Arts Day at Timmins High

It starts with the whole school playing frozen tag when Oh Canada broadcasts over the intercom. The arts day presenters get introduced in the theatre room by an enthusiastic drama student. Then I head for the conference room and present, over the course of the day, to four grade 9 and 10 students, some gifted, some improv, some so bored with life that eyerolling is their only exercise. They can pretend they don't like it but I know they did. "You can't say you don't know, there are no wrong or right answers," I tell them. "You should say instead 'I need a moment to consider your question'" . In my mind I figure I've given them at least one lifeskill to use in the all important job interview.

It's amazing how alive some of their words can become with some coaching. The last group became way more willing to share their work once the cool kid decided he would read his romantic poem aloud in order to win a juice box. The Juice Box Writing Competition was on.

I do love working with this age group. Not a lot of warm fuzzies like with the younger groups, the rewards are much more subtle.

Making writing "Apeeling" at Clarksdale

How do you start a book? Where do you get your ideas? Bah! It's the flashing curser and nothing-happening moments that create the real problems in writing sometimes.

Here I demonstrate how I insert day to day real life in my stories. My grandmother used cucumber peels as a facial mask on her kids. My mother put them on our faces. I did on my kids, and then on my character Elizabeth in Bringing Up Beauty and now of course on volunteers in writing presentations. What does it look like, smell like, feel like...and click, click,click (pores closing under the cool sensation) sound like? Here I am at Clarksdale, getting a volunteer writer to peel the cucumber and another to describe the experience. Ahh writing!

Aww kids!

Charles R. Beaudoin--The Burrow

This was my final Artist in Education stint for this school year. The gifted grade 5s reside in a portable at the back far away from the school. No wonder they call it the Burrow and have renamed themselves after Harry Potter characters. This is a photo of script day because my camera battery died on our end of the session celebration. For that many parents came and enjoyed poetry and story readings as well as a few scripts acted out. Hurray for the students and Jennifer Reid, their teacher. It was a wonderful sendoff for this year!

Schoolbus driver

For years my husband Bob worked as an IT manager. Say what? No one ever understood what he did, especially the kids. Now he works parttime as a schoolbus driver while he pursues his passion of photography. Both are things our descendants, kids and grandkids enjoy and understand. Here's William and The Driver, as well as William with his mom enjoying the school bus.

Our Newest McNicoll

Sometimes I wonder about posting family events in amongst writing process but, really, in my career it's so integral. Here is my new granddaughter Violet Vivien McNicoll born April 1. She may be fourth in line to the throne, if we had one, but she is every bit as special to me. I have attended too many funerals of both young and old to take for granted healthy, happy children or parents for that matter. And while I always seem to write about the end of the human cycle, I am overjoyed at the beginning of this one. Of course some aspect of Violet's birth or life will end up in a story. My readers just have to watch for it.

Halton Oakville Speech Contest

Last night I acted as a judge for a speech contest. The students spoke on topics such as volunteering, smiling, technology, epilepsy, miracles, child labour,Emilia Erhart, positive attitude--okay that accounts for nine of 15 of them--volunteering was tackled twice.

I sat at the back of the room and had to watch for eye contact (do they even have eyes, next time I'm bringing binoculars) and check for a whole list of things including correct use of language, logic and devolopment of topic etc (I was given a ruberik). Whenever I hear that word I'm worried I'll have to move coloured squares into the right position.

The problem, of course, was this 15 students were all winners from their own schools so they were masters. You couldn't eliminate anyone for obvious errors such as mistiming or reading her/his entire speech.

Whenever I judge a contest, whether it's for writing, plays or speeches, I hope that someone stands out as the best because really, many are very good. And in this case so did the other two judges, really nice people--an Oakville city councilor and a consultant for the board--can't find their names in my notes right now.

Here's our unanimous vote for winner: Sabrina Freeas. She spoke on Child Labour and actually gave out brands that employ it. Lucky I can't afford those brands anyway. I wonder if we should all just sew.

Congratulations to Sabrina and Halton Separate Schools for hosting such worthwhile activities.

Coming up with ideas is hard-Charles R. Beaudoin School

This is a shot of the grade 5 gifted class at Charles R. Beaudoin. They are my last students for this year's Ontario Artist in Education stint and for each of the six weeks I essentially taught the same thing in various degrees of intensity depending on abilities. This could get boring after a while except for the kids. They're all so different. These students like to offer up random interesting facts much like my adult writing friends do. Sometimes they're all over the place with their thoughts and things, pencils, paper etc. Just like me. So I feel at home with them.

So far my favourite comment has been "This isn't as easy as it looks," from a boy who was trying to come up with his license plate motto. So true about coming up with any idea or writing in general.

March Break

Besides rewriting Death on YouTube till it was Dying to Go Viral and recovering from a cold, I spent March break recovering from a cold and hanging with my favourite people, the grandchildren. What did we do? Well, one hillarious passtime was spinning until Omi wanted to hurl or until you dropped. See the first shot. Jadzia has already dropped but even Mortie the Jackapoo enjoyed the challenge.

