>Tree Awards

>I'm just back from Toronto where the Forest of Reading awards were held. Imagine 4000 young readers, about 30 authors, a posse of volunteers, and a passle of organizers all packed into Harbourfront. It was quite the event! Each of the "Tree" awards was represented (these are reader's choice awards for the province of Ontario--schools sent participating students to the ceremony). Megiddo's Shadow was up for the Red Maple Award (for grade 7 and 8 readers). I met thousands of readers and other authors including Gayle Friesen and Clem Martini.

And Sheree Fitch and Marsha Skrypuch.

We then were led to our "signing stations" where we authors sat and signed books for our fans for over an hour. I wrote my name about a billion times. Well, that's what it felt like. And here's Hadley Dyer and Clem, as we waited to go to the outdoor stage for the ceremony

It was like waiting for a concert. We could hear the crowd roaring and roaring and roaring. I did take time to take a snap of Eric Walters. This pic proves that he's not quite as tall as the CN tower. Though, he did leap it twice that day just for a warm up.

And here's the inimitable and unstoppable John Wilson.

They put our names on placards and led us to the waiting crowd.

And what a crowd! Here they are all saying cheese!

It was a rush to hear all their cheering. Eric Walters' book We all Fall Down was the winner (Megiddo was the runner up). But as Eric said, there were no losers that day because everyone was reading. Plus we all got free lunch. Really, what could be better?

Cheers,
Art

>Launch of IQ!

>On May the 2nd we launched The Invasion of the IQ Snatchers into the stratosphere! The launch was held at the Vancouver Island Harbourfront Library in Nanaimo. By my count there was a room full of humans and several aliens in invisible suits. Here's a pic of me talking (note the sci-fi audio visual production, very ultra geeky).

Oh and there I am talking again. It looks more like I'm doing Hamlet, doesn't it?

I was actually talking to the aliens floating in the corner of the room.
Oh and it's me talking for a third time. By this time everyone was asleep.

There was some lovely food provided by the friends of the library, including, of course, Nanaimo Bars!

Books were sold and signed.

It was particularly fun to be reading from a book about aliens taking over Nanaimo to Nanaimoites! My thanks to both my publisher and the generous folks at the Harbourfront library.

Cheers,
Art

>Banff the final days

>Yep, I missed a few days. Such an incredibly busy time I just didn't get a chance to post. So many things happened during this week, the most amazing was I actually said something almost pithy. Of course I waited until the final party (last night). We were talking about revising and how our natural instinct is to fight against cutting or changing our story. My sense is that behind that defensiveness is sometimes a fear that you won't be able to create something better than what you've already written. And part of that whole act of cutting and letting parts of stories go, is having the faith that something better will replace that original draft or idea. We just have to learn that creativity is an endless well. Wow, only took a whole week!

Here's my class, my very own group of seven. All brilliant and talented and we became a team.


There's me, Sondra, Harriet, Alissa, Brenda, Laurel, Antje, and Lynn. Watch for them. They're going to set the children's lit world on fire (in a good way). It was a real honour working with them.

As one of our class excursions we walked down to the book store in Banff. I was hoping to show them one of my books on the shelf of the store. It was that whole "some day you, too, will have a book on these shelves" lesson. Except the bookstore had none of my books. Instead the lesson was my students got to watch the humble author introduce himself to the staff and suggest they should order his book so that he can feed his wife and child and his cookie habit.

Here's an obligatory shot of a mountain.

Taken from the top of Lloyd Hall.

There were so many positive elements to take away from this experience. We had our last supper, our last party, and, just a few minutes ago, the last breakfast. Now all my students are gone and I'm just finishing this up before my airporter bus arrives. And, to cap the whole week off, it's snowing.

It's actually the perfect way for things to end. Snow to cover up our tracks and let the next class make new ones. Goodbye class, goodbye Banff.

Hello, real world.

Art

>Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz award nod

>Nice piece of news! Yesterday Mark Abley, the creative non-fiction instructor here, came up to me and said he was reading the CBC website and that one of my books was nominated for an award. Great way to start the day. And you can trust those creative non-fiction types when they say things cause it's all non-fiction, right? It's real. Anyway, it's great to see Megiddo's Shadow receive another nod. My little "boy" is growing up an achieving things. I remember when he was just a couple thousand words and an outline.

The Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz award is particularly nice because it's named after two strong supporters of children's literature. A short list is chosen by judges and a group of students get to choose the winner from that shortlist. Seems a fitting way for a winner to be chosen.

The nominated titles for the young adult/middle reader category are:
I Am a Taxi, by Deborah Ellis.
Megiddo's Shadow, by Arthur Slade.
Odd Man Out, by Sarah Ellis.
Rex Zero and the End of the World, by Tim Wynne-Jones.
Skinnybones and the Wrinkle Queen, by Glen Huser.

An intimidating list. An honor to be nominated.

Did I mention the prize included $5000.00? All modesty aside, I'd really enjoy winning. : )

But if Megiddo doesn't win, I will then at least ask the winner for a loan...

Cheers,
Art

>Banff Day3

>Well, just a short post. Both evenings of readings have been really wonderful. The whole experience of jumping from a poet, to a children's writer, to a creative non-fictioner, to a novelist is brain boggling (in a good way). Each person has seven minutes and it's just the right amount of time to leave you wanting more. For some they are reading brand new work and getting that first audience reaction. It's a rush!

Again I must lament that time is passing too quickly.

Art

>Banf Day2

>In the middle of day two of the "Writing for Children" course at Banff Centre. Time flies by very quickly here. It's such a positive atmosphere. There's a quick sense of community that develops. It's not very often that writers, especially beginning writers, get together in the same place. It's as though we've all landed on Mars (I'm thinking Bradbury here) and most everyone is a writer and those who don't write seem to be content cheering you on. Well, or feeding you at least (notice how it always comes back to food).

The important thing is that the poets, creative-non fictioners, children's writers and novelists all get a chance to live and breath their work (through workshopping) and talk shop. That doesn't happen most days back at their homes, I assume. Usually writers are outnumbered a thousand to one in the real world. Here, we're in the majority. So everyone has questions about other people's work. Everyone is willing to listen to others talk about their work and, of course, willing to talk about their own work. And share ideas and tips. And not think about laundry, picking up the kids for soccer, paying bills etc., They'll probably have to drag us away from here on Sunday.

It is a busy schedule, though. And a real balance to workshop others work and to work on your own. As an instructor I'm not finding much time for writing, but that's not the point. It's energizing to see the fervor of the students. An inspiring to read their work.

And tonight will be the first readings. It'll be a real mixture of styles.

There's lots of wildlife (mother nature kind and others) that just wander around. Here's a deer loitering around below my balcony.
And here's the view outside our workshopping room.

Cheers,

Art