Different life experiences push people into becoming authors. BORDEN said she was a reader before she was a writer. Teachers inspired her to follow her dream of writing. She majored in history in college and was fascinated with her family’s ties to World War II. Her father served in the war; his brother died there. BOTH authors gave advice for the Allen County Young Authors.
For authors Mike Graf and Louise Borden, childhood adventures led them to their respective paths.
Graf and Borden were in Iola Friday and Saturday for the 16th annual Allen County Young Authors celebration. They met with students in all county schools, attended a banquet in their honor and led discussions Saturday morning at Iola High School.
Graf has penned a 12-book national park adventure series with the thrilling Parker family. The family travels to different national parks across the country and deals with a plethora of exciting experiences.
Graf’s interest in national parks began when he grew up in California. He and his family would travel to different parks. In college he and a few friends took a road trip to visit parks across the U.S.
“I go to visit a park every summer,” Graf said. “Out of the 59 parks, I’ve been to 35. There are several I’ve visited multiple times.”
The Parkers get into some sticky situations. Graf visits the park he plans to write about for detailed research.
“I plan a week or two in the park and take a tape recorder with me,” he said. “I fill my days with activities and I’m always listening to people around me for ideas.”
Graf got his publishing start with his book, “The Weather Report.” He enjoyed learning about weather as a child and the book lead to him becoming a TV weather caster on the weekends in California.
Borden constructed her senior research paper on the resistance movement which sparked book ideas. She began creating characters that were ordinary people in historic situations.
She wanted to tell the story of Margret Rey and H.A. Rey, creators of “Curious George,” after hearing a snippet about how they escaped from Paris during the raids in the war.
“No one had ever told the story before or pieced together how ‘Curious George’ escaped,” Borden said.
Mr. Rey built two bicycles and Mrs. Rey gathered the manuscripts. Borden went to Europe for research and the “The Journey that Saved Curious George,” has received quite a bit of attention.
“There is no better story than a real life story being fictionalized,” Graf said.
For example, Graf was riding home one day on his bike when two cars crashed in front of him. One of the cars hit him and he was sent to the hospital and underwent physical therapy.
His publishers contacted him about any story ideas and he decided to create a 6th grade boy who got hit by a car and what it would be like for him. “The Accident,” was later published.
Borden encourages young authors to read as much as they can.
“Kids can use our books for modeling their own,” Borden said.
Young Authors feted
