Doug Dillon's Blog, page 31
July 2, 2016
Paranormal Event in St. Augustine, Florida
AUTHORS OF THE PARANORMAL, a book signing event, will be held at the St. Augustine, FL Visitor Information Center featuring
authors Doug Dillon and Dave Lapham.
Come join us as we greet people coming into the center from 11 AM until 3 PM on Sunday, July 17, 2016.
Click here for more information about the location and parking. (10 W. Castillo Drive)
We’ll be chatting with folks about the paranormal in our lives, in our books and in the city of St. Augustine.
I will be signing the first two novels in my young adult, paranormal/historical series titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy.
Set in the ancient city, these books take readers, young and old, on spooky, whirlwind tours of key locations and probe actual historic events.
Dave will be signing his wonderful nonfiction books titled, The Ghosts of St. Augustine and Ancient CIty 
Hauntings. He is recognized as the first writer to uncover the wealth of paranormal happenings in St. Augustine and putting them in print.
Care to find out more about our books ahead of time? Just click on the titles listed below, including a link to Dave’s website:
Doug Dillon’s Books:
Dave Lapham
Dave Lapham’s Books and Website:
Florida Writers Book Signing, St. Augustine, FL
AUTHORS OF THE PARANORMAL, a book signing event, will be held at the St. Augustine, FL Visitor Information Center featuring
authors Doug Dillon and Dave Lapham.
Come join us as we greet people coming into the center from 11 AM until 3 PM on Sunday, July 17, 2016.
Click here for more information about the location and parking. (10 W. Castillo Drive)
We’ll be chatting with folks about the paranormal in our lives, in our books and in the city of St. Augustine.
I will be signing the first two novels in my young adult, paranormal/historical series titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy.
Set in the ancient city, these books take readers, young and old, on spooky, whirlwind tours of key locations and probe actual historic events.
Dave will be signing his wonderful nonfiction books titled, The Ghosts of St. Augustine and Ancient CIty Hauntings. He is recognized as the first writer to uncover the wealth of paranormal happenings in St. Augustine and putting them in print.
Care to find out more about our books ahead of time? Just click on the titles listed below, including a link to Dave’s website:
Doug Dillon’s Books:
Dave Lapham
Dave Lapham’s Books and Website:
St. Augustine, Florida Literary Event
AUTHORS OF THE PARANORMAL, a book signing event, will be held at the St. Augustine, FL Visitor Information Center featuring
authors Doug Dillon and Dave Lapham.
Come join us as we greet people coming into the center from 11 AM until 3 PM on Sunday, July 17, 2016.
Click here for more information about the location and parking. (10 W. Castillo Drive)
We’ll be chatting with folks about the paranormal in our lives, in our books and in the city of St. Augustine.
I will be signing the first two novels in my young adult, paranormal/historical series titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy.
Set in the ancient city, these books take readers, young and old, on spooky, whirlwind tours of key locations and probe actual historic events.
Dave will be signing his wonderful nonfiction books titled, The Ghosts of St. Augustine and Ancient CIty Hauntings. He is recognized as the first writer to uncover the wealth of paranormal happenings in St. Augustine and putting them in print.
Care to find out more about our books ahead of time? Just click on the titles listed below, including a link to Dave’s website:
Doug Dillon’s Books:
Dave Lapham
Dave Lapham’s Books and Website:
July 1, 2016
Inspiring Reluctant Readers in High School
Intensive Reading grades 8-12 – a YA novel that brought classes to life. A reading strategy that truly motivated and built skills.
The book – Sliding Beneath the Surface, Book I of The St. Augustine Trilogy – paranormal & historical.
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. 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.
The Castillo de San Marcos
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.
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.
Jeff
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, Greg;s Gallery.net
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 time I 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.
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.
UPDATE! After writing this post, Kathy and I got together and created a teacher guide for using Sliding Beneath the Surface in the classroom. Click here for the new Teacher Resources section of my website that allows you to download a free copy and gives other useful information.
Further Links for Reading and Language Arts Teachers About Using This Book in the ClassroomReading Teacher Sparks Student Interest An article from teacher Kathy Snyder about her experience.
Quotes From Sliding Beneath the Surface Book Reviews
Book reviews for Sliding Beneath the Surface on Amazon.com Includes reviews from reading and language arts teachers.
