Author of Action & Adventure Books Wows Students and Faculty

Author Roland Smith, visiting St. Rita School on May 11, completely engaged students and faculty with tales of his adventures as a zoo curator and conservation biologist and his work as a writer of adventure novels for young people. The author showed pictures of red wolves he helped to reintroduce to the wild, sea otters he cleaned up after the Exxon Valdez disaster and the elephants and snow leopards he worked with at the zoo.  With stories, humor and energy the former zoo keeper had the kids eating out of his hand.  Smith had them repeat fun phrases and words after him: “Blubber layer”, “chupacabra”, “acclamation pen”, “mokele-mbembe” and “sloppy copy”.  In four minutes he told them the secret of writing successfully:  Read A LOT, research, research, research, write about something you CARE about, file away notecards with ideas, don’t start writing until you put your ideas up on a storyboard to develop the arc of your story, write your story and then revise, revise, revise.  “Repeat after me:  Writing is REVISION”, he told the students.  And when your teacher gives back your “sloppy copy” with all kinds of red marks and suggestions he says, “Get over it.”  Smith researches for almost a year and more before he begins to flesh out a novel on a storyboard and write.  After that, he rewrites a book as many as fifteen times BEFORE he sends it to his publisher, who then returns the draft to him with all of those unpleasant red marks and sticky notes.  Roland’s last advice to the students was, “Read.  Read this summer.  Read a little every day.”