Yesterday I was grateful to have met with the Eisenhower Middle School Book Club here in San Antonio. There were a total of 11 young people present, all having fulfilled (or surpasses) the minimum number of books read from the list suggested by some Texas board or other. (I should have taken closer notes.) The attendees were bright and funny and surprised me with a number of thoughtful questions.

I can't thank Teresa Diaz enough for the invitation to speak. I had stated up front that I was still unpublished but she didn't blink. Everyone I met was gracious, helpful and charming.

The event was surprisingly fluid. The periods came and went so quickly and it became a race to get through the 15 pages of Hilmer Gibb and His Honkin' Huge Bib before some or all of the kids had to leave. I don't understand how either the kids or the staff keeps up with all the goings on in a school day. It's like a military operation but no one gets killed.

Here's how it went down:

I met with about seven 6th-graders first. I congratulated them on their reading accomplishments and admitted I'm a very slow reader myself and that to read--in one case--six books in the month they were given is simply remarkable. I ran through a quick history of my writing, touched on how writing, like soccer, is an even-field art form in that no special equipment is needed. With soccer, as Pelé proved, all one needs is a melon and two doors and you have a soccer game. So it is with writing, where all one needs is anything that leaves a mark and a surface. Done. You're a writer.

Then I read.

Is it universally true that no matter how many times one sifts through his work, he can find something new to improve upon? I read the "finished" first 15 pages to my older boy before taking him into school and, with his consensus, deleted half a page of slow copy. Then I read for the first group. Again, I found myself marking up the copy, though this time the edits were mainly deletions of a word here and there. And again, with the second reading--the two 7th-graders and the one 8th-grader--more tweaks.

The pressure of live reading forced up some weaknesses in the work. That can't be anything but a good thing, right?

After each reading, I had just enough time to hand out the kids' freebies. I had stopped by the store the night before to pick up some composition books and small G2 pens. Into each book, I placed a Young Writers' Resource page that gave some simple starting writing pointers and a couple web links to online publications that accepted writing from young people. I also included a page with the writing-related quotes I keep by my writing work station:

"He is able who thinks he is able." -- Buddha

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night...You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." -- E. L. Doctorow

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader." -- Robert Frost

"I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there." -- H. G. Wells

"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit." -- Richard Bach

So here's to a wonderful visit, new friends, a great first-time speaking engagement and everything that comes with new experiences.