TD Book Week : Day 4 and 5 and after....

It's the end of an exciting but exhausting week and I'm back in my little cave in the basement, happy to be home with still shaking with an adrenalin rush!

Thursday, May 5th started extra early as I headed to Yellowquill School in Portage while chatting with Jackie Thornton, wife of the principal, about books and movies and Meg Ryan. Linda Szumilak awaited me with a huge smile and a well set-up gym where I presented to students of grades 7 and 8. With a carrot muffin to tide me along the way, I was driven to Portage Library to meet LaDenna Stanley. After answering the interesting and unusual (do you have an accent and why are you here?) from a bunch of curious fifth and sixth graders, I left for Brandon.

At Robin's Nest this human cargo exchanged hands and the librarian of Brandon Library, Shelley Mortenson, drove me the rest of the way. This was the first time I had an all-adult audience and had a great time sharing lots of information about the process of writing.

And then it was onward to the Greyhound Station to catch the Winnipeg Express back to the hotel. Passed the flooded banks of the river and saw tons of sandbags along the way. Quite a sight.

Friday May 6th

Started with a presentation to over a hundred students of grades 4, 5 and 6 of King Edward School and met with librarian Georgia Wells who was so committed to reading and stocking up the library. The students were all ready to start reading at the end of the presebtation and asked some super questions.

Finally ended TD Book Week with the awesome grades 4, 5 and 6 students of Principal Sparling School. Many had read The Third Eye and were very keen to start with The Silver Anklet as soon as they saw the trailer. It was a thumbs-up all the way and I received great feedback from one of the teachers, Kevin Roberts;

"Here are a few things from my kids... Taken directly off of our feedback wall when we got back to the school.

As a teacher, I was happy that you talked about, how many times it took to write and write and write. I also enjoyed the parts.
Things we liked:
The trailers
The video of you reading the book
She talked about the mythology
She gave out high fives
I liked that at the end of the meeting the people who haven't read the books, all really wanted to read them!
We liked the pictures.
Thank you very much!"

And thank you, Kevin, for this lovely feedback and for making the last of my presentations so special!.

And finally I ended the evening by having dinner with Martha Brooks, her husband Brian and her adorable labradoodle, Myra. She signed two of my favourite books from her repertoire, Mistik Lake and True Confessions of a Heartless Girl.

Students of King Edward School

With Georgia Wells

Students of Principal Sparling.

A fab group of students!

With Martha Brooks, she is even lovelier than her writing!

Some of the gifts I received, including my favourite; fruit and nut chocolate from the students of Queenston School

A pin from the Town of Morris, Manitoba.

What a ride, TD Book week has been and I am so appreciative of having had the opportunity to tour Manitoba. Thank you TD Bank and CCBC!

TD Book Week: Day 3

Today was an exciting day. I was headed for Morris, Manitoba where the floods were supposed to be in full swing. My camera was charged, and I was all ready for the adventure.

First stop of the day was Queenston School and meeting the Ellen Donogh's students was a treat! I was once again reminded how great it is for authors to step into a school so charged with electricity and excitement about an author visit.

Large book covers of The Silver Anklet and The Deadly Conch awaited me.The students were familiar with the books and thoroughly enjoyed the book trailers and the reading of The Deadly Conch. There was a draw at the end with my book give-aways. All in all, with the brilliant introduction and closing speeches by the students, I had the time of my life!

And then it was on to Valley Regional Library in Morris, Manitoba. Praying that I would not have to swim part of the way, I got into the car with my baton handler, Claudia Schmidt. She was a wonderful retired school teacher who expertly zipped toward Morris, slowing down to let this newbie from Ontario click pictures of the floods along the way (many will be on Facebook shortly). Arrived in Morris with plenty of time to spare and had a quick lunch with Claudia and other members of the library, Ruth and Anne.

I had a small cosy group of grades 5 and 6 students from Morris School who turned up for the presentation. It went well with the inevitable question always being asked; how old were you you when you wrote the books. For the record, I was 16 when I wrote them and now I'm 19! Is it any wonder that I love the fantasy/fiction genre :)

Diane Ali, the librarian, presented me with a lovely hand-painted spoon and Ruth gave me a pin from the Town of Morris. I was so honoured, I was speechless! Headed back out in the rain and checked out the dyke and the floods (brought lots of clay to the hotel, smuggled under my shoes) and headed back to Winnipeg, passing by waters with little whitecaps, rolling fields and fat dark rain clouds hanging low in the endless sky.