A Book Series for the Reading Classroom The multiple themes and threads that make the series of value.
St. Augustine’s Constitution Plaza at Christmas
The St. Augustine Trilogy and America’s Oldest City The setting for the series in St. Augustine, Florida and how that provides a fascinating backdrop for action.
The St. Augustine Trilogy & Historic Events Specifies the actual historic events that happened in America’s oldest city that are woven into the series.
Description for The St. Augustine Trilogy
Teaching History Through Young Adult Novels
Teaching Resilience Through Young Adult Novels
The St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica
Sample Photo Galleries – Historic St. Augustine, Florida
The Castillo de San Marcos (The old Spanish fort)
The St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica
Spanish Soldiers of the 18th Century
St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum
The Dade Battle Reenactment, Part II (The trigger event that started the Second Seminole War)
Successfully Engaging Struggling Readers
Intensive Reading grades 8-12 – a YA novel that brought classes to life. A reading strategy that truly motivated and built skills.
The book – Sliding Beneath the Surface, Book I of The St. Augustine Trilogy – paranormal & historical.
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. 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.
The Castillo de San Marcos
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.
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.
Jeff
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, Greg;s Gallery.net
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 time I 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.
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.
UPDATE! After writing this post, Kathy and I got together and created a teacher guide for using Sliding Beneath the Surface in the classroom. Click here for the new Teacher Resources section of my website that allows you to download a free copy and gives other useful information.
Further Links for Reading and Language Arts Teachers About Using This Book in the ClassroomReading Teacher Sparks Student Interest An article from teacher Kathy Snyder about her experience.
Quotes From Sliding Beneath the Surface Book Reviews
Book reviews for Sliding Beneath the Surface on Amazon.com Includes reviews from reading and language arts teachers.
A Book Series for the Reading Classroom The multiple themes and threads that make the series of value.
St. Augustine’s Constitution Plaza at Christmas
The St. Augustine Trilogy and America’s Oldest City The setting for the series in St. Augustine, Florida and how that provides a fascinating backdrop for action.
The St. Augustine Trilogy & Historic Events Specifies the actual historic events that happened in America’s oldest city that are woven into the series.
Description for The St. Augustine Trilogy
Teaching History Through Young Adult Novels
Teaching Resilience Through Young Adult Novels
The St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica
Sample Photo Galleries – Historic St. Augustine, Florida
The Castillo de San Marcos (The old Spanish fort)
The St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica
Spanish Soldiers of the 18th Century
St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum
The Dade Battle Reenactment, Part II (The trigger event that started the Second Seminole War)
AN Intensive Reading Strategy for Success
Intensive Reading grades 8-12 – a YA novel that brought classes to life. A reading strategy that truly motivated and built skills.
The book – Sliding Beneath the Surface, Book I of The St. Augustine Trilogy – paranormal & historical.
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. 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.
The Castillo de San Marcos
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.
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.
Jeff
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, Greg;s Gallery.net
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 time I 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.
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.
UPDATE! After writing this post, Kathy and I got together and created a teacher guide for using Sliding Beneath the Surface in the classroom. Click here for the new Teacher Resources section of my website that allows you to download a free copy and gives other useful information.
Further Links for Reading and Language Arts Teachers About Using This Book in the ClassroomReading Teacher Sparks Student Interest An article from teacher Kathy Snyder about her experience.
Quotes From Sliding Beneath the Surface Book Reviews
Book reviews for Sliding Beneath the Surface on Amazon.com Includes reviews from reading and language arts teachers.
A Book Series for the Reading Classroom The multiple themes and threads that make the series of value.
St. Augustine’s Constitution Plaza at Christmas
The St. Augustine Trilogy and America’s Oldest City The setting for the series in St. Augustine, Florida and how that provides a fascinating backdrop for action.
The St. Augustine Trilogy & Historic Events Specifies the actual historic events that happened in America’s oldest city that are woven into the series.
Description for The St. Augustine Trilogy
Teaching History Through Young Adult Novels
Teaching Resilience Through Young Adult Novels
The St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica
Sample Photo Galleries – Historic St. Augustine, Florida
The Castillo de San Marcos (The old Spanish fort)
The St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica
Spanish Soldiers of the 18th Century
St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum
The Dade Battle Reenactment, Part II (The trigger event that started the Second Seminole War)
High School Intensive Reading Success
Intensive Reading grades 8-12 – a YA novel that brought classes to life. A reading strategy that truly motivated and built skills.
