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By Preston Knight -- pknight@nvdaily.com
WOODSTOCK -- A good story needs a good idea. And for author Robin Moore, it could always use some good buckskin, too.
Moore's relatives all live within 10 miles of the family farm in central Pennsylvania, where his ancestors from Scotland and Ireland settled about 200 years ago. For the last 25 years, his parents have made a living making historically accurate clothing, including buckskin, for museums and collectors nationwide. It's a talent Moore picked up, and one he can describe in bloody detail.
But how to decorate yourself with deer carcasses is not the primary reason he has been a popular face in Shenandoah County Public Schools this week. Moore's gift for storytelling and writing, and his ability to express himself in front of young crowds, has granted him access to all three elementary schools, Peter Muhlenberg Middle School on Thursday and a scheduled visit to Signal Knob Middle School today.
"I use a spoken word approach to the written word," he said during a break between assemblies at Peter Muhlenberg on Thursday morning. "I use storytelling techniques to write books. ... [You] must see the story visually before you write."
Moore, who focuses on writing historical fiction, spends a year researching before he begins to write. He said he's been to every continent except Antarctica and to every place he's written about except four, including the moon.
A former journalist and magazine editor, Moore has authored 17 books since he started 28 years ago.
"It's been a very easy life," he said.
That comfort shows in the enthusiasm Moore displays
during his public outings, said reading specialist Cinde Eash Boyden, who was awarded the Helen J. Moore grant she wrote to bring the author to the county. The Moore grants, unrelated to the author, are designed to give students educational
opportunities beyond what is normally funded by the school division.
Eash Boyden saw Robin Moore at a mountain craft festival in Somerset, Pa., when she was in elementary school and she was impressed. Last year, she passed through Peter Muhlenberg's library and saw one of Moore's books, immediately thinking how "neat" it would be to get the man to speak at the school.
"It just kind of snowballed from there," she said, referring to Moore being able to visit multiple schools. "He's so expressive. ... It's not just listening. It's an involved process. It's magical."
During his assemblies Thursday, Moore played a clay flute he learned about in Mexico -- it opens the door to the imagination, he said -- and took pupils through the step-by-step process to making buckskin clothing.
To get a complete buckskin outfit for a person would take more than 200 hours of work, he said. The author wore a coat he made 20 years ago, and it is still as good as new, Moore said. His father, meanwhile, still wears a coat he made in 1956.
As it relates to writing, the buckskin is Moore's way to show young writers the importance of immersing themselves in a story -- essentially, as pupils often hear, the need to show and not tell.
"Anyone who is a writer will write about what they know," he said. "People who are drawn to writing are people who are passionate about things."
"Er, no...not THAT Robin Moore." It would have been nice if you had mentioned one or two of his titles. It makes the Amazon.com search a lot easier, especially when an author shares a famous name with another.