Looking forward to dinner with Gail and Larry Hamilton, Jennifer Cayley and Dave and Rhea Jenkinson.

 With the students of Queenston and those giant book covers which were gorgeous!

With Ellen Donogh and Gail Hamilton.

 With the principal and students of Queenston.

 The flooded Red!

 A warm welcome at the Valley Regional Library.

With the grades 5 and 6 students of Morris School.

Day 2:TD Book Week

The human baton continued on, not a drop or a slip in the relay. This morning I started with an enthusiastic crowd of 150 students in the gym of the St. Emile School. A large wolf smiled down on us from a gigantic wall banner. I was introduced by a shy yet excited young girl (and I hate that I've forgotten her name!).The students loved the book trailers and the reading and as always we ran out of time with the questions. I was presented with a lovely water bottle with the St Emile logo and lots of sweets to munch on, on my way to the next school.

Rosemary Hollett, the librarian drove me over to Niakwa School and a great group of 7th and 8th graders. Interesting questions as always and shock when I narrated the story of how Lord Ganesh got his elephant head. After a delicious lunch of cottage-cheese pie (scrumptious!) and a date square prepared by Harriet
Zaidman, she handed me off to the soft-spoken but bubbly Ellen Donogh.

And then the fun really started....!!!!

The banners were up, posters were displayed and I had about ten students drop in just during set up to introduce themselves as my "biggest fans!"

All 125 students were in the library along with a few teachers and I had a blast talking to them about the trilogy, the theme, where the ideas came from and of course showing them the book trailers. This was filmed for Shaw TV by Joanne Kelly and her crew. It was also covered by Dan Lemoal, staff reporter at the Winnipeg School Division.

The students were courteous, beautifully behaved and so excited about my being there. I have to say that I might have been a tad more excited and happier with their reactions, and because they believed reading was SERIOUSLY COOL!

Finished off with some excellent questions from the students who stood up, introduced themselves and then asked the questions. We had a draw for my books and a poster and I was presented with a lovely photo frame and card.

Thank you Ellen Donogh, Rita Trautmann, and the WONDERFUL students of Luxton who made my visit so special and made me a very happy author today!

TD Book Week: Day 1

I felt like a baton in a relay;a flawless one, I must add, as Barb Edwards drove me to William Patterson School for my first visit of the day/TD week. Received a warm welcome from the principal, Diane Brandson, and then attended the assembyl in the gym.

They have a neat program going called Pennies For Polly and I got a great shot of the students pouring their pennies into a huge (empty!) water jug. After songs and announcements, I presented to a wonderfully attentive students of grades 3-6 in the gym and as always we ran out of time for questions!

And then it was on to East Selkirk Middle School to meet the Vice-Principal Terry Skarban and librarian, Donna, who was so helpful. I started the afternoon with a workshop for the Grade 6 students. They were part of a Book Review Club and so clued into what makes a book "good". They did a fabulous job with the writing exercise and were really enthusiastic about the process of writing and the feedback they got on their exercises.

And finally ended the day with a presentation to the students of grade 5. They hadn't read the book but that did nothing to deter the tons of questions which came my way. The book trailers and reading worked like a charm and students were waiting to check the books out of the libraries as soon as the visit was over. Yayy!

Back at the hotel now and time to unwind before Day 2. Here are some wonderful memories of today's visit;

Collecting Pennies for Polly, Diane Brandson with a student

Students of William Patterson School

My workshop with the budding writers of East Selkirk Middle School

Q&Q Writer Series featuring Rachna Gilmore

Hmmm, wondering what can I say about this latest guest on my blog which will adequately describe her warm, witty, intelligent, talented, fun-loving personality?

I give up. I think you better read it in her own words. Here is Rachna Gilmore, who has written everything from picture books to adult fiction. One of my favourites from her repertoire is A Screaming Kind of Day, the GG award winner in 1999!

Though I had been corresponding with Rachna for many months, I first met her in January this year when she attended OLA to promote her new book, That Boy Red. It was like discovering a kindred spirit. Here's a little bit about the book that is already garnering great reviews...

