Children's author, actress and playwright Adrienne Kress entertained a large crowd of Meaford Community School students with an entertaining reading of her newly released children's book.

Kress is well-known in the local area. She is currently a resident of Toronto and has lived abroad in England. She considers Meaford her second home because her family spent summers here as she grew up. She participated in local sports and social activities and was involved with the Georgian Theatre Festival for a number of years.

She appeared last Friday morning at Meaford Community School to read a couple chapters to students from her newly released children's book, Alex and the Ironic Gentleman.

The morning provided more than just a reading. Kress entertained the students with her adventures in the publishing world, how she wrote the book and her thoughts about being a published author with a deal to produce more books.

Adrienne later appeared at the Meaford Public Library and in the afternoon at St. Vincent/Euphrasia School.

She showed off a strong rapport with her young audience and had everybody in the room laughing throughout her presentation that lasted well over an hour.

She had the audience howling when she poked her head out of the curtain after being introduced and said she needed to hear much louder applause and cheering before she could take the stage.

Upon a second introduction, the audience doubled the noise of its cheering and applause.

"That was so unexpected," Kress joked to the audience. She also had everybody giggling when she noted one class coming into the auditorium late. "Let's all turn around and stare at the class that's coming in late," she said.

Kress spent a lot of time telling the students that it's difficult for her to think of herself as an author.

"I'm very new to the book-writing game. I did a lot of acting stuff. I've always write stories, since I was way younger than you are," she explained. "I didn't ever think of writing a book. To me, a book seemed like a miracle," she said.

She told the students the key to her writing her first book was having a "temp" job.

"That's what I did to make ends meet when I was an actress in England. Step one is to become a temp. You end up doing someone else's job and you have lots of time to stare at a computer screen and write," she said.

The next step in the process is getting a literary agent. Adrienne told the students when she was nearly finished her book, she thought she would send out a letter to various agents in England with the details of her story. Her book at the time wasn't finished, but she expected it would take a long time to hear back from the various agents.

"My letter went out Monday. By Tuesday, I had a call from an agent. The postal service in England is really good," she joked.

The agent wanted the complete work immediately in order to take a look at it. Adrienne said she played it really cool on the phone and said no problem. Then she spent three days, eight hours a day writing 20,000 words to finish the book. She delivered the manuscript to the agency. Two months later, she heard back that they liked the book and needed her to cut out 10,000 words.

"I didn't cut out a single scene. I just cut words out within scenes," she said, after those revisions the agent signed her and began shopping the book to publishers. "It freaked me out. A girl a year older than me was in charge of my career!" she said.

A short time later, Scholastic bought her book and ordered a second book from her as well. Her second book will be completed by the end of October and its story ties into the story in the first book.

She said after the book was purchased, the real work begins. She went through four major edits of the manuscript before it was finally approved for publication. She was involved with seeing the art for the book's cover.

"Then one day, a magic box appears on your step and it has your book in it and you get really, really emotional! Then you get even more emotional when you see the German version!" she said with a laugh.

Her book as now been published in the United States, Canada, Germany, Romania, Italy, France and Greece. She has a deal for two books in all those countries except Greece - they bought three books.

Adrienne read a couple of chapters from her story to the students. After the reading, she took questions from the children.

She was asked about her inspiration, the story in her next book and whether or not a movie would be made about her book.

She told the students her book is set in a non-place and a non-time. She used England as her inspiration and pointed out that in the book people will go to the movies, use laptops, but that there are also still pirates on tall ships.

She was asked if she enjoyed writing books.

"It's hard work, but at the end, you feel proud of yourself. Sometimes I sit in front of a blank screen and just say: 'I don't know.' And I get one word out in an hour," she joked. "Writing was an escape for me. If things weren't going well I would come home and write. I really enjoy writing children's stories. Your imagination can go every place," she said.

After the reading and the question-and-answer period, Adrienne held a book signing. Students also lined up to get her autograph in their own notebooks, on their hands and even on their shoes.

Since the book was published, Adrienne has been busy on tour promoting it. She has been to book expos, book fairs, she's been a guest on panels and has been interviewed by various television stations.

A New York Post article named her as one of several authors that could follow in the footsteps of the now-completed Harry Potter book series.

In between, she continues to pursue her acting career. She recently directed and produced a play in Toronto and is appearing in Toronto in a production of Macbeth.