Doug Dillon's Blog, page 152
July 17, 2013
Nice Twist: Young Adult, Paranormal & Historical
Sliding Beneath the Surface
The St. Augustine Trilogy:
Book I
A review placed on Amazon by oliviajane
Interesting blend of genres.
Nice twist and a good mystery.
A refreshing change from the usual run of the mill mystery.
Students will definitely enjoy it.
Click here to see this review on Amazon.
July 14, 2013
Fascinating New Story Based in My Favorite City
Sliding Beneath the Surface
The St. Augustine Trilogy:
Book I
Young Adult, Paranormal & Historical
A review placed on Amazon by Kathleen Joyce Raue.
I am glad I waited until I did not have any papers to grade as once I started reading I had to keep going to the end and now I can’t wait for Jeff and Carla’s next adventure.
The first few pages started off a little slow but once Jeff and Carla visited the shaman Lobo to help Jeff with his nightmares I was intrigued.
Having the setting in my favorite Florida city made the story line even more fascinating. Hearing them talk about riding down San Marco and the cemetery’s gave me even more visual images to connect with.
Jeff definitely does have an attitude but it fits with where the story goes.
The colorful language is not overdone and does not take away from the great storyline.
I loved how the author had Jeff act so quickly to explain to the army officer the clothes he and Carla were wearing when they were in the parallel time. Jeff was wearing his University of Florida jacket which must have seemed very strange to someone during the Seminole Indians war not to mention sneakers.
Just when I thought I had the mystery figured out a new twist would happen.
The story is well written and the author does make it an extremely, hard to put down, intriguing story with plenty of twists and turns, for both teenagers and adults alike. Keep up the good work Doug Dillon.
Click here to see this review on Amazon.
July 11, 2013
Very Engaging and Well Written
Sliding Beneath the Surface
The St. Augustine Trilogy:
Book I
Young Adult, Paranormal & Historical
A review placed on Amazon by ForeverRead
I began reading this book as a teacher, seeing if it was something I would like to recommend to my students and/or use in the classroom; I finished the book as a very interested and intrigued reader!
This is a very well written novel for a reader of any age or level. I was immediately “hooked” in the beginning with the character and how easily it was to read the book, that goes to various levels.
I like how it ties into adolescence, Florida history and comedy.
I will definitely recommend this book and read others by the author.
I would HIGHLY recommend this novel to my students and colleagues.
Click here to see this review on Amazon.
July 10, 2013
Paranormal Information Association Conference
A wonderful gathering of Paranormal Investigation groups from across Florida is coming up soon.
I’ll be meeting with these good folks for the first time and doing a presentation.
Conference dates: Friday July 26 – Sunday, July 28, 2013
Location: Kenilworth Lodge, Sebring, Florida
Details on my part in this event:
Title of talk: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Sharing Paranormal Information with the Public
Date/Time: 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 27
Room: Large Ballroom
For further information on this conference, click here.
July 8, 2013
Author Skillfully Mixes Fiction with Nonfiction
Sliding Beneath the Surface
Young Adult, Paranormal & Historical
The St. Augustine Trilogy:
Book I
A review placed on Amazon by Proud Educator “sunflower”
I enjoyed reading the book. The author skillfully mixes fiction with nonfiction.
You can learn lots of interesting historical facts without any effort.
The characters show what a real friendship is and help each other through dangerous situations.
I can definitely recommend this book to a teenager or young adult.
Click here to see this review on Amazon.
July 5, 2013
An Interesting Way to Portray History
Sliding Beneath the Surface
The St. Augustine Trilogy:
Book I
Young Adult, Paranormal & Historical
A review placed on Amazon by Jajadeh
At first I didn’t like the protagonist, but as the story grew so did my concern for him. I recommend this story to any adventure, spiritual or history buff.
Click here to see this review on Amazon.
July 3, 2013
“It Was Great!” Young Adult, Paranormal & Historical
The St. Augustine Trilogy:
Book I
A review from Lili Lost in a Book.
This was a very entertaining read… and fantastic descriptions!
To start off, I just want to say that the voice/narration of the book was one of my favorite things! It really felt like we were inside a teenage boy’s head! It was great! Also, Jeff (our main character/narrator) talks straight to the reader sometimes and I love that! Makes me feel like I’m involved in the story, too :)
I also really liked the suspense…wondering how things would turn out for Jeff and all the freaky stuff that was going on with him. The story was very intense and had tons of action throughout the book, which I also love, so it was never slow moving!