First came Anne Shirley–now meet Red MacRae


Eleven-year-old Roderick "Red" MacRae never has much spare time. It is the Depression and times are hard. When he isn’t at school, he’s helping Pa with chores on their P.E.I. farm or being nagged to do his homework by his older sister Ellen, who is also his teacher. Red tries to be responsible and help his family, but all too often he gives in to impulse – and lands himself in the midst of some hair-raising and hilarious misadventures involving runaway horses, cow dung, lost sisters, outhouses and even aeroplanes. But when Pa is seriously injured, Red must step up to the challenge to finish the tobacco caddies his father makes for credit at the local store. An episodic novel THAT BOY RED traces the coming of age of a resourceful, pig-headed young lad during a particularly difficult year, while celebrating the strength and spirit of a large, lively Canadian family living through the Depression.

And while you're browsing around, be sure to check out her blog; My Writerly Plarks. It's fun!
1) In one word, how would you describe your personality
One word? You ask a writer to restrict herself to one word? Besides, personality is contingent on circumstance, and weather...
Okay. Ahem.
Exuberant. That’s one word. But I have to say in February, when the light deprivation sets in, it’s more like Saggy. Or Trying, as in not-the-easiest-person-to-live-with and also trying hard not to be S. Otherwise, I’d also say Enthusiastic. Some would say annoyingly so. But what do they know?

2) What is your deepest desire?
Again, do I have to stick to one? Simply put, to be happy and centred, in the best sense possible. Which is a conglomeration of many factors. But one part of that is writing – writing from the place inside me that wants to create story, and not being caught up or distracted by the outcomes. Just being centred in the delight of story. In the white heat of that flow where time stands still. Oh, and to have a place by the ocean so I can write in-between long walks on the beach. Ahhh!
And then, having limitless chocolate to eat -- say a landscape of chocolate, or chocolate trees, or rivers of chocolate -- and no worries about weight gain would be pretty darn great, too.


3) Your greatest fear?
Being off centre and caught up in the illusions of life and the frenzy of life. Caught up in wasting more energy than I already do fantasizing about best sellers (mine!) etc. Snarled and knotted with needless worry. (Why bother, when there’s chocolate at hand?)

4) Your favourite colour?
Red. Not fire-engine red, but a deep, mellow red. Used to be blue. Oh, and on walls, yellow. Not shrieking, burn-your-eyes-right-outta-your-head yellow, but mellow yellow. Green’s pretty good too, in the garden...

5) A song you can't help singing along with, every time you hear it?
"The hiiiiillllsss are aliiiiiiveeeee weeeth the sound of musiiiiiiick! WAH, wah, wah wahhhhhhh!"


6) A movie that made you cry?
Mmm. BEACHES. It’s sappy, manipulative, but the minute they start up with "Wind beneath my wings" I’m gone.

7) A book you have read more than five times? Or a book that influenced you the most?
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES. Read it squillions of time as a kid, when I lived in India, and got to know P.E.I. and love it. That book was one of the reasons I came to Canada and even lived in P.E.I.


8) From your own oeuvre: your favorite child?
Come on. That’s like asking which of my kids is my favourite. Although, currently, perhaps Dilly. From THE TROUBLE WITH DILLY. Only because I’m not done writing about her. But I am, as we speak, plotting new stories with other kids, who will fill the slot of fave until they are pushed out of the nest as books.

9) One thing you hate about being a writer?
The biz side of things. The endless erosion of quiet writing time. The increasing frenzy and pressure put upon writers to promote themselves. I’m a writer, for gawdsakes. I’d rather leave the publicity to the pros, but no, I guess I have to do my share. It’s distracting. It eats up slices of my brain that would be better off dreaming up stories. On the other hand, I’m trying to see this part of the biz as creative too. Still working at it. Oh, and I also hate making squat-all.

10) One thing no one knows about you (and now will)?
(Panic! Do I give away something AWFUL? Oh my gawd! Gleep.)
Ahem. How about: I love to garden? I’m indecisive?
No?
Okay, I confess. I AM AN ALEEEEANNNN from OUTER SPACE!!!!!!!!

Rachna, your answers were a hoot! Best wishes with your writing and thanks for dropping by.
PS: I looove Aliens!

Q&Q Writer Series featuring Lizann Flatt

So, back from Mumbai, a little tired but nevertheless ecstatic to have been back, and reconnected with family, friends and old haunts. Check out all my pictures on facebook.

