Breakdown of the new book Scars from the Tornado

When John Hacker and I published 5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado, we promised that some of the proceeds from that book would be used for an idea that came to my mind shortly after the tornado- I wanted to publish a book giving the students at East Middle School, young people who lived in the direct path of the May 22, 2011, tornado, a chance to tell their stories and provide copies of the book to all of the students.

Alas, the project ran into some problems right from the start. Though 5:41 has been successful, it was nowhere near successful enough to be able to pay for books for the students and staff. In order to get that much money, I decided to really promote our follow-up book to 5:41, Spirit of Hope. That book, as I have noted before, while continuing to sell has hever done anywhere near as well as 5:41. Part of my promotional plan, was to buy advertising on Facebook and through YouTube, I bought both YouTube and Google AdWords ads. After a week, neither had managed to sell even one copy of Spirit of Hope, so I canceled the Facebook advertising, canceled the YouTube ads and thought I had canceled Google AdWords.

As I wrote in an earlier Turner Report post, I found out two months later that Google, without even giving me a heads-up had continued billing my credit card for the advertising and by the time it was all finished, I ended up owing approximately $4,000.

This left me with two problems. The main one was that I could no longer even think of buying copies for everyone at the school as I had promised, since that $4,000 was in addition to publishing and design costs. The second, and this was a major factor, I had written so much about the tornado, both in the first two books, my blog, and my writing for Huffington Post and Daily Kos, that I did not think I would be able to do the project justice.

I stumbled upon the solution to the first problem while reading an article in Writer's Digest. I would keep my promise by offering free e-books to anyone who wanted them. Those e-books will be available soon for a limited time, and not just to students and staff at East, but also to anyone else who wants them. I want the story of these wonderful kids and the hard-working teachers and staff to be spread as widely as possible. The students who contributed to the book will also receive free paperback copies.

Everyone knows about the mall high school. Not as many people are familiar with the warehouse middle school. My enthusiasm for the project increased when I knew I would be able to keep my original promise. When I opened the folders and read the stories and poetry the students had written, I was overwhelmed. They had truly captured not only the horrors of the tornado, but also the adventure of our first year at our temporary East Middle School.

All that was left for me to do my writing, which I finished a few weeks ago.

As of yesterday, Scars from the Tornado, with the name coming from a phrase used by one of my former students, Stella Ndauwa, in her story, is available in paperback, both at its own website on CreateSpace and at Amazon.com. More sites, both local and online, will be announced in the coming days and weeks.

Following is a breakdown of what is included in Scars from the Tornado:

Foreword- This features a story that a former East student, Joplin High School sophomore Rylee Hartwell, wrote about the school shortly after the tornado.

A Teacher's Story- Over several chapters, I write about the last day at East before the tornado hit, the tornado and my first trip back to the school, the meeting at Missouri Southern where Principal Bud Sexson outlined what the warehouse school was going to be like, our return to school, the first day and much more.

Tornado Stories- This section features the students recounting their tornado stories. Some were right in the middle of it. Others feared for their friends. It affected all of them. Students with stories in this section include Jennifer Nguyen, Nick Shellenbarger, Abi Killinger, Alexandra Stelts, Donna Tomlinson, Maggie Baker, Cami Sanders, Kaley Moser, Amber Fleming, Desirae Orlaski, Taylor Robinson, Keisha Grunden, Courtney Hunt, Victoria Stehm, Garrett Severs,  and Ryan Ball.

The School Year- This section features stories from the students about our year in the warehouse, with some commenting about the school. Those contributing stories include Sarah Peterson, Megan Hickey, Amy Koch, Jennifer Nguyen, Annie Strickling, Stella Ndauwa, and Melinda Adams. Megan, Amy, and Jennifer contributed multiple stories in this section.

Parting Shots- This section includes a longer story that I wrote about the people from around the world who let us know that we were not alone in our battle. My story centers around our 86-year-old penpal from Santa Barbara who has come to mean a lot to my students both last year and this year. The section also has shorter comments from Cara Marshall, Jimmie Willerton, Audrey Kanan, Taelor Stone, Logan Whitehead, Amelia Street, and Madison Meinhardt.

Tornado Poems- Among those contributing to this section are students Mykah Campbell, Michaela West, Sean Harrison, Ashton McGehee, Karly Weber, Jacy Welch, Mackenzie Gunderson, Bridget Ingham, Jerry Bland, Joseph Fry, Beth Dulinsky, and teacher Kathy Weaver.

The book also includes a photo section.

A link to the Amazon.com page for Scars from the Tornado can be found in the upper right hand corner of this page.