Get Your Nerd On

Today I had the pleasure of meeting a Colorado author at our local library. I got to meet Dom Testa, who is also part of a very popular radio show out of Denver along with being an author.

Years ago my cousin, Jake, told me about this book that I needed to read. I "oh cool"ed him and nodded my head saying I'd look into it. Well, he wasn't going to let it go, so finally I said yes and found a copy of the first book in the Galahad Series, The Comet's Curse. I am not much of a science fiction fan, but I really enjoyed these books! I read two of them in a week and would have probably finished with the series if I had a copy of book six.

The gist of the series is that Earth has pretty much been destroyed by a comet that makes everyone over the age of 18 sick and a group of 251 very smart and talented teens go on a space ship to go start another "world" basically and start over. (This really is not a very good summary of it. I recommend reading the back of the book or checking out his website!)

My local library did a book club with Comet's Curse and then had Dom come and speak. I was so impressed with both Dom and the kids that were there. The kids were engaged and excited the whole time and seemed to truly enjoy the book. I was impressed with the questions that they asked and their comprehension of the book.

Dom was amazing also! He spoke to the kids at their level, but didn't dumb it down for them. Which is what his non-profit club The Big Brain Club is all about. One thing he really wanted the kids to understand that "Smart is Cool." He has often seen kids dumb themselves down to be cool. Sometimes schools will even dumb down things for kids, not really realizing how much that can hurt them (my opinion not his.) I spent a while on the site, but still have a lot of exploring to do, but am impressed at what I saw!

He encouraged and made the kids promise that no matter what they liked to do, that they needed to share it with the world. Not to put it in a drawer and forget about it. He shared with the kids his rough drafts and plans for the books he has written and talked to them about the writing process. And of course my favorite was the encouragement to read, read, read!

I was just so excited how much he urged the kids to go for their dreams and share who they are, that being "Smart is Cool" and that they needed to "Get Their Nerd On."

This experience today made me an even bigger fan of the books and the author.

Dom Testa sharing his writing process with the audience.