Lisa Campbell Ernst will show “an adventurous, serendipitous path” to area students when she talks with them at the Young Writers’ Conference on Saturday.
Ernst, who has been writing and illustrating children’s books for more than 20 years, will join children’s author Andrea Warren as keynote speakers and session leaders. Ernst will speak to students in grades 1 through 4 during two sessions.
Ernst’s book, “Stella Louella’s Runaway Book,” won the Children’s Choice Award in Kansas. She is the author of more than 20 books, according to a news release from the Emporia school district.
She plans to talk to students about the creative process of writing and illustrating.
“Also about the joy of that creative process,” Ernst added, “because when they’re writing, it is exactly the same as when I’m writing. There’s no magic trick that makes it easy or that makes it a straight line.”
She wants them to know that when they struggle in the creative process, it doesn’t mean that something’s wrong.
“It means that something right. That’s just the act of creativity,” she said.
Ernst, who now lives in the Kansas City area, has spent most of her adult life as an illustrator and author, with the exception of a nine-month period in advertising.
“I’m not sure that would qualify as a professional life,” she remarked.
Ernst majored in fine arts in college and, though that, she gained basic art training in drawing, painting and printmaking.
“And even though that wasn’t directly illustration classes, it definitely gave me the basis to express myself visually,” she said.
In the back of her mind, however, she entertained thoughts of illustrating and writing books. An editor she worked with gave her the opportunity and encouragement to do that.
“That helped a great deal to have someone encourage me,” she said.
She has developed a style of children’s book that children can identify with and learn from.
“My characters tend to be thinking characters. When they are presented with a problem or a hurdle, they tend to think their way out of the problem, and always using their sense of humor,” Ernst said. “I think a sense of humor is a vital life skill.”
In addition to talking about her books and the creative process, Ernst will emphasize the importance that reading plays in family life and bringing families together. That is something she has remembered to take time for with her own two daughters, aged 10 and 14.
“The whole reason that I think I am an author now is because my parents gave me the gift of reading out loud to me when I was very young,” Ernst said.
“That time they spent with me taught me not only to love stories and love books, but it also created a desire in me to read for myself. And it also created a desire for me to share stories with other people.”
Ernst will share her experiences with about 300 area students in grades one through 12 who have been selected from the Emporia Public Schools, Emporia Christian School, North Lyon County, Southern Lyon County and Chase County schools.
Elementary students selected to participate will receive autographed copies of Ernst’s book, “Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale.”
Ernst will be joined by Andrea Warren, another award-winning writer from the Kansas City area. Warren writes historical novels that feature children as the main characters. Presentations by the authors will begin at 9 a.m. and are open to the public at no charge. Ernst and Warren will be available to sign books at 11:30 a.m.
Town Crier Bookstore will have books by both authors available for sale that morning.