The summer went by so quickly

It's now almost October

and I haven't said anything about my great summer. Camping in the rain turned out to be one highlight. Lots of hiking with all of my current grandchildren. (There's a new baby coming in April. ) Great roasted marshmallows and Polish Sausages. One canoe ride in thunder and lightning--next morning we paddled in almost not rain. These two shots should be in reverse order the keen on the roaders at the beginning and then the pals sleeping on top of each other later. Other highlights were cottaging with friends and watching shooting stars, judging the Burlington Sandcastle Competition again, swimming on Labour Day Weekend--it finally stopped raining, and taking part of Telling Tales Story Festival in Westfield Village. I refuse to believe summer's over so there may be more posts mixed in with my school visit to Canadian Martyrs.

Celebrating 142 years of Canada

Fireworks are such a glorious celebration. It's difficult not to forget yourself and enjoy them.

For Canada Day we met up with friends and walked to Spencer Smith Park.  With the rain spitting down, it seemed as though the evening might be a bust.  But instead, the clouds cleared and accompanied by such songs as "What a wonderful world," the colours and lights exploded against the sky.  What an inspirational spectacle of exileration. 

Gone to Soon

Here's my young looking boss and friend Tiziana Buttignol holding her grandson.  I told her she looked like a filmstar breezing into Toronto for the festival.  Although I've worked for her five years, most of our communication is by email.

Not surprising, I suppose, that I learned via email of her death Monday June 29.  A heart attack should only happen to overweight smokers or 92 year olds who have no one to look after them. It's not fair.

And I still catch myself going to email her with ideas or articles I've seen that maybe could translate into a piece for our magazine.  Her emails seem so alive to me.

Now the rest of us have the most difficult job of putting out an issue without her at the helm. 

Sean Cassidy comes to Bruce T. Lindley School

Thursday, June 18 Sean Cassidy came to my local school where Hunter attends grade 2.  We were pretty excited since we love Gummy Toes and Sometimes it's Good to be Small.  We also love his art in Wake up Henry and especially Hannah Bear's Christmas.  Not knowing his schedule, I einvited him for lunch.  Lots of times, authors and illustrators have to drive straight off to avoid the rush hour crush. But we were lucky.  I also attended the "readings" which were more  interactive drawing and reading motivational talks for the young and restless.  I loved how the kids got right into it, bums in the air, tongues hanging out in concentration.  My photos don't quite capture their enthusiasm and total absorption.  I drew too and that was fun.  Sean taught us all to draw expressions, happy, sad, angry and then by mixing up happy mouths with angry eyes to show other moods.

Although I always enjoy author or illlustrator talks, I really didn't expect to have so much fun.  

Snakes and lizards Ontario Science Centre

Today we were excited to attend the press sneak preview of the Snakes and Lizards exhibit at the Ontario Centre.  It was baby Jadzia's first visit and she liked the Sparks section especially the baby portion with the blocks.

The we went to Budha Dog for Today's Parent Toronto.  We love hot dogs and this was a sufficiently different kind of place, very eco and local produce.  Our conscience was fine eating 10 of the suckers.  Afterwards we had Polish pastries and William totally got into his cupcake.

Mustang Mortie

When we first got Mortie, he hated car rides.  He got over his fear to some extent on our road trip to New Brunswick.  This year he's really enjoying the breeze through his fur in the Mustang with the top down.

Ride Mortie, Ride.

Trip to Ottawa--a writing perk

Whenever kids ask me why I write, I'm a little gobsmacked.

I actually wonder why everyone wouldn't  want to write.  I find I'm always explaining the world to myself--it's very therapeutic.

But what about the travel perks?  The other editor with my magazine, Alison Wood, became too busy to do a feature on travel to Ottawa so, with some arranging with Ottawatourism.ca we had a press adventure pass and a free hotel for a couple of nights.

Of course when I travel for Today's Parent Toronto I need to bring a young person and Hunter's always up for the job.  He's a great traveller and enjoys museums, weird food and pools at any hotel.  

He also likes to pose for weird photos.  These won't be in the magazine: Hunter posing over the Eternal Flame so that it looks like he's on fire, Hunter's head poking up in a Polar bear diorama at the Museum of Natural History.

So we had a great mini holiday.  I won't say we made a million but memories are worth a lot too.

