EX-TEACHER TELLS KIDS STORIES ONLINE.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer Sticks, the dog with a drumstick-shaped tail, and Wobbly, a run-down shopping cart, are among the characters Felix Mayerhofer is bringing to cyberspace. Mayerhofer, a retired Palmdale School District The Palmdale School District is a school district that serves a major part of the city of Palmdale, California (USA). The Palmdale School District was first formed in 1888. Approximately 28,000 students are enrolled in the Palmdale School District. music teacher, is turning to the Internet to get exposure for his collection of children's stories. He hopes his Web site, www.qnet.com/catblues/stories.htm, will attract attention from potential publishers. ``There's a lot of children's publishers on the Internet,'' Mayerhofer said. ``You go whatever direction you can go.'' Mayerhofer, a former big-band jazz musician, has three of his stories on the Web: ``Tommy and His Amazing Dog, Sticks,'' ``Wobbly Bags a Thief'' and ``Caw's First Holiday.'' He plans to have all of his 19 stories online eventually. ``It's not easy writing children's stories. You have to understand kids. You have to think like a kid and be a kid yourself,'' Mayerhofer said. Mayerhofer, 67, started writing children's stories about six years ago, soon after he retired from teaching for 27 years in the Palmdale School District. ``I was painting a hallway, and I was up on a ladder, when I got this idea about this dog who plays bass drum,'' Mayerhofer said. ``He is a dog that has a tail that looks like a drumstick drumstick /drum·stick/ (-stik) a nuclear lobule attached by a slender strand to the nucleus of some polymorphonuclear leukocytes of normal females but not of normal males. .'' The inspiration for ``Wobbly Bags a Thief'' came during a shopping trip. ``I saw a shopping cart being blown by the wind - whack! - into a car. I thought it would be an interesting kid story,'' Mayerhofer said. Mayerhofer describes writing as his third career. His first was as a professional trombonist, playing in big bands in Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. , Reno and Lake Tahoe. Mayerhofer, trained in the Juilliard School Juilliard School Internationally renowned school of the performing arts in New York, New York, U.S. It has its roots in the Institute of Musical Art (founded 1905) and a graduate school (1924) founded through an endowment from the financier Augustus D. of Music, worked with the likes of Jack Benny, Nat King Cole a legendary king of Britain, who is said to have reigned in the third century. See also: King and Tony Bennett. That career ended when Mayerhofer contracted Bell's palsy Bell's palsy n. See facial palsy. Bell's palsy Facial paralysis or weakness with a sudden onset, caused by swelling or inflammation of the seventh cranial nerve, which controls the facial muscles. , paralysis of the facial nerve facial nerve n. Either of a pair of nerves that originate in the pons, traverse the facial canal of the temporal bone, and pass through the parotid gland, reach the facial muscles through various branches, control facial muscles, and relay sensation . At 33, Mayerhofer, who has a degree from Potsdam State Teacher's College in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , sent off a letter to the Palmdale School District. ``They hired me sight unseen,'' he said. Today, Mayerhofer spends his time writing and making big-band jazz arrangements to sell to high schools. ``If you can do it, retire early and be creative,'' Mayerhofer said. CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO (color in AV edition only) Felix Mayerhofer of Palmdale, a big-band musician in his youth and then a teacher, is on his third career - writing fiction for children. Jeff Goldwater/Daily News |
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