The book – Sliding Beneath the Surface, Book I of The St. Augustine Trilogy – paranormal & historical.
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. 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.
The Castillo de San Marcos
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.
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.
Jeff
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, Greg;s Gallery.net
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 time I 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.
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.
UPDATE! After writing this post, Kathy and I got together and created a teacher guide for using Sliding Beneath the Surface in the classroom. Click here for the new Teacher Resources section of my website that allows you to download a free copy and gives other useful information.
Further Links for Reading and Language Arts Teachers About Using This Book in the ClassroomReading Teacher Sparks Student Interest An article from teacher Kathy Snyder about her experience.
Quotes From Sliding Beneath the Surface Book Reviews
Book reviews for Sliding Beneath the Surface on Amazon.com Includes reviews from reading and language arts teachers.
A Book Series for the Reading Classroom The multiple themes and threads that make the series of value.
St. Augustine’s Constitution Plaza at Christmas
The St. Augustine Trilogy and America’s Oldest City The setting for the series in St. Augustine, Florida and how that provides a fascinating backdrop for action.
The St. Augustine Trilogy & Historic Events Specifies the actual historic events that happened in America’s oldest city that are woven into the series.
Description for The St. Augustine Trilogy
Teaching History Through Young Adult Novels
Teaching Resilience Through Young Adult Novels
The St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica
Sample Photo Galleries – Historic St. Augustine, Florida
The Castillo de San Marcos (The old Spanish fort)
The St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica
Spanish Soldiers of the 18th Century
St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum
The Dade Battle Reenactment, Part II (The trigger event that started the Second Seminole War)
Queen Mary – Ghost Image Captured
Photographic evidence of a ghostly being aboard ship by my friend Peaches Veach from California Paranormal Private Investigations (CPPI).
Of all the locations I’ve visited and/or investigated, The Queen Mary in Long Beach, California is one of the most interesting. Back in the day, it was a luxury liner that was then converted into a troop transport ship during WWII. Thousands of people are believed to have perished on or around the ship over the years. World renowned psychic Peter James believed there are close to 600 spirits wandering the ship.
The Queen Mary was bought by the City of Long Beach and turned into a floating hotel in 1967. It serves not only as a hotel, but also has restaurants, exhibits, and convention facilities. There are also a number of tours available to visitors. On one of those tours is where I had a paranormal encounter. Multiple parts of the ship are haunted.
We had taken one tour earlier in the day and it took us into the changing rooms of the first class swimming pool. Several spirits are said to haunt this area. We had told the guide before the tour started that we were paranormal investigators so that he would understand why we’d have some pieces of equipment with us. There were almost enough of us to have our own private tour.
This little excursion was done in the dark and towards the end of it, we turned off our flashlights. That’s when the tour guide started talking about a possible male spirit being in that area, who he might be and why he might be there. When we talked about it later, a few of us agreed we felt the energy change all around us right at that moment. It’s hard to describe if you’ve never felt energy shift in such a way, but it’s much like how it feels when people have an argument in a room and you’re just standing there observing and feeling the tension.
For whatever reason, the tour guide sounded uncomfortable talking about this spirit. When he finished speaking, all was quiet for a while. Finally, someone asked a question but there was no response. Turning our flashlights back on, we realized the guide had left. We never did see him again.
We all decided to leave the room and I was the last one out. As we started moving, I felt a pressure on my back that was similar to having someone pushing me. I told my friends, “Move! Go! Go! Go! We’re being pushed out!” Another friend who has an intuitive “gift” also felt that the male spirit was upset and wanted us out.
Later in the day, we took another tour that’s really a “smoke and mirrors” event where they use all kinds of special effects. We had been told not to take flash photos since that would disorient everyone. As I snapped a photo without flash, I realized that I would have a blurry result due to camera shake. So I just dismissed what I had done and moved along with the group.
Original blurry photo of 3 people in the dark. Bright light at top is a bulb hanging from the ceiling. The white streak of light in the middle of the picture going across the woman is unidentified. Just above that streak, and below the woman’s head, is the small oval of a face that you can barely see.
A few days later, I was looking at my photos and came across a blurry picture. At first, I thought that I should just delete it. Then I noticed something strange. I showed my coworker, and she and I both gasped when we looked at it closer. To us, it looked like a head showing only one side of the face. This was the picture I had taken in the dark.
