Matt Chandler's Blog

It has been a while since I have carved out time to update my writing life here. Luckily it is because I have been too busy writing! 2019 was an amazing year in terms of writing opportunities. It was the first time in my career I have actually turned down projects because my plate was too full, and that is a great feeling.For my upcoming school author visits (there is still plenty of time to book a visit for your school before June) I have a ton of exciting new material to share with the students. I have 16 new titles being released in 2020 (it is crazy to even type that)!My first six books, a series of sports biographies, were released today through Capstone Press. Later in 2020 I have four more sports bios coming out, as well as two books in a ghost series, and three books in a fun project looking at game-winning plays in major sports (I tackle baseball, football, and soccer).I also have an exciting project I just wrapped up with a new publisher in California. It is a basketball book, but unlike many of my books geared toward elementary school children, this one is written for teen readers. It has been a ton of work, but a lot of fun to write and I can't wait for that to come out toward the end of 2020.Now that I am caught up here, it is back to my next manuscript! Keep reading, keep writing, and if you are a teacher, school administrator, PTA member, or parent who would like to bring my program to your school, visit www.mattchandlerwriting.com to learn more and see what other educators have to say about my high-energy, engaging and fun author visits!

One of the common questions I am often asked at school author visits is, "Have you written any books about _______________[fill in the sport]. Though I have written more than a dozen sports books, they were largely confined to baseball, basketball and hockey. That all changed this year. In September, I have a series of four sports books being released through Capstone Press that branch out beyond the big three. The series focuses on teaching young readers about four different sports, both team and individual. They are: • Gymnastics: A Guide for Athletes and Fans•Tae Kwon Do: A Guide for Athletes and Fans• Football: A Guide for Players and Fans• Boys Lacrosse: A Guide for Players and FansIn addition to adding four more sports to my writing resume, these books were a lot of fun to write. I also spent 2019 branching into sports biographies. I have just finished six sports biographies that wil be released in January 2020 and I am currently working on an additional four more titles in the series. They are: •Alex Morgan: Soccer Champion• Chloe Kim: Gold Medal Snowboarder• Giannis Antetokounmpo: Basketball Powerhouse• Kevin Durant: Basketball Champion• Patrick Mahomes: Football MVP• Khalil Mack: Football Dominator• Megan Rapinoe (title pending)• Aly Raisman (title pending)• Klay Thompson (title pending)• Adam Thielen (title pending)It has been so much fun digging into the lives of these incredible athletes and sharing the secrets to their success with readers. I can't wait to share these with students at book fairs, school author visits and writing programs throughout the 2019-20 school year!

I am best-known for writing three primary types of books: sports books (more than a dozen titles), ghosts and haunted places books (both fiction and non-fiction), and graphic novel style books (ranging from WW II spy stories to historical looks back at Ninjas and The Trojan War). That is why my latest series came as quite a shock to students at a recent school author visit when I shared the covers with them. The series, my first with Cherry Lake Publishing, covers some heavy topics including Mental Health and Suicide. As dark as that may sound to some, I think these are incredibly important books to get into schools and into the hands of young people who may be feeling isolated, misunderstood, or struggling. As a writer, the opportunity to make a difference with my words is the greatest possible outcome in my career. If I can ignite the passion to read with a student through an author visit, or spark the writing bug in a student who attends my writing workshops, that is awesome. With these books, it goes much deeper. I hope students will find hope, answers, and options in the pages of these books and feel empowered to reach out for help.

It has been a busy month for school author visits! Early May took me to Big Flats and Elmira New York where I shared my program and writing workshops with more than 800 students. At Big Flats Elementary School, the PTO generously purchased 400 books so every student left with a signed copy of one of my titles. The Pre-K through second grade students each got a picture book, and the older students got a copy of my nationally-award-winning book, "Side-by-Side Baseball Stars."Next, it was time for a trip to Somers Intermediate School to take part in their annual "Author Day." Each year the school brings in three authors for a day of workshops. The students are engaged through artwork and reading challenges, and it was an incredible day. I shared the stage with two very talented authors, Alecia Klepeis, and New York Times Bestselling Author Peter Lerangis. It was a wonderful day presenting my program to the students. I finished the month with two-day visit to Hillery Park Elementary School for an intensive writing workshop with students in grades K-8th. The school is implementing a summer journal writing program and brought me in to get the students excited and prepared to share their stories this summer. It was a wonderful experience and, together, we worked to bring out the inner storyteller in each student!With the school year winding down, I am enjoying catching my breath and working on my next book series (six sports biographies set to be published in 2020). In the meantime, I am already getting bookings for school author visits and writing workshops for the 2019-20 school year. To learn more or reserve a date for your school or organization, visit www.mattchandlerwriting.com or email: matt@mattchandlerwriting.com

