The DeBeardening

The title probably explains itself, but . . .

I attended an amazing event called Teen Author Boot Camp that is operated by stunningly talented people who keep hundreds of kids organized and working like a well-buttered machine.

I was asked to teach a class on how to gamify your writing experience. At the end of the class, I challenged them a vocabulary game called Contact, the rules of which can be found here (you should play it with me sometime). I thought what better way to up the stakes than to offer up some sort of reward if the kids were able to defeat me, a professional author, in a game all about words. Of course, I have little to give beyond the hairs on my face.

And that's just what they took.

Whether they actually defeated me or if I let them win because I need to take an author photo set in the 1950s (and beards weren't exactly in back then), we'll never know.

But we can watch the result:

(video credit: Chase Sofia Schetselaar)

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go design a new site logo. Or grow a new beard. Whichever happens first.

Love-a you all.