This post heading pretty much sums up my experience at the Carver/Stinson seaside writing retreat last week.  Don’t get me wrong – it was an amazing experience, the other writers were all great (see picture)  – super friendly and helpful, the weather was fantastic, we had lots of laughs, and I learned tons (including that my current manuscript is still far from being ready for publication:() But here’s the kicker.  Like a lot of things in life, the more I learn, the harder I realize I have to work to get to where I need to be. The prospect of yet another massive revision can be daunting, but overall I enjoy the process,  because I know it’s bound to result in a better story, especially given the in-depth advice and suggestions I received from the other writers and editor, Peter Carver.

Port Joli, 2011

I read at Word on the Street in Halifax this year – I hadn’t been at WOTS since Rainbows in the Dark came out in 2005. What an amazing event!  And most of it put together by volunteers.  I had a chance to meet Carmen Klassen from CBC Radio as she was introducing the authors in the Young Adult tent.  She was most gracious and welcoming, and had done her homework!  The first thing she mentioned was the picture of Charlie she’d seen on my blog:)  I had a chance to see new friends from the PJ retreat again; Marcia Barss, Jill MacLean and Jackie Halsey. Thanks to a particularly tricky charade one evening during the retreat, we’ll never forget that our main characters simply must yearn for something, even if it’s only a glass of water (thanks, Kurt Vonnegut!)  Here’s a picture of the old fish house in which I’ve now spent dozens of blissful and wonderfully-productive writing hours.  Sigh…Time to take Charlie outside – again!

Charlie - he's a she:)

So, even though I’m away at the Carver/Stinson writing workshop in Port Joli all next week, we have a new puppy!  Her name is Charlie, and she’s a reddish golden retriever.  She seems very sweet and smart – maybe too smart as we haven’t found a way to keep her confined to the bathroom while we’re out, yet…Even with plywood wired onto the baby gate, she managed to get enough traction to get over the top in about 30 seconds!  It’s hilarious to watch her work at it – love her sticktoitiveness, but we need a solution as I’m not comfortable keeping her in her crate for long periods of time when we’re both out.  It feels so great to have a dog around again – it’s been four months since Bailey died. As soon as we saw the puppies, as Don said, my IQ dropped 75 points, and my voice went up two octaves, I’m sure…think I’m hardwired for baby talk:)

Also on the baby front, Jacob and his wife Jenty welcomed a daughter to their family last week – Adau Heaven, after Jacob’s mother.  I haven’t met her yet, but I’m sure their household is crazy busy with three small children now.  No doubt Deng and Jabu are being helpful big brothers.  Jacob will be guest speaker at the SMU Alumni dinner during Homecoming weekend this year which will be a great opportunity for him to talk about his work with Wadeng Wings of Hope (www.wadeng.org)

Thanks to Access Copyright, I’m leaving on Sunday to spend the week with seven other children’s writers (including MY editor,  Peter Carver, and his partner, Kathy Stinson).  Access Copyright gave me a professional development grant for the workshop.  I’ve been twice before, and it’s a super-productive writing time.  I’ve been obsessed with Charlie lately, so it’ll be nice to concentrate on my writing life for a few days and connect with other writers.  Charlie’s been staying in her crate for 5-6 hours at night – hope that continues so Don can get through the teaching week without collapsing in exhaustion…He should be really happy to see me when I arrive home next Saturday:)

Shannon and I spent two gorgeous sunny days in Inverness this week – the area, formerly known as Broad Cove,  is apparently the beach glass capital of the world!  The woman working at the desk told me there was an article in the Globe and Mail  five years ago about all the beach glass and since then they’ve had a steady stream of jewelery makers, particularly from New York and the eastern States.  We, of course, lugged home a few pounds with great plans for filling glass containers, making jewelery, etc.  We’ll see…but it was so much fun treasure hunting while walking the beach!  I’m sure it must be the nicest beach in Nova Scotia.  A river feeds into the ocean just below MacLeod’s Beach Village cottages, and it’s a great place for kids to enjoy some warmish, fresh water swimming/ playing (when they’re not hunting for beach glass).  Interestingly,although some of the glass is old (she showed me a few pieces that an archaeologist-type told her would have been ballast hundreds of years ago – they looked like stones to me), there was once a dump in that area so a lot of the glass no doubt came from there (pre-recycling).