Visiting Sudbury

Today I met a great group of students and teachers at Cyril Varne Public School.  I always have fun presenting but it's nice when it seems the students are excited too.  It's wonderful to talk about a book set right in Sudbury (Slam Dunk Robot) to kids who live in Sudbury and have visited Science North.  The teachers also prepared a fabulous pot luck.  Apparently one box of Ritz crackers, with one can of condensed milk and a bag of square Skor bits baked up in a long pan for who knows how long transform in to the most delicious square ever.  And I've eaten at many a potluck and shower before.

I forgot to take out my camera and have a photo taken with the kids.  But I rushed over to Science North immediately where I was asked if I'd like to hold something.  I got to pat Rosie.  See the photo.

Great character, wonderful read

Instead of working day and night, I'm enjoying some reading lately.  I loved Home Free, Sharon Jenning's new book with Sumach.  It's set in the 60's and she's able to capture snippets of the oddity of that era.  The way our parents talked to us or handled abuse or even how acceptable harsh discipline was in that era.  But I love the gutsy girl--which is how the whole series is named.  She wants a friend and becomes an even better one to the secondary character and to the reader.

Mortie learns to drive

Because we were leaving our jackapoo Mortie with Jen and Adam and because William is crazy for cars, we succumbed to buying a silly carbed for Mortie.  We kind of knew he'd prefer his old chewed up one and we were right.

We found Hunter loved driving down the stairs in the car. William enjoyed sitting in it.  We even placed baby Jadzia in it to lure Mortie just to try.

Finally we stuffed his old bed inside and he sleeps in it just fine.

I notice he has removed the windshield though.

The Saskatoon Zoo

Because the heritage site was closed, we visited the zoo instead where it was admission by donation.  I couldn't find a slot or box for a donation so I will donate to my VISA instead.

All the animals were enjoying the sun.  I couldn't capture it but my wolf was actually grinning.  I think he was happy for me because I finished the Wild Life Series.

Tomorrow it's back to the schools.  

Museum closed for construction

In the morning we caught up on laundry with the promise of a GEM of a tourist attraction according to the CAA magazine.

It's a heritage site and the hotel concierge agreed it was not to be missed.

As we drew closer, we read the signs telling us how the construction would be complete in  early 2009.  Too late!

See the irate woman who turned to brass waiting
!

The sunshine was dazzling though and these statues were cool.  We'll be back in 2011 to see if they're finished.

Wandering the streets of Saskatoon

When you're strolling though an unfamiliar city, you really don't want to spend every moment in retail situations soyou really appreciate the statues and other art. The Chief holds something in his hand resembling an onion but I didn't see an explanation for it anywhere. I love the lone cowboy riding through and those newspaper boxes would make me want to read the news.

Saskatchewan Gang put on a signing

First I looked through all my suitcases and bags, then I searched the car. Finally I had to accept that I lost my handouts for my Ten Top Tips session at the Saskatchewan Putting the Pieces Together conference. I copied the document from the computer onto to a memory stick and Bob rushed off to copy more.

My sessions room was the Jolly Friar which seemed kind of cool but I when I saw an overhead instead of a data projector, my mouth went dry.

Still no need to panic, it had just landed in another room. A couple of minutes later an image was up and the teachers drifted in. Standing room only--I heaved a sigh of relief. Sitting all day on a Sunday preparing a handout and power point presentation is worth it when there's a crowd and it's appreciative.

Then, finished early enough, we headed to McNally Robinson bookstore which looks like a great place. My heart wasn't broken when my books weren't there--I'd googled in advance and didn't even look or bug the clerks. I was still high from the Ten Top Tips session. So I just relaxed and enjoyed listening to my Saskatchewan friends read: Linda Aksomitus, Beverley Brenna,
Myra Guynur, Alison Lohans, Arthur Slade, Ed Willet, Mary Harelkin Bishop and Judith Silverthorne. I spelled all those names by memory which isn't bad even if it's not correct. I'll edit later.

I sat by a huge Happy Writer cake and the smell overwhelmed me. So hard to resist swirly white icing on chocolate.
Treated myself to a copy of almost everyone's books. Tomorrow I have a day off. No searching for papers, books, gathering miscellaneous and worrying about getting to a school on time because Princess Leaha, our GPS, is rather an optimist.

Schools, great writers and movie deals

Catching tigers and growling for me--the younger set at Brevort Park School were great. The older kids were enthusiastic and good participators too. On to Lakeview, where we talked about the Beauty books and Last Chance. The grade 6 & 7s seemed to enjoy themselves. I don't know about grade eight. They were quiet, too quiet.

