You may have heard of my cousin, who got famous for growing up on a Christmas Tree farm and now sings songs or something, I think. I hear she gets recognized at airports and football games, and I bet people scream her name when they see her all the time.
Well, she's not the only one.
We were walking on the sidewalk in front of our school the other day (I teach there and both of our kids attend), when I heard someone scream my name from behind us.
"Is that Mr. Swift, the author!?!"
We turned to see who my fan was. It wasn't a tween or a Gen Z fangirl, but a middle-aged man with maybe even more grey in his beard than I have in mine.
He's also the father of twins in my daughter's fourth-grade class; we've known each other for years, and he's never seemed starstruck at all. But on this day, his daughters had just finished telling him about THE FIRST KID ON MARS.
Earlier that day, I read chapter one to their class - my daughter asked her teacher, and we've got plans to read the whole thing together one chapter at a time before the end of the school year. I talked about the process, plans for future books in the series, and hopes to publish soon.
The students loved the first chapter - they were an incredibly good and attentive audience while I read, and they had great questions and comments afterwards.
(I'm reading it to my son's first-grade classroom too - it's intended for a slightly older audience, but they're loving it too. We asked his teacher first, so they're up to chapter four already.)
So I guess the twins must have said some nice things about the book, because he seemed genuinely impressed that it made such an impression on them.
In fact, come to think of it, he probably wanted my autograph. I should be ready to give it to him next time.
I should ask cousin Taylor what to charge.
