grade two editors from Scholastic came to recruit kid reporters to cover the 2004 Primaries and Election.

I also explained how I got started writing movie reviews from a kid’s perspective for The Columbia Star and how that just naturally led to other kinds of stories over time.

I had to admit that most of my stories find me, and that many stories and contacts lead to new stories and contacts.

We talked about the necessity of having a good plan to add structure and organization to writing and how crucial it is to do multiple edits if you do not want to sound like a fool.

I told them the experience of doing new things and meeting new people was the best part of writing for me. I did confess I like to have my opinion and ideas heard and how writing for a local newspaper allows me to do that.

We had a nice hour–long visit at Joe Mugs in the Books–A–Million at Trenholm Plaza. I am sure we will be hearing more from these guys someday soon because I have to admit these young writers seem able to give me a run for my money in the near future.