Silver Birch Gala
Pull out the suitcase -- I'm off again!
This time I'm bound for Toronto and the Silver Birch Gala. Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers is a nominee in the non-fiction category. I was nominated for the Silver Birch only once before, way back in 1998, when The Runaways was a regional winner in the fiction category. It was my first nomination for any award (first book too), and it was a fantastic experience. Back then the gala was held at St. Lawrence Market, and the memory that stands out most about the event was the number of young people who were there. It seemed as if there were thousands, and the line-up of kids wanting to get their books autographed seemed to go forever. This time around the festivities are at Harbour Front Centre on Lake Ontario, and I'm anxious to see what that's like.
Speaking of The Runaways, a Winnipeg school has just purchased a class set from me. The book went out of print two years ago, but teachers are still using it in their classrooms, and that makes me feel great. I was wondering what I was going to do with all the copies I was hoarding.