Research and Travel
I’m writing this from Krakow, Poland! It’s crazy to write that.
We’ve hosted exchange students in our home for a year of high school, and this month, we went to Europe to visit former students in Prague, Czech Republic and Krakow, Poland. It’s been a whirlwind two weeks.
First - calling all Barbie fans!
Today, I have a fun surprise to share with you...
I’ve teamed up with 25 fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of fiction novels to 2 lucky winners!
Oh, and did I mention the Grand Prize winner also gets a Barbie swag pack worth $500? 😁
You can win my novel, WHEN KITTEN GO VIRAL, plus books from other authors, including many books for adult readers.
Enter the giveaway by clicking the image below!
Research for Books - Endangered Horses
While in Europe, I’ve done research for two possible books. First, I had an appointment with the Prague Zoo to talk about the endangered Przewalski horses. They just released seven horses into the wild at a Kazakhstan location. The Prague zoo was amazing and it is a force in the conservation of dozens of species. They are the third most popular site in Czech Republic behind the Prague castle and a Unesco city in south Poland. The day before I arrived—the last warm day for a while—the zoo had almost 10,000 visitors! It’s very popular. We certainly enjoyed the day there.
It’s fascinating to learn about these wild horses, the only wild horses still left on Earth. One of the hardest things is figuring out how to pronounce Przewalski! (pzhu-val-ski) The “p” sound at the first is the hardest to get right!
I also plan to visit the Denver Zoo herd of Przewalski horses next week when I’m at the Rocky Mountain SCBWI conference, Lines and Letters. (Come and join me at the conference!)
Research - Copernicus
I’m sure you learned about the Polish scientist Copernicus, who first presented the heliocentric theory that the sun is the center of our solar system, not the earth. While in Poland, I visited Torun (where he was born), Krakow (where he attended University), and Frombork (where he worked as a cleric in the Catholic church for forty years). It’s been a whirlwind!
(Interesting - there’s debate about whether Copernicus was Polish. At the time he lived—a contemporary of Christopher Columbus—there was no Poland. It was Prussia. His family was German. But for a while, he did serve the Polish king. They say that the idea of countries that we have today just wouldn’t hold up in his time.)
Here’s some other photos of our trip. We took hundreds of photos! Ask me sometime to see more.
It’s been a fabulous trip, seeing old friends and new places. I’ve learned so much about Przewalski horses and about the scientist who “put the Earth into motion and stopped the sun.” What I’ve learned is that people are happy to talk with you about the things that fascinate them and they are passionate about. I hope there will be new books coming!
What an amazing trip! You're so good at finding the clever hook in these stories: "The scientist who stopped the sun."