Then I finally met the eight Saskatchewan authors I've been emailing for a while. They presented their new works at the Saskatchewan Reading Conference in an intimate roundtable style with some extremely keen educators. I want to read all of the author's books and I wish that Ontario students could experience Saskatchewan through these amazing reads. The authors were: Arthur Slade, Beverley Brenna,Mary Harelkin Bishop, Muyna Guymer, Alison Lohans, Lidna Aksomitus, Edward Willete and Judith Silverthorne.

In between sessions, I found out a movie producer wanted to see the book I finished just last week: The Nine Minute Disaster Zone. I love the idea of the possibility but know people look and rarely buy.

Monsignor H Smith, Confederation Park and James Alexander School

When you visit two schools a day for five days or so, the names and faces can blur. I especially enjoyed visiting Monsignor H. Smith, in Calgary, because clearly some of the students were fans already. They had read Last Chance for Paris on their own--perhaps because of a library display. Still having someone rush up to tell you they love your books just before a presentation on the same story, starts the day on a high note. Confederation and James Alexander had great enthusiastic students. Hopefully now those students will read at least three of my 24 or so books. Obviously we can't expect them to read the Norwegian or Swedish ones.

Another drive

When planning a tour, it's hard to fit holiday time in snatches between school visits. So that's how we accidentally had a seven hour drive after a school visit in Calgary. Luckily there were no snow storms although at one point it looked like shards of diamonds were hitting the headlights so there were indeed flurries. Still we saw buffalo and lots of deer. At one point we drove over some deer bodies and then later a low-to-the ground sportscar passed with a furry body attached to its bottom.

The log cabin represents a Calgary Stampede store where we bought souvenirs. Memories of a stampede we've never attended.

The holiday part of the tour

Today we enjoyed spectacular sunshine in the Rockies...and cross country skiing in Canmore, 11 kilometres of it. The trails at the Nordic Centre are groomed more carefully than the roads in to Calgary from my brief experience here. There was a snow dump on Saturday and on Monday some of the streets are still snowy trails. Conversely, the Banff trail resembles a highway-- there is plenty of room for all levels and types of skiiers to play side by side.

We're not fit or skilled but slip sliding along allows plenty of opportunity to get different views of the Three Sisters Mountains.

Tomorrow we begin the work part--but it's also a lot of fun--and that is to meet potential readers.

The Voyage is the whole experience

This all started because I wanted to watch the first ever Saskatchewan CANSCAIP mass book launch but I couldn't get a grant for any readings before April 1-- so Regina Public Library kindly agreed to host a couple of readings on April Fool's day only I would being SK for days between the conference and their visit. So I emailed and called schools and somehow I got a Calgary reading. If there's anything I like better than the prairies it's the mountains. Only I love both and the combination in one day is breathtaking.

So today we flew to Saskatoon--see cloud shot. Then we drove to Calgary. I love the prairie in between. The brush under a certain light is now purple, the wheat can be frosted or bright gold depending on the temperature and sunlight. The buildings look so lonely.

As we drove closer to Calgary we hit the worst winter road conditions ever. The wind blew huge drifts of snow across the highway so it felt like I was steering through a field--yup my turn to drive. Plus the drifts would stop with the advent of a farm house or strand of trees--the street would be bare pavement. Where the trees ended you could see ghosts of white streak across in some places piling pretty high.

New Project

By Wednesday I received an email saying the editor loved The Nine Minute Disaster Zone. By Thursday I pitched her another idea. In this book a girl named Jazzy stands accused of murdering an Alzheimer's patient during her 40 hours of volunteer work. (the girl's not the patient's0

Tentatively, the editor has said she's intrigued but requires an outline and three chapters. For this project, so do I because I want to narrate it with clips from Jazzie's volunteer journal as well as trial testimonies. I want to be sure I can do it myself before I become locked into a noose tightening contract.

So It was off to court I went to observe a 17 year old on trial for manslaughter. I could not photograph the inside which was exceedingly bland anyway, masking tape coloured walls with no pictures except for a coat of arms.

The sculpture on the outside was cool I thought.

The trial itself did not resemble Ally McBeal or Boston Legal. Instead the crown interviewed witnesses on miniscule obscure details they had to remember from a year ago. It's a sad story. One teen teased another until the second teen, full of alcohol, got into a shoving match with him. The first teen hit his head. The injury was not evident till he began vommitting later that night. The next day a catscan revealed a cracked skull and a brain bleed. The young man went into a coma and after eight hours of surgery and a week on life support, died when his family made the decision to pull the plug.