Tag Archive for James Preller

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE, Featuring the Art of Norm Grock!

February 10, 2026 / / One comment

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It’s a happy moment when, as the author, you’ve finished writing the book. Then you can sit back and eat chocolates while the illustrator, and editors, and art director, and marketing folks, do all the work. 

Such is the case with my upcoming “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, Fairy House Halloween (July 7, 2026). 

I find writing these books to be challenging and fascinating and so, so different than any other “normal” book. In this case, a book with 13 different endings. That’s bananas. To me, the mission is clear: Simply write the most entertaining book ever. The journey itself is home — because there’s no “there” to get to, no real satisfying conclusion in the traditional sense. No ending sticks. So try to take readers on a wild, imaginative ride.

This is my second Fairy House title, the first one was called, appropriately enough, Fairy House. Crazy, right? And I’m very pleased to report that this new one, Fairy House Halloween, is also illustrated by the unstoppable Norm Grock. 

Man, this guy is so good. He truly understands the assignment.

No, we’ve never met, never spoken, never even exchanged an email. I work for Chooseco, and Norm works for Chooseco, and never the twain shall meet. But I did go to his website for a gander. 

That’s Norm, slaving away (did I mention that these chocolates are delicious? No? Well, they are!).

 

 

And here are three pieces of art from the upcoming book, featuring a clumsy, “not-quite-official” fairy named Beezle (pictured in the third photo, after shrinking the YOU in the story). 

Thanks, Norm, wherever & whoever you are! 

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THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

 

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Category: Fairy House / Tags: , , , , ,

Moose: “I love the world.”

April 26, 2025 / / No comments

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I’m happy about putting this character out into the world.

Art by Abigail Burch, from our upcoming book, Two Ballerinas . . . and a Moose. August, 2025, I believe. 

This art, and this text, is not final-final. We’re still tweaking, fretting, overthinking, at this point.

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COLLECT ‘EM ALL!

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Category: And a Moose! / Tags: , , , ,

FLASHBACK PHOTO: Me & My Mom in Washington, D.C.

April 4, 2025 / / No comments

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While I am the youngest of seven, which suggests a crowd, there was a lot of time when I was the only game in town. The straggler left behind. For a couple of years, I was the only kid in the house. 

I have fuzzy memories of this (mandatory) weekend in Washington, D.C.  I think my sister Jean was there, too. 

I don’t recall it as a super great time or anything. We went to the U.S. Mint. Nixon was probably in the White House at the time. Tricky Dick: “Let me make this perfectly clear about that.”

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AND COINCIDENTALLY, my new book!

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Category: Only In Washington / Tags: , , , ,

My Favorite Color Is . . .

February 19, 2025 / / No comments

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When I visit schools, young readers often ask questions in superlatives. What’s my favorite book? My favorite author, color, food, etc. And perhaps because I am an adult, I tend not to think about things in those terms. So I always fumble for answers, offering lame responses, since nothing I say makes sense to me. Except for color. I have, at last, a satisfactory answer to that one.
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My favorite color is gray.
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It wasn’t always that way. I guess it grew on me.
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(Sidenote: For blog purposes, I have to categorize posts. I didn’t know whether to put this under “School Visits” or “Scary Tales.”)
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Category: School Visits / Tags: , ,

Welcome Back to School!

September 3, 2024 / / No comments

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Here in the northeast, I think everyone is back to school. To celebrate that, here’s a page that captures some of that first-day feeling, a little senryu (haiku format w/ a focus on human activities rather than nature). This comes from our book, All Welcome Here, gloriously illustrated by my wonderful pal, Mary Grandpre. (Mary illustrated the first editions of the Harry Potter books, so you are likely familiar with her work.) All Welcome Here was a back-to-school book and one of the many casualties of the pandemic. It landed with a thud and is already out of print. So much for immortality!

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Category: All Welcome Here / Tags: , , , ,
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