King’s English Bookstore Hosts Best-Selling Author

By Elizabeth Suggs | [email protected]

Sugar House - Jessica Day George, a New York Times best-selling author, came to the King’s English Bookstore Feb. 9 to showcase her new book, “Fridays with the Wizards,” before heading off to tour her book.

“I wanted to explore the castle some more, since the last book took us away from it,” George said. “I had hinted in book one that there was something up with the secret passages.”

Her next tour locations will be at Weber State University on Saturday, March 19, at the Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience in April. Some past locations were in Kansas and Texas, and during the end of February she paid a visit to her previous hometown in Idaho. 

According to George, while she was living in Idaho, New Jersey, Delaware and Utah, she focused all of her interests on her book until she became published. Though she obtained a bachelor’s in humanities and comparative literature at Brigham Young University, she had no plans to have what she called a “real job.” All she wanted to do was write. 

George explained that while waiting for her book to be published and moving around, she worked at a wedding invitation factory, video store, libraries and bookstores and as an office worker at a school. 

The idea of not getting published was not an option. For George, it would happen no matter how many “not real” jobs she had to endure. 

George is now an author of 12 books. The most recent of these books is “Fridays with the Wizards,” the fourth in one of her many children-based book series. However, the idea of writing for adult readers as well isn’t in her plans.

“I can be a lot more playful. I feel like it’s easier, and more acceptable, to make jokes during tense scenes in children’s books,” George said. “I also like the challenge of working around the parents and adults. You can’t just go out and train a griffin when you’ve got to hide the griffin from your parents and still get to class on time.”

As a full-time author, George also expressed that though her books are for children, the time it takes to create a book varies from story to story. 

“Some books take maybe three months for the first draft. Some have taken a year. Everyone is different,” George said. “I’ve had friends who take years for every book. That’s just how they work.”

Before “Fridays with the Wizards,” George showcased her previous book, “Silver in the Blood,” in July at the King’s English Bookstore, where the children’s event marketer, Whitney Berger, expressed her gratitude for George.

“We usually try to get the day-of release, but some days we have to do it a day or two after,” Berger said. 

According to Berger, because of the “strong children’s book author community” in Sugar House, it’s easy to have many children’s book author signings with a large turnout. It just “makes sense” to have so many books, both of George’s and other authors showcased.

The King’s English regularly has both new and old authors showcasing their books for readers of all ages.

“I like going to different places, so I can’t really say I have a favorite,” George said. “I love the King’s English, though, because it’s my ‘home’ store. I know everyone that works there, and I stop there all the time.” 

For authors in the making, getting published isn’t about expecting to have your work immediately accepted. It’s about understanding that there will rejection. According to George, to be published, there must be heart in the book that’s being written. Once there’s that, that’s when the real work starts.