But now to introduce the next writer in my Q&Q series, Lizann Flatt. She has written two fantastic books.

Bedtime Teeth appeared in Switching on the Moon, a poetry anthology by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters, published by Candlewick Press in September 2010.

Let's  Go! The Story of getting from There to Here was chosen as the TD Grade One Giveaway book for 2009.

She also voluteers as a regional adviser for the Canada East Chapter of SCBWI.  That takes a lot of committment and time!

Friends, here's Lizann Flatt...

1) In one word, how would you describe your personality?
Reserved

2) What is your deepest desire?
Um.... (See above.)

3) Your greatest fear?
That would be ditto the above. I find it impossible to distill my thoughts and feelings into anything resembling a coherent answer for this type of question. But I could quip: liver.

4) Your favourite colour?
Yellow...usually.

5) A song you can't help singing along with, every time you hear it?
"It's My Life." Mostly the Talk Talk version but I also like the one by No Doubt.

6) A movie that made you cry?
Almost all of them make me cry. Seriously. It's pathetic.

7) A book you have read more than five times?
Too many books I want to read to have read any one of them 5 times, but books I've read several times include the Lord of the Rings trilogy, most of L.M. Montgomery's books, Holes by Louis Sachar, and Kate DiCamillo's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

8) From your own oeuvre: your favorite child?
Let's Go! The Story of Getting from There to Here.

9) One thing you hate about being a writer?
The vast and ever-changing unknown of it all.

10) One thing no one knows about you (and now will)?
I would rather ask the questions than answer them. And my snack habits went to hell once Miss Vickie stopped using peanut oil.

Currently, Lizann is working on manuscripts on the War of 1812, the Islamic Empire, and a picture book involving nature and numbers. If all goes well they'll be books sometime in 2012.

Lizann, it was wonderful  reading your answers. Thank you for stopping by and  good luck!

Q&Q Writer Series featuring The Maestro

Ever since I read THE MAESTRO I've always wanted to meet the author, Tim Wynne-Jones. He has written over thirty books and they are all fantastic, compelling and worthy of very close study. Tim was also my mentor at the Humber School for Writers in 2008 and I had the pleasure of working with him for six months. It was a difficult time because Tim does not mince words, but I learned more about writing in those few months than I did on my own in four years.

Wise, witty, excruciatingly funny and above all, very supportive of emerging writers, his autobiographical sketch is a must read for all TWJ fans. It starts with "When I was three, I ran away from home with a tea cosy on my head..." How can you not read on after that opening line! All his books start with the same wonderful promise and never fail to deliver.

Tim is also a faculty member of the Vermont College of Fine Arts (MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults)

Among the lovable characters he's created over the years are Rex Zero in his trilogy by the same name, Mimi Shapiro in The Uninvited, and of course, Burl Crow in the Maestro. The list of awards is too long to mention but check it out here.

Tim's latest novel, BLINK AND CAUTION, is out on March 8, 2011 and has already garnered great reviews. I can't wait to get my own copy!

Here is Tim; the maestro, my mentor and friend;

1) In one word, how would you describe your personality?

Surprised.

2) What is your deepest desire?
To walk around the coast of England with the ocean always on my left.

3) Your greatest fear?
Anything bad happening to my children.

4) Your favourite colour?
Teal, on Wednesdays and Fridays; whatever colour turmeric is, on Sundays; and Burgundy for about an hour on Monday morning.

5) A song you can't help singing along with, every time you hear it?
Too many to mention. I grew up in a Welsh family and we all sing all the time. Right this minute I'm singing Stephen Sondheim's Finishing the Hat, but I'm only hearing it in my head.

6) A movie that made you cry?
Truly, Madly, Deeply.

7) A book you have read more than five times? Or a book that influenced you the most?
So many...but I'd have to say The House at Pooh Corner.

8) From your own oeuvre: your favorite child?
Impossible to say: I might be pushed into acknowledging my three favourites: Zoom at Sea, Some of the Kinder Planets, and Rex Zero and the End of the World.

9) One thing you hate about being a writer?
First drafts.

10) One thing no one knows about you (and now will)?
I'm still hoping to write one really good book.

Thank you for everything, Tim. And I have to disagree with you on answer ten!