Author speaks with Heber School students
HEBER — Doug Cornett first realized he wanted to become a professional writer when he was in sixth grade.
He was able to achieve that dream with publication of his novel “Finally, Something Mysterious.” On Monday, he shared passages and some words of motivation with Heber School sixth grade students.
An Ohio native who currently lives in Portland, Ore., Cornett was able to connect with the young Heber students through the power of the Internet. He joined a Zoom video conference meeting with the students and their teachers at noon.
Heber School sixth grade teacher Sylvia Espinoza reached out to the author to address the students. There were 48 of them in all, from both Espinoza’s class and Susana Moyron’s class.
Cornett shared that “Finally, Something Mysterious” was actually the third book he’s written, but only the first one to be published. He said becoming a published author has been a journey.
Espinoza and Moyron both teach reading and writing. A number of students in the meeting expressed an interest in pursuing writing as a career.
Cornett said his own desire to become a writer came when he was about the students’ age.
After sharing his story, the author held a Q&A session. To keep things organized, questions were submitted by Zoom’s chat feature and then answered by Cornett.
“The kids kept asking questions and asking questions,” Moyron said. “It was really nice to see that they were all engaged.”
The entire meeting lasted more than an hour.
“They (students) were even recommending him books to read, and to look into some video games,” Moyron said.
Moyron observed that if school had been in regular session, the event would have had to be more like a school assembly in organization and scope. She believed that would have detracted from the personal feel of Monday’s session.
Moyron has been teaching at Heber School for more than 20 years. She recalled that it’s been “many, many years” since an author has spoken to one of her classes.
Prior to setting up Monday’s meeting, Espinoza was unfamiliar with Cornett.
As a way to promote “Finally, Something Mysterious,” Cornett had posted online that he was available to speak to classrooms around the nation — a message that Espinoza found by chance in a Facebook group for educators she’s in.
Espinoza reached out to the author, and Monday’s meeting came to fruition.
Since the countywide school closures due to COVID-19, Espinoza and Moyron have each been having regularly scheduled Zoom meetings with their students on Mondays and Thursdays (as well as one-on-one sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays).
“They were engaged,” Moyron said of the students. “You could see their excitement of being able to hear somebody other than their teachers in the Zoom session.”
Neither Moyron nor Espinoza encouraged their students to purchase Cornett’s book, as they don’t know him personally.
However, the two teachers did take note of how much their students enjoyed the book.
As a result, Moyron and Espinoza, out of their own pocket, purchased a few copies of the book, which they’ll awarding to students through prize drawings this week.
“I think that it’s going to be an awesome summer read for them,” Moyron said of “Finally, Something Mysterious,” which has a target audience of middle-school youths. “For the students that get the book, I’ll contact the parents and mail out the book, so they don’t have to go to the school or put anybody at risk.”