News and Information

Great news. I just found out that an audio version of Can Hens Give Milk? is in the works.
Also - artists keep asking me how to get into the book illustration business. I'm not an artist, but I do know how this works and how it doesn't work.

Do not ask a writer to collaborate on a book unless you are both well known in the field. Publishers like to be in control and to match a writer with an illustrator.

Do go to the local library, or bookstore, and find this year's edition of Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market.* See what each publisher wants, and how to submit samples of your work - and then go for it.

Do ask an illustrator for advice and tips.

*This is where the apostrophes are in some of the Google sites. It's a bit ambiguous, isn't it? I've settled on the above.

Word on the Street

Vancouver held WOTS downtown today around the central branch of the VPL. It was a good feeling to walk around in the sunshine and see books, publishers, writers, librarians, teachers and readers. An inspiring afternoon.
And it's also Sukkot, the Jewish thanksgiving/harvest festival. We can be thankful for food and books. It's all nourishment. My friend Pam lives in Malta and her village of Zejtun just celebrated an Olive Festival. Now and then we need to be grateful for all the good things we have.
Enjoy reading, writing and eating. Cheers.

Joan (about 8 years old).

Joan 2011.

Stephen King?!

Well, yes. Imagine that. My writer/editor friend Cynthia Heinrichs suggested I might like Stephen King's book about writing: On Writing: a memoir of the craft it's called. Catchy title, you say. But he gets right to the point. I just started reading it because Cynthia's brilliant novel  Under the Mound is too heavy for me to carry on the bus if I want to shop and read. I actually laughed out loud! People on the bus ignored me, thank goodness. I'm only up to chapter one (there are three prefaces) but at this point I can say he's got my attention. His childhood memories are oddly like my own. And he's obviously making a point that your impressions and experiences colour your writing. In other words Pay Attention. Haven't I always said that?

Thank You CCBC!

Can Hens Give Milk? has made the CCBC list of Best Books for Kids and Teens for Spring 2012. Thank you to the Canadian Children's Book Centre for this honour, Joe Weissmann for illustrating my story, and Orca Books for publishing it in 2011.

Art Inspires - and so does a walk in the park.

Yesterday I saw the Matisse (and others) exhibit at the VAG. It's from the Cone Sisters' collection in Baltimore. There were paintings and small bronzes, a few sketches and drawings and a lot of inspiration. Colour, texture, fun, joy, characters, nature. All these elements ought to be found in writing too. Can you feel the material, smell those flowers, taste that fruit? How does the cool water feel on your ankles as you step into that clear, yet dark pool ... ? Oh, wait a minute it's not a pool, it's a painting of a pool. But see how it shimmers? When you read a story do you feel that you are part of it? Can you smell the dinner cooking or feel the water as you wade into the sea? Are you walking or sitting or talking with the characters? When you write a story do you think others will feel as if they have stepped into the pages, into the story? If not, what's missing? What could you change or add that would make the story come alive?
I walked in the Van Dusen Gardens today. The lily ponds were like something Monet would paint. The gardens are crowded with wild flowers and 'tame' flowers, all colours mixed together, vibrant and fragrant. Fragile dragon flies, gossamer winged, flitted everywhere, but especially around the lily pads. Their slender red, blue and green bodies briefly hovered over open blooms then, sped away.
The splash of the fountain, the call of a bird, voices just around the corner chatting excitedly in a language I don't understand. Ah yes, it's tourist season.
I tuck it all away. It might come in useful one day. And if not, I still had two wonderful, summer days.