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On Saturday 3-6-10, I was invited to be the guest speaker at the annual reading event for The Michigan Reading Association in Oakland County. Marie Thomas and her associates put on an annual event where the top students from the district come for a morning of fun and events.They have all sorts of activities for the students including a raffle and a book fair. I spoke to about ninety students and sixty parents about the importance of reading and writing. The presentation was highlighted with a question and answer session for the students and then a short video afterward. The event was a blast and I got to meet a lot of tremendous students who will be the country’s future leaders.

Thank you Mrs. Thomas. You and the other teachers that were there are definitely an asset to Oakland County and your students.

Taylor Joseph Teenage Author

My father has been coaching soccer for about nine years. He is a great coach and all the kids he coaches seem to like him very much. For the last six years he has put together a super team to go to the national championship for indoor soccer. For the last three years in a row his team has taken third place.

Over the last three years it seems like something uncontrollably always went wrong. One time the team had a key injury coupled with a kid being sick in the crucial part of the tournament. Another time he was faced with back to back games where his players were exhausted from the incredible level of competition.  Another time there was a mistake made in overtime that made them lose in a heartbreaking fashion, eliminating them from advancing. Nevertheless, I have to hand it to my dad for not giving up. He is like a robot that never gives up.

I guess third place at the national championship would be considered a great accomplishment in it’s own right. Well this year I want to wish The Mustangs luck in advance. Good luck boys and good luck dad. I have a feeling that this year is your year. Bring home first place the weekend of March 7th. I like the way national champions sounds.

Good luck,

Love Taylor

Over the week of winter break I got the opportunity to speak at Ionia Middle School , Knapp Charter Academy, Badger Ridge Middle School, Worthington Middle School and a few others. I had a great time and wanted to thank all the teachers, students and principals who welcomed me with open arms. The students were very responsive and I met so many cool people. It was great traveling and having a blast at night as well.

I know I have a busy schedule coming up but I look forward to the challenges ahead, what a great time of life. I can’t wait because For Love or Honor, my third novel, is all done and ready to go. The few people that read it already said it was incredible and my best yet. I can’t wait for it to be released.

During October through December, I was extremely busy doing signings and school events. I must have been at twenty different stores over that three month period. I did one signing in Bloomfield Hills, MI where there were two school systems involved. Walled Lake schools and West Bloomfield schools were so nice to me and promoted my books to their students with great zeal.

When I first walked into the store, I felt a little overwhelmed after seeing a stack of one hundred books sitting there for me to sign. As the night went on, it became very busy and I barely had a moment to spare.  Kudos to both those school systems.

I also did a book signing at the Barnes and Noble in Rochester Hills, MI. It was really cool because they had a scavenger hunt and one of the things the students had to do was find the author and ask me a specific question, like how old I was when I started writing my first book.

Thanks to all the teachers and bookstore managers that have helped me so far.

Taylor Joseph Teenage Author

On 11-03-09 I visited Lake Fenton Middle School in Fenton, MI. I was asked to speak in front of 450 students about writing. I started off by talking about myself and about my quest to become published. After that I took questions for about 15 minutes. The students there were just the most polite, fun people you could imagine. They didn’t want to stop asking questions but we had a limited amount of time.

Then I read a page from each of my books and asked the students specific questions about what the characters were going through. After that we had another discussion which turned out to be very informant for both the students and myself. Then I played a clip about the importance of literacy and we had yet another discussion.

I had a great time and I think the students did as well. A special thanks to Mrs. DeLonge who arranged it all and Nicole Guiles who helped me out immensely.

Thanks Lake Fenton Middle School,

Taylor Joseph.

Allison Investigates has been out for three weeks now. I did three books signings over the last three weekends and I am taking a little break now. I have a speaking engagement at Lake Fenton Middle School next month. I have had many offers to come to schools this fall and I am making arrangements to visit them. I want to say thank you so much to all the teachers that have helped me so far. Without the teachers that put forth all the extra effort each day helping kids, we would all would be in a world of trouble.

Taylor

During the week of 8-8-09 we went to a town called Caseville, MI. They have an annual festival called The Cheeseburger Festival where they have games and events as well as concerts all week long. They have tournaments and boat races and all kinds of other great events all week. It is right on Lake Huron which makes it even more special.

During the week I did a couple of book signings. One at The Lemon Tree store in town and one at a tremendous surf shop called Key North. Both of the owners were so nice and treated me well. They say 300,000 people visit Cheeseburger over the ten day period. Midweek on Wednesday they had an awesome parade with 65,000 people attending. The parade is such an incredible site to see. One float had girls dancing with their bikinis on and singing to music while they rode standing in a hot tub. Another float had people standing in a huge margarita glass as they danced to music. There were hundreds of other humorous floats as well.

All along, the people on the floats passed out cool things to the crowd like t-shirts, candy, and frisbees. I walked behind a float that was made to look like a pirate ship with a live band on it. On the side of the float was a guy dressed up as a gorrilla riding a tiny mini-bike around. We passed out t-shirts that had great pictures of my books on them as well as candy and some books. It was incredible. If you ever get a chance to go to Cheeseburger in Caseville, MI you will not be disappointed. It is one of the wildest, family fun parties in the state.

Taylor

I have decided that I am going to start writing about other things beside writing novels. I have been working very hard lately getting everything ready for the completion of my third novel. We decided to go away for a mini-vacation to Lake Huron in Michigan. If you have never been to one of the Great Lakes, you have no idea how beautiful they are.

Picture a lake as beautiful as the ocean with no sharks or jellyfish in which you can walk out a half a mile and its not over your head. The water is so clean that you have no salty feeling when you get out of it. It almost feels like you just took a bath when you walk out of the water. It is true that the water is cold in some parts but not where we were. The water felt like bath water and the sunset reminded me of Hawaii. I went into the bar-restaurant and shot some pool; it was a blast. If you get a chance to visit the Great Lakes, you won’t be disappointed. Do it one day.

Love, Taylor

On 7-11-09 I did double book signings at Barnes and Noble in Ann Arbor and in Brighton. They both went well with much interest about my second book Allison Investigates. The managers were so nice and treated me well. The manager in the Brighton store said he was going to try and organize an event with the West Bloomfield store and the school system out there. I was pleased to hear this. I am excited about the September 19th release of Allison Investigates. The Barnes and Noble in Northville, MI will be handling the national event.

I have had some extra time between books. Allison Investigates was done in February so I have been writing again. My third book is going well and should be completed before the end of the summer. I think it will be the best yet. I wish I could say what it is about, but I can’t.

I want to thank all of the teachers that have helped me so far.

Taylor

Ever time I think I have met the nicest people in the book industry someone else comes and surprises me. I did a book signing at Barnes and Noble in Northville, MI on 6-06-09 and the manager was just so nice to me. She did everything in her power to make sure I received the maximum exposure possible. We sold a lot of books that day thanks to Betsy.

The release of Allison Investigates was held up until 9-19-09. Sometimes the publisher will hold a release up to get everything prepared in time. Barnes and Noble in Northville, MI will be doing the national release and throwing a party to celebrate the event. Then it is off on tour again in the fall.

Love,

Taylor Joseph