A Special Kind Of Show & Tell

Author Visits Press Fourth Graders

Nicholas Williams had the coolest show-and-tell in fourth grade Tuesday morning.

Nicholas’s show-and-tell wasn’t the usual dead bug, fancy toy or photograph. Instead, Nicholas brought his grandfather to Press Elementary to share with his classmates.

David Bowles, Nicholas’s grandfather, is a San Antonio-based author and history buff publishing Spring House in 2006. This first installment of the story about a real first Texas family sets the framework for his planned three-book series of historical fiction called the Westward Sagas.

“The types of books I’m writing started 30 years ago for me,” Bowles told the fourth graders seated in the Press library. “These stories have been written for a long time, but I decided to turn them into books.”

The author explained to the kids that the ideas for his story came from his own family history, from stories that had been passed down.

“I’ve found a story that is so important to this nation, it had to be told. It is burning inside of me,” Bowles said. He is writing Book 2, Adam’s Daughters, now.

The series will follow a real historical family starting with their trip to the United States from Ireland in the mid-to-late 1700s. Book 3, Rebeckah, will end on Feb. 19, 1846, the day Texas became the 28th state.

Bowles explained the concept of “historical fiction” – basing a story on known historical facts, events and characters, using fiction to fill in missing gaps, adding a handful of fictional characters to move the story along and writing dialogue as you assume it could have been said.

Teacher Karen Cooke asked Bowles to explain a variety of story elements and how a writer goes about developing them. The students listened intently, asking some questions of their own, too. “Where do you get your ideas?” “How do you come up with characters?” And the dreaded, “What do you do when you get stuck?”

Bowles told the kids he is lucky and usually doesn’t have a problem with writer’s block. The author shared his remedy for times a writer does get blocked.

“Just find something else to do for awhile, something you enjoy,” Bowles said.

Between his writing sessions on his Westward Sagas series, Bowles told the students about another kind of  book he is writing, “How to Train Your Master in 365 Days,” starring his 4-year-old yellow Lab, Lulubelle.

“She can’t speak or write, but she has her own way of communicating with me, so I’m writing this in her voice,” Bowles said about his constant canine companion. “It may never be published, but I’m having fun with it.”

The students seemed to have fun, too, listening to Nicholas’s granddad, as hands shot up in the air to bombard him with questions. And when the presentation was over, Bowles was thanked with a round of applause.

His special show-and-tell was a hit, so Nicholas stopped to give his grandpa a hug and a “thank you” before heading back to class.