Category Archives: Events

One down, one to go

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Let me tell you, you are LUCKY that you don’t live in my house right now. Because I have been rather silent and snarling for days.

This whole public speaking stuff… it involves several pre-event nightmares (literal nightmares), followed by pre-event stomach aches. The actual speaking part is usually quite fun. And then there are the post-event jitters and the hours-long wait for my heart rate to return to normal. I keep signing up for these presentations thinking that increased practice will result in decreased symptoms. So far, not true.

Nevertheless…

My two talks at Dr. R.E. McKechnie Elementary School went very well yesterday. The kids were funny and attentive and capable of wonderfully dramatic death scenes. You will be happy to hear that I managed to put on all my clothes the right way around. I did wear my underwear outside my pants, briefly, but that was on purpose and so doesn’t count.

Thank you to the students and staff at McKechnie for being wonderful hosts, and a big thank you to librarian (and writer!) Nancy Hundal for organizing.

Emerging, briefly, from the hermit hovel

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Someone once told me that a hermit used to live on Lynn Peak, in North Vancouver. And that is exactly where I am planning to move after I finish this week’s not one, but TWO presentations. I’m speaking to intermediate students tomorrow, and to the folks at Serendipity on Saturday.

Let’s all pause to remember that last time I gave an author presentation, I was wearing my sweater inside-out. And then let’s pray.

The un-event

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Oh. My. Goodness.

Here is the introduction I was supposed to give for Robert Heidbreder at UBC’s Authorfest last Thursday evening:

I was very excited to accept this opportunity, because my 7-year-old daughter is one of Robert’s biggest fans. She discovered his work last year when her grade-one class read Don’t Eat Spiders, and she’s been chanting his poetry around the house ever since.

Doing my research for today, I learned that Robert was an elementary school teacher for 30 years. In 2003, he won the Prime Minister’s Award for teaching excellence. It was during his time as a teacher that Robert began writing for young children.

I’m sure those kids in his classroom inspired Robert, but when I read a book like Lickety-Split, I see something else. Something that obviously helped Robert be as good a teacher as he is a writer.

Even though he’s an adult, by the looks of him, he’s managed to keep his child-like sense of humor. His wonder and sense of discovery and curiosity.

Kids look at the world from a different point of view, and it’s not just because they’re only three feet tall.

I recently walked through my kitchen, where my kids were playing with Tinker Toys. I heard my daughter tell my son: “We’re really good at this. We could probably be real spaceship designers, if anyone would hire a seven-year-old and a five-year-old.”

Childhood is another planet, and most of us, sometime around grade seven or eight, we move to a place that doesn’t spin quite so fast or bounce quite so much. Robert… well, judging by his work, I don’t think he ever moved off that planet. He has a little more bounce and spin than most of us.

I am thrilled to introduce him here today.

But I didn’t introduce him, because I was busy looking like this…

…except with more wrinkles. I had the flu, and it was a doozie.

So, I missed Authorfest. Thankfully, the lovely Kathryn Shoemaker filled in for me. A friend came and collected my son for the morning. I was supposed to organize a fundraising contribution for my daughter’s class, and another friend took care of that. Min came home from work early to feed the kids lunch.

It was almost worth being sick just to remind myself of all the wonderful people in my life.

Almost.

This could be dangerous

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My February calendar is booking up faster than a socialite’s dance card. Well, okay, I have three engagements. But for someone who doesn’t usually leave her neighbourhood, that’s a lot!

  • On February 2nd, I’m introducing Robert Heidbreder at UBC’s Authorfest. I don’t actually know Robert Heidbreder, and I may be making up his entire introduction (I wonder if he remembers that mud wrestling stage of his career?), but my daughter is such a big Don’t Eat Spiders fan that I had to say yes to this event.
  • On February 23rd, I’m speaking to two groups of students at Dr. R.E. McKechnie School. It’s always good to have the opportunity to warp young minds.
  • On February 25th, I’m speaking at Serendipity. I have 20 or 30 minutes to divulge everything I know about making non-fiction interesting to kids. And, I’m going to use Keynote for the first time. Because I’m crazy like that.

