Jefferson’s Comments (group member since Jul 28, 2011)

Jefferson’s comments from the Q&A with Jefferson Smith group.

Nice to hear from you Julie. Good luck with those thesis deadlines. I finally got out from under all that just a few months ago myself.

I like to engage school kids in my writing process. I worked with about 100 kids from grades 7 thru 10 on Strange Places at several local area schools. Most of that was done as part of the English or Language Arts class, but some was also done as part of the Art class.

If you're a teacher, I'd love to hear some creative ways you would like to engage a writer in your classroom. And if you're a student, tell me a bit about what you would LOVE to hear/learn about how books come to be. Are you fascinated by the writing process? Editing? Cover design? Marketing and promotion?

Let's chat about the first book - Strange Places. I'd love to know what parts people found the most interesting. Did you like the Bus Depot? What do you think about the Gnomeleshi and their "living conditions?" Who's the real villain - Lord Angiron or Sister Regalia?

Discussion about my writing process and the tools I use. In addition to using traditional tools, I use a lot of unconventional tools as well. And better yet, I even WRITE new tools of my own, as part of my academic research, trying to find cool ways to make myself (and hopefully other writers) more productive.

This is the informal place to introduce yourself to others, ask general interest questions, that kind of stuff. I'll go first. My name is Jefferson Smith. I'm an author (Strange Places) and a computer scientist who researches how to make people more creative when they use software to compose music, write fiction or paint digital images.

I'm also the father of 4 daughters and I work a lot with teens as part of my writing process. Ask me anything.