The Residency that Got Away

Every Canadian YA writer I know applied for the Writer in Residence position at North York Library and it should be easy to hate the winner of the post Allan Stratton, especially since he'd only written a couple of YA books and wasn't a member of CANSCAIP.

But then I read Chanda's Secret and wanted to applaud.

When I contacted him to try to get him to join CANSCAIP, I instead persuaded him to speak at the January meeting.

How generous of him to say yes and he spoke about the luck involved in getting the book into a movie. The happenchance of being at the right place in the right time which kind of convinces me that it's okay for a writer to go out once in a while and not keep there fingers to the keystone, so to speak.

Over dinner he told me about his residency and how much he enjoyed it. So despite all logic I applied once again, this time for the children's writer residency at Osborne Public Library. Hopefully, something good will come of it.