Tag: Pajama Press

Back at School

On By janlcoates9 Comments

Back at School

Now that I’m back in Nova Scotia for the winter (and missing my little girls in Ontario, I’m keen to do some school author visits. Thanks to the Writers in the Schools program (WITS) offered by the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia, I got to spend time at McCulloch Education Centre in Pictou last week, and it reminded me how much I like being with kids! I took a few pictures of wall art, and I wanted to share some of the interesting things kids said/drew:

After I read SKY PIG, I get kids to draw a picture of their dream. If they could have anything in the whole entire world, what would it be? There are always lots of kids who want to be princesses, have a puppy or travel to Disneyland, and the responses range from the hilarious to the sad:

  1. My dream is that my mother could be Queen of the World (and the picture showed her entire family as princes, princesses, kings, etc.)
  • My dream is to have my own zoo, and it would be full of birds.
  • My dream is to visit my dad’s house again.

After I read THE POCKET PIG, it always amazes how many kids have imaginary friends, and they have detailed descriptions of their friendship with those friends, including one boy who said he only plays with his imaginary friend while in the bathroom so he can have privacy. They have fun drawing their imaginary friends, or imagining what that character would look like if they don’t have one (yet). They draw lots of other kids, dogs, and one boy drew a very detailed mouse – another a giant ant. Kids have so much imagination!

I’m trying out hearing aids as I’m tired of constantly asking people to repeat themselves. I had a head injury when I was in my 20s, including damage to my left ear, so it’s time to do something about it. For sure, my hearing is improved with things like radio and TV volume being reduced, but I still struggled to understand some of the younger kids last week. This is something I noticed last year, too, and I wondered if it had to do with Covid/masks, or are kids just having more trouble articulating now? Too much screen time? Not enough human conversation? A combination of everything, most likely. I’m sure it’s super frustrating for them since they know exactly what they’re trying to communicate. And speech pathologists have far too many kids on their caseloads.

I think (hope) there’s a trend towards old-school methods in teaching reading and writing, hopefully involving more phonetics after the Whole Language debacle. I’ve always been a fan of spelling lists, but it seems they disappeared years ago. Life is just so complicated for kids today, and I’m not sure the adults making the key decisions in education are always well-informed on the needs of kids. (ie. Not teachers, but the people in curriculum development offices).

Anyway, that’s my two cents. I got to spend the night with my childhood best friend while I was in Pictou – lots to catch up on! The weather here in Nova Scotia has turned, as it does before Remembrance Day. Hope you’re staying cozy in your little corner!

I READ CANADIAN (and first lines)

On By janlcoates6 Comments

And I hope you read Canadian, too. November 8th is I Read Canadian Day this year – a day set aside to celebrate Canadian books. I was thinking of first lines of novels the other day, and as a writer and a reader, I know how important those first lines are. When I begin reading a novel written by a favorite writer (after I’ve read their Acknowledgements, which is a habit I have), the first line immediately lets me know that I’m in good hands, and that I’m about to enter a world that will engage me and my emotions and cause me to become invested in that world’s people.

So, here are my novels’ first lines:

A HARE IN THE ELEPHANT’S TRUNK (Red Deer Press, 2010)

PROLOGUE: “Jacob held his pointer finger just above his thumb, forming a small, rectangular box in the air. He closed one eye, held the box up to his open eye, and trapped puny little Majok in the frame.”

AND CHAPTER ONE: “From the gnarled branches high in the leafy baobab, Jacob saw Mama kneeling by the river. Even in the blue-gray dusk, with the sun glowing red on the horizon, he could see that she was the most beautiful of all the mothers, like a queen with a crown of braids.”

THE POWER OF HARMONY (Red Deer Press, 2013)

CHAPTER ONE: “The mirror on the back of the bathroom door’s all cloudy. Makes me look like an angel. A skinny, freckly angel in an itchy white dress. I’ve got the voice of an angel, too. That’s what my music teacher tells me. Only I don’t want to be in God’s heavenly choir. Not yet. Since that’s just a nice way of saying somebody died.”

ROCKET MAN (Red Deer Press, 2014)

CHAPTER ONE: “First day of basketball tryouts. The gym smells like rotten socks and last year’s sneakers. It’d be a fail, a colossal fail, to play D2 in Grade 8. I’ve gotta make Division 1 this year. I’m warming up, doing some power crossovers, when Roy Williams struts up to me, steals my ball, slam-dunks it, then hangs off the rim for about an hour, doing chin-ups.”

TALKING TO THE MOON (Red Deer Press, 2018)

CHAPTER ONE: “My real mother, Moonbeam Dupuis, disappeared on March 20th, 2008. On my fourth birthday. 2,699 days ago. Sir Isaac Newton died on that same date, only in 1727. He was the first scientist to notice that water could separate light into all the colors of the spectrum. Sir Isaac discovered gravity too – the invisible force that keeps us stuck to the earth, like what roots do for trees, so we’re not all the time astronaut-floating. Hugs are one of my Dislikes, but sometimes it feels like the earth’s not wrapping its invisible arms around me tight enough. Like gravity and my missing mother are both avoiding me. Part of me disappeared with Moonbeam. Since it’s an inside bit, the only one who knows it’s gone is me.”