The fruits of what has been an incredibly busy 18 months continue to bloom. I have four new children's books coming out in the fall through Capstone Press. The series focuses on cars and technology. As I have been sharing with students during my recent school author visits and writing workshops, this was an incredibly challenging series for me to write. Unlike many people I know, I am not "into cars." My main goal is for my car to start and for the radio to work. I'm also not the most tech-savvy person you'll meet. I can hold my own, but when it came to explaining the intricacies of how a self-driving car operates, it was tough. Fortunately, I have an amazing editor at Capstone (who, as a bonus, knows a lot about cars) and she did a fantastic job working with me to craft what I think is a fun, exciting, and informative series to teach elementary/middle readers about the technology behind vehicles. The four titles will be available in hardback, paperback, and Kindle, and they are: The Tech Behind Self-Driving CarsThe Tech Behind Electric CarsThe Tech Behind Concept CarsThe Tech Behind Off-Road VehiclesIn the meantime, if you are a parent, teacher, administrator, PTA member, or student and you would like to bring my author visit program to your school, you can find more information on my website, www.mattchandlerwriting.com. Check it out, and give me a call (716-390-9203) or shoot me an email (matt@mattchandlerwriting.com) with any questions or to reserve a date. Now booking school author visits and writing workshops for the 2019-20 school year!

For me, 2018 was an incredibly busy year in writing--my busiest since I left corporate America to became a full-time writer and travel for my school author visits. The fruits of my 2018 labor are starting to come together. I had three books released earlier this month through Capstone Press. Two were in a series on Sports Records and the third was a graphic story on Ninjas.I have 12, that's not a typo, 12 books coming out in the fall! This week, the covers for some of those books were published on Amazon. The first series is a sports series and I have four titles being released August 1st: Football, Gymnastics, Boys' Lacrosse, and Tae Kwon Do. This brings my total number of sports books to 16, with six sports biographies set to be published in 2020. One of the most common questions I get from students when I am visiting an elementary school for one of my school author visits or writing workshops is, "when are you going to write a football book?" I have books on baseball, hockey, basketball, wrestling, and hunting, but no sports books on football--until now! As you can see from the images, Russell Wilson is on the cover, which is pretty cool. The other question I get is, "when are you going to write a book on gymnastics?" The three glaring omissions on my sports resume, according to the students I work with, are football, soccer, and gymnastics. Well, two out of three ain't bad! I'll see if I can work on a soccer book for 2021!In the meantime, I am excited to share my new titles at all of my spring author visits and my 12 new books will be coming out in August and September, just in time for the 2019-20 school author visit season. To learn more about my school author visits and writing workshops, or to book a visit for your school for 2018-19 or 2019-20, visit www.mattchandler.com.

Last week was a good week in the world of school author visits. I spent Friday with more than 400 students at West Buffalo Charter School for an awesome day talking reading and writing. After a school assembly to begin the day, we broke out for grade-level writing workshops. The students were some of the most engaged, creative and enthusiastic I've worked with, and they came up with some amazing characters, settings and plots during our workshop time together. Students at West Buffalo Charter School hard at work on a group writing exercise during our writing workshop on February 8th.It was also a busy week for bookings. While plenty of schools are still booking school author visits for this year (I booked a two-day visit to Elmira, New York in May last week) lots of schools are getting a jump on the 2019-20 school year. In the last ten days, I fielded calls or emails from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Florida inquiring about booking an author visit for next year. In most of these cases, the school just hosted their author event for this year, and they were getting a head start on their search for 2019-20. For a few schools, this is going to be the first author event they have hosted at their school. Either way, there are a few advantages for schools that book their 2019-20 visiting author early: Availability: Like many author who do school visits, my schedule can get pretty hectic. I already have a few writing projects signed for next year that will tie up my calendar as well as the school visits I have already booked. The earlier you set-up next year's school author visit, the more options you will have for available dates to fit your busy school calendar. Funding: How to pay for a school author visit can be challenging for some schools or districts. The earlier you book, the more time you have to arrange funding. Whether you are using grant money, PTA funding, or fundraising funds, the earlier you have your cost locked in, the easier planning will be. As a bonus, from now until the end of the school year, I am offering a voucher for $100 off any author visit for 2019-20. If you call/email to book any length visit for next year, I will automatically take $100 off of the cost as a thank you for reserving your dates early. If you need ideas on how to pay for your school author visit, check out my blog post here. Content: I customize my author visits to each school. I have a format I like to use, but I also work with schools to make sure what I am focused on lines up with what they are working on. For example, I recently held a two-day school author visit and the students were focusing on writing personal narratives. I tailored a portion of my writing workshop to the topic, to insure my visit was enhancing the work they were already doing. The earlier you book your visit, the more time we have to plan the perfect days with your students. To learn more about my programs, visit my website, www.mattchandlerwriting.com, shoot me an email, matt@mattchandlerwriting.com, or call 716-390-9203.

