Hope Comes to West Virginia
My beautiful home state, West Virginia, is where HopeWords happens. You may have heard me talk about it. It’s a favorite!
Any day I get to meet so many of you guys is a good day.
This was, I think, the best HopeWords yet. We had an unbelievable lineup of speakers and (of course I’m so biased because) this year we had a strong focus on children’s literature, especially middle-grade!
Mitali Perkins was fantastic as our keynote. Daniel Nayeri was incredible. Alexandra Davis taught me so much about making picture books! Gary D. Schmidt was phenomenal. All the speakers and musicians were awesome. None of them were trying to be too clever, but were clear and accessible and generous and funny! I loved getting to hear them all, but the best times for me were meeting friends and fans and continuing that special connection we have.
It wasn’t a book launch for my new book that had just released, but I got to sign a bunch of Lost Legends and hang out with many readers of Green Ember and my other books. (Lots of Jack Zulu fans!)
Speaking of JZ, my co-author son Josiah (J. C. Smith) played a set this year with a fantastic band (with our Anne), including a song he wrote for the conference called “Little NY.” They sounded amazing.
I loved it all. The hardest thing is there are just too many wonderful people that it’s just impossible to spend the time you want to spend with them all. So many friends, new and old! What a blessing to have that challenge. God is kind.
I’m so blessed to hear a lot of generous encouragement in the form of notes, and messages. This weekend I heard so much encouragement in person, and it’s such a generous gift. It’s inspiring to carry on in my vocation as a storyteller, serving these precious kids and families I love so much. You. You and yours.
Alaska, Appalachia, and all over. We’re in this together.
Up Next
Next stop: North Carolina then Texas. (Reply to this email to let me know if you’ll be at any of those!) Tour details here.
Later this month, May 28-30, I’ll be at the Texas Homeschool Convention in The Woodlands. Register here and use code SPEAKER20 to get 20% off your tickets. If you are a homeschooling family in Texas, I’d love to see you there.
I love meeting you in person. I hope we get a chance to this year, or down the road.
I’m on your side,
Sam
P.S. The brand new Green Ember book is out now and shipping from our family store! Grab your SIGNED first edition. And we have a new shirt that is going fast.
