People Who Know Me Often Ask, "Why Are You Making More Work For Yourself On Holidays Off?" - The Answer is Simple...If It is for Kids & Teachers. I'm In.

As part of the 2026 Write Out - Write Where We Stand movement in Southern Connecticut I laid out a multi-prong approach to reach the most teachers with the greatest impact. I did, however, save 50 books to hand out to families at a local farmer's market. I stop every Monday to get vegetables each week, so thought it might be nice to meander around, introduce the National Writing Project to parents and neighbors, and to share the incredible creativity of Grant Snider (who is this year's ambassador and will be interviewed on The Write Time next week, October 20th...National Day on Writing).

It was a beautiful day at the market and I got a great location in the shade next to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library lady (who has been setting up there for years). I simply was a hawk looking for school-age kids with their parents. Once I spotted them, I swooped in with the gift, a link to the website created to get kids outside in Connecticut writing, and encouragement to see writing about place as a lifelong adventure. It's pretty amazing to experience what the book/project became as a conversation starter. I'd love to do such work for a living...simply gifting literacy to families like Dolly Parton. Well, for an afternoon, this is exactly what I did. I reached out to Nikkya, owner of Obodo books, to see if she wanted some free publicity and she was good to go.

I had to be a bit strict at first, especially with nutty ladies who wanted to take the entire stack to hand out to all their grandkids. I get the idea of it, but I really wanted to see books in the hands of families directly and, lucky for me, many of the people at the market also happened to be teachers. It was a win/win for us all. 

Later in the evening, I also delivered additional stacks to literacy leaders across several districts who are using the books for Write Out with their colleagues. I know some do butterfly releases in the spring, but there's something about doing book releases all year long, especially with an intent to gift educators and young readers with the joy of craft that Grant Snider offers through his books. What a blessing for us all (a harvest of sorts, as the farmers reported there's only a couple more weeks for the market). 

It was definitely a great day supporting the work I love to do, even if it was supposed to be a 'day off.' Hey, I did get a little rendezvous at a couple of stores, but put my foot down at going to Costco's. The lines to get into that place from all directions gave me anxiety. I can't imagine finding parking and actually thinking about the crowds in the store. No way. I'm good without the reminder of what humanity it really like. 

I'd like to think that a day of gifting books was the better choice. I actually know it was.