When I announced a few weeks ago that I would be giving away a free school author visit in honor of my mom, who passed away in December, I never expected the response to be so strong. Thank you to all of the people who shared my post on social media and to all of the teachers, librarians, PTA parents and others who entered your school for a chance to win. I truly wish I could visit every one of your school's this year.We printed out the names of every school that entered, put them all in my trusty Boston Red Sox hat (sorry New Yorkers, I am originally from New England), and drew a winner. I will be visiting: Union East Elementary SchoolCheektowaga, NYThanks to Assistant Principal Julia Hamels for entering her school. I can't wait to meet all of her awesome students!I also selected several schools to receive copies of my new book for their school library. I will be mailing those out next week. I am so excited to be able to offer this program as a way to honor my awesome mom, who taught me the value and importance of giving. This is something I will be doing every year going forward in her memory. Thank you again to everyone who entered. It is awesome to see so many adults passionate about bringing reading opportunities into their schools!My next book, being released Feb. 1, 2019

2019 is a big year for me as a writer. I have several new books coming out, and by the end of the year I will have 35 children's books in print. In my career, I have authored more than 4,000 by-lined articles, written 35 books and shared my school author visits and writing workshops with tens of thousands of children across the country. None of that would have been possible without the love, support, and guidance of my mom.She taught me the value of hard work. She instilled a passion for reading and writing in me at a young age. And she was incredibly proud of my career. On December 6th, 2018, my mom, Christine, passed away. She was 81, and my heart was broken.In the weeks since her passing, I have contemplated ways to honor my mom's life and make sure her spirit of giving and caring lives on. There are several things I will be doing, but this blog is about one of my favorites. I am going to give away a full-day author visit to a school. I will bring my program to your school for a full-day of unlimited presentations. You can learn more about my program on my website, www.mattchandlerwriting.comIn addition to presenting my program at no-charge, if the winning school chooses to do a sale of my books in advance, I will donate 100 percent of the profits from the book sale to the school library.If you are a teacher, school administrator, PTA member or parent that would like to bring my program to your elementary school at no charge, follow the directions below.In addition to the winning school (which I will select at random from all of the responses) I will select ten schools to receive signed copies of my newest books for their school libraries.I look forward to giving back in the spirit of my mom by spending an incredible day with hundreds of students sharing my passion for reading and writing!To enter your school, just send an email to: matt@mattchandlerwriting.com with the following information:Your nameTelephone numberName of the SchoolGrade levels in the schoolGoing forward, I am going to hold this annual author visit event on February 8, my mom's birthday. However, I realize that may be a tight deadline for this year, so I will work with the winning school to select a day that works for you if February 8 does not. I will accept emails until Thursday, January 10. The winning school will be notified on January 11.

As a student, I was never that excited for the start of a new school year. But as a children's book author it is awesome! That's because the arrival of fall means a return to schools as I bring my school author visit program to students across the country. There is truly nothing more gratifying to me than to be able to share my books and my writing experience with students.Last year I brought my school author visit program to public schools, private schools, charter schools, and even a few summer camps. From Maine to Texas, I had the chance to work with thousands of students from kindergarten through high school and it was truly my best year yet! Of course, like any slightly neurotic writer, I'm not content with that, and I am looking forward to making the 2018-19 school year even better!I had two new books published in August and I have two more sports books coming in February, so it is going to be another GREAT year visiting schools. You can see all of my books on my Amazon Author Page.If you are interested in bringing my program to your school, please check out my website, www.mattchandlerwriting.com to learn more about my program and then reach out and let's talk.