SAY WHAT YOU MEAN ( Nevermore Press, 2019)

CHAPTER ONE: “I didn’t even know you were lost and needed to be found. Until we saw the note – under one of the scratch-and-sniff pizza magnets on the fridge. One of those yellow sticky notes you keep in your shirt pocket, the ones you leave the riddle clues on when we play hide-and-seek up at Gram’s. Only this was one messed-up clue. “GONE OUT WEST TO FIND MYSELF. SORRY.”

THE HERMIT (Nimbus Publishing, 2020)

CHAPTER ONE: “Hey, Danny! Wait up.” Huh? Why does he sound so far away? I look back over my shoulder at mini Ben, still at the very bottom of the mountain I just got done climbing. I collapse onto a massive log, help myself to some tasty wild blueberries, and prepare to wait for my super-slow friend.”

Interesting to type out these lines, especially since I wrote them years ago, but I remember so well the hundreds of times I rewrote these lines, and in fact, the entire first chapters of each of my novels. When I visit schools, kids are always surprised to hear that my novels all took more than three years to write – sometimes I’ll start something, then leave it for a time to work on something else, but the editing process is soooo… long. I started working on some of my picture books a dozen years before they were published ! I love working with editors because I know we’re both working toward creating a stronger book – and they have such great eyes for detail. And I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the best in the business!

If you’re reading a Canadian book this week, which one is it? Happy reading!

Family love – and Ollie takes flight!

On By janlcoates14 Comments

Generally, I get a little nervous for book launches – you never know who will be able to make it, if anybody! This time around, I had my entire family to help out, and it was wonderful! Don, Liam and Shannon cooked up a Mothers’ Day/Book Launch surprise for me, and the kids flew in from Toronto for a gloriously perfect three-day weekend. There’s no better gift – if your kids live away, you know what I mean!

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Bachman’s Beach, Lunenburg County, NS -having both Liam and Shannon show up on a surprise visit from Toronto – best Mothers’ Day gift ever! Thanks, Don!

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Dock in – check! Liam and Charlie.

And, thanks to The Box of Delights Bookshop, friends and family, SKY PIG is officially launched, and Ollie has taken flight. It’s really fun to read this book aloud, but I need to work on my piggy snorting…

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Door prize, courtesy of daughter Shannon, who was also photographer.

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Friend, neighbour, and on book launch days – craft lady and publicity manager, Karen – she’s the best!

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Piggy cookies – it got easier after I’d decorated the first few dozen – they were a hit!

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I don’t know too many people with small children these days, but I’m grateful to the keen parents who bring their kids to book launches.

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Here’s Ollie (and Jack)!

Thank you to everybody who supports me, as both a writer and a human being – after having a new book out for four consecutive years, I’m starting to feel a little guilty asking people to come out and help me celebrate – but it truly means a lot to me when you do, both in person or in spirit through sending along your good wishes. I hope you have a good friend, like Ollie’s boy, Jack, to help make ALL your dreams come true!

Wandering and Wondering through 2015

On By janlcoates5 Comments

As I’ve been sitting around eating chocolates, drinking coffee and enjoying having both kids home for the holidays, I’ve also been reflecting on 2015, a busy year for me, especially in terms of writing. I did lots of wandering (14 trips by air, thousands of kilometers – a few too many, I think – Cuba, Georgia, Vancouver, Surrey, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Toronto, Maine, Ottawa, etc.) and plenty of wondering, marveling at sights I saw, things I heard. I met hundreds of readers, and lots of writers, too, including Alice Priestley, the illustrator of my first book, Rainbows in the Dark (2005).

In May, one of my favorite moments was seeing the mountains in British Columbia, a glorious sight I hadn’t seen since 1981. Stunningly beautiful! P1000544Another favorite, as part of TD Book Week, was arriving at a Sikh private school, donning a bright orange headscarf (which clashed with my pink shirt), before being greeted enthusiastically by a hundred smiling five and six-year-olds, several asking if I really had written If Dogs Could Talk, one of my books with Caramel Tree Readers. So sweet.

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With fellow juror (and new friend:) Rachna Gilmore.

In  December, I had dinner at the Governor General’s house, Rideau Hall, in Ottawa, and got to enjoy the company of many of Canada’s literary luminaries, briefly. In the lead-up to that Literary Awards ceremony, as part of the jury (with David Poulsen and Rachna Gilmore), I had the privilege of reading 148 Canadian novels published for young readers in 2014/15. There’s a lot of talent in our midst!

My newest book, The King of Keji, came out from Nimbus in June, I wrote (and read) pretty much every day all year, and saw my first (and possibly last) coy-wolf while loving being artist in residence at Fool’s Paradise, former home of Canadian artist, Doris McCarthy, overlooking the Scarborough Bluffs.

Fool's Paradise - a perfect reflection.
Fool’s Paradise – a perfect reflection.

2016 looks like it will be a less busy year, but before 2017 arrives, I’m hopeful of finding homes for the two novels I think I’ve finally finished polishing (possibly, maybe, hopefully…). And, of course, lots of new ideas to start getting down on paper. Also, Sky Pig (with intricate plasticine illustrations by Suzanne Del Rizzo) 9781927485989 (2)will fly out from Pajama Press in April, 2016.

Sincere thanks to YOU for being part of my year; I hope your 2016 will be pleasantly busy, full of good health and cozy time spent with those who matter most to you. Take good care of yourself, and I hope to see you again next year!