I Survived 1st Grade!

Today, I had the great honor of going to talk to a class of first graders at Scott Elementary School.  This was my very first school visit as an author! I was a little uncertain at first what I was going to say to young kids who aren't really the target audience for my books, but they came up with some really great questions about the writing process, and at the end, we all wrote a short story together as a class!

First pic is me talking to the little ones.  They had questions planned out ahead of time, but once we got started, the little hands shot up and there was no plan after that.  It was great.

Before I left, we all took a group picture, and there was a small riot over who got to stand actually touching me.

 

Then, we had to do the obligatory silly face picture:

Also, once they figured out that I knew the Baymax fist bump noise, I was infinitely cooler.  Many thanks to Miss Boyle who invited me to come and spend time with her students!  I had a blast!

And the winner is!

Ok, I don't know about y'all, but I had a LOT of fun doing this. (And the folk who run IMDB are currently trying to figure out why I spent the last hour rapid-fire looking up actors I wasn't familiar with to check out everyone's cast lists)

So, after careful consideration, and some very scientific wibbly wobbly timey wimey type calculations, I have come up with my winners.  Drumroll!

Or not.

First place, and winner of the $25 Amazon gift card is:  Dragonflylass
Second place, and winner of the $10 Amazon gift card is:  Josh

Both of you email me at kari.stewart21 (at) gmail.com, and let me know what email address you want your gift card forwarded to. (If Amazon isn't quite your thing, let me know, we'll talk.)

Of course, if you showed me yours, I now have to show you mine.

Some of these are absolutely in my head who should play it.  Some of them are folk who would be good, but there were other really good ones in the casts you all came up with, too, and now I just don't know!   Some of them would require some makeup, and possibly some CGI to pull off the right look, but ain't movie magic grand?  ((And obviously, there were just a few where I couldn't make up my mind))

Olympus Tower:

Heracles – Chris Hemsworth

Artemis – Charlize Theron

Persephone – Hayley Atwell

Demeter – Madeleine Stowe

Hades – Richard Armitage

Hephaestus – Ron Perlman

Deeptown:

Geoff – Nicholas Hoult

Lia – Riley Keough

Ambert – John Goodman  / James Earl Jones

Jon / Rik –Bret Dalton

Keras – Steve Buscemi / John Leguizamo

Raffa – Jaimie Alexander / Katee Sackhoff / Michelle Rodriguez

Anyway, thanks for indulging me in this bit of silliness.  I'm glad you all read and enjoyed Second Olympus.  Tell all your friends, and remember to leave reviews at your favorite sites. Every one helps.

Second Olympus: The Movie

Only in an author's fondest fantasies are their books actually made into movies.  But that doesn't mean that we can't dream. I mean, c'mon. Imagining stuff is what we get paid for!

So imagine with me, people!  In the comments below, leave your ideal cast list for the characters listed below.  They can be past or present, you can specify young or old (for example, young Marlon Brando is very different than older Marlon Brando).  If you need more inspiration, check out this earlier post featuring my Second Olympus Playlist!

I'm limiting everyone to ONE entry per person (yes, I know that there are a several married couples who may be competing, so it's up to you guys if you want to enter as one, or as individuals)  ((I may have just ruined a couple of marriages))

Because I know there are folk who are busy this weekend (*waves hi to the Malice Domestic crowd*), I will leave the contest open through next Wednesday (5/6).  I'll post the 1st and 2nd place winners that evening.

1st place winner gets a $25 Amazon gift card, and 2nd place gets $10!  Woohoo!

Remember, only the first 12 characters are must haves (and if you truly can't figure one out, it's okay to leave it blank. I've got a few I haven't cast yet, too).  If you want to put some names to the "Others" section, you can do that just for fun.

Olympus Tower:
Heracles
Artemis
Persephone
Demeter
Hades
Hephaestus

Deeptown:
Geoff
Lia
Ambert
Jon / Rik (they're twins, remember?)
Keras
Raffa

Others:
Art forger
Old Stan
Young Stan
Fons
Drones
Hunstmen

And....GO!  (Have fun, folk)