Welcome to my website! I write children’s books, edit educational resources, swim, sweat, paddle, and explore.
I'm excited (and slightly terrified) to share some great news! I've been invited to speak at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival on September 16th, 2012. The festival runs from noon until 6:00 p.m. If you live in southwestern Ontario, you might want to add this date to your calendar. Treat yourself to a relaxing and inspiring day in a bucolic village.
I wrote these poems for my two library talks for young children during Canadian Children's Book Week 2012. Poetry is such a fun diversion, but -- man! -- it can take a long time to craft them just right. Let me know what you think!
In celebration of Canadian Children's Book Week, Young Kingston authors are creating a bit of a buzz in the downtown. Kingstonians walking down Princess Street can admire the window display at Novel Idea, Kingston's independent bookstore.
The window features books by several members of Young Kingston, including Y.S. Lee, Ann-Maureen Owens, Mary Alice Downie, Peggy Collins, Leanne Lieberman, Sarah Ti-Mei Tsiang, and me.
A cat’s vision is about this many times better than yours.
My last blog posting provided a CBC link to a program about the future of book publishing. Following from the panelists' discussion, I'm sharing a piece I wrote a while ago:
The Scholastic Book Fair is at my children’s school. I shudder. Don’t get me wrong. I love books. I write children’s books. I’m all for promoting literacy and getting kids enthused about reading. In addition, as an editor, I adore Scholastic. They are my best client. Their deadlines are reasonable; they pay me in less than three weeks. So, what’s the problem?
Yesterday morning's CBC Radio program The Sunday Edition featured a discussion about the future of publishing in Canada. This was a brilliant overview of the current struggles facing publishers, and those who work in this industry. Three publishers spoke their minds: Marge Wolfe, President of the Association of Canadian Publishers and Founder and Publisher of Second Story Press (one of my publishers!) in Toronto; Patsy Aldana, Founder and Publisher of Groundwood Books and Co-Chair of the National Reading Campaign in Toronto; and Scott McIntyre, Founding Partner and Publisher of Douglas and McIntyre in Vancouver.
I was dazzled and delighted to find two copies of Dazzling Women Designers in my mail box yesterday. What an amazing surprise! These didn't look anything like my other copies, though. They are Korean translations. The cover looks completely different, as does the inside -- and I don't just mean the text. Many of the photos are new and they have more photos showing the designers' work. The cover features fabric designed by Senegal's Aissa Dione and India's Ritu Kumar. I spotted a photo of R2D2 in the profile about robot designer Cynthia Breazeal.
Great news! You'll never guess what I discovered in my email in-box last Friday (Jan. 27)! Dazzling Women Designers (Second Story Press, 2010) is on the Amelia Bloomer List 2012. This news totally made my day!
A little research unearthed more details about what this list is all about. I feel truly honoured. The Amelia Bloomer Project, which is part of the American Library Association's (ALA's) Social Responsibility Roundtable Feminist Task Force, annually selects the best feminist books for children and teens, published within the last 18 months. Librarians from public and university libraries across the U.S. make up the ten committee members who read many, many books and make the final selections.
My husband found this Space Invaders post for me. This has been one of my pet peeves ever since I started editing 24 years ago. If you are a writer and want to impress an editor in a simple way, make sure you add just one space after each period -- this is the correct format! Really! And while I was checking out the Slate website, I came across this tongue-in-cheek piece about e-textbooks: click here.
I had the pleasure of visiting Victoria in September. It was work-related, and that aspect of the trip was fantastic. When a colleague recommended a coastal walk and directed me to the trail, I knew how I was spending a couple hours before dinner. This photograph shows my toes—yes, my toes—in the Pacific Ocean. Don't you just have to submerge at least part of your body in water while visiting a coastal town, especially when you live inland? Well, yeah, you better believe it!
These days it seems like everyone struggles with work-life balance. Deadlines can be cruel, tensions can run high. Then, at the end of the day, there may be family responsibilities. At my house these include school pick-up, cooking, ferrying kids to activities, homework help, laundry, packing lunches, and so on. Somewhere in all that crazy chaos we’re all supposed to find time to do a whole slew of other “should dos,” including flossing once a day, stretching and exercising, keeping in touch with family, and—back to teeth, again—brushing the dog’s teeth!
I've been thinking about clarity of expression and also ways to achieve an engaging and "modern" narrative voice. Children’s nonfiction demands that the writer distil information in an accessible manner; all the time, keeping interest high. The fun quotient is vital. No eight-year-old is going to slog through a paragraph that is dead boring. The question is: how do you know how much silliness and slang to scoop in?
In the greater community, autumn is upon us and the air is a-buzz with literary novels, mysteries, and luscious picture books. September is a great time for book lovers. The city of Kingston is hosting its third annual Kingston WritersFest from September 22 to 25. Local bookstores are flogging stacks of books by festival authors. I picked up Helen Humphries’ Coventry (2008) and Stephen Heighton’s Every Lost Country (2010). I can’t wait to dip into these books, which look amazing.
A couple of weeks ago I described a book proposal as “nice” and “thick.” I don’t know for sure, but the publishers out there may be screaming: “No! No back-breaking tomes to lug home for out-of-the-office bedtime reading!” Admittedly, I don’t know what they want, and can only try my best to supply what I think publishers and editors want, but I find that after compiling all the key components for a comprehensive book proposal the stack of paper ends up being pretty-darn thick. And the “nice” bit? Well, you can use your creative energy to jazz up the cover and insides with whatever images, cartoons, and graphics suit.
CBC Radio makes a stimulating background for the evening dishwashing ritual. Last night I heard a re-play of a January Ideas broadcast called “Closing the Book,” produced by Sean Prpick. I found myself going above-and-beyond my usual cleaning regime, once the dishes were washed up, so I could catch the whole program. The commentary in the program contains facts and information, opinions and predictions--all of which has been affecting my daily life, and certainly my career.
At a recent trip to a cottage, I was so impressed to see reading in the “top ten list” of things the kids chose to do. With activities like swimming, paddleboating, canoeing, making forts, playing horseshoes, and hiking—you might think books and reading would slip-slide their way down the priority list. Happily this was not the case. I spotted kids reading on a swing, turning pages on a bunk bed (while avoiding the scorching mid-day sun), and, of course, reading before lights-out.When a new friend came to play one day, excitement levels ran high. The gang splashed in the lake on an inner tube, played dress up, bounced on the trampoline, and chased each other around trees, picnic tables, and tire swings.
Kingston Young Adult novelist Y.S. Lee told me about this compelling website, and I thought it would be fun to get involved. It’s been really interesting reading the essays by women authors, poets, novelists, librarians, and journalists. Niranjana (Nina) Iyer, who is a Canadian freelance writer, came up with this fantastic idea and maintains the website. I love the way her site brings together women from so many different fields within publishing, and diverse geographical regions as well. It's a real coming together of women's voices.
I love it when I have two whole weeks to focus on writing, which has been the case since my last post—yay! I’m collaborating with another Kingston, Ontario writer, and we’ve been working (slowly) on a children’s book project for nearly a year, on and off. Together, we are infusing new life into an old manuscript, making it accessible, engaging, and lively for today’s awesome kids. OK, yeah, I know you want to know what the book is, but I can't say just yet. Mum's the word! (The above, slightly skewed, pic of my Backyard Circus proposal is an example of a winning proposal, but this isn't what I'm currently sweating over.) Suffice it to say, having a block of two weeks to focus on this project has been downright glorious.