Even though its not in the genre I’m used to reading, exactly, I really enjoyed it.
To see the full review on Amazon, click here.
June 26, 2013
Reading Motivation that Worked!
Motivating some teens to read is a tough job, to say the least.
The kids I’m talking about here are often the ones who fail statewide assessment tests and end up in reading classes. Exasperated parents and teachers everywhere live with this situation on a continuous basis.
Having taught for many years in grades 7 – 12, I experienced the frustration of trying to get certain students to read anything.
These days though, I come at the problem from a writer’s viewpoint—a writer of teen fiction. And I’m sending out this post because I recently participated in a very rewarding experiment that showed how it is definitely possible to interest even the most reluctant teens to read.
In fact, I’m still basking in the warm glow of what happened.
Teacher Kathy Snyder early in her well earned retirement
It all started near the end of the 2012-2013 school year with one very smart and extremely dedicated teacher by the name of Kathy Snyder. At the time, Kathy taught intensive reading to 11th and 12th graders at a high school near where I live in Central Florida.
After reading and reviewing the first book in my young adult series titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy, she contacted me.
Sliding Beneath the Surface
Kathy felt very confident that the book, Sliding Beneath the Surface, would interest her students and she hoped to use it in all of her classes.
This was her final year in teaching and she wanted to make one more big push to motivate her kids before retiring.
Well, she did that and a lot more.
Once we got a class set of books ordered, Kathy and I decided to make her classroom use of my work a full-blown teacher/author project.
I would donate my time and book resources to help her and she would write up a study guide as well a detailed report about the project’s results.
We were both excited about the possibilities and couldn’t wait to get started.
At this point in my post, I think I need to give you a little background information on my book series. In that way, you can get a better feel for what attracted Kathy to it:
1. It’s called The St. Augustine Trilogy because St. Augustine, Florida is the physical location for the plot.
The Castillo de San Marcos in St. Auustine
Why? Because the place is the oldest and most haunted city in the United States–prime territory for great spooky stories and teaching kids a little history along the way. Yup, social studies was my game at one time.
2. I created the trilogy with at-risk youth in mind because I spent the last 10 years of my career as an educator working full time helping such kids and their families.
So many of those young people had huge “victim” mentalities and blamed others for their problems that I wanted to do what I could as a writer to counteract those thought processes. That’s why the trilogy premise is this: You Create Your Own Reality.
Fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden, the main character, is a composite of the many at-risk kids I worked with over the years. And it is his growth over time in taking responsibility for himself and others that is a primary thread throughout the trilogy. 
3. Each character, Jeff, his girlfriend Carla and old Lobo represent the three main cultures that built the city of St. Augustine: Jeff is white, Carla is African American and Hispanic, and Lobo is Native American.
4. I use the paranormal as a hook to pull kids into the plot. My real life experiences with such things as described in my nonfiction book, An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic, are the prime material for developing the more exciting, unusual and spooky events in the book.
Now back to the project itself.
The Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine.
Photo courtesy of Greg Dillon – Photography by Greg
Kathy did a fantastic job of introducing her students to St. Augustine and its history way ahead of time.
In doing so, she really paved the way for those kids to feel comfortable as they encountered things that might be unfamiliar.
As part of this process, I sent her a CD packed full of photos—St. Augustine locations, historical reenactments, the cover for each book of the trilogy, my picture, etc.
Then using the book trailer (see below) to introduce the project, Kathy launched into a full schedule of students rotating the reading of Sliding Beneath the Surface aloud in class.
The details of what she did will be forthcoming. If you wish to be on a mailing list to receive that information when it is ready in September, just email me by using the contact button on this website.
Here’s the book trailer created by Cheri Crump, a fan.
Day-by-day, Kathy explained to me via email how increasingly interested her students were becoming in the book and how many of them even wanted to read ahead. Students who rarely paid attention, or rarely spoke at all, did the opposite as their readings continued. Other teachers reported how those same kids were talking about their literary adventure outside of the reading classroom.
Needless to say, Kathy was thrilled. Her hard work was really paying off. Then in an email about halfway into the project, she asked if I could come visit her students once they finished the book.
And since her school isn’t very far from where I live, and it would be fascinating to participate in the project firsthand, I agreed to spend the day at her school.
