Boring visits Bronaugh

Dressed as one of Dr. Seuss' most popular characters, The Cat in the Hat, children's author Mel Boring shares stories with children at Bronaugh. Boring says he likes the irony of his name and his antics prove to listeners that he's not boring at all.

By Crystal D. Hancock

Nevada Daily Mail

The Cat-in-the-Hat visited Bronaugh! In reality, author Mel Boring, a 67-year-old non-fiction writer of books for children traveled nearly 2,000 miles from his home in Orcas Island, Wash., to Bronaugh to speak to students of all ages Tuesday. Boring brought presentations to students from preschool to 12th grade in hopes of educating them about the importance of non-fiction writing and coaching them on how they can become authors as well.

For the younger students, Boring put on his Cat-in-the-Hat costume and showed enlargements of pictures used in his books, telling silly stories of his past experiences as a struggling author, spreading giggles and smiles across the gymnasium. For older students, he showed the galleys and other parts of his books as they went through the process of publication and dicussed how they can be inspired to write a book themselves.

Boring said, "I believe that to write non-fiction, you have to learn about it first hand, this is why I personally research and experience everything that I write about in my books."

He proves this with his tale of two weeks he recently spent in the woods and swamps of Arkansas searching for the mysterious Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, previously considered extinct until its rediscovery in 2004. Boring was on the search for the incredible bird to see and learn about it first hand in hopes of writing a book on it. Unfortunately, he never saw it, but his hard work and research goes to prove the truth of his passion for non-fiction writing.

Boring also spoke of his admiration for late author, Theodore Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. At the time of his death on Sept, 24, 1991, Seuss had written and illustrated 44 children's books that have in turn been translated into more than 15 languages, selling more than 200 million copies across the world. Boring said, "You have to try and try and try again because, just like me, you may write 150 books but only 12 may be published. In his lifetime, Dr. Seuss wrote many books, but only 44 of those books were actually published. You have to pour your heart into anything that you are passionate about."

To speak with Boring or for more information on the author, e-mail melb@rockisland.com.