They sent out the press release and now I can say that I’ve won the GOLDEN KITE award for picture book text!!!! The news has literally left me numb. I’ve been numb since Wednesday evening, when I first found out. This morning I woke up and thought, “Wow, I really did win the Golden Kite […]

If you want to avoid future disaster, make sure you READ the dates of the presentations you’re supposed to go to accurately! Omigosh, I am such a chucklehead! I almost gave a teacher librarian a heart attack with my carelessness. It clearly said Wednesday February 23rd on the booking notice. I clearly wrote it down under […]

Did my first skype presentation the other day and while it will never replace being there in person, it went very well indeed, and is definitely something most authors should consider offering. I had read some advice on skype visits that included look into the camera, not at your screen, to maximixe effectiveness. I had […]

Well, well, well, it seems as though I didn’t over prepare! I think I actually spoke for about an hour. I’m embarrassed really! I felt so totally surprised when after forty minutes I was allowed to go on, and on, and on. My hubby would have said I was babbling, but then he’s got extremely […]

Of the Canscaip News!!! Many people might be too young to know the song I’m referring to. (It’s Cover of the Rolling Stones by Dr. Hook here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ux3-a9RE1Q ) I know, I know, it’s an odd choice! I mean only mostly industry people know about Canscaip and the newsletter it produces. Who cares if I get […]

I had a gig today. It was at the St. David’s Anglican church, in their parish. It was just north of Donlands Ave. and Bloor, a real Muslim neighbourhood! Just up the street was Wilkinson Ave. P.S. where I’ve presented at so many times, but this was for the Mosaic Storytelling festival. I didn’t think […]

Went to a school in St. Catherines, both today and yesterday. Two completely different schools who’d heard separately about me and decided to book me on consecutive days, go figure! So many times I end up going into a school where the kids are completely unfamiliar with my work. It’s a shame! You’d think that […]

Today I did a presentation at Seneca College, Newnham campus, to a group of students in a children’s literature class. That wouldn’t be very significant except that in 1980-1982 around, I went to Seneca College, at that same campus, to study what I thought would be my life’s career: biological chemical technology. To say that […]

Yesterday I did the Wanting Mor presentation again. To a disparate group of grade 4 – 8’s in an Islamic school. Islamic schools are always iffy. The kids are quite sheltered. You see a sweetness and innocence in them that just isn’t there in their more hardened, jaded public school counterparts. But really there’s no […]

Maybe Friday afternoon on a super hot day in a stuffy auditorium would test the listening capacity of any grade seven and eight students. Maybe it’s too much to expect that the kids would be engaged in my presentation when they haven’t heard anything about me, haven’t read the book, or been prepared in any […]