You will notice that I’m sounding quite cheerful about these impending public speaking engagements. That’s because they’re all still safely in the future. I find that full panic strikes about 72 hours prior. You can check back with me then.

Family night at camp

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This is me and my friend Leanne, in our pyjamas, shepherding our kids through their school’s Camp Read-a-Lot evening.

It was the second annual Camp Read-a-Lot. After dinner, the primary students headed back to school in their PJs to find the gym filled with tents. The lights were off and they all curled up in their sleeping bags to read, together or apart, by the glow of their flashlights. After a half hour or so of reading, there was a group story around a Christmas-light-and-cello-wrap campfire. This year, the read-along books were Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes and Goodnight iPad.

The festivities were all wrapped up with s’mores and apple cider.

The event is the brain child of the school librarian, Super Y, who is sort of a cross between your traditional, everyday librarian and Lady Gaga. She’s the one wearing the pink wig in the background of this photo. (I have no idea who the big head in the foreground is. This is what happens when I ask Min to take blog photos… “but don’t show anyone’s face.”)

A great time was had by all. And, if you want to feel as if you were a part of the occasion, check out Goonight iPad:

Wade Davis and the Little Big Planet

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Back in September, Min bought me Wade Davis tickets as a birthday present. So, feeling very cultural, we headed downtown last Thursday night.

Wow. That guy’s kinda… smart. I mean, I expected this from having read some of his books, but it’s more obvious in person. Not only is he a fabulous storyteller, but he was reeling off facts and foreign pronunciations and dates without even, you know, checking Wikipedia.

Here’s how Min summarized, as we stumbled down Burrard afterwards:

“That guy, having been blessed with a brain, is using it to its full potential. And I’m jumping around on the Mags the Mechanic level, trying to avoid the teeter totters.”

I have yet to read the new book, Into the Silence, but it certainly sounds amazing.

Margaret Atwood and the freaky dead girls

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Here it is. The third excuse.

I went with my friends Leanne and Sheri to see Margaret Atwood’s play The Penelopiad on Wednesday night.

I was scared.

I knew it was a retelling of a Greek myth but I couldn’t remember anything from that Classics 100 course, except that a cyclops and a trojan horse were involved. I hadn’t read any reviews. And the play was written by Margaret Atwood. That could mean… anything. I could be in for dark and dystopian or deep and twisted.

Fortunately, the play fell within my limited intellectual range. At least, mostly. There were many great, barbed lines that I wish I could remember. There was also a great story, some unexpectedly funny dialogue, and quite a few freaky dead girls.

What more can you ask for in a play?

Also, Margaret Atwood turns 72 in a couple weeks. I am in awe.

My mini-comicom

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Last Friday, I escaped my keyboard, left my children to the ice-cream indulgence of their grandparents, and headed off to a professional development seminar for teachers called Getting Graphic: Effective Literacy Learning with Comics and Graphic Literature.

Official Story:
I was at the conference as part of a CWILL BC group of writers and illustrators. The opportunity to meet more than 100 teachers and librarians was too good to resist — I set up a display of the 50 Questions series and The Lowdown on Denim, spread out some teachers’ guides, and prepared to boast about some of the comic-style illustrations incorporated by Ross Kinnaird and Clayton Hanmer.

Unofficial Story #1:
I was secretly spying.

Teachers and librarians know what catches student interest. Many of the teachers who stopped to chat seemed to think 50 Underwear Questions would appeal to both the girls and the boys, while teachers with reluctant boy readers turned directly toward 50 Poisonous Questions. Apparently, there’s still a need for good, gross, bubbling boy topics.

