Look at the photos I received this weekend! These are by 10-year-old Anton of Vancouver, who just finished reading Me and Banksy with his family.
I wholeheartedly agree with his views. I, too, am out of bed and dressed. What more do you want?
When my social media feeds are full of pandemic news, and my TV reflects a world on fire, and it seems impossible for any one person to make a difference, reading serves as my refuge, gives me windows to new ways of thinking, and allows me hope for the future.
I’m so happy to think of kids finding all of these things in their books. And if I were to give advice to a young person overwhelmed by the recent changes in the world, I would say, “Disappear into a book for a while. See what you discover there.”
With all of that in mind, I’m thrilled to have Mya’s Strategy to Save the World included as a Manitoba Young Reader’s Choice Awards Sundog nominee.
And to have Me and Banksy on the list for the 2020-2021 Surrey Book of the Year.
These are both reader’s choice awards, which are the very best kind.
In all of the nominated titles, I hope readers find things that make them think, things that make them laugh out loud, and things that make them feel a little lighter on a cloudy day.
Happy reading, everyone! (I’ll be joining you. I LOVED Maybe He Just Likes You, by Barbara Dee, Wings of Olympus, by Kallie George, and The Case of Windy Lake, by Michael Hutchinson. Next up: Other Words for Home, by Jasmine Warga.)
I’ve been a social butterfly lately, all without leaving my house. In case you’re not getting enough of my blathering here on the blog, you can also find me at…
Reading with Rendz, musing about accidental inspiration.
Fab Book Reviews, chatting with Michelle about rebel characters.
PRH Young Readers, searching for mental space.
The Contented Reader, having tea and talking privacy with Victoria.
And if you’re still not sick of me, there’s a lovely review of Me and Banksy posted at Shelf Awareness.
All this, and I’m still in my pyjamas. 🙂
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My son cleared his throat and read me his new story. It opened with great drama. A young boy woke to find his city invaded by aliens. He befriended one of the small aliens. He was about to negotiate peace with the bigger ones when… the spaceship shot him.
The end.Â
“Wait… what?” I said. “Your story was so great. Why did you kill your main character?”
“We only have to write two pages for school,” he said. “If I didn’t kill him, everything would get more and more complicated.”
And with that, he summarized all my writing problems. I start a book, I fall in love with the characters, I scribble along until things get complicated, and then… trouble. I’m stuck in the messy middle.Â
Me and Banksy floundered in this state for quite a while as I tried to figure out exactly what Dominica and her best friends were going to do about the security cameras in their classrooms. Dominica had already taken some small, individual actions. I knew the book would end with a collective rebellion… but how would I get them from here to there?
Eventually, I skipped to the end. I wrote the scene about the students’ grand pièce de rĂ©sistance. After that, it was simply a matter of figuring out what each character would have needed to do to reach that scene. I backtracked to fill in the missing pieces.Â
Writing is a messy process. As my son explained, it gets more and more complicated with every page. But sometimes it helps to remember that I don’t need to know what happens next. As long as I know what happens at some point, I can write forwards, backwards, and in between.
Though it’s best to avoid the alien spaceships along the way.Â
My new middle-grade novel Me and Banksy came out a couple weeks ago, so I’ve been visiting bookstores, chatting with book bloggers, and secretly sleeping with copies under my pillow. (Just kidding, but I do feel about new-book smell the same way my husband feels about new-car smell.)
Me and Banksy is the first of my books to have an audiobook edition, which I’ve already gushed about here. This week, I got to download and listen to it for the first time. My son, Violence, who has just turned thirteen (!!!) and who’s long been the biggest audiobook fan in our household, hung out with me in the kitchen listening to the first chapter. I think he’s decided I’m now a real writer.
There are reviews posted, including this one from Quill and Quire, one here from Shelf Awareness, and these lovely words from Publisher’s Weekly. Today, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre published an interview with me. I also have guest posts appearing on various book blogs next week, so watch this space for the links.
And thanks to everyone for your kind words and support!
Here’s some exciting news… Me and Banksy, my novel coming out with Penguin Random House next spring, is going to be an audio book!
My kids and I are big audio-book fans, so there were celebrations in my house. Everyone thought I was very glamorous for at least fifteen minutes, until they wanted to know what was for dinner and whether their martial arts gear was clean. But hey, those were fifteen dog minutes, and we parents take what we can get.
I had no idea how audio books were made. My friend Stacey sent me this great video, so I could pretend to be intelligent while on the phone with the producer, Ann. (“On the phone with the producer”… I wish I got to type that phrase more often.)
This is how an audio book gets made, from an author’s point of view:
