I did an hour long author presentation today and really enjoyed it. It’s really fun to see students get excited about writing! I wasn’t able to get any photos today, but the kids asked some great questions!

Excerpt:

Standing over first base, Stormy rocked back on her heels and then forward onto her toes. She pounded her hand into her softball mitt. Her team, Littleton High, was up by one run, but Northville had bases loaded and only one out. It was going to be a close one—especially seeing how Northville’s best slugger, Cindy Cheeks, was up to bat. At almost six-foot tall, the rumor was Cindy wanted to play linebacker on the boy’s football team but they wouldn’t let her because she hit too hard.

Cindy pounded the plate once with her bat, sending dirt flying. She glanced Stormy’s way and grinned.

“Okay team, two more outs,” Coach Paul yelled from the dugout.

The ball flew from the pitcher’s hand.

Cindy, being over anxious, swung early, hitting a lazy ground ball to the shortstop. The shortstop scooped up the ball, bobbled it just a bit, then touched second base for the force out before she whipped the ball towards first, going for the double play to end the game.

Stormy stretched out to meet the ball.

Cindy chugged toward first, like a moose—just not as graceful.

Wham! The ball hit Stormy’s mitt.

It appeared that Cindy knew the game was over so now figured she might as well take Stormy out with her. Lowering her head, she zeroed in on Stormy. Onlookers didn’t need to understand Newton’s laws of motion to know that this was about to get ugly.

Cindy and Stormy collided.

Stormy remained standing, no more bothered than if a fly had hit her.

Cindy didn’t fare so well; she went bouncing off Stormy and fell over backwards. She hit the ground with an impressive thud, and lay there stunned.

The dust cleared; the fans gasped, “Wow! Is she alright?” “How’d she do that?”

“Sorry about that.” Stormy bent down to offer Cindy a hand. “Sometimes I don’t know my own strength…” but Cindy was still too dazed to take Stormy’s offer. (Not that she would have anyhow.)

The Northville coach ran over to the still-confused Cindy. “Are you alright?”

“Did you get the number of that wall that hit me?” Cindy asked.

A couple of Stormy’s teammates, Carol and Kathy, rushed to her side.

“Stormy, are you okay?” Carol asked.

“I’m fine.”

Kathy pointed at the still prone Cindy. “You were trying to hurt Stormy on purpose!”

A couple of Cindy’s teammates heard the shouting and ran over to Cindy.

“Hey! Leave our captain alone!” one of them shouted.

“Yeah, she just plays hard,” another added.

“Ladies,” Northville’s Coach barked, frantically trying to calm the situation, “the game is over.”

But none of the girls were listening. And more girls from both teams were now racing over. This had the potential to be a full scale bench-clearing brawl. Making matters worse, some of the parents in the stands were starting to get upset.

Stormy knew she had to do something or this would get ugly. Really ugly. Yet, there wasn’t a lot a normal girl could do to stop this impending scrap—luckily Stormy wasn’t a normal girl…