A closer, cropped view of the face.
We speculated as to what it might really be, but I knew exactly who could check it out for me. I have a friend by the name of Tony who is a retired mortician. He specializes in facial reconstruction. Tony has some forensic software that analyzes photos, including pixel count, color temp, etc. He can tell if a photo has been altered in any way. I’ve gotten to know Tony over the years, with all of the interesting photos I’ve sent him.
Tony’s enhancement of the previous photo to bring out the opposite side of the face. In this version of the picture, a shoulder below the face is clearly visible on the left.
Tony’s answer to this particular photo? “I don’t believe in ghosts, but you have something there. I just don’t know what it is.” He verified the photo had not been altered (I had taken it, so of course, I already knew that), and he took it a step further enhancing and removing certain color tones. He was able to digitally shift things around in order to show the other side of what we all believe is a face in the photo. To me, it looked like someone wearing an Elizabethan collar from the 16th Century, which would be extremely weird to find here in the States.
Tony’ second enhancement, no color, cropped and enlarged. Look carefully.
Tony’s official opinion in the end was that what we were seeing was a woman he believed to be between 40 and 60 years of age with her hair in an updo. This, he thinks, meant that in a different era, she was probably financially well off. The last thing he added was that she was staring right at me!
Tony and I have both studied this picture over the years and continue trying to figure out exactly whose face it is. After comparing it to many other photos, we have yet to find the answer. We’ve gone back to the Queen Mary several times since that original experience to try and find an answer but with no luck. One of my more intuitive friends said that whoever the person is in that picture, she will not appear again. She got my attention the first time and is glad that I know she’s there. Even so, my quest to discover the identity of our mystery woman continues.
Fascinating, Peaches. Thanks so much.
Click here for the CPPI website.
Click here for the Queen Mary Website.
Click here for a video on the Queen Mary.
###
If you would like to read more great stories about paranormal phenomena, you might be interested in checking out my book, Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences. You can find it in most online bookstores. Listed below, however, are direct book links to some of the larger retail outlets in the English-speaking world:
Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon India, Amazon Australia, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million.
June 29, 2016
Paranormal Event – St. Augustine, FL
AUTHORS OF THE PARANORMAL, a book signing event, will be held at the St. Augustine, FL Visitor Information Center featuring
authors Doug Dillon and Dave Lapham.
Come join us as we greet people coming into the center from 11 AM until 3 PM on Sunday, July 17, 2016.
Click here for more information about the location and parking. (10 W. Castillo Drive)
We’ll be chatting with folks about the paranormal in our lives, in our books and in the city of St. Augustine.
I will be signing the first two novels in my young adult, paranormal/historical series titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy.
Set in the ancient city, these books take readers, young and old, on spooky, whirlwind tours of key locations and probe actual historic events.
Dave will be signing his wonderful nonfiction books titled, The Ghosts of St. Augustine and Ancient CIty Hauntings. He is recognized as the first writer to uncover the wealth of paranormal happenings in St. Augustine and putting them in print.
Care to find out more about our books ahead of time? Just click on the titles listed below, including a link to Dave’s website:
Doug Dillon’s Books:
Dave Lapham
Dave Lapham’s Books and Website:
St. Augustine Visitor Center Event
AUTHORS OF THE PARANORMAL, a book signing event, will be held at the St. Augustine, FL Visitor Information Center featuring
authors Doug Dillon and Dave Lapham.
Come join us as we greet people coming into the center from 11 AM until 3 PM on Sunday, July 17, 2016.
Click here for more information about the location and parking. (10 W. Castillo Drive)
We’ll be chatting with folks about the paranormal in our lives, in our books and in the city of St. Augustine.
I will be signing the first two novels in my young adult, paranormal/historical series titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy.
Set in the ancient city, these books take readers, young and old, on spooky, whirlwind tours of key locations and probe actual historic events.
Dave will be signing his wonderful nonfiction books titled, The Ghosts of St. Augustine and Ancient CIty Hauntings. He is recognized as the first writer to uncover the wealth of paranormal happenings in St. Augustine and putting them in print.
Care to find out more about our books ahead of time? Just click on the titles listed below, including a link to Dave’s website:
Doug Dillon’s Books:
Dave Lapham
Dave Lapham’s Books and Website:
