Monday, January 27, 2014

Dragons' Den Auditions Coming Up


Like her first novel, Polly Wants to Be a Writer,
The Adventures of Bob Warhop will
teach through an entertaining story.
With my new financial literacy novel, The Adventures of Bob Warhop, in it's final stages, it's time to head to the 2014 Dragons' Den auditions and see if I can get impress the producers, get on the show and wrangle a dragon.

The protagonist is Bob Warhop, a young ferret who lives with his family on an upscale ferret farm. Bob is six months old when a major financial crisis rocks the world and changes the circumstances of the ferret farmer, his family, and Bob's family, for the worse. The only way to stop the farmer from selling Mr. and Mrs. Warhop and Bob's siblings to the Big City museum for taxidermy is for the Warhops to raise five thousand dollars. Bob's unlikely quest to raise this capital in a declining economy takes him far away from the luxurious dollhouse mansion where he grew up and deep into the harsh world of humans and money.

The Adventures of Bob Warhop is a fantasy novel intended for nine to twelve year olds. At home and in the classroom, it will introduce kids to some basic financial vocabulary and spark discussions about money, how it works, and how to earn, save and spend it.

I'll be at the Vancouver audition on February 22nd with manuscript in hand and that famous clip of Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber) putting down the notion of teaching high-level money terms to six year olds on The Lang & O'Leary Exchange. I have an offer in mind: cash for a percentage of sales until the cash is paid back and then a lower royalty in perpetuity. I'll let you know how it goes.

My first novel, which also uses storytelling to teach fundamentals (in this case writing skills), Polly Wants to Be a Writer: The Junior Authors Guide to Writing and Getting Published, is now on sale worldwide and getting nothing but five-star reviews. I hope you will pick up a copy at a bookstore near you. After all, it has a dragon on the cover, a grumpy, albino one that might remind you of Kevin O'Leary when he sniffs out a sour deal.