Friday, April 27, 2012

FW: Author/Race car driver visit for the Singapore F1

.......A Canadian author, former race car driver, school principal and English teacher.....  What an great way to connect our libraries and readers to the hype of the F1 race in Singapore!

Anthony Hampshire has written a series called Redline Racing Series, using his knowledge of car racing and his passion to reach some of the reluctant readers in his classes.  The series is available through Follett.

Tony would stay with our principal and he has factored his flight costs into his daily fee so it's not only a great opportunity, but also a great deal!  $750 for a day, in which he would do several presentations.

Below is some information, from Tony, about himself and his presentations.  

Please let me know if you would be interested in having him visit your library.  I will need to confirm with him ASAP as he needs to organize his schedule, book flights and get his tickets to the Singapore F1 :)  Really, the sooner the better!

Thanks!
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PRESENTATIONS 
I think that you will need a clear idea as to what I could provide as a visiting author.  I've done many school presentations since the RedLine books were first published in 2001, particularly at the regional Foothills Young Authors Conference.  My presentations are interactive, usually a good deal of fun, and the reviews I've had back from conference organizers indicate that students rate them highly.  As a sample, attached is a .pdf copy of my Young Authors Conference mid school Powerpoint presentation from last year. I also have different versions of this to suit younger/older audiences. 

The substance of my presentations is not about how awesome my books might be and although I could have some shipped out and available for purchase, it isn't a sales pitch.  As old LA/English teachers never die, I use my professional training, racing and author experiences to encourage kids to find their own stories.  We're all writers, and we all have a voice.  While I am a published author and ex racing driver, I am first and last a teacher, and present that way.  I explain my writing process, story development, and share tips that I've learned from experience that students may be able to use.  My goal is to for them to come away with a stronger sense of enablement as writers, perhaps even somewhat inspired.  To accomplish that, I like to directly involve the kids in dialogue and some readings from my books.  As you'll appreciate, that's very difficult to do with 400+ kids in a gym, so given the option I much prefer to do two or three smaller sessions with several classes in a Library or classroom over the course of a day rather than a one shot presentation for everyone.  While I may thus be at a school for most of a day doing several presentations, there's much more value for the school to have an author work with smaller groups, and my fee would be the same.  As a frugal ex-Principal, I know that it's always about value....

To leverage the Singapore GP specifically, I would adapt some of my presentation materials.  I also think it could be fun to correspond electronically with classes & teachers prior to arrival especially if they're involved in GP activities leading up to the race.  I have a fair amount of knowledge about Formula 1 and some first hand experience with a top level racing team.  

For sample chapters from all RedLine Racing books, photos and critical reviews, please see my website at       http://www.anthonyhampshire.com/index.htm   

I also currently serve as the webmaster (and sometimes crewman of last resort) for the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team in California, which heeps me current with modern racing. 

PRESENTATION FEES
For a local conference the standard author presentation fee here is $500/day, higher if out of town.  Singapore is a tad out of town for me, so the $750 fee per presentation would be fine. To offset the travel costs of a trip of this distance (see below), I would need to have three or four school presentations confirmed, each at that rate.   As detailed above I would be quite prepared to spend all or most of a day in each school over the week leading up to the race for presentations and interacting with kids and teachers about writing and racing.  I won't do supervision however...

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