May 2009 Archives

Wow! I have to say that I'm impressed with my illustrator, Lorna. Her dream was to one day have a stuffy of one of her illustrated characters. That dream came true today when she made her own stuffed versions of Buddy and Max. Lorna generously gave me the first stuffed kitties of the assembly line (well, it was more like a sweat shop because she said it took forever to stitch the stuffies). The stuffies look just like the cats in the book. I'm thrilled to have them. I even showed them on Breakfast TV this morning, where I tried my best to talk coherently. I think I was in a completely different world. My nose started to bleed about two minutes before my segment and I doing my own stuffie as I plugged toilet paper up my nose and hoped the bleeding would stop in time to be on camera. Yeesh.

Anyway, now I'm off to prep the space for the book launch tomorrow.

I had an interview on CBC Radio at 6:20 this morning, which meant I had to get up at five. I'm definitely not a morning person. I thought I did fine in the interview until I got home and realized that I forgot to mention that I'm donating $3 from every book sold at the Saturday launch to the Edmonton Humane Society. D'oh!

I'll have to remember to plug that fact tomorrow when I show up on Breakfast Television. If you're watching TV at 8:10 in the morning, check it out.

I'm gearing up for the launch. Unfortunately, Lorna Bennett, my illustrator, is feeling poorly. Hopefully, she'll be up to talking come Saturday, but boy she sounds rough on the phone. I'm hitting the CBC airwaves at 6:15 tomorrow morning to talk about the Edmonton Humane Society and book launch.

One neat tidbit is that Benny (the dog who spent the most time at the EHS before finding a forever home) is going to be at the open house from 1:00 - 3:00 pm. I love that EHS doesn't put a time limit for adoptions. That means every animal up for adoption has a chance at finding a home (no matter how long it takes).

A new website has been launched to promote stories about Edmonton, so that people in the city show off their pride about Edmonton. My story ended up on the website, but the organizers are calling for all Edmontonians to contribute their experiences. If you're interested, check out the site. If you want to share stories, feel free to add them. Here's the link to my story.

Well, I'm finally starting to see the bottom of my in basket. Lots of work to do, but I'm clearing things out. I have my three Sasquatch novels ready to go. I also just put together review requests for True Story. Marketing is fun at times, but very time consuming. I'm really looking forward to next week, because it is my official book launch on Saturday, but it is also nearly the end of my school touring season. I plan to spend the month of June hammering out book 4 in the mystery series. Just one more week to go!

Those of you who have followed my blog are well aware that my writing process is a mixture of dizzying joy and flat out boredom. Well, I am totally in the most boring part of my job. My book launch is Saturday, May 30, and I have to market it. That means sitting at my computer for six to eight hours sending emails to people on my list. It's pretty mindless work, but it has to be done. If I had an assistant, he'd be doing this or stuffing envelopes with invitations. Thankfully, with all the technology at hand, I don't have to get postage stamp tongue. I can reach all my contacts through email or Facebook, but still that is a lot of time to spend at the computer. In the pre-Spam filter days, I could just send out a mass email. Now I have to do everything one at a time. But I am finished sending out the invitations. If I've missed your name, consider yourself invited. The info is on the events page.

Great news. The Forbidden Phoenix is going to be published. I just received the contract, and the plan is to release the book in the fall of 2010. I'm happy to see another of my plays in print, because it's been so long. Who knows? Maybe the publishing contract will inspire me to write another play. Probably not, but there's always hoping that some day I'll get the fire in my belly for theatre again. Right now, the fire is out, the ashes are cold and the matches are wet.

Good thing I'm still jazzed about kids' fiction or else I'd have to start looking for a day job.

I spent this afternoon touring the new Edmonton Humane Society building. The kind folks at the EHS agreed to host my book launch on Saturday, May 30. Today, I met the organizers to plan the event, which will be a part of the EHS open house. I'm honoured that they'd let me be a part of their event. I was amazed at how state of the art their new facility is. They have cat chalets for the kitties. I'm talking about accommodations better than my place!!!!

Anyway, there are many windows so you can view all the behind-the-scenes work, including surgery. I was totally impressed with the facility. Like any new building, there are still things left to be finished, but I suspect they'll be done in time for the official open house. My book launch will be in the Education classroom, and I'm looking forward to it.

One of the Edmonton Oilers, Zack Stortini, will be a part of the open house. He'll be there on Sunday, but I got to meet Zack and his girlfriend today. They were extremely nice. Very personable and genuine. I have to laugh though. Both Zack and I agreed to a photo shoot with some of the dogs and cats. Zack got to work with a nameless dog who ended up marking Zack's leg. I'm not surprised. Zack is built like an oak tree. He took it in stride and was pretty positive about the whole thing.

As for me, I ended up posing with various cats; some with sharp claws. I have two Band-Aids to show for my photo shoot, but I had a blast. Where else can I hang out with so many cats and dogs. The photographer was a volunteer. His name was Erik Hornung and he has a website with some amazing photos. Check out the link.

So, I come home today after a long day at a school, and I started to notice all the weird things in my house that I'd normally take for granted. First, there's the giant empty TV box in the living room which has become a cat pedestal. Then there's the creepy dollhouse in the basement. And then there's weird collection of techno-antiques in my storage room. I have a Zip drive and a BBS modem from the 80s. Time for spring cleaning I think.

I'm in the middle of a residency at Mayfield Elementary. Lots of students with plenty of energy, which is keeping me on my toes. Unfortunately, it means I have no energy at the end of the day to write my stories. I'm going to have to pace myself better when it comes to residencies and speaking engagements. I don't want to turn into the writer who published 20 years ago, but is still doing school visits and talking about how to be a writer. I should have time next week to get back on track. The Sasquatch series is just one polish away from being ready to send out. Here we go.

Yay! The summer issue of the Legacy Magazine is out. Check it out. I'm on the cover. A grade 11 student photographed the Edmonton Chinese Gardens and I wrote a reflective essay about the garden.

Ah, it's so good to be sitting in my pyjamas at home after a very long road trip. Today, I was conducting workshops at the Foothills Young Authors' Conference. The students were pretty keen. My illustrator, Lorna, was also at the conference, so it was cool to hear kids talking about the picture book from the point of view of artists. My favourite moment of the day was when one girl showed her acting chops with the classic line "Back off, Buddy." She was hilarious.

Now I get to wash clothes and get ready for a keynote presentation in the morning. Then Monday, I start a residency at Mayfield School. No rest for the wicked. I should find some time off though. Today, I completely blanked on a story halfway through. Yoiks. I must be exhausted. Hopefully, I won't blank during my keynote tomorrow morning.

Just pulled into High River for the Young Author Conference tomorrow. The last two days were a bit of a blur as I had sessions back to back and then I had to drive to Fort Macleod to deliver a keynote. Phew! I am bone tired, but still smiling.

As always, the kids at all the sessions were great, but I have to admit with the recent media overkill on the swine flu, I was on hyper alert for any sneeze and cough. My happiest memory was at St. Clare, where a super positive librarian squeezed 250 kids into her library for my presentation. I was pretty impressed with how much she had prepped the kids for my visit.

Now I'm going to prep for Saturday's conference and also try to rehearse my keynote presentation, which is on Sunday morning. At some point, I'll be able to write again. I'm already itching with a new idea. I won't give it away, but it's going to be scary and weird.