Of course we read together. I love the shot of Hunter and William reading together. Wish I could say they were entranced by one of my Canadian friends' writing. But no, it's Captain Underpants.

Thirdly we had great weather and went to Crawford Lake. Hunter loved the aboriginal stuff he saw on his trip with his grade three class. He's making cornbread with a gang of volunteers here. We also went to Bronte Creek twice and ate maple candy. A great holiday all around.

The Writer Talks on Voice without one

The week before March break, I was stricken with one of those annoying colds that makes your throat sore for three days and then launches you into a full blown sneezy wheezy grumpy dopey (and all the other dwarves) colds.

The irony was the teachers at Charles Beaudoin had hoped I might address "voice" in writing.

Well sure. It was hard to do without one. Sucking on Halls and ice cubes, drinking tea and sipping on homemade chicken soup all didn't help.

To crown it all, I performed my first virtual visit at Aurora Public Library's YA book club.

I rested my voice for hours only to discover I hissed like a crazed granny when I tried to talk about Last Chance for Paris. ( Also I need to figure out lighting because either I was totally in the dark or I looked as though a divine light was shining through my face.) I wanted so badly to chat with them too. Although many of them were fantasy readers they said they all enjoyed my book.

With a week off from AIE (artist in education) duties, I'm all better. I did manage to write without a voice. I finished Death on YouTube and renamed it Dying to Go Viral. Now I'm dying to hear how my agent and Norwegian publisher like it.

Grade 5 Character Charles Beaudoin School

Wednesday at Charles Beaudoin I led a workshop with grade 5s on character. Then, while currently I forget the names of the great teacher and student teacher in the background, I did remember to take a few snapshots. You can tell a lot about the character of the school and teachers by the energy and verve the students exhibit. Look at these walls--they're covered in stories and writing tips. The students were terrific to work with as they went straight to writing from our prewriting exercise. It's easy to talk about writing, it's another to work quietly inside your head when all around you the world is teeming.

Death on Youtube--the rewrite

First of all we need to change the title since YouTube is a trademark. So we have suggestions from grade 5 at Charles Beaudoin: Killing on the Internet, Death on a Skateboard (mine), Killing on Video.

Well as brainstorming goes, I've come up with this one because of something my good friend

and fellow writer Gisela Sherman said: Death Goes Viral.
Another friend and writer Lynda Simmons (Getting Rid of Rose) suggested I need more of a sense of place. So off I went to Maple Skatepark and took some photos. Who remembered that it was so small. There's also a tiny one at Brant Hills but only one BMX biker at a time could go in that one.

The push is on. I want to have this off to my agent and Norwegian Publisher on Friday.

Wish me luck.

Writing--the best job in the world

Wednesday I took some of my favourite people to see Disney on Ice--these were complimentary passes from my employer Rogers--I'm the features editor for Today's Parent Toronto. Also we needed to squeeze in a restaurant review, called Whine and Dine in the magazine. Last minute I discovered Arriba which overlooks the interior of the SkyDome or the Rogers Centre. Here's my two grandsons enjoying each other's company as well as the view.I will admit going on an event you have to write about is a bit stressful. Not because of the writing, I can think it out on paper pretty quickly when I have to--but because I worry things will go wrong especially when there's only one go through. For example, Arriba staff said they were open at five where the website said 6:30. If it had of only opened that late we couldn't have made the 7:00 show. Also Hunter had a stomach ache in the morning. You never know if

that would have turned into something more serious later.

As it was it went away and he ate well.

Mostly, I worry that the kids will have a meltdown. Magazine experiences tend to be manic.

You have to squeeze everything in quickly so you can write about it ...quickly.

But we all had a great time. Okay I'll post one photo of the show since blogging is considered personal use.

The End...Death on YouTube

You think that it would be a relief to type "The End" when you're done a book. First of all many writers don't even do that--they type "-30-" some old-fashioned printer's code to signal not to look further for more text to print.

Instead, I , and many other writers I've spoken to about this, get depressed. My process is to write as quickly as I can, much the way I read. I gobble up stories when I read, I spit out first drafts when I write. Then I have to decide whether I've shaped it correctly. Off it goes to fellow writers whose job it is not to applaud--although we can all use a lot of that--but to pick it apart before an acquisitions editor can. I think it's the next leg of the journey that depresses me. The knowledge that there will be a whole bunch of flaws in my baby that I have to "correct".

Really, though, it's more like adding a second and third coat of paint. I splash down a first draft and the reader can't see the colour that well until I add a second and third coat.

Anyhow, for this book, I feel pretty good. Thanks to the five classes I visited this year:

(two at) Canadian Martyr, Alexander Public, Brant Hills. The students were so hooked from the first reading, I felt inspired to continue. It also helps that my Norwegian publisher liked the first three chapters and outline.

