David*Macinnis*Gill.com

Back in the Dark Ages when I was in col­lege, I worked in a cam­pus cafe­te­ria. One day, after a par­tic­u­larly low health inspec­tion and deservedly low score, an edict came down from Man­age­ment: Thou Must Clean Bet­ter Start­ing Now. Fair enough. The cafe­te­ria was messy, espe­cially the ice cream machine, which had a drip …

Today’s blog post comes cour­tesy of friend and amaz­ing author Lau­rie Halse Ander­son. LHA has joined forces with The NOLA Tree, a teen vol­un­teer group that aids in the restora­tion of Post-Katrina New Orleans. The NOLA Tree is in the run­ning for a 50k grant from Pepsi to expand it’s ser­vice. Pepsi is using an …

You’ve heard of the bare­foot run­ning move­ment, right?  The one in which peo­ple run marathons shod only in their own cal­luses. This to me in the pin­na­cle of insan­ity. Not because of the bare­foot thing but because of the run­ning thing. See, I don’t run. I haven’t since my mid20’s when my left knee blew …

Skype an Author Net­work is a site that lists many authors who are inter­ested in doing vir­tual vis­its with school, libraries, and book clubs. David is par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Skype an Author Net­work and is avail­able for book­ings. Pre­sen­ta­tions: For Schools & Libraries Author Talk and Q&A ses­sions– For stu­dents who have read his work, …

For the past ten years, I’ve lived in your typ­i­cal sub­ur­ban, 3/2 brick ranch neigh­bor­hood. It has every­thing you could want for a fam­ily: Good schools, nice roads, pleas­ant land­scap­ing, and even a golf course in the mid­dle of it. The lawns are man­i­cured, the aza­leas neatly trimmed, and the chil­dren are all above aver­age. …

It’s my 1st First Amend­ment Fri­day, a day to cel­e­brate intel­lec­tual free­dom, the most impor­tant Amend­ment to the Con­sti­tu­tion, and teens’ right to read. What bet­ter way to kick it off than by shar­ing this mes­sage from our firends at Ran­dom House: Banned Books Week is Sep­tem­ber 27 through Octo­ber 4 It’s time to cel­e­brate the free­dom …