Christine Kohler

Jan 28, 2014 6:47 PM EST

*Blowing a kiss right back at you* The props were a great addition to your table and a perfect way to start a conversation without feeling like a book saleperson. My daughter told my husband all about your coconut at dinner that night.

- Sarah Negovetich

Jan 28, 2014 7:21 PM EST

Great tips, Christine!

- Martina Boone

Jan 30, 2014 11:34 AM EST

Thanks for these tips, Christine! I'm paying close attention and taking good notes! Good luck with your continuing presentations and signings!

- Linda Phillips

Jan 31, 2014 12:31 PM EST

I'm drawn to anything Japanese and No Surrender Soldier looks fascinating. Thanks for the tips and ideas! I agree about offering programs as part of book promotion. My publisher will launch my debut book, Feathers and Trumpets, A Story of Hildegard of Bingen in March.

- Joyce Ray

Feb 01, 2014 9:07 AM EST

Thanks for the comments & encouragement, Sarah, Martina, Linda and Joyce Ray.

Sarah, your girls, especially the tiny one, look like Precious Moments dolls! What sweeties, but with bundles of energy and curiostiy. I'm glad the coconut sparked your child's curiosity. At the other library program I had more coconuts, only pre-drilled and cracked. I had Dixie cups available for people who wanted to drink the milk. I had a butter knife for those who wanted to snap out a piece of coconut meat and eat. What I envision under different environments (outside!) is for teens to try to crack a coconut open with a rock, then spoon, then hammer and chisel. Then to squeeze oil from the meat. They will be able to see how difficult it would be to live as a survivalist. When in season, I'd like to get a full coconut still in the husk because that's even harder to open, which is what the soldier had to break through to use for milk, food, oil, and lamps.

- Christine Kohler

Feb 01, 2014 9:19 AM EST

Joyce Ray, I had never heard of Hildegard so I looked her up. Wow! This would be great NF or fiction. (Can I plug here that I'm giving one of the intensive workshops at the SCBWI summer conference in LA about NF, narrative NF, and historical fiction?) And to think this was during a time when my ancestors in (now state of) Germany were poor farmers probably working for these overlords. It's remarkable as a woman what she was able to do. I want to read more!
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.asp

One thing my publisher wanted me to do that I haven't quite found time for is to write a NF article for a magazine about Shoichi Yokoi, the WWII soldier who hid in the jungle on which my fictional soldier Isamu Seto is based. It would be ideal for me to do this now, too, because the last soldier found in the Philippines died this month at age 91. What I have been doing instead is to write articles about my research and putting them on my website, both as a separate tab and on my blog. I wanted to do more, even including Guamanian recipes, but...marketing is eating up my time. When do we get to write? (rhetorical question for another thread. ha ha)

- Christine Kohler