It's time to sign up for Author Visits!

Happy October, happy fall! I hope school is off to a banger start and you’ve finally caught your breath(?)

I love visiting readers and have finally put together presentation descriptions, something I’ve been meaning to do for ages.

If you’re a teacher, librarian, parent, and/or book lover and interested in an Author Visit, I’d love to come see you!

Available Presentations:

Read the Book and Meet the Author

in person or zoom events

Description: Read one of Amy’s books and then get the “story behind the story” with this fun and interactive presentation where Amy reveals all of the “easter eggs” hidden in the novel that you’ve read. She’ll also cover how she learned to write a book (she studied science in college, not English!), the “secret sauce” to any great novel, developing perseverance, and how hope is essential to finishing. Amy will leave your students with concrete, actionable steps to begin writing, and heaps of inspiration to keep going. This presentation works best if you’ve read one of her books (but not essential!). Grades 4-12; adaptable for younger grades.

Using Real Life to Write Fantastic Fiction

Join Amy Makechnie as she talks about the inspiration behind her books, like how her father’s Idaho cow, a mother’s brain injury, a miniature schnauzer, and a bully (and more!) all became fictional details in her published books. Your students will leave inspired to use their own ordinary events to write extraordinary stories! Recommended for grades 5-12; adaptable for younger grades.

Where Science Meets Literature: the Brain and Heart on Books

Guinevere St. Clair and Golden Macaroni are fictional characters, but their origin was born from the real world. Join Amy for a conversation about the brain, ALS, the heart, and how science and the human body make for fascinating fiction. As a former Anatomy and Physiology teacher, Amy can lead a discussion, but also go deeper with a brain and/or heart dissection, facilitate an anatomy watercolor workshop, and/or help your students create their own zines using the amazing human body. Recommended for grades 5-12; adaptable for younger grades.

Meet the Author and a Dog Who Thinks He’s a Nanny!

For the younger crowd and based on Amy’s most recent book, The McNifficents, which was New Hampshire’s 2024 Great Reads for Kids selection at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Do your students love dogs? Then they’ll love Lord Tennyson, an aging miniature schnauzer and the nanny of six rambunctious McNiff children who are all home for the summer. What could go wrong? (A LOT). Part story hour, part conversation about the pets we love and how they inspire our most beloved stories. Grades K-4 with Q&A and coloring pages available.

How to Fund an Author Event?

Schools may not have set aside funding to bring an author to their school, but often times, schools can find discretionary budget funds and/or appeal to donors and parent organizations to offset costs or raise funds - I’m willing to work with you the best I can!

Virtual visits are always an option, and short virtual visits are free. If you’re interested in working together, I hope you will reach out. Hit reply or email: amy.makechnie@gmail.com.

I’ll be speaking to a school in Minnesota next week via Zoom as part of their “Career Day” - another presentation option!

Amy 💖

p.s. Even if your children are grown, or you don’t work in a school or library, please forward this to a teacher, librarian, or book club. THANK YOU so much .

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If you’d like to support my work with a paid yearly subscription, I will gratefully send you a signed copy of any one of my books 🙏 and then I will do cartwheels because you have made MY YEAR of writing possible <3

The Last Part:

Listening: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe (read in an Irish accent so I’m really annoying to be around right now :)

Feeling: Very warm! It’s 80 degrees in New Hampshire and sometimes called “Indian Summer” but I don’t know why…

Drawing: Some stories about tuberculosis, inspired by John Green’s new book

Writing: Still working through my gothic romance…we’re going into the home stretch (again!!!).

xoxo

The Unforgettable Guinevere St. Clair is part-mystery, part understanding of the human heart 💖

Ten Thousand Tries is Golden’s quest to save his dad and the soccer team ⚽

The McNifficents is one summer with six rambunctious kids and their miniature-schnauzer nanny 🐕 New Hampshire’s 2024 Great Reads for Kids selection!