We took in some step-dancing and fiddle music at the fire hall and had a cold beverage at The Hoff.  Stopped in Mabou for breakfast on the way home, and had the pleasure of seeing a real-life cowboy ride into the cafe parking lot just ahead of us, dismount with a great flourish, buy a cuppa and ride off – said he was on his way to Judique, but couldn’t let his horse “open up” because of the speed limit and all:)

When I go on little jaunts like this, I always wish I had a notebook – so many interesting things pop up that I just know I’ll forget immediately – took a few pictures to help me remember.  Some of them are even half-decent!

This week, I’ll be back at my writing and pursuing my current obsession with the puppy section on Kijiji! We met a beautiful Irish Water Spaniel on our travels, but I think they’re pretty rare  (read – EXPENSIVE!)

My latest books from JLS, a Korean ESL publisher

I haven’t received my author copies of these four books, yet, but they’re in the mail! I’ve written eleven books so far for JLS – their ESL curriculum is entirely based on story.  As you can see, I’m using a couple of pen names; Ada Pearson (my late  mother’s maiden name), and Lynn Mingo (my middle and maiden names).  The illustrators for the JLS books live in various parts of the world, and, of course, I’ve never met them, but so far I’ve been very  happy with their versions of my stories. Unfortunately, the JLS books aren’t available to the general public, as they’re used only in their ESL schools, both in North America and Korea.

I also received my IPPY medal today; a national silver medal in the multicultural young readers’ category of the US-based Independent Publishers awards  – it’s really heavy and comes with a lanyard so I can wear it around the house!!

One great thing about summer is it sometimes means connecting with old friends. Seems as we get older there are fewer and fewer people who’ve known us for most of our entire lives.  Brenda and I have been friends since about 1965, although she’s lived in Calgary for many years.  The really wonderful thing about old friends is how quickly you can pick up, despite not having seen each other for a few years.  We weren’t together for five minutes before we were laughing so hard that we were crying into our egg salad sandwiches, just like we used to when we were ten years old.  Excellent therapy for whatever ails you, I’m sure! She and her partner, Pierre, are planning to retire to the Tatamagouche area in four years, so it’ll be nice for two little girls to reconnect as two little old ladies (not!)

A Hare in the Elephant’s Trunk is now available as an e-book, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.  I guess reading books electronically was inevitable, but I’ll always be a fan of actually holding the paper in my hands – egotistically, I suppose, it makes a book, and the blood, sweat and tears poured into it, seem more valuable as something you can actually pick up from a shelf; feel the weight of it in your hands.  But then again, I’m old-fashioned… I’ll be interested to see how many people, if any, choose to read it as an e-book.

http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Hare-in-the-Elephants-Trunk/book-7TA8yq35VkaSK0Px_5jL-A/page1.html

And finally, family vacations.  Don, Liam, Shannon and I just spent a couple of nights in a cottage on the Northumberland Strait, and other than a 5-hour ER room wait for strep throat, it was an extremely pleasant time for our family – I’m aware on a daily basis of how increasingly limited these occasions are becoming as the kids get ready to become fully independent, and it’s so great to connect as four adults now – in fact, I’m pretty sure I’m the least mature of the bunch in many ways:)

Liam and Shannon, Pictou Lobster Fest, 2011

http://www.juniormagazine.co.uk/books/the-top-100-childrens-books/60.html

This list of “top 100 children’s books” as voted on by readers of Junior Magazine in the UK, made me think about my relationships with book characters over the years, both as mom and kid.  Heidi, Charlotte & Wilbur, Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy, the Cat in the Hat, The Jolly Postman, James and the BFG, all of them made this UK list, but there are so many more.  If I were to make up such a list, as a parent, I’d have to include some Robert Munsch titles like Love You Forever, I Am Small  (Sheree Fitch), Red is Best (Kathy Stinson), Mr. Patapoum’s First Trip (Gilles Tibo), The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams), and The Giving Tree (Shel Silverstein)

The list of picture books that stand out for me from my own childhood would include Blueberries for Sal, Snipp, Snapp and Snurr (3 Swedish boys), The Elves and the Shoemaker, Ollie Bakes a Cake, The Thornton W. Burgess books, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and so many more, the names of which I forget, but I’d love to have a chance to revisit my childhood library, as it was in 1965, or so. Characters in books become genuine friends for kids, and I guess as writers, our challenge is in trying to create those real-life, living, breathing, thinking, feeling human beings (or animals) in print, as people for young readers to get to know and spend time with as friends.

