I'm getting ready to visit Edmonton and area schools to promote Education Week. My inspiration was my grade 10 English teacher, who passed away in 1987. His personal motto, "Every student a success," became the motto for more old school and became part of the St. Albert Catholic School Division motto. I never got a chance to thank Mr. Nigro in person for having such a huge impact on me. This is the best I can do. It's funny how just a few kind words from a teacher can inspire students for the rest of their lives.
April 2006 Archives
Oh man, I totally forgot to talk about my Hazeldean visit on Tuesday. My thanks to the grade six teacher, Mr. Shilling, for setting up the visit. I went to visit all the students that I worked with earlier in the school year, and I was stunned to see how much everyone had grown in just a few months. Thank you to the Hazeldean students!
I gave thanks to the final schools that helped with the second book. In the morning, I visited Lymburn school and had a blast with all the students. I was surprised at how well chapter six went over with the kids. I also had a wonderful time talking to the Division I kids, who were very much into the Buddy story. I definitely will have to turn the story into a picture book.
In Morinville, I met with the librarians of all three schools and gave them copies of the book. I was so grateful for their help. They were so awesome. I think someone said that it takes a village to raise a child; I think it takes a community to write a book. If it weren't for all the wonderful people I've met over the last three years, I don't know if I would have had the courage to finish the second book. Thank you everyone!
Yay! Hi to the students at Waverly. Have you found the photo of Buddy the farting cat yet?
I had a blast at the school. The reading was fun, but what was really cool was that I met a real life Remi and Marty. Two guys asked me to sign "geek" on their bookmarks, because they said they were just like the characters in the book.
Thanks to the grade five students at Waverly. You guys were awesome. A big thanks to the grade sixes, who were writing exams at the time, for being my original test audience. All of you rock!
I had the pleasure of speaking to students at two schools today: Dovercourt and S. Bruce Smith. Dovercourt's an elementary school, while S. Bruce Smith is a Jr. High. It's very interesting to see how the book works for the different grade levels. I think it's working best for grade four students, but I'm surprised to see grade seven students also wanting to pick up the book. The students at Dovercourt were awesome and laughed lots at the chapter I read. The junior high kids laughed more at the stories behind the story, but they were still into the presentation. My only regret is that I'm still hiding in my book because I'm afraid of losing my place so I'm not making as much eye contact as I'd like. Today, there were times where I felt like I had my nose in the book and I wasn't connecting with the audience at all during the reading. I'll just have to practise reading the chapter a little more.
I stopped by Meyonohk Elementary School yesterday to drop off a thank you copy of The Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul. I was an artist-in-residency at their school a couple of years ago and they were kind enough to let me test drive the first chapter of the book. I'm amazed at how quickly all the kids have grown. I barely recognized some of the kids from my residency, and now they're going to be attending junior high next year. Boy, oh boy, time flies quickly. There were a lot of laughs in the two sessions, mostly about my farting cat Buddy. Oh, Buddy, you're going to be the star of my next book.
I had a wonderful time in Canmore at Cafe Books. I was at the bookstore to sign books, and a few students and teachers from the schools I visited earlier in the week popped by to say hi. I was thrilled to hear that one teacher read the Mystery of the Frozen Brains aloud to her students and they were completely enthralled with the story. They laughed at the fact that Remi was a Toronto Maple Leafs fan because the teacher had admitted a few days earlier that she too was a Leafs fan. I hope that everyone who purchased my books enjoys reading them, and I encourage people in Canmore to make a trek to Cafe Books, a very well-stocked and cool bookstore. I almost got out of the store without buying a book... but I still bought one book. It's about the water crisis in the world, and it's potential research for a young adult futuristic novel that I have in mind.