Unofficial Story #2:
A stellar panel talking about graphic novels? Sign me up! This whole meet-the-teachers thing was a great way to sneak in and see the actual presentations.

There were four experts speaking about their experiences with graphic novels: senior UBC instructor Margot Filipenko, UBC Instructional Programs Librarian Jo-Anne Naslund, illustrator Kathryn Shoemaker, and primary teacher Dionne Risler.

Now, I have a confession to make. Graphic novels make me go cross-eyed. I’m usually a fast reader. Slowing down to absorb all the visual information makes me feel like a long-distance runner in lead sneakers. I love novels. I love the visual cornucopia of entirely illustrated books such as Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. But a mix of the two? I feel like I may have a seizure.

This was the advice of Kathie Shoemaker: get over it.

In technical teacher terms, I’m lacking the abiliy to decode multi-modal texts. In other words, once I learned to read, I stopped paying enough attention to the pictures.

I now have a list of graphic novels to check out, both fiction and non-fiction. And did you know the opera was a multi-modal experience?

As I’m getting over my visual impairment, I can now notice all sorts of graphic novel details. The way time passes. The way panels can show moment-to-moment action, or scene-to-scene. The way white space can leave room for emotion.

Thanks to Kathie and her panel cohorts, the next time one of my books is destined for graphic-novel-style illustration panels, I have a whole new world of variety to consider.

So, from this conference-crasher, many thanks to the panelists, Vi Hughes, and LOMCIRA for a great morning!

Fall-ness

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I had a lovely weekend of general fall-ness. On Saturday morning, I went to the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable’s annual breakfast. It was an illustrator-author breakfast, with presentations by Barbara Reid and Jo Ellen Bogart. There’s really nothing more inspiring than a morning spent listening to two accomplished artists.

It was a head-swelling morning, too. 50 Burning Questions is shortlisted for the Roundtable’s Information Book Award, and a nice man named Rob did a wonderful presentation about the book. I wish I’d recorded the whole thing for future marketing!

To top off the Saturday festivities, my family headed over to the Apple Festival. I’ve always wanted to go, but this was our first trip. It lived up to all expectations… some apple pie, apple cider, and apple popcorn later, we waddled back to the shuttle bus.

Now all I have to do is figure out what to make with the two bags of apples and bag of pears which somehow made their way home with me. Suggestions?

Undie facts

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The panel topic at Celebrate Science this weekend was “Is Science Everywhere?” Here’s a list I prepared as part of my contribution to the day:

Ten highly scientific things you might not know about your ginch, from 50 Underwear Questions:

  1. Underwear carved on an ancient figurine in France has shown archeologists when people in that region first developed weaving technologies.


  2. In Medieval Europe, people washed their undies in pee. Theoretically, the acid ate away the dirt.


  3. In 1856, an inventor patented the inflatable petticoat, which allowed women to float their skirts weightlessly – until they popped.


  4. In the 1880s, Lewis Tomalin sold thousands of wool undersuits on the theory that natural fabric could help you lose weight, gain strength, and improve your singing voice.


  5. The first underwear with elastic came out in the mid-1800s. It didn’t last long, though, and it couldn’t be washed. Elastic waistbands weren’t popular until after 1925, when the Dunlop Rubber Company created elastic that could be boiled.


  6. The jock strap was invented in 1897 for the sake of Boston bike couriers who were finding that while some of their packages arrived safely, other “packages” were a little numb.


  7. In 1900s, you could buy a Heidleberg Electric Belt, which would shock your groin every few seconds to improve your circulation and nerve function.


  8. In 1917, when the US War Industries Board asked women to stop buying corsets, they saved enough metal to build two entire battleships.


  9. Women wear panties today because of two 1950s innovations: elastic thread and nylon.


  10. It’s hard to wash your underwear in space. One astronaut took his dirty undies, wet them, and planted seeds… which sprouted into an underwear garden.

I think we can definitely say that science is everywhere… even in your underpants.