Memorable Event--Sixth Annual CANSCAIP OLA Booklaunch

I can't remember having a better time than at this years CANSCAIP Launch. So many different approaches. Some read--authors read beautifully. Some sang--yes authors sing beautifully. Ted Staunton played a mean banjo and had the audience clucking and wiggling in their chairs like chickens laying eggs. Spring showed up in full costume and promises to return later. Some of the authors dressed up in crazy hats to help demonstrate Kari-Lynn Winter's book--all the while I was timing. So much fun watching them try to beat the clock. Next year it might be nice if we didn't launch on a blizzard day and if more librarians showed up to enjoy the wonderful performance.

New Writers on the job

Here they are hard at work, creating stories about some strange stuffed animals, most of whom want to go for the gold at the Olympics. I love the Artist in Education Week,( it gives me much more of a closer and longer contact with my readers than an author visit) and it was especially fun at BrierPark School because the teachers and principal understood how much creative writing can contribute to their curriculum. It's often difficult to convince educators, despite the literacy push, that giving up half a day to writing stories with a professional author can enrich, empower as well as educate the students. If they can reason through the peaks and valleys of a story, thinking about how stuffed crocodiles can practise shotput let's just say, they will increase their powers of critical thinking for all subjects and for the real problems in their life. And along the way, they'll also learn some writing technique, practise their computer skills and sure, improve their spelling.

Brier Park Public School

Forgot to charge and bring my camera or there would be a photo here of some outstanding actors delivering the great lines they wrote today. Two grade five and one grade six class write with me in the morning and in the afternoon. It's already day three of this Ontario Artist in Education sponsored week. Day three is always dialogue one of my favourite activities. I pair the young writers and they collaborate on one of three scenarios involving (usually) a young person trying to talk an adult into something.

It's interesting how the parents respond. In these skits they always seem to cave in and the young person wins. Is this wishful thinking or do all adults allow their kids to have dragons and aliens as pets?

SkyRide in Death on YouTube

Jade only has a week to live or really a week to relive of her previous life. Except she changes everything by committing to a list, essentially a bucket list. On it is skydiving which you can't do unless you're 18 and she's 14. So she goes indoor skydiving at Niagara Falls instead. Yes you have to be 18 to try it without a parent present but even a 7 year old can do it with her parents there. I figure it's easier to get by the rules with someone else's ID than it would be actually jumping from an airplane. After the "skydive", Aiden, the boy who will ultimately kill her, suggests the SkyRide.

Well you can research blogs and study advertisement on the ride all you want, you're never going to feel the experience unless you do it. I would ordinarily never go on the SkyRide because I would expect to feel nauseous. But because of Jade's list, I went on and it was lovely. Not scary, just a very slow turn up in the sky which gives you yet another view of The Falls.

After the SkyRide, I think I will try the ferris wheel on Centre Island too.

Next Jade's dad will give her a surprise ride on a hotair balloon. It's winter, there's no way I can try it. I'm waiting for a friend to tell me all about her experience this year trying it.

More Describing Words in Caught in a Lie

Ahhh! I can't stand it. I'm working on Death on Youtube and keep gettings emails and comments on my website about how I don't describe my characters in Caught in a Lie enough. I wrote the book ten years ago.

But of course I still don't describe characters enough. So now I'm trying to picture every character in my new book and figure out what to say about them. I'm going insane.

Somebody must like my lack of character describing.

Alexander Public Grade 6 does character sketches

Here are the characters. You can tell a lot about the students by the stuffies they bring to school to do a character sketch. I'm not sure if you can make out Darth Vadar bear but he's sitting there on the left, the stuffie in black. Tomorrow is our last day together so I can read the stories about these guys in second draft.We also worked on scripts and here a couple of the students perform a very popular one on a "didi"that a boy tried to convince his mom was a good pet.

They always look so industrious when they work on the computers but really they're probably deciding on a font here. Tomorrow we say good bye and it's always a little sad. I'm assuming it may be my last time in a Sudbury classroom and Alexander Public is pretty special to me. Slam Dunk Robot was written there with the students' input.

But you never know. Maybe I'll be back for a launch of Death on Youtube

Rosie and Science North

One of my favourite things about Sudbury is Science North and this picture is hardly representative of the imposing round glass building perched on the edge of Lake Ramsey. It uses part of the rock structure that it sits on as a wall. And as you climb up the five levels, the floor winds around a whale skeleton. So cool. I enjoyed the 3d Wild Oceans Imax last night but also visited with the animals, who feed when I'm done with school. Hence the photo of Rosie. But I also learned about stem cell research in the Genome Club object theatre. And today I skated on the frozen lake behind the centre. I remembered my Ipod and listened to Hawaiian music as I toured the lake path twice, then the battery died. Too bad I forgot my camera. The sunlight was brilliant against the white snow and ice. You'll just have to imagine it.