I'm back from the workshop and still reeling from the experience. There wasn't enough time to do much, but what my director and actors accomplished in 5 days was enough to tell me that the play can work. A couple of producers have expressed interest, but I don't want to jinx anything. I'll just say that I'm cautiously optimistic that this is not the end of the process. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Two very productive rehearsals. I was amazed at the choreography that has been developed in the process. Most important of all, however, is I am now sure that the style of the play will work. We just need more time to be able to do the work on the entire play. The entire process has been exciting, frustrating, rewarding, disheartening, challenging, amazing... well, you get the idea. The play is very different in so many ways. It's going to be very collaborative with a lot of exploration. The next step now is to find someone who will financially support the development process. I don't know when the pieces will come together, but I'm now excited to see this project through to the end.
Wow, what a full day. I visited Elizabeth Rummel School, Lawrence Grassi Middle School, and Exshaw School. I spoke to grades 3 - 8 in the various Canmore and Exshaw schools. The students were pretty enthusiastic and focussed, especially since today was their first day back from spring break. I loved the questions. One students asked how long it took to write the book and another asked what did I find fun about writing. And no reading is complete until I'm asked if I'm related to Jackie Chan.
I hope the students at all three schools enjoyed the sessions, and I hope to see them at my book signing at Cafe Books in Canmore this Saturday afternoon (April 22) between 2:00 and 4:00 pm.
See you all there.
Lots of progress made yesterday on the first song. The actors still have to learn the song, but the choreography is coming along. I'm always amazed at the process of play rehearsals. You start stumbling and then you start to walk and then you stumble and then you jog and then you fall flat on your face and you stumble and walk and job and eventually you can run the scene without tripping, but it certainly doesn't happen right away. However, when all the elements come together, it is really cool to watch. Today, the actors are going to review the song and then work on Peking Opera basics. After lunch, it's fight time! And at the end of the day, we see what everyone's learned.
Wow, I just came from the first read through of the first act of the play. It worked really well. The story was clean and the conflict had just the right intensity and pitch. I'm really pumped. The second act seems a bit short and I might have to work on a couple of scenes, but that's more tune-up work than revision work. The only thing that still needles the back of my mind is that I might need one more song in the second act.
The feedback from everyone has been very positive, especially to the music which is this western vibe with eastern instruments and western instruments. The one comment about the script that has me mulling things over is the ending. Right now, the Empress Dowager and Horne kill each other, but they represent the east and west... and east and west don't destroy each other... so I have to figure out what kind of world Wukong and Laosan live in. If this were just a straight story, I could argue it's a happy ending, but because there's touches of historical allegory, what I say in the play is a pointed message for the real world. It's a big note that makes me think. I won't make any changes until I really think it through. Back to the workshop.
Today is going to be the first day of the production residency of the play. The artistic team meets to figure out what to do for the week, and we'll have a chance to read the script. I'm pretty excited because my composer, Bob, has come up with all the songs for the first act. They sound pretty cool. Each one is a blend of eastern and western music. Some melodies have a distinct Asian vibe, while others have a western feel using Chinese instruments. Now we're going to put some or all of the first act up on its feet just to see what this play can do. Not only are we going to explore the music, but we're also going to look at choreography. It's ambitious and scary... just the way a workshop should be.
The Edmonton Journal ran an article written by two television critics who argued the finer points of the TV series Lost. To be honest, I don't care about the "Easter Eggs" that the producers plant all over their episodes. I just want a good story with good characters, and I have to confess that I'm afraid that Lost is... well, lost. The stories are starting to turn a little melodramatic and soap opera-ish. There's no real forward momentum about the island mystery, and the little bits that have been revealed seem mundane compared to the first season promise. I think whenever you create a story that relies on keeping the audience in the dark, eventually the audiences' imagination is going to top whatever you had planned for the big reveal. I'm still watching the show, but not with the same enthusiasm as I did during the first season.
I tried to work through the outline of The Mystery of the Portable Hole, my proposed third book, but another idea keeps creeping to the forefront of my mind. I'm thinking of a young adult novel set in the not too distant future where water is scarce and people are angry at the industrialists for wasting away their natural resource. A petty leader/dictator in a power struggle enlists teenagers to become his "army" of change. I'm going to jot some notes about this idea over the next week and see if there's enough of an idea to turn into a book.
