21 June, 2011
Fifth grader Matt LaFlash shared something very special with his classmates at Hopkins School on Friday, June 3rd; his cousin, Eric Mateer. Mateer, a recent graduate of University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, made a special guest appearance to talk about his recently published children's book, Paint Me Terrified.
Mateer read a chapter from the book and answered questions from the students about how he wrote, illustrated and published his book. Students asked questions about how long it took to write to how he came up with the idea for the story.
"The whole book took me about ten months from start to finish," replied Mateer. "I came up with the idea first. I didn't know if I was going to write the book, but I had the idea for the story. I really wanted to illustrate a story so I just sat down and wrote it.
While he makes it sound easy, Mateer did admit to doing a lot of brainstorming before he started and writing multiple drafts before he was finished.
During the 45 minute visit, Mateer continued to field questions from students and offered some advice as well.
"Keep reading, keep writing and don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it," said Mateer.
In addition to being a published author, Mateer also owns his own freelance art business, Orange ArtWorks.Com and is happy with what he has accomplished so far.
"It feels good, it makes me feel like I've gotten a really good education and I'm on a good career path to have something out so far", said Mateer.
His cousin Matt agrees.
"I think it's kind of cool that he wrote his own book" said Matt.
His aunt, Kathy LaFlash thinks the visit to Hopkins was a great experience for the students.
"I think it was a great opportunity for the kids to see that they have an idea, they have a dream. As Eric said, you should never feel that you should never pursue that dream. I thought that was a really neat message for Eric to bring to the kids; they have a dream and they can see it through to fruition," said LaFlash.
Watch the HCAM News video below to see how students interacted and learned from their special guest, Eric Mateer.