Annual reenactment of the Dade Battle that began the Second Seminole War in Florida-1835
What a great timeI had! And Kathy did too.
Those kids—those non-readers—were so attentive and knowledgeable about the book I found it hard to believe I was in an intensive reading classroom. When I asked them questions about the plot and characters, they had the answers—things even Kathy didn’t know they had absorbed.
Lots of kids greeted me as they came into the room at change of class, some even giving me a hug—including a few of the guys! In high school? I was stunned.
And around the room, Kathy had attached 100 pictures to the walls, one from each of the students. Their assignment was to pick a chapter in the book they liked and a line or two from that chapter.
They were then instructed to write that information on a piece of paper and illustrate the meaning of the chapter/sentences by drawing some kind of picture. And they did beautiful work. I’ve included some of those drawings here because I think they are so important.
This is one of my favorites because this student really got the book’s focus on mental attitude.
When I got home that evening, I had an email from Kathy, thanking me for working with her students. But it was her final comment that really got to me.
This is what she said, “This day was the best one of my entire teaching career.”
Those words really hit me because as an educator and a writer, I too felt that day with Kathy’s kids was the best one of both my careers. How tremendously rewarding.
At the end of the school year, Kathy packaged all of those pictures and sent them to me. What a treasure.
Along with the pictures, Kathy sent me thank you notes from some of the kids. Here are some excerpts from those priceless, and often telling, messages:
I really enjoyed your book and can’t wait for the others.
I love your book. Write more.
I hope you continue to write your stories. I love how many details you include. They made me picture my old house.
I hope we meet again someday.
Thank you for being the first author I’ve ever met and the most
interesting too.Yesterday that you were here the period went by fast.
I was really pleased how your book turned out.
Your book was full of suspense that made me want to keep reading.
I wanna get back in touch. Email me at . . .
I have to say that the book was very entertaining. It felt like I was really in the story . . . it sent chills down my spine.
You have a very interesting book and I think that St. Augustine would be a very nice place to live . . . or the Keys. (Don’t you love it?)
And finally, I close out this unusually long posting with a message to the teacher who made all this possible:
Kathy, I want to thank you publicly for giving your students and me so much in so very many ways. Yes, your students seemed to like my book, but it was you who made it all fit together in a truly viable package.
Your obvious love for those kids, your unrelenting drive to get them resources and your professional skills were so apparent during all the time we worked together. It was a pleasure being your colleague even if it was for a short time.
I know you will enjoy your retirement greatly but I sure wish you were still out there doing such great things with young people.
“Awesome Read.” Young Adult, Paranormal & Historical
The St. Augustine Trilogy:
Book I
A review placed on Goodreads by Dawn Dow.
“Loved it! This is an awesome read for any age from young teenager to adult!”
To see this review on Goodreads, click here.
June 23, 2013
“History Alive!!!” Young Adult, Paranormal & Historical
The St. Augustine Trilogy:
Book I
A review placed on Amazon by Evie5719
“Having grown up in Central Florida, I have a tendency to take the rich history that surrounds me for granted. I am thankful to have read the story of Jeff, Carla and Lobo to remind me of how lucky I am to call Florida home.
“So was the case for Jeff – a teenager transplanted to St. Augustine from Orlando – whose story reels you in from the first few pages. Jeff is a seemingly unhappy kid who comes from a rough background – his father passed away and his mother is absent from his life and wrapped up in a relationship with a loser boyfriend. Jeff’s only solace is his friend Carla. We see flashes of romance between the two throughout the book – and I enjoy that it is not a central focus of story.
“We find out that Jeff is being plagued by horribly vivid recurring nightmares, along with a persistent throbbing headache. He finally confides in Carla, who knows exactly what to do. Begrudgingly, Jeff goes along with Carla to meet her friend, Lobo. Lobo turns out to be an older Indian gentleman who is somewhat mysterious, has a pet crow and knows something is up with Jeff.
“From there, we are swept up in a supernatural world that intertwines historical fact and fiction that keeps you turning the pages.
“I really enjoyed Dillon’s ability to make history come alive. When you are done reading this book, you will want to take a trip to St. Augustine and to all of the sites mentioned in the book. This would make a great accompaniment to the traditional textbook, and would work perfectly in the English or reading classroom.
“Definitely recommended reading for Florida natives, history buffs, supernatural enthusiasts and well…anyone!”
To see this review on Amazon, click here.