As a footnote, I had to resort to Google more than once as I was writing this post:(  Who do you remember from the pages of your childhood?

I love when Facebook friends post nuggets of wisdom – Kurt Vonnegut’s advice for short story writers came to me via FB this week, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyQ1wEBx1V0) and I thought I’d condense it for future reference.  It’s been amazingly helpful as I work my way through a revision:  In brief:

1) don’t waste a perfect stranger’s time;

2) give readers at least one character to root for;

3) your characters must want something;

4) every sentence must either advance the action or reveal character in some way;

5) start as close to the end as possible;

6) be sadistic – give your characters trouble so readers can see what they’re made of;

7) write to please one person;

8) give as much information as possible as soon as possible (in case a cockroach should eat the last few pages before your reader gets there:)

I’m feeling pretty good about my revision, and I’ve found myself  constantly referring back to this advice as I plug away at it. Of course, there are a million other things that he could have included, I suppose, but I like succinct, and this advice is that!

My whole family is home for the first time since Christmas, so I’m looking forward to having the kids’ energy in the house for a couple of months until they go back to school in September, although the house is still too quiet after the passing of our beagle buddy, Bailey a month ago, at the age of 15.

She lives on, of course, in our memories, and bits and pieces of her have already popped up, and will continue to appear, in my writing, as she was unforgettable in all sorts of ways! We’ll be scattering some of her ashes around her look-out perch at Horseshoe Lake sometime this summer so she can continue to keep an eye on the squirrels who think the cottage belongs to them during the winter…

Jacob and I will be heading down to Alderney Landing tonight for the Atlantic Book Awards.  I’m not at all expecting that HARE will win the Ann Connor Brimer Award, not that it wouldn’t be nice, but I’m looking forward to meeting some of Atlantic Canada’s literary luminaries.  The evening starts with a reception for the nominees and guests, followed by a silent auction, with the actual awards ceremony starting at 7:00 pm.

In looking ahead to the evening, I’ve been thinking about the book and its journey so far.  I guess I didn’t know what to expect before the book was published, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the recognition it’s received so far, both in Canada and in the US.  In no particular order:

• starred Kirkus Review
• USBBY Honor List of Outstanding International Books 2011
• Sask. Young Readers Choice Awards nominee 2011 (SYRCA)
• Ann Connor Brimer Award shortlist
• National Silver Medal, IPPY, US Independent Publishers Award
• Skipping Stones Honor List
• Woozles Battle of the Books 2012 list  (both elementary and high school)
• on the shelves of hundreds of libraries in Canada, US, Australia and New Zealand
  

What all this means is that through HARE, Jacob’s story has already reached a wide audience (I’m hoping it will continue to for years to come) and I hope the publicity will in various ways support his work with Wadeng Wings of Hope.  Which was, after all, the impetus  behind the book’s creation!  Thanks to everybody who took the time to read the book and tell other people about it. Cheers!

“Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it’s just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.”
— David Sedaris

I haven’t read anything by David Sedaris yet, but I love this quote.  Sometimes I wonder if a lot of writers write because they like being in charge – the world they’re creating in their story is completely within their command. Personally, I like being in control, both of my real life, and my writing life, but sometimes that control can be elusive.  When I do school visits, I always tell kids I’m a writer because I’m very nosy.  I like to know things about people and what motivates them; if I don’t know something, I can always make up a story that answers my questions.  The idea that an author’s version of his/her own story can only completely exist within the author’s mind, because each reader brings individual experiences to the reading of the book, really made me stop and think. Maybe authors have less control than they think!  Food for thought…

I’ve been reading lots of middle grade books lately.  Gossamer, by Lois Lowry, is fascinating and the type of book I’d never be able to write.  In this book, she explores dreams and nightmares in her usual incredibly imaginative way. Just finished Leo and the Lesser Lion, by Sandra Forrester – it’s set during the Depression and has the kind of characters you get to know intimately; people you  continue to think about after you’ve finished the book.  Also read Neil Armstrong is My Uncle by Nan Marino which is set in 1969 and also has 3D characters who seem like real people. One of the main characters is nicknamed Muscle Man McGinty – this book made me laugh out loud in parts, but it’s also poignant and insightful. When I visit schools, I tell kids that, to me, reading is the most essential part of being a writer which usually seems to surprise them.