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Reading by Author Michael Buckley Part of Harry Potter Weekend Events
Visits Ferryport Landing…Er, Cold Spring
As part of a weekend of festivities in Cold Spring celebrating the arrival of the latest Harry Potter volume, author Michael Buckley will read and sign from his Sisters Grimm series, whose fictitious setting is evocative of Cold Spring. Orphaned after their parents mysteriously disappear, sisters Daphne and Sabrina Grimm are sent to live with the grandmother they've never known. Granny Relda introduces the girls to Ferryport Landing, a town on the Hudson River which bears a mysterious resemblance to Cold Spring…where many strange crimes have been occurring!
Sabrina and Daphne learn that they are descendents of the famous Grimm Brothers and that those famous fairy tales were actually histories of a magical parallel world. Described as "Nancy Drew meets Shrek," The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy-Tale Detectives sets the scene for the series, which will be comprised of eight books.
Prior to his success in the children's writing profession, author Michael Buckley held many odd jobs including professional stand-up comic, lead singer of a punk-rock band, pasta maker, and intern at the Late Show With David Letterman . He has developed programming for Discovery Channel, TLC, MTV, and MTV Animation.
Buckley credits his love of books as a child for his success. "My parents were not wealthy people but they managed to find a way to get me books even when the checking account was empty. I had more books than the library at my kindergarten school. To be a good writer you have to be a good reader and I had a great foundation to start from."
As a child, Buckley was a huge fan of The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary and A Wrinkle in Time by
Madeleine L'Engle. He also read a lot of books by Mark Twain and anything else "I could get my hands on, especially comics." He loved Spiderman and the Hulk, and credits comics with helping to increase his vocabulary.
Surprisingly, he did not read a lot of fairy tales as a child. "I didn't know much of anything when I started writing this series and had to scramble to read the original tales." The idea for writing the Sisters Grimm books came to him while he was looking through a collection of Grimm fairy tales. "It dawned on me that I'd never heard of a book about the sisters and did a lot of research to make sure it hadn't been written. I've always enjoyed stories and movies where you get to visit a magical world that is right in front of your face, like Men in Black or Harry Potter, so the Sisters Grimm living in a town full of fairy tale characters was almost a gift from above to me." "Hopefully," the author says, "the reader will go back to the library or bookstore after reading my book and ask for the classic stories they've discovered in the Sisters Grimm."
Michael Buckley will be on hand to sign the Sisters Grim Volumes: The Fairy-Tale Detectives, The Unusual Suspects, and Once Upon a Crime at the Depot Restaurant Gazebo at 3pm on Saturday, July 21 at 3pm. He will also award prizes at the culmination of Harry Potter Weekend, including the winners of Harry Potter Trivia Contest, Counting Bertie Bott's beans raffle, and the winners of the Harry Potter Art and Essay Contests.
Other Harry Potter-related events on the weekend include:
Friday July 20 - 10pm, face painting at Art To Wear, cape and wizard hat construction, pendant and wand making at Merritt Books; 11pm Costume Parade led by Parade Grand Marshal Jonathan Kruk to Art To Wear for.... awards by Judge Marilyn Heberling; 12 MIDNIGHT Countdown! Reading of Chapter One Aloud by Jonathan and local actors in Merritt Books Back Garden
Saturday July 21 - 2pm, Harry Potter Trivia Contest at Depot Restaurant Gazebo, Face painting, caldron cakes and punch
3pm - Michael Buckley awards prizes and signs books
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