I'm not proud to admit this, but I figured out how I deal with stress. I eat. For the last two weeks, I've been under a lot of pressure to promote the book and prepare for a workshop of The Forbidden Phoenix. And for the last two weeks, I've been eating out, ordering in, and chowing down all the foods that I'm supposed to avoid. To make matters worse, I've had no motivation to hit the gym to exercise. The end result? I stepped on the scale today and I gained 7 pounds. It was a real wake up call. Now I'm going to make time for my health again. That means cooking healthy meals and hitting the treadmill every day. Now that the weather is nice I might even add an evening walk to my routine. I can't afford to let my health slip, and I can't let stress get the better of me.
I'm doing the not so fun part of being a writer. Now that the book is about to launch, I have to market and promote the book, which means I have to try to drum up interest from the press. I like talking to the media, but I hate all the leg work of trying to get a hold of people. Because I'm pretty obsessive compulsive, I expect everyone to answer e-mails and faxes as fast as I do. But media folk have hundreds of people vying for their attention, so I have to be patient, give them time to sort through all the material they received, and then start following up with phone calls. I sent out about 40 media releases this weekend, and I'll probably start calling people by Wednesday or Thursday, so that I can leave a message just before Easter and then hopefully arrange interviews after the holiday break. Phone tag; who's it?
Yay! The shortlist for Alberta writing awards were announced yesterday. I'm thrilled to see friends and associates on the list. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Ellen Kelly, Vern Thiessen, Sharon Pollack, Mark Haroun, and Clem Martini. Of course, I wish all the writers on the shortlist well, but I'm thinking especially happy thoughts for the people I know. The awards will be handed out on May 13 in Calgary.
Today, I'm getting back to the outline of my third novel (I hope it will be my third). I wrote the outline in January, but other projects distracted me from starting the first draft. Now I'm going to take a good look at the outline to make sure it's what I want to turn into the first draft. Three months away from the story idea is good, because it'll mean I'm looking at the outline with fresh eyes. If I love the story still, it'll mean that I'll start the draft. If I'm confused by what happens or bored, it means I'm going to have to do some more work on the outline. I don't know how many times I say this when I teach writing workshops at schools, but the the real job of writing is in the revisions. I hope I won't have to do a lot of revisions in the outline, but it's all a part of the process.
Chalk this up as an experience I'll never forget. Today, I participated in my first ever video conference. I presented to 7 schools north of Edmonton, but I didn't set foot outside city limits. I went to the Edmonton office of the Alberta Distance Learning Centre and was patched in to various schools to talk about the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the impact on my family, in particular my grandmother.
The technology was pretty wild. I could see the kids, and I had a Smart Board which flashed photos from my trip to China. James, the coordinator of the presentation, acted as my director and personal assistant, setting up the photos on the Smart Board and telling me what I needed to know before each presentation.
It was pretty cool and a little surreal having to always look at a camera lens, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. The only tough thing to figure out was how the students responded. I hope they enjoyed the presentation, and I hope they continue studying the Cultural Revolution in China. I'd love to hear the stories they find and I'd like to know if they learn how the Cultural Revolution ended.
My thanks to James for setting everything up. It was great fun.
I spent the morning talking to three groups of grade seven students at Lacombe Jr. High. What a blast. Most of the students had read most or all of The Mystery of the Frozen Brains, so for the first time in a long time I didn't have to read from the book. I could just talk about the inspiration for the story and other fun things. I was amazed that for junior high kids these groups were pretty enthusiastic and responsive. I don't know what they're teaching these kids in Lacombe, but they should keep it up, because I was very impressed with how well-behaved and alert the kids were. I hope the kids got something out of the session, and that they remember the O.M.O. cheat code of writing.
By the way, a big shout out to all my volunteers. You did a fantastic job.
Check out the other categories of the website. My designer has made some minor updates. He's added the second book along with an excerpt. I think he did an awesome job. Thanks, Robb!
