Press Release

David Weimer, 368 High Street, Flushing, OH  43977

October 16, 2013

Attn: Local News Media

RE:  Ben and the Dragon: a new children’s book reading & painting by the local author & illustrator at St. Mary’s Central Elementary in St. Clairsville, 2:15 p.m., Friday, Oct. 18.

Hello,

My wife and I are transplants to the Ohio Valley.  I grew up in Michigan and my wife, Andrée, is from Brittany, France.  We were longtime pen-pals.

We live in Flushing, Ohio and our two boys, 9 and 13, attend St. Mary’s Central Catholic School in St. Clairsville.  Last Christmas, I wrote Ben and the Dragon for my then-eight-year-old son.

I am a writer and Andrée is a professional artist who runs the Fala Carte Art Studio painting class studio at 165 E. Main Street in St. Clairsville at the corner of Sugar and Main.

On Friday, Oct. 18^th, at 2:15 p.m., I will read the first two chapters of Ben and the Dragon while my wife paints a scene from the book.  All the 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders at St. Mary’s will attend this visual and auditory experience.  After the 15-minute reading and a brief Q&A, we will sign copies of Ben and the Dragon and donate Andrée’s painting to the school library.

Each detail in Ben and the Dragon is taken from Ben’s life; the only imaginary thing is the dragon world, which is influenced by my notions of my French wife’s heritage.  I wanted to write a story for my eight-year-old where he was the main character and something extraordinary happens.  This story begins at a pond in our village park and involves a dragon from another world visiting the Ohio Valley.

A boy and a dragon meet at a pond.  Christmas vacation is almost here.  The two—an eight-year-old boy and a hundred-year-old dragon—embark on an adventure that will change them forever.

Note: Next Monday and Wednesday, Oct. 21 & 23, we will be doing our reading/painting event at St. Clairsville Elementary School for their program, “Literacy Night: Reading is Spooktacular.”  We will do two reading/paintings each day, at 5:30 and 6 p.m.  A drawing will be held for the paintings Andrée creates.

If this program interests you, please contact us or the schools!  You can visit Ben and the Dragon’s Amazon listing and click on the “Look Inside” feature to read its first chapter.

I hope to see you soon!

Sincerely,

David Weimer

PS-   Ben and the Dragon is my third published work.

Here is one of my writing blogs.  I am working on a collection of short stories for publication next spring, centered on Flushing, Ohio.

I have run a weekly philosophy meeting, M&M Philosophy, at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling for the past eight years.