This former teacher turned writer inspires kids to read!

This is one of four videos we made for the launch of book 2 in the Crime Travelers series. This was a lot of fun. Enjoy!

Gearing up for a book launch, a huge launch in fact

Children's author Paul Aertker speaks to students at Peabody Montessori Elementary School before reading a portion from his new book, “Brainwashed,” on Thursday.  (Photo: Tia Owens-Powers/towens@thetowntalk.com ) 

This is the screenshot of my newly new website. We're gearing up for a book launch, a huge launch in fact, for book 2 in the Crime Travelers series. 

While still promoting the book, I am trying to emphasize my mission of teaching kids about the rest of the world. Please let me know what you think. Thanks. Paul 

Website here.

10 year old journalist at the Denver Post pens the best review ever

Zooooom. Thirteen year old Lucas Benes rides down the streets of Paris, France.

However, this isn’t a vacation for him. This is a mission to stop the so-called Good Company from brainwashing another group of innocent children and selling them for child labor. “Brainwashed” by Paul Aertker is a fast paced novel that will keep you at the edge of your seat. Still, through all the excitement there are some life lessons hidden within.

The Good Company plays the role of the villain in this book, despite having most of the public tricked into believing their name. “If someone tells you something enough times, you will eventually believe them,” Aertker says.

What’s riveting in this novel is that the people trying to stop the Good Company aren’t grownups, but kids. In this case, it’s the children’s problem not the adults’. Therefore the kids must solve it. “Adults can’t solve all the problems in the world,” Aertker says, who seems very confident in our generation’s ability to clean up adult messes.

What originally started out as a travel-themed book like the “Magic Treehouse” became a realistic fiction novel, fun for boys and girls to read. Though I recommend this book for 9-13 year olds, older kids will also enjoy this quick read. Once you’re finished, you’ve only just begun because in the next book “Lucas finds who he really is,” Aertker says.

So I suggest you set out on your vacation with this unforgettable page turner. (The Crime Travelers Series is available at Amazon and at physical bookstores everywhere.

About the Author

Vivian Weigel

This is an article by a 10-year-old journalist with the Denver Post. Check it out: http://nextgen.yourhub.com/article/parisian-page-turner

The novel is not novel

Bloggers in bathrobes beware. The journalists are taking writing back.

I read the Seattle Post Intelligencer today. Online. That’s the only way you can find it. The P.I. printed its last paper paper yesterday.

A few weeks ago, The Rocky Mountain news printed its final paper paper after 150 some odd years, and just this week a group of former journalists from this daily decided to revive “The Rocky” …online.

I think this is great. I stopped reading the paper paper long ago.

Going paperless is obvious. The environment. The social sharing/emailing, “Hey y’all check this out” aspect. The business perspective is streamlined. No paper costs, no circulation sales staff, no distribution costs. With some electricity and good writing all the functions of publishing-- editing, printing, distribution, and consumption all take place online.

This idea is certainly not novel: Kindle, Kindle 2, Sony Reader, Adobe Acrobat, PDF, Plastic Logic, and and and. Check it out at the NYTimes

So paper or plastic?

I think in the not too distant future, we will look back at hardcopies (newsprint, magazines, and books) and think it’s kind of neat. Like 8-tracks or cassette tapes or even CD’s. This change is not a bad thing. The printed word has not been around for ever, either. Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, arguably the first novel ever (hence the name) was published in 1749. 250 years ago. Gutenberg’s Bible was printed only 250 years before that.

I can imagine a Nancy Drew type story in the future where Nancy uncovers an old house from the 2000’s and they have a library (physical library). Neato! You might even hear Nancy shriek, “Look. This is a printed book. It’s not searchable!”

I know writers out there probably feel differently, but do we want the book (magazine, newspaper) or do we want the story?

I look forward to the print free world. And you?

Je pense donc je blog

"Je pense donc je suis."- Descartes.

My friend Dan, who has B.O. the moment he steps out of the shower, used to say: Je pu donc je suis. (Yes: I stink therefore I am.) True enough for an existentialist. And then it became, Je pu donc je suis Dan.

Je suis means I am, but it could mean: I follow, just the same. (Suivre: to follow) You could say, “Je suis ce blog.” I follow this blog or it could mean, I am this blog, which is borderline creepy.

I am me and I follow myself could both be: Je suis moi or you could say: Je me suis, if you wanted to, but most people don’t. I certainly don’t; I mean I don’t walk down the street and say, “I am me!”

Okay sometimes I do when I am weak and lonely and unsure of myself and gray clouds come to suffocate me, then I look at myself and I say to myself, “Self,” and my Self says, “What?” And then I’m a-O-k.

So blogging is like bad sci-fi, only you made it up, sort of. By blogging, you’re following yourself. I guess you could look at it in a metaphysical “follow your bliss” kind of way, sure; but Joseph Campbell never blogged and nor did Descartes. All of which brings you back to wondering if no one is following your blog then no one is reading your blog and if no one is reading your blog then why write it?

Because blogging is about getting published or noticed but isn’t a blog published? And if you published it then you could say:

Je blog donc je suis.

Oh and I have a website: http://www.crimetravelers.com/#!books-for